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!