It Starts!!

So, I have officially arrived safe and sound in

Salvador, Bahia! The flight was a little to be desired, sleeping in a tiny little chair squeezed between two people was not very fun! Our flight to Miami was delayed... BOO, but I did get the chance to sit next to a girl who was from Rio, and she told me how beautiful Salvador is! Once we arrived in Miami, we got some food, and only had to a wait a little while until we boarded the plane to Salvador! We landed around 6:30 AM, and got on the Mariah Carey (our bus), and drove to Sol Vitoria Marina, our hotel. We got there too early to check in so a group of us walked to a local market, and attempted to use some portuguese for the very first time to buy some water, and food! The streets in Salvador are beautiful! There is artwork all over the cement walls, and even the sidewalks have beautiful designs. Nothing like our boring old gray sidewalks! Also, the traffic lights countdown the seconds to when the light is going to change!

We all thought that was pretty cool! When we made it back to the hotel, most of us were extremely tired, and burnt out at this point. There were very comfortable red couches in the lobby of the hotel. About 8 of us all passed out for about an hour, perfect power nap! Finally our rooms were available and we could all take showers, change, and relax! My roommates and I walked into our room, and it was pretty much perfect for me! Orange EVERYWHERE! We also had a beautiful view of the ocean.

The view of the ocean from our hotel was gorgeous! There was a dock at the bottom of the hill from our hotel that also had a water slide. We took the chance to take in some Brazilian sun, and went down on to this dock to sunbathe! No, we did not just walk down the stairs, we took a gondola! Yes, I said a gondola! You get to glide down to the bottom of the hill watching the scenery pass by as you go. Once you get down there you can see that there is actually a bar, and small restaurant at the bottom as well to order food or drinks. We all laid out for the first time on the dock, contemplating whether, or not we wanted to jump off..... We agreed the water was too choppy, and dangerous.

Some other girls from the group came down to join us, and told us about the beach that was about a 20 minutes walk away, and so we decided to make the journey, nothing else to do! We did get a little bit lost, and managed to walk into somebody's private property, but luckily everybody in Salvador is so nice, and they attempted to explain to us, in Portuguese, how to get to the beach. Once we got there the beach was PACKED! Beautiful people EVERYWHERE! What were they wearing? Well, practically nothing, after all we were at the beach in Brazil!

After taking a dip in the extremely salty, but warm and beautiful water, we decided to try and buy some food. This turned into us spending about 15 minutes trying to communicate with one of the street vendors what we wanted. We couldn't understand the options she was offering, and we couldn't get her to tell us how much the food cost. After a lot of back and forth pointing, and gesturing we all managed to get some food. None of us got what we actually wanted, but we did get food! We also figured out how to ask a few people to take a group picture of us by the ocean. When we got back to the hotel it was about time to get ready for dinner at Boi Preto, the most amazing brazilian steak house to ever exist!

Overall, the first day in Salvador was a huge success! We explored the area, got to try out the language on the local people, got some sun, and ate amazing brazilian food!