4 de julho no brazil

So, while everyone in the US was probably having barbeques, watching fireworks, and doing whatever traditional Fourth of July celebration stuff, the students in our Brazil program went on a weekend trip to Praia do Forte, about an hour`s bus trip away from Salvador.

We met up at school at 8AM in the morning (which.. never REALLY happens, since, not ALL people can get up that early on a Saturday, haha! *grrrr!*), everyone carrying their backpacks full of beachwear, bug-repellant, SPF lotion... and of course, dangling plastic grocery bags with the MASSIVE amount of snacks that our host-mothers provided us. Seriously, these women just expect us to eat SO much!! These snacks typically consist of a can of guarana or package of juice/chocolatey/SWEET drink, potatoe chips, ANOTHER type of potatoe chips, cookies, fruit, sandwiches, crackers... all of this, PER PERSON.

Anyways! Let us not get caught up on just how much weight everyone`s going to gain on this trip... haha!

Our first stop in Praia do Forte was this castle, apparently the first castle built (by Europeans) in South America - Castelo Garcia D´Avila. One of the things that I found to be most interesting about this fort, was that the land/farm that is was on, was HUGE/the biggest `farm` in the world (almost like, a 1/3 of Brazil?? I forgot/perhaps am exaggerating.. haha!), and that D`Avila claimed his land by spreading his cattle and coconut trees! In fact, before D`Avila, there were NO coconut trees in South America - he brought them from India!! I thought this was super crazy, especially because just, the idea of tropical places just bring about the image of coconut trees swaying in the breeze... not to mention that the coconut icecream here is just, BOMB. So, thank goodness that D`Avila came to Brazil, eh?? haha!

This castle was also interesting, since:
1. They actually brought some stone blocks from Portugal to build it, using local (Brazilian) rocks to kind of form the cement/inbetween material.
2. They had a room to punish slaves/prisoners in, which was a pretty regular room, but.. right below were rooms that had jaguars in them... so the point was to frighten the prisoners with the sound/threat of the jaguars... EEK.
3. There was a big tree, nearby, that apparently houses one of the indigenous spirits (forgot the name...!). Supposedly, back in the day, people would come under this tree to be married, but all the witnesses would be VERY attentive to the tree, since, if ANY leaves fell from the tree during the process, this would mean that the tree-spirit-thing did NOT approve of the marriage, and so the marriage would be CANCELLED! Crazy, right? Good thing there doesn`t seem to really be a fall-season, here...

After the castle, we went to drop off our things at a hostel (SUPER good, btw) at Praia do Forte, then went to a Sea-Turtle preservation center (Tamar Project). Because turtle season is from August to April, we didn`t see any turtle eggs, but, we did see a few turtles that were in the tanks at the center... One thing that I read (and I`ve learned before, but, hey! I think it`s a cool fact) is that the sex of turtles is determined by the temperature of the sand that they are kept in during development. Female turtles come from hotter sand temperatures, muahah! However, this actually isn`t too cool, since I think one of the info-signs at the center was saying how the sands have been pretty warm, recently, so there`s been fewer and fewer males?
oooh.. boy. Global Warming??

Afterwards (YES. We have QUITE a schedule, right?) we went to our program director`s parent`s house, located right on a lake, and had a TON of food, including traditional Brazilian food, such as, what of course but: MEAT, some crab casserole dish thingie, fried yucca (eaten like potatoe fries), feijoada.. amongst other things, with some people drinking nothing other than Bohemias, caipirinhas.... having fruit and maracuja pudding for dessert, and a cafe-espresso to top it all off. It was a pretty fun time, with people dancing forro (a type of Brazilian music.. kind of folksy.. played a lot at parties/big gatherings) and people TRYING to dance forro but only really succeeding in moving their feet and not their hips (*cough cough*).

We then drove back to the hostel and hung around the little village (or.. touristy-area) of Praia do Forte, listening to live music, eating icecream (I had this weird flavour called `umbu,` apparently a local fruit?? I much rather enjoyed the coconut icecream, and my friend`s PEANUT icecream was just, AH! As she put it, `orgasmic,` haha!).

Sunday (the fifth) was spent lounging on the beach, exploring the tidal pools (I saw some tiny blue, and yellow/black striped fish!), buying souvenuirs, and just.. RELAXING, as if we haven`t been relaxing enough in Brazil, already, right??

SO! On a scale of 1-10, I`d have to rate this beach resort as... a 6. It was nice, but, there was kelp all over the place, the beach had a LOT of tidal pools, so it was actually hard to walk around in the water/find a place to swim, and there were just way too many souvenuir stops (Hawaiian-resort village... artificial?) in my opinion... but, hey! I got to work on my tan, so, that`s always a plus, right?? haha...