Cachoeira (Part 2)

...... and I will continue! After swimming in the refreshingly cold water/ tanning our pasty foreign bodies for a few hours, we decided to go back on the dirt road to another location on top of a mountain! We drove up to a mountain, and had to walk the last part of it to get to the top, where we found a gorgeous church and breathtaking views!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   And that completes my amazing day!

Cachoeira

Hello! Yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity to go to a couple cachoeiras (waterfalls) with my 3rd host family! Right now, they are hosting a good exchange friend of mine, and they invited me and Marlee to travel with them to Ipoema to visit a few STUNNING waterfalls! One of the best parts was that it was through an incredibly mountainous area that had very few people, so it was even more beautiful! The road there was an adventure, though. It was all dirt, with steep cliffs and no guard rails. That's Brasil for you!

The first cachoeira we went to was called "Cachoeira Alto" which literally means Tall Waterfall. It was incredibly beautiful! There were even some brave people that repelled down the side of the waterfall, and they even went upside down at one point! Craaaaaazy, but I want to try!

The next cachoeira we went to was equally as beautiful, but wasn't very tall. We could, however, swim in this one! We were so excited, because it was around 90 degrees and the sun was strong! To think that its not even summer yet......

....... For some reason, the pictures from my NEXT adventure refuse to load, so I will continue in another blog post!!

Still Very "Rappy" to be Here in Brasil!

Hi everyone! This last week has been pretty normal. Every day rained really hard in the morning, and in the afternoon it is bright, sunny, and extremely hot! Today, for example, was about 80 degrees! Meu Deus! If mid-spring is this hot, I cant wait to find out how hot summer will be!

Yesterday, I went to the cinema with some friends for the first time since coming to Brazil. It was pretty similar to the cinemas in the United States. The only differences were that the actual movie room was a lot smaller, it is appropriate to text and talk during the movies, and the movies are dubbed in Portuguese. We really wanted to see Ivocação do Mal (Insidious 2), but they didn't have it available that night so we saw Elysium instead. It was really good, and I understood everything! I am really feeling comfortable with Portuguese, and I can keep conversations going without even thinking translating things to English anymore! Its amazing. 

Tonight, my friend and I went to centro looking to meet some new people, but no one was there! Instead, we walked down to this praça in my city that had a Rap show going on, and it was really fun! Everyone either sat or stood in this small outdoor amphitheater thing and danced. Fun fact: "Rap" in Portuguese is "Rappy" and my region in Brazil pronounces R's as H's, so its like saying happy. 

In addition, 12 days ago officially marked 2 months in Brazil. The time is going by waaaaay too fast! It makes me sad just to think about how I am already more than 1/6th of the way through my exchange. Today is also the day of the October conference for district 6220, AND I got an email saying I needed to choose my departure date (they are asking early because of how quickly the flights are filling up for the World Cup)!! Everything goes so quickly!

I am getting really excited for my first Rotary trip that I will be going on! I leave November 30th for the Northeast Trip, and I get back December 20th. I will go to: Vitória da Conquista, Lençóis (Chapada Diamantina), Maceió, Salvador, Porto Seguro, Guaraparí, Rio de Janeiro, and Angra dos Reis! Every place looks SO beautiful and interesting, but I am really excited to go to Salvador and Rio de Janeiro! The are two cities that I definitely wanted to visit before I return to the United States!

I hope everything is going well for everyone :) Um grande abraço do Brasil!

Weekend in Diamantina...

Hi guys! This past weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Diamantina with my Rotary Club to tour the city. It was amazing!! Diamantina is a very historical city, that includes a rich history of slaves and slave trading. It also is the ending city on the Estrada Real, which is the road that was used to transport goods such as gold and other natural minerals that Minas Gerais (my state) is known for.

Estrada Real

To get there, we took a shuttle-bus kind of thing. The ride there was an adventure in itself! The roads are so bumpy here in Brasil that I constantly bumped my head on the ceiling, and it was 7 hours long! On the plus side, we went through a lot of pretty cities, and I got to see more of the most beautiful scenery available on Earth. When we finally arrived, I found out that I would have my own room in our little hotel-house thing we were staying in! I guess that is one of the perks of being the only guy on the trip. My room had a queen size bed, too, so that was pretty great. Around 7:30 that Friday night, we went out to the streets to find something to eat, and ended up at a really great pizza place right by a beautiful cathedral. Brazilian pizza is amazing. Its loaded with different vegetables, fruits and it is probably the best pizza ever.

After pizza, we went to this market place where a band was playing and everybody danced!

The next day, we went back to that market place, because there was a type of festival going on. I bought some souvenirs, and a lot of jewelry for people back home because in Minas Gerais the stones are real and super cheap! At lunch, we got serenaded while we ate at a typical Brazilian restaurant. When you go out for lunch, its a self service place where you have to weigh what you took that the end. There is ALWAYS rice and beans, a lot of meat (sometimes churrasco), and different types of salads, fruits and vegetables. 

Saturday night, we went to the Vesperata, which is this really cool thing they have in Diamantina! You sit in a street surrounded by beautiful Portuguese-style buildings, and people play music out of the windows of those buildings! Its really fun, and everyone just enjoys each other's company and has a blast! I posted a video on facebook of everybody dancing to one of the Portuguese songs they played, and I wanted to upload one of them playing The Final Countdown, but it froze my computer and it took forever. Check out the video on my facebook! They also played Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and a bunch of songs from Grease. It was so cool!

Sunday, we visited a museum and had to go home :( Another 7 hours on the bus..... Ohh well. It was worth it. When we got home, I saw the cutest tree frog and excitedly showed my host mom. She (unexpectedly) proceeded to kill it and it was so sad :(