Salvador

Our flight to Salvador was at 8:30 am. When I booked the tickets, I figured it was a good time to head out of Curitiba. However, it was too early to get to the airport by bus, too expensive to go by taxi, and our host offered to drive us, but he had to be at work by 7am. So, at 5:45am we all piled into the car and went to the airport.

Two 2-hour flights and a 2-hour bus ride later, we arrived near our Salvador host’s house. The thing about Salvador is that it is gigantic and the people that live there are not exactly sure what busses go where. Normally, if you ask three people, you will get three different answers, which is what happened to us. For a while, we thought we were on the wrong bus, but it ended up going right where we needed to be. The thing we were unaware of was an 80-degree angle hill we had to walk down with our bags before getting to his house. After that hill, I didn’t think I would have to workout for a while.

The next day, we got up early to drop our bags at the bus station, and took a bus to Barra.

Eating aracujé, a fried dough stuffed with sauces and shrimp

Then we met up with Catherine and her sister, Sarah, and waited to catch our 11:00pm bus to Lençois. 

Curitiba

Tuesday was a long day! After our 3.5 hour bus ride, a 2-hour flight, and another 1-hour bus ride, we arrived in the city center of Curitiba. The only problem: our Couchsurfing host in Curitiba had to work from 6-10pm, and we arrived into the center of the city at about 6pm. Guess how we solved the problem....

We spent almost 5 hours in a shopping center.

Actually, it was not that bad. The mall was an old train station. So, it had a train museum in it, which was, of course, closed. Instead, we walked around the gardens they had inside of the mall. There was even water shooting across walkways and shrub sculptures of ducks, rabbits, and what we thought were giraffes. The best part: half off caiparinhas and trying avocado ice cream. (By the way, Brazilian avocados are slightly sweet and taste more like sugar water.) Luckily, our host got out of work early and we were able to get out of the shopping center and head to his house.

The next day we headed out, when our host went to work, to catch the tourist bus line. This bus goes to all of the major tourist locations for R$29 (about $12 USD), but you only get five rides on it. These are the places we chose to visit:

Botanical Gardens

Oscar Niemeyer Eye Museum: It had a Frida Kahlo exhibit

At Unilivre

Looking over the city in the Oi Tower

The Historic District at night

That night, our host invited us to go get a drink at a bar downtown. While waiting for him, Jake and I started a conversation with someone at the bar. After a few minutes, a dispute started. Two guys were arguing, while drunk, and one had a glass beer bottle (600ml) in his hand. The drunker one somehow ended up leaning on me, and the guy we were talking to earlier suggested that the bartender call the cops. Afterwards, we went back to our conversation about this trip. All of a sudden, the guy cuts himself off and asks if we are going to be at the bar a while longer. Then he disappears. Thirty minutes later, he comes back with a present for Jake and me.

After opening the book when we got back to our host’s home that night, it took us a minute to figure out why he had given us this book. I guess the author of the book was from Curitiba and then moved to Paraty (one of our later destinations). Later, he travelled around the world by boat. (Or, something like that.)

Our last day was spent with one of our friends from FURG who is from Curitiba. However, we had not really made a plan for the day. At 9am, I get a phone call from her telling me she is 6 minutes away. I was still sleeping. Jake and I hurried to meet up with her and spent the day walking around Santa Felicidade, an Italian area of Curitiba, and hanging out in a park in the city center.

Wine Tasting

Capivaras in the park!

Submarinos are a pint of beer with a shot of Steinager in a shot glass that is dropped into the middle of it. The tradition in Curitiba is to collect the shot glasses afterward. [Coming soon: More information on Jake’s blog post about Submarinos at www.thejakeperience.blogspot.com]

Overall, the entire trip was amazing! Our first true experience as surfers was great and we are excited to continue surfing in the future. 

It's the Start of Something New: Couchsurfing

As everyone in our house prepared to travel throughout the month on August, Jake and I decided to give Couchsurfing a chance. Over the past two months, we have opened our home on three different occasions for Couchsurfers. Now, we decided it was time to try surfing for ourselves. The process of just filling out requests was an experience in and of itself.

Two nights ago, we decided that the best option to get to Porto Alegre today was to stay in Pelotas last night. So, I sent out a couch request and had a response almost immediately. Unfortunately, the person could not host us at his house because he had owned a hostel and had been working a lot recently. However, he told us that he would like to host us in his hostel for the night, for free, and had already made a reservation. Jake and I were shocked, but grateful. 

Getting to the hostel was an adventure. We caught a bus to Pelotas, and at some point, I decided it might be a good idea to ask if anyone knew where the street of the hostel was. When I asked the bus driver, he said it was the stop he had just pulled away from, but that he would be returning to it. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that, but we stayed on the bus. When we arrived at the rodoviaria, he told us if we wanted a ride to the street, he would take us there.

Once on the correct street, we realized we were in the 400's and needed to be in the 900's. We didn't realize it was more than 5 blocks. Like 10 blocks and two parks later, we arrived. But just the comforters on each bed made it worth it. They were AMAZING! It was the first time I didn’t wake up cold in the middle of the night in a long time. Our host, another guest, and our host ate pizza that tasted like a coxina, and I thought it was great. The best part was that our conversations easily slide back and forth between Portuguese and English, and it was great!

Shameless Plug: For anyone looking for a hostel in Pelotas though, I would highly recommend staying at Hello Hostel. Everything about it is nice!

Now we are on our way to Curitiba…