Saturday, May 23, 2015

The original plan was to spend the weekend in Morro de São Paulo and though we were bummed that we weren’t going to be able to go in the end it worked out for the best…

HELLO SUNSHINE!  After two weeks here we finally get a completely sunny day!  We took advantage of this break in the clouds, put on our bathing suits and hit the beach!  I obsessively kept applying sunscreen all day because I don’t tan – I bake.  Veronica, Roman, Anu, Naomi and I spent the better part of the afternoon on Porto de Barra being harrassed by people (mostly men) selling drinks, jewelry, food, you name it.  But what really shocked me was before we had even stepped foot on the beach, as we were descending the stairs a man started shouting at us offering us caipirinha’s and when none of us answered him or bought one he yelled “Hey American bitch!” yea like that’s going to convince us to buy from him.

After Naomi and Anu had exhausted their cameras (no judgement) we voyaged out into the water.  The waves were pretty impressive, before Anu could get comfortable she was taken down by a wave and about 10 minutes later when Naomi was making her way further in she took a tumble when a wave crashed on her and swept her under.  We had sand in all the wrong places by the end.  We left the beach around 4:00pm (16:00) but not before I finally found a beach towel of the Brazilian flag.

We planned on meeting back up with Fernando at MAM: Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia for JAM no MAM, a live jazz concert put on behind the museum down by the water.  The music was great but not as great as the people we got to meet.  

(Left to Right: Marina, Anu, Me, Naomi, Veronica, Fernando, Quejo (cheese), Rodrigo)  Erik couldn’t meet up till later, workaholic.  The jazz concert went from 6-9pm and after we met back up in Rio Vermelho at a bar called Boteco 68 just off this great cobblestone square that was full of people enjoying their Saturday night.  Venders were out selling different drinks and foods, but our group only had one thing on their mind, a “cinnamon” shot called príncipe maluco, or crazy prince.  I say “cinnamon” because that is how this shot was described to me but I didn’t find it very cinnamon-y at all.  We spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing and drinking like we were all old friends.  It was probably my favorite night of the trip.