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| Showing off some capoeira moves |
After experiencing life in the small town of Eunapolis, Eric, Loni, Eric's sister and his friend and I rented a car and made the 45 minute drive to the tourist mecca of Porto Seguro. Porto Seguro is known for its beaches, parties and shopping but it's also considered to be the place where Brazil was first discovered. We arrived in the morning to streets lined with huge tourism buses, crowded beaches and a beautiful sunny day.
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| Dance party. Woot woot. |
After slathering myself with sunscreen, we headed to the main draw - a beach/club/party called Axe Moi. Axe Moi was unlike any place I had seen before. It was what I would imagine a mixture of Carnival and an American teenager's spring break to be: loud, obnoxious, colorful, drunk, dancing, scantily-clad and crowded. I think my jaw was in a perpetually dropped position the entire day. We joined the crowd in front of the stage to watch our beautiful/handsome transvestite host lead us in some dances while giant water fountains soaked us from every angle. I felt like I was on some edition of Girls Gone Wild except that it was more like Brazilians just being Brazilian.
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| Getting my cheese on a stick grilled |
After working up a sweat from dancing, we went swimming and tried some of the snacks on the beach. You can have pretty much anything you want from the mobile vendors hauling their portable grills and coolers around. We tried shrimp on a stick, grilled cheese on a stick, empanadas, sticky coconut, cashews and popsicles. You can also get pirated DVDs, necklaces, bracelests, earrings, T-shirts and the like. It felt like a circus at the beach. After a late lunch we spent the afternoon at the touristy Artesenal market which took over an entire street and led to a giant cross, which was the supposed location of the first mass performed in Brazil.
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| Yep, it was heaven on a stick, if you like cheese |
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| Seafood anyone? |
In the evening, we headed back to a friend of a relative's beach house and showered to get ready to go out. I had been warned that we weren't going to sleep that night. Everyone else seemed strangely excited by this notion whereas I only felt vaguely disappointed. Perhaps this is what happens when one is almost 32. Much to my surprise, getting to the particular club involved taking a ferry to some faraway riverbank. While we were boarding, Loni and I looked at each other like, "We're taking a ferry?" Yep, a lot gets lost in translation - especially with uncommon words like "ferry."
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| Location of the discovery of Brazil |
The night was fun and we had a good time. We drove back to Erik's city in the wee hours of the morning, collapsed on mattresses on the floor and woke up just in time to barely make it to the bus station to start our 5 hour bus ride back home.
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| Night swimming |
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| This is my "I didn't know we were actually going to have to take a ferry to the club" face |
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