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! |
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| 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!
