The Days I Spent Exploring The Amazon! Days 1-4

1 plane ticket to Manaus; R$1,300. Price to stay on a boat for 9 days R$3,000. Watching the sunset in the middle of the amazon rainforest; priceless.

Day 1;

Its four in the morning and im awake on a Saturday morning, not because I have been partying on the Friday before but because today was the day! The day I leave for the amazon! If I am completely honest at this point in time I was more scared than anything, spending 9 days in a hammock wasn’t my idea of a great time. But I knew it would be a unforgettable experience so I dragged myself out of my nice warm bed and into the shower. I arrived at the airport several hours later with my parents. My flight was originally at 7:35 in the morning but this being brazil it was delayed by several hours. Usually I would have minded being stuck in an airport but I was with other exchange studnets so the time flew by. Also at the airport we met two new exchange students who wernt part of Rotary Youth Exchange but us being exchange students we welcomed them into the Rotary family!

amazing view from the plane!

             The amazon is in the state of brazil called Manaus and we had to get two flights to get there. When we finally arrived in Manaus about 4 hours later everyone was exhausted and wanted to get some sleep but that’s not what we got. What we got was a half an hour bus ride to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel, was given our instructions for the evenings and then given time to explore. The hotel we were in was a 4 star hotel and it was huge, and I mean huge! It was so big it has space for a shopping centre and a zoo! And not a mini zoo with just birds, I mean a legit zoo, it even had a jaguar! After having exploring the zoo and the rest of the hotel we had a talk by the guide who would be with us on the boats. The talk ended and   it was finally time to sleep…or so I thought. We were informed that there was a “festa” at night and because we were exchange students we managed to get tickets into the V.I.P area, which meant we could get up close and personal with the dancers and even go back stage! There were men wearing typical clothing of Manaus. Because it was the night of the red bull each one of us were asked to wear a piece of red clothing. We left the party at about 1 this morning and after a quick shower I finally fell into bed (:

Day 2;

After an early start and I got shower it was time for breakfast. A really funny thing happened at breakfast that morning. Here in brazil there are two companies that exchange students travel with. “BeloBrasil” and “Terra Brasil” depending on what district you are in. my company is “BeloBrasil” and usually the two complanies don’t meet. However by a stoke of luck the two bus companies were booked into the same hotel on the same day, so there were over 100 exchange students at breakfast speaking every language imaginable! It was crazy! Soon after breakfast it was time to get back on the bus because we were going on a tour of Manaus. It was a Sunday and most things were closed but it was still pretty cool to see the difference between Manaus and Sao Paulo. After the tour it was back on the bus to travel to a near by city. We arrived at the new city and were literally given five minutes to change into our swimwear before we went on a walk. We walked past a waterdall and at the end of the walk there was a platform were you could run and jump off the end.
It took a lot persuading but finally had the courage to run and jump in with my fellow exchangers from france. It was then time to return home to the hotel to take a shower. At night we went on a night treakk through the rainforest. It started at sunset, we walked in single file up and down the rainforest. In the middle of the trek there was a cave with filled with water, bats and spiders that we had to walk through and right at the end of the cave was a mini waterfall deep enough to swim in. before anyone knew it all the exchange students had stipped down and were swimming in the waterfall.  we all then finished the trail soaking wet but happy. It was time for yet another shower. The exchange students were given free time until 1 in the morning so we just sat around getting to know each other better.

Day three;

Day three was YET another early start ( starting to see a pattern here? ) it was the day that we were finally going to get on the boats! The night before everyone decided which boats they were going to be on. there were three boats this year instead of two because there were so many exchange students. The three boats were called “Anaconda” “Jacaré” and “Preguica” which in English is Anaconda, Alligator and a Sloth. Yes the names seem much cooler in the portuugese haha! My boat was called Anaconda and I must admit, i loved my boat and all the people on it <3 we boarded the boats for the first time the group split up into three different groups. We were shown the point in the river amazon where there are two different coloured waters right next to each other. Which live in total harmony but never ever mix or disturb each other. We also went on a night trek in mini boats and went alligator night fishing! :D we also received our bedding for the night, I say bedding but what I mean is we received our hammocks. Yes that’s right folks, Alison Bernard slept in a hammock…I know I know, I don’t quite believe it myself either! :p

our beautiful boat <3

Day Four;

After being woken up early and laughing as my fellow exchangers fell out of their hammocks in the morning ( okay so you might think this mean but we all know you would have been laughing too!)  it was time to eat on the food boat. Let me tell you something about this food boat…it hated my boat! Like seriously it did! Because there were so many exchange students only one and a half of boats could eat at one time. They said they would rotate who would go first but in actual fact I don’t think they did! Our boat was always either split up or last. Now to you this may seem like a petty thing, but to us sitting on a boat watching everyone else eat while we had to eat made it a big problem! After crusing through the amazon rainforest for abit and watching the beautiful scencey it was time to explore the rainforest more closely. We all got off the big boats and pilled into the smallers one and were driven around the river. We also got off at an indian tribe and got to to see how their lives differ from ours. It was then time to return back to our boats and get ready for bed. I know I said I slept in a hammock but me and about five other girls decided that hammocks were not for us so we slept on the floor of the boat while everyone slept in the hammocks.

The Day I Got Next To No Sleep Part II

Imagine. Its three thirty in the morning, you’ve been dancing to samba all night. What did I want? A hot shower and my bed, what did I get? A cold shower and a five hour bus ride…I guess 1/2 out of 2 isn’t bad?  :p


Okay so the way I put it above made it seem like I was forced onto the bus, it was I did willing get on the bus. The reason why the bus was leaving so early was because this weekend was the weekend my family were taking me to Termas Dos Laranjais. It’s basically a massive water park. For anyone reading back home just think of Thorpe Park but instead of being roller coasters there are waters rides. It had everything, from water slides to Jacuzzis and the great thing about it was all the water was hot! All of the time!

Termas Dos Laranjais

We arrived at the water park at about 9 in the morning (after leaving at about 4) I was soooo tired and wanted my bed more than anything but that wasn’t what I got. My cousin didn’t go out the night before was they were ready to go so I had to suck it up and enjoy myself. After stripping down to my bikini I was ready to rumble. My cousins and I went on various rides as they day went on. At about 1 o’clock it started to rain so we stopped and had lunch. An interesting thing happened to me at lunch. I was talking to one of my cousins at lunch and I found out that he speaks English. So he was talking to me in English and I was speaking to him in Portuguese. So he asked me whenever he made a mistake in English to teach him the correct way. So I said in Portuguese “I like to teach” but the thing is, in Portuguese there are two verbs that sound very similar. To teach and to strip. So of course I said to him in Portuguese “I like to strip”, instead of “I like to teach” he looked at me abit strangely so I kept repeating myself until he asked me to say what I wanted to say in English. He realised what I was trying to say and then just laughed at me, and then told the rest of my family. I guess my Portuguese isn’t as good as I thought it was!

our hotel :)

Because of the rain we had to leave the park earlier than planned, as soon as I arrived in the hotel I had a shower and went to sleep! Only waking up to eat dinner and then returning to my bed. :')
They next day we set out early for the water park again. It was less crowed than the day before so we managed to go on more rides. And thankfully the sun came out and stayed out.After a few hours at the water park it was time to return to the bus for a 5 hour bus ride home. It was such a good weekend with my family and their friends. I met new people and made friendships. Win for the British exchange student I think! :D

minha familiaa <3

The day weekend I got next to no sleep…

So after “living” in Brazil for 9 months one would think that I would have gotten better at planning out my weekends…yeah I didn’t think so either
 

SAMBO IS COMING TO TOWN! Minha cidade! Sao Pedro! For those back home that might not be a big deal, but for us folk here in Brazil it’s a HUGE deal! For those who don’t know, Sambo is a mixture of rock and pop songs with a samba beat added to it. Popular songs such as “This Love” by Maroon 5 and “Bloody Sunday” by U2 are but a few to have had a saucy samba beat added to it. So obviously because Sambo was coming to town everyone was needing a new dress…a new pair of shoes…. A new belt that made an old dress look new…etc. I however already knew what I was wearing and therefore didn’t technically I didn’t need to go shopping of any kind. But just like all of the other girls I was helpless to the powers of shopping and found myself along with all the other girls in the shops frantically searching for something pretty to wear.

 After two weeks of preparing and re-preparing the day of Sambo arrived. It was going to be held on a Friday evening rather than the Saturday evening because last Saturday was a holiday here in Brazil. Because of this hardly anyone went to school that Friday, and the few that did just spoke about one topic…I’ll give you three chances to guess what it was :P. after a long day of waiting to get ready the night arrived! I met up with my friends round about 10 o’clock to get ready. After a massive round of “no I don’t want make up!” and “please, you will look prettier than you already do!” everyone, me included (I lost the makeup battle :/ ) was caked in makeup ready for the show! :D The show started at 1 in the morning but because Sambo is so popular in my city people started to line up at 11:30 at night! Half an hour later we finally got into the club and it was time to dance the night away! :D We danced to pre-Sambo music for about an hour before it was time for them to take the stage…and they were soo worth the wait! The show was amazing! Everyone was singing and dancing with everyone else. Half way through the show I ended up losing my friends for abit but it was okay because the people I didn’t know danced with me until I was found by my friends! The show lasted for about two hours and I can honestly say I danced for every second of it. It’s impossible to keep still when Sambo is playing! Towards the end of the last song I caught the eye of the one of the guys playing the ukulele. He smiled at me and I smiled back at him. When the song had finished threw the pic he was playing with towards me and winked. I can now say that I am the proud owner of a pic which was used in a live Sambo show! :D by time it was ready to leave it was early half three in the morning and all I really wanted was my bed. Unfortunately I couldn’t have it because my family and I were off to a water park five hours away from my city….

Read about what happened at the water park in; the weekend I got next to no sleep Part II

The day I went to Águas de Lindóia

What type of day would it be? A kind of with the exchange students… my favorite kind of day!

 It has been a while since I had spent time with all the exchange students together so obviously I was excited, when I received the e-mail from rotex saying there was a new project I didn’t even read what we were doing, I just said that I was going. Once I had actually read the email I found out that the exchange students would be going on a buggy ride up a mountain in a city called Águas de Lindóia.

 The day of the project came around and I woke up excited. Unfortunately some of my fellow exchange students who went with me on the northeast wasn’t going to the rotex project so I was a little sad. I was especially sad because my best friend from Denmark called Stine wasn’t going to be there either seeing as she was going to Argentina to look at the waterfalls. However my other best friends from the states were going to be coming with me and I was ecstatic to see them! The meeting point was at a bus station in a city called Campinas. The city was about two hours away so it meant YET another early morning. I arrived on time at the bus station seeing as we were told if we were late the bus would leave without us. But in true Brazilian style the bus was over an hour late. That gave all the exchange students who met up in Campinas to wander around the shops and catch up with each other. Oh just a little thing that happened in the shopping Centre that day. The day of the project was March 17^th which was St Patrick’s Day! Brazilians don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but me being from the UK, I’m used to having some sort of St. Patrick’s Day celebration. I also found out that the American exchange students that I was with all also celebrated at Patrick’s day. There was a store in the bus station that was giving out free bracelets; to promote its store, and they had green ones! So all the exchange students picked green bracelets to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

campinis crew!

 When the bus finally arrived I couldn’t hold in my excitement, there were exchange students on that bus that I hadn’t seen since December!  All the exchange students who were waiting in Campinas ran towards the bus and pilled on. It was finally time to get to our actual destination. The bus ride was about an hour and a half but it flew by. I don’t think I actually sat down on the way there; I was too busy walking up and down the bus catching up with the old exchange students and getting to know the new ones. Once we had arrived there was a little surprise for all the exchange students who went on the northeast. One of the exchange students from Mexico was waiting for us! It was truly a surprise because I thought I was never going to see her again! After saying hello to her it was time to pick our cars, well I say pick but my friends picked for me, I just followed haha! I ended up in a us with my two best friends Camille and Wyatt from the states as well as exchange students from Canada, Mexico, Australia and India so I was happy :’)

representing, UK, US, India, Canada and Brazil

 It turns out the guy who was driving out bus was tour guide of the whole group and knew the area better than anyone so we got a more detailed tour as we rode up the mountain. We were shown a country club at the side of the mountain that offered a beautiful view of the city below. We then drove to the peak of the mountain. It has to be one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen of Brazil so far. After many picture taking it was time to descend back down the mountain.


all the exchange students!

On the way down we drove past a river and by this river there were these animals. I don’t even know how to describe I t, they weren’t like anything I have ever seen in my life! They looked like little pigs, but they were brown and furrier and had longer noses. I personally didn’t want to go anywhere near them but our driver promised that they were harmless. And I must admit, looking back they were quite cute >.<

the "cute" animals!

We made it back to the bottom of the mountain and thanked the drivers. We then walked over to a massive grassy area to have our picnic, all exchange students were asked to bring some type of food to share with all of the exchange students. I brought mini hot dogs :D we spend the rest of the afternoon eating each other’s food and just talking. We ended up in a massive huddle lying on each other, just cause that’s what exchange students do. >.< all too soon it was time to get back on the bus home and head home. As various exchange students got off at various stops I became more and more sad. I’m happiest when I’m with other exchange students and I was rather unwilling to leave them. However all good things must come to an end and I knew there would be a new rotex project net month so I had that to look forward too. So with that thought in my mind, I smiled and hugged my fellow exchange student’s goodbye with a smile on my face.

The Day I Travelled Around The Northeast Of Brazil - Part ll

Okay so where was I? Oh yes that’s right, I had just passed my 15 day month mark….

Jericoacoara. One of my favourite cities!  This city was pretty special because we had to leave our beloved bus and ride a jeep for 30 minutes to get to this city. We had to drive through all these sand dunes to get to this city, and no word of a lie, it looked like Egypt! Once we arrived there we realised that there were no roads there, just streets paved with sand. There were no cars so everyone road around by jeep. The roads were so filled with sand nearly everyone didn’t wear shoes, they just walked bare footed. The second day came and it was the day that everyone had been waiting for, the day of the buggy rides! It was so much fun, we drove (well we were driven) across all these massive sand dunes.

We also drove across the beach; it was such an amazing sight! The night came and we were allowed to just walk around the city on our own just as long as we were back by 11 o’clock at night. There was also a mini sand dune that you were able to walk up and roll / jump down if you wanted. On the last night in Jericoacoara all the exchange students walked to the top of the sand dune and watched the sun set, it was so beautiful!

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just chillin' on the beach.

Another full day’s drive later and we were in Natal. During this time we said goodbye to our old coordinators and said hello to a new younger one. We also went on a tour of an old fort that used to be a prison, but me and my friends got bored and we and bought ice cream instead haha! The tour was followed by another visit to the beach :’) .

Two days drives later (they are increasing!!!) and we arrived in Itacare. We spent two days there exploring and finding beaches. More often than not we got dropped off at the side of a motorway and everyone would think we were lost, but after a trek through a mini jungle we always arrived at the most stunning beaches! We spend our days playing football on the beach and playing in the sea (or in my case nearly being drowned by the sea!) it was really nice just to be able to sit by the beach and just talk with the exchange students as opposed to the other cities when we’re being showed things.

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me and my danish best
 friend on a beach!

it says; "chelsea, i miss you more. te amo. alison"

Another day’s drive brought us to arraial d'ajuda. This is my second favourite hotel. The pool was amazing and it was cute and cosy. One of these nights when we had nothing to do, the exchange students decided that it would be a good idea to try and start rapping! I can honestly say I have never laughed so much in my life, I thought it would be relatively easy to make up words that rhyme, but let me tell you it is soo much harder than It sounds! The second night we went to a club which was one of my favourite activates of the whole trip. When we got there it was very quiet and no one was dancing. But we all changed that. All 30 exchange students took the floor; dancing, screaming and jumping around! We finally left the club at about three in the morning only because we were going to have to get up early the next day

Two days later and we arrived in Rio. I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of Brazil, I think of Rio so personally I was extremely excited to go to Rio! All the way to Rio we played samba music on the bus to get us excited! So by time all the exchange students arrived in Rio everyone was sooo excited! Our hotel was on the Copacabana beach front. We went to sugar loaf the famous rock/mountain of Rio. Where we had a beautiful view of the city. There was a mini hard rock café shop there and everyone bought something there, I bought a Rio hoddie which I shall be wearing with pride in the UK. We also took a trip to Copacabana and Ibanaca beach. One thing about Ibanaca beach, the sand was boiling hot, like so hot you can’t even stand on it! So of course all of the exchange students went running towards to sea as fast as we could so we didn’t have to stand on the hot sand. Because all of the other beaches had warm water, we assumed that the water here would have been warm as well right? Wrong! I’m not kidding; the water here felt like the water we get back in Brighton…freezing cold! It took us all by surprise I can tell you! The last day we all went to see the famous cristo redemor (Christ the redeemer) statue. At night we had our last group meeting and we did a mini questionnaire to see who would be awards what prize. I won “best dancer on the trip” for reasons only my fellow exchange students who were on with me on the trip with know ;) after the little presentation we all jumped into the pool with our clothes on and just reminisced about all the amazing memories we had on the trip. We all stayed in the pool until about 4 in the morning. It was then time for a quick shower and back onto the bus for our last trip on our big green bus.
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UK, Denmark, Mexico and the US!

            


 The last day was filled with tears; (tbh I think I supplied most of these tears) as it was time to say goodbye. It may sound stupid but I became so close with all these exchange students over that past month. I have different memories with each and every one of those exchange students and I will never forget them. I’ve made lifelong friendships. I love them all with all my hearts and I am so grateful that I was allowed to spend a month of my exchange with them! Tudo intercambista que foi comigo em o nordeste muito obrigada para tudo! Vocês são MUITO legal e eu nunca vai esquecer do vocês! Te amo com tudo do meu coração!

The month I travelled around the Northeast of Brazil

The dream trip. That’s what all the exchange students who have been there have called it, and I was lucky enough to be able to have the opportunity to go on this dream trip. The dream trip was 30 days with 30 other exchange students and 4 adults…sounds amazing? It actually was!

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the bus that became our home!

The dream trip started on the 8^th of January and I must admit I was ready! Ever since I had been told about the trip back in London I had be waiting for this day to come!  The bus which would be our home for the next 30 days was leaving from Sao Paulo at 7 in the morning. Usually early mornings annoy me but my excitement won over my annoyance.  Upon arriving at the meeting point there was a huge green bus waiting for us!
Before I managed to get more excited I got attacked by one of my best friends from Denmark! It has been over a month since I had seen her in person and I was so happy to finally spend some time with her! After all the hellos and hugs had been said, it was finally time to board the bus and head for our first city on our tour. 
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Brasilia!

Brasilia! After a whole day of driving, we finally arrived at our destination late at night. Once checked into our hotel, we only had enough energy to have a shower and crawl into bed. A full day of talking really wears you out! The next day and a half we were given a tour around the whole of Brasília before it was time to get back onto the bus and move onto our next city.

The next city was Lencois. It took a full day’s drive to get there (as you read on you will find out that there were a lot of full day drives…) we were in one of the prettiest hotels ever! It was literally like out of a fairy-tale book, there were flowers everywhere and the swimming pool was amazing, which us exchange students took full use of! :D on the first day we had a tour round a cave, which was pretty cool, if not a little bit scary (I’m not a massive fan of big dark caves….) the second day we got told we were going to take a 15 minute walk so everyone was like okay, that sounds fun, what they didn’t tell us what the 15 minute was up a cliff which headed straight towards to sky!
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exchangers from denmark, canada and the UK!

After huffing and puffing our way to the top we FINALLY made it to the top alive, but it was so worth it. You could for miles around and it was soo beautiful. Afterwards it was time to strip down to our bikinis and go swimming in a natural waterfall slide. And I have to admit I have never been so scared in my life to go swimming! The waterfall was sooo powerful and we were sliding down rocks! We could also found natural body paint and of course us being exchange students decided to paint our bodies with these natural paints. It was then time to rush home, have a shower and get ready for the night because we were having a personal Capoeira show performed for us!  For those who don’t know what it is, Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance and music. I really enjoyed this city and think it was one of the prettiest cities I’ve seen here in Brazil.

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excchangers from the UK, mexico and
 twain on a boat to the beach

After yet another full day on the bus we arrived in Salvador. I have to admit, Salvador wasn’t one of my favourite cities. One thing that became really obvious to me was the division of the rich and the poor here in Brazil. The hotel in which we were staying was stationed in one of the rich parts of Salvador, but we were taken on walk through one of the poor parts of Salvador. One day we were walking to lunch and one of the exchange students was walking down the street and some random person walked past a ripped a necklace off of the exchange student and ran off. Thankfully the exchange student wasn’t physically hurt but it was a terrifying experience. And while I did not witness it, many people who were there were very shaken. But my experience in Salvador wasn’t all bad. The next day we were taken to this secret island which had one of the most amazing beaches. We had to ride a boat for an hour and a half to get to this island but it was well worth the wait. The water was so clear and blue. There was literally no one with us on the beach, just the exchange students. It was defiantly one of my favourite beaches that I have been too so far. :’)

Another day’s travel brought us to Recife. We arrived at night and me and my two best friends were put in the same room. We were put on the 15^th floor. We entered our room and walked to the balcony to look at the view. As soon as we got on the balcony the three of us started to scream simultaneously while hugging each other and jumping up and down. This is going to sound so stupid and soppy but I will never forget that feeling.  It was the feeling of pure happiness, I mean I was in Brazil, overlooking at amazingly beautiful beach with my two best friends! What could be better! After we had gotten over ourselves we started running around the hotel calling all the other exchange students to our hotel room so we could share with them our beautiful view! :D We stayed in this city for two days and went to nearby cities and toured them.

That’s right you guessed it, yet ANOTHER full days of travelling brought us to Fortaleza. We were in a very posh hotel. There were lots of pracas which sold lots of little trinkets which we could buy. This was also the half-way point. So the exchange students who only wanted to half of the trip left us to return to their own cities at this point.

Read; the month I travelled around the northeast of brazil part II to find out how the rest of my trip went!

all exchangers from the first half! te amoo!

Please read first!

Hey guys!

I just wanted to apologize for the long delay between posts! Ever since my month long trip around the northeast (blog post about that coming soon!) I have been out of synch about writing. But I would like to say a massive thank you for everyone who checked out my blog and continuously asked me about my exchange in Brazil. It’s nice to know people back home care. So hopefully you enjoy my blog posts even though they are a little late haha! And I promise I shall try and keep on top of my blog posts from now!

Beijos e abracos!
Alison
oxox