Wow...I have alot to catch up on! The past 3 days in Salvador have been great; skydiving on Itaparica Island, futebol, a local guided tour, a Brazilian steakhouse, street food, coconuts and flip flops! I'm not even sure where to start.

Day 3 - Feb 7, 2008 - KP and I decided to head back over to Itaparica and check out the dropzone there to go skydiving. We left the ship at 8:45am and after another crazy ferry boat terminal experience, we finally got on a boat and were there by 11:30! After a 10 min ride, we made it to Skydive Itaparica Island. It was pretty empty but we were greeted by Julio and Kalay, the two instructors there who also speak English, which made things much easier. After talking about what we wanted to do, KP and Tucker started filling out some paperwork and watching their tandem video. I got to take a tour of the landing area and look at the ariel photos of the DZ as well as check out the 1 rental rig they had. It wasn't exacltly like my own, but it was safe. On our way there, I wasn't sure at all if I would try to jump...had to see what it was like and if I was comfortable with everything, but it was all great. They checked out my logbook and it turns out that they had even jumped at the Ranch before! Julio spends July - September in NY each year working as a tandem instructor at Skydive Long Island. Another group of SAS students showed up at well so there there was a total of 4 tandems. They flew 2 loads and I was on both of them. The jump plane, a Piper Seneca, was really nice and upon takeoff, they asked "What? No 'Fly Baby Fly"?" so I gave a nice "Shawanga!" and they followed it up with everyone else to yell the rest....it was the greatest feeling of freedom! The ride to altitude was beautiful...over the island and the ocean, you could see all of Salvador, the beaches, and even our ship! My first jump was a solo and the 2nd was a 2-way with a local skydiver from the island. We had to have a translator and act out the dive flow but it worked great! He asked me to make a 3rd jump so they could video it, apparently they get only a few visiting skydivers passing through, but we had to leave to make it to the soccer game that night. I had a Skydive the Ranch sticker in my logbook and gave it to him and I don't think I'd ever seen anyone so excited or proud of a sticker. He put it right on his helmet...I wish I had thought to bring more tokens from home to share with people I meet on my travels. Everyone who made tandem jumps absolutely loved it, how could you not! The canopy ride was also incredible...I could have flown around up there forever. Eventually our day there had to end but they were nice enough to drive us all back to the ferry to Salvador so we didn't have to call a cab.

We made it back to the ship and the timing was perfect to shower off quick, grab dinner and head to the soccer game. The soccer game was alright. It was a regional game of Bahia vs. Paca, the stadium was out in another town and was nothing spectacular at all. It was definately authentic though. There was nothing tourist about it! We watched the game and tried different stadium food which was quite different...sugar cane, aracaje, and others. It reminded me of a minor league baseball game out in a small town. Bahia won 2-0.

Day 4 - 8 Feb 08 - Streetfood and Steakhouse! On Friday, KP and I met up with Julio for a local's tour of the city. We had such a good time and were able to check out areas of the city and things that we wouldn't necessarily be able to on our own. The best part was that we were just able to talk, ask questions, and learn about life there from someone local and our age. He also had us try all kinds of local streetfood. We'd see something, ask what is was and then he'd explain it, talk to the vendor and come back with samples for us to try! My favorite was the Jaca fruit, the coconut 'whatever' and the Aracaje. The aracaje is a local food with alot of history! It is only sold on the street by Bahianas, the Afro-Brazilian women who wear the big white dresses and head coverings. The slaves had to make food from whatever the Europeans didn't want and this is one of those foods that has become a real specialty of Bahia. It is beans ground into a paste and then fried in palm oil and filled with different things, among them are little shrimp. He gives it to me to taste and I see that the shrimp still have the shells and legs on so of course I ask how to eat it and he just takes a bite, shells and all! So i did...it didn't taste bad, just crunchy! After a great afternoon of walking around, we took the cable ar back down and headed back to the ship.

Last night, a bunch of us; me, Jenna, Carrie, Lisa and Jon, went to Boi Preto, which is a churrascaria, and one of the best Brazilian steakhouses in the area. It was unbelievable. First of all, it was nice to have a great meal off of the ship. At these restaurants, they give you a little card that is red on one side and green on the other. If your card is turned green, the servers come to the table with big skewers of all kinds of meat and slice it on to your plate. When your card is red, they pass by. In addition to the best steak ever, there is a huge buffet of every kind of gourmet side dish, salad, sushi, etc...you can imagine. We also had Capirinha's which is the national drink of Brazil and is made from a very strong rum, lime, and little bit of sugar. The 2nd one I had with some other kind of fruit but it was just as strong; good but strong. 2 was my limit! I think we all ate enough to get us to Cape Town! Piling 6 of us in a cab to go back to the ship was interesting as well. The ride to/from the restaurant also showed us a much more modern area of Salvador.

Day 5 - 9 Feb 2008 - Last minute shopping and a coconut! Today was ourlast day in Salvador and I spent the day pretty relaxed. There were a few small things left on my list to do so I spent the afternoon up in Pelourihno taking care of last minutes souvenirs and spending the rest of my Reals, the Brazillian currency. Our family has a collection of shot glasses so I picked up one to add to the many from our travels and I also got a magnet. Since the walls of our cabins are magnetic, and you can't use tape anywhere, magnets are very useful so I've started picking up magnets from each place we go to. The last two things on my list were Havaianas and a coconut! Havaianas are flip-flops from Brazil that everyone has here, they're super comfortable, inexpensive, and have little Brazillian flags on them. I got a pair for me and a pair for Heather since she also loves flip-flops. Finally I got a Coco Gelado, which is fresh coconut that they cut off the top and stick a straw in so you can drink the coconut water out of it. It was pretty good, didn't taste like much. Sometimes, if you go back to the vendor who you got the coconut from, they'll crack it open so you can eat the actual flesh of the fruit, but I had already walked away and didn't feel like to trying to explain that to another vendor. To end my day, I found an internet cafe that allowed phone calls as well so I talked to my parent's quickly but was unable to reach Andrew after a few tries (he's having a great time in ZHills skydiving!). Headed back to the ship and back to work!

Tchau Brasil!