Manaus, Brazil, South America I got up this morning and had a nice breakfast at the apartment with Maria. I got a taxi from the apartment to the airport at around noon and it took just about an hour to get there. The traffic in Salvador wasn’t great, but I’ve seen a lot worse, so I couldn’t complain. I got to the airport with plenty of time to check in for my flight on Azul airline and the flights went…
Salvador, Brazil, South America I got a taxi into the city center today to meet Rafael, and it was really good having a local with me. I could have taken the bus, but I wasn’t too comfortable getting the right bus on the way there, so I opted for a taxi. The first night I arrived in Salvador I saw about 30 people get on a bus, and every one of them either jumped the turnstile in the bus, or…
Salvador, Brazil, South America I did almost nothing today except work on my blog. I went down to Subway for lunch, but every day I walk by the favela I get increasing more uncomfortable. This is the opposite of how I usually feel in a city. I’m usually a bit more uncomfortable when I first get there, but then realize pretty quickly that it’s not nearly as bad as I had initially thought. This is the opposite. Based on what…
Salvador, Brazil, South America I had a really nice day today, and it was completely unexpected. Maria told me something this morning, and even with Google Translate, I got the message totally confused. I thought she said her daughter was coming here because she speaks english and could tell me what to do for carnaval today. It turned out she was actually telling me that her sister was coming over with two guests she is hosting, and we were all…
Salvador, Brazil, South America Today was a pretty quiet day here in Salvador. I spent most of the day in the apartment working on the pictures for my blog that I took in Rio. I took a break at lunch time and walked down to a beach that’s just behind the Bom Preco. It was really small, but pretty nice looking. And Rafael said that because it was carnaval it would be packed, and he was right. I’m not a…
Salvador, Brazil, South America I got up this morning, packed up all my stuff, and was ready to go by 10am. Since I hadn’t seen Janine for the last few days, I had no idea what time I was supposed to check out. I also didn’t know the best way to get to the airport from here during carnaval, and Janine wasn’t there to answer any questions, so I had to figure it out myself. Luckily there is a nice…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America I got up this morning and really had one goal for the day. I wanted to go back to the Havaiana shop that we went to on the free walking tour of downtown and get some flip flops as gifts for a few people. So I got up, got the metro down to Carioca where the tour had started, and was pretty shocked at what I found. There were tens of thousands of people…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America I woke up to another beautiful morning here, although it looks like it’s going to be another hot one. I met up with Becky at the Cantagalo metro station and we headed over to the lake to walk around it. It was a really nice walk, and took about two hours, and a great way to start the day. It felt completely safe and comfortable to walk around. When we got almost all the…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America I had a good night’s sleep last night, and I have to say that I am so incredibly happy to have air conditioning in my room here. It’s really hot here. Like really hot. And humid. All the time. It’s exhausting. So to have a nice cooled room I can come back to and sleep in is really nice. I hopped on the metro and got down to Carioca station in the downtown area…
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America I woke up this morning and had a look outside to find that it was an absolutely perfect day! There was not a cloud in the sky, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I text Becky and she was very keen to go see Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer today, so we agreed to meet at 10am. I also got a text from Madalena saying that since it was such a perfect…