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 dream trip started on the 8th
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! 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.
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| the bus that became our home! |
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! |
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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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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| exchangers from denmark, canada and the UK! |
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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. :’)
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| excchangers from the UK, mexico and twain on a boat to the beach |
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 15th 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!
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| all exchangers from the first half! te amoo! |
