No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem

Working at an American School in Brazil certainly has its perks. Like back home, we are off for holidays but here we get off for Brazilian holidays and many American holidays as well. Honestly, in November, I don't think I worked a full week and if you combine that with fall break and classroom trips in October, I don't really feel like I have taught that much this quarter. It is wonderful to have the time off but a logistical and planning nightmare.
We had last week off and rather than stay around Brasilia, the girls and I took off for a beach vacay.

Several people had mentioned Morro de Sao Paulo. So, off we went, all 6 of us. :) We arrived in Salvador on Wednesday night and stayed at a hostel(I can now scratch that off the bucket list, even though it was never there to begin with. haha). The town itself is very cool and historic, which you know I ate up. In fact, I would love to go back to see more of it as we were there for less than 13 hours.
The next morning we headed down to the docks to catch our ferry, or so we thought. After shelling out a whopping R$5.00 we realized, hey, we are no where near the harbor, oh and hey we don't speak Portuguese, oh and hey where are we supposed to be. So we figured out that we were supposed to be at the harbor and only had 35 minutes or so to get there. So we busted out of the bus terminal and ran to the taxi for a ride to where we were supposed to be. It was very Amazing Race style except we had wheel suitcases. Luckily, it was a short drive and we made it there with enough time to get tickets to the ferry.

The streets of Salvador

The city as we were leaving.
After a 2 hour ride, we made it to the beautiful island. When we arrived we noticed that there were a bunch of wheelbarrows that said TAXI on them. Weird, I thought but upon inspection I noticed they were throwing our luggage in them. The island only has 2 cars and they are used for beach patrol. So, everything has to be moved around via wheelbarrows, horses, or bike. It was amazing. We then spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun on the beach. You have got to enjoy the skin cancer Vitamin D. That evening we went out for our Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, no restaurants were serving Turkey and all the fixings. So, we settled on seafood and steak. Honestly, it was the best way to spend my Thanksgiving. I didn't think about what I was missing back home because I was so excited to be where I was.

Leah, Debra, and Angela

Amy and me.

Thanksgiving Day 2011

On Friday, it was kind of rainy so we went walking, and shopping. The tide was low, so Kamy, Amy, and I went out to an area normally under water and walked on the rocks. It was really pretty. Later, Angela and I went shopping, then came back for lunch with the girls, and the beach when the skies finally opened up.
Saturday, we wanted to take a boat to one side of the island but ended up walking there instead. The tide was low so we walked down the beach to one of the "locals beaches" to have lunch at a beach restaurant(literally the tables and chair are on the beach right by the water). On the way we passed beautiful cliffs. The cliffs have a small amount of water running down it which caused clay and mud to run down as well. People were walking around looking like aborigines, covered in their clay. The way back did cause a little bit of trouble as the tide came in earlier than expected. We were reassured that if we left by 3 we would be fine. Good thing we left at 2 cause if we had waited 20 minutes we would have been hard-pressed to make it back. When we got off the beach we stopped at a little place called One Love. It was the cutest little restaurant devoted to all things Bob Marley. Even their singer looked like him.

Sunday, we got back on the ferry and headed back to reality. The boat ride back in was much rougher than the one there and evidently, all the other people on the boat decided to not take their Dramamine. Lordy, Lordy, they were getting sick. Amy and I sat on the back of the boat where everyone was coming when they were feeling, "under the weather". We spent a good portion of the ride looking backwards. Every few minutes you would hear one of us go, "don't look, don't look, turn away." One woman was even passing out she was so sick. It took a little longer than we thought to make it back and so we thought we were going to miss the flight. Luckily, they either delayed it or moved us to a different time, because at 4:30 we were on our way home. Now the countdown begins to Christmas break and heading back home!!!!