Brazil

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The minute we arrived to Rio de Janeiro it was 5am in the morning and the first thing we had on our minds was to go take paddle lessons on Copacabana beach. This is one of the main attractions that everybody has to experience when they travel to Rio de Janeiro. So before we decided to go out into the water. We decided we had to take lessons before. The Brazilian instructor had a very heavy accent and it was hard to understand him at times. But throughout the lesson we all had a lot of fun. And then it was time to go out into the water, and lets just say we weren't the best. But the experience was amazing. we did this for half an hour or so and then decided to leave for our next city in Brazil. Our next stop was Foz de Iguacu. Everybody was very excited about or trip there. This is one of the most beautiful National Parks in the World. We practically ran off the plane to get ready for our adventure. Our first goal to do early in the morning was too go hiking in the rainforest. We saw many animals during our hike. our tour guide showed us many different animal species and plant species. We climbed some trees. One of the most amazing animals we got to see was the native parrot of Brazil. It was beautiful to see millions of them up in the canopy of the trees. We even got to interact with them. And our last stop in Iguazu was to go to the all famous Iguazu Falls. We were able to go stand directly underneath them. that was a very amazing experience. Well our last stop Salvador, Brazil where we first decided to go eat. We went to Ki Muqueca a restaurant right in the heart of Salvador. We tried the most traditional cuisines of Brazil which are Coxinhas, Brigadeiro, Farofa, and Moqueca de Camarao. It was all very delicious. And the cook at this restaurant let us help him make the Farofa. Which was amazing, and now we all have the knowledge of how to make it. The last thing we decided to do in Brazil was to to go to the Candomble Ceremony in Salvador.



In the communal ceremonies of Candomblé, the orixas are summoned through ritual drumming, chanting, and dancing in terreiros or houses of Candomblé. Exu, the messenger spirit who intervenes between the believers and the orixas, is the first to be summoned by the drummers and dancers. Exu opens the way for the orixas to descend to the earth. There was a lot of dancing and drumming of drums. We were all able to join in the dancing. And well that was the end of our trip to Brazil and we were on our way back to Chicago.

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