Labyrinth of Solitute and Encounters

It was really cool to be able to read  so many different accounts of when the Spaniards first came and the reaction that the Indians had to them.  It was good to be able to see it from different perspectives, through letters and entries.  "Moteuccoma did this because he took them for gods, considered them gods, worshipped them as gods" (pg 98, par 4). I've heard before that the Indians thought the Spaniards were the white god that had been prophesied to come, but in the last story it really shows that they did, indeed, think this to some extent.  I can see from both points of view, when the Indians did sacrifices and put blood on the food for Cortez and his men to eat, they honestly thought that they were respecting them and showing them their great status.  From the other point of view, the Spaniards had no idea why they were doing it, all they knew is that suddenly their delicious meal was covered in the fresh blood of some other person. "and [the emissaries] sprinkled blood in the food, they bloodied it, which made their stomachs turn and disgusted them, because of the great stench of the blood" (pg 98, par 3). That would definitely make me lose my appetite.
     The bit that we read from "Labyrinth of Solitute" was super interesting.  I was totally caught up in the first part of it talking about solitude and how we come to that state.  "Death and birth are solitary experiences.  we are born alone and we die alone" (pg. 196 par.2).  When you think about it, you do have people around you for those moments in your life, but ultimately you are passing through them alone.  Those people cannot feel your pain, your fear, your acceptance.  Your emotions are your own and you alone can bear the situation.  He also mentions the adolescent.  There is a definite difference in a child and a teenager.  It goes along with the changes in your body, graduating elementary school and moving to bigger schools, more student body and more things to worry about.  I definitely saw a lot of the solitude side of me when  I was in Jr. High and High School.  You just feel so lost, so alone in the world.  I feel like, for the most part, Octavio has a very good knowledge of human emotions and

Pink Dolphins!

The Amazon is amazing!  Today we all loaded up into a boat and went to one of the most boring places in the world.  So this place, it is out in the middle of nowhere and we ride up to these lame, floating houses.  There we all get off the boat, wade down into this water that made our skin look the color of an oompa loompa, and then we all yawned as these two guys used some fish to lure dolphins out of the water and, unfortunately, they made us touch them.  Can you think of anything lamer than that?  Well I sure hope so because it was the most amazing experience ever!  

So the dolphins here have a pink tone to them, I heard that it has something to do with their diet, kind of like flamingos.  They also look a little bit different than the cute little grey ones we are used to seeing.  Some might say that they are a little ugly, but those people are merely judging these beautiful creatures.  They do look a little funky, but I still got to swim with them, rub their bellies and touch them with my feet!  It was not quite like swimming with the dolphins at say, Seaworld, or something, because these dolphins are wild and the river is their home.  They are not the tame pets that will jump through hoops 

 and do tricks on command, they are aaallll natural.  It was kind of freaky at first, walking into the funky colored water with these weird looking dolphins, what if they attacked or something?  But then it was awesome!

 This lovely lady is Sofia, she is pregnant and was one of the pinkest dolphins that we were able to touch and swim with.  What a beauty!

When we finished swimming with the dolphins we got out and they gave everyone one of these necklaces.  They have a scale at the bottom that is from one of the biggest fish in the river...I don't remember what it is called but pretty cool.

For the record, he is wearing a speedo underneath his leaves...but I love shot because you sure can't tell can you?!

 We also got to go and visit an Indian tribe today, let's just say it was quite the cultural experience as apparently the women in that tribe don't wear tops...awkward!  But it is just part of the culture so what can one do?  It was really cool though seeing their dances to celebrate the harvest and good catches at sea, to take pictures with the chief and to learn about their culture.

Just a picture of us with the Chief, he was old, and really cool.  Michelle is my roommate currently and is in the shot with me, cute!

Before we left I went with Shawndeen and had the chief paint our faces.  I also bought this earring and the green necklace to support them-so fun!

Welcome to the Jungle

    

  Holy crow!!!  today was basically one of the best days of my life, for reals.  We are in the Amazon.  We flew out of Fortaleza yesterday, we had to get up before 3am in order to get there in time for our flight-super gag, but Manaus totally makes up for it.  We stayed one night in the actual city, went and had a tour of the theater, walked to the pier and looked through a bunch of booths at the fair they had set up.  

Then today we set out for the actual jungle experience and oh boy, has it been a doozey so far.  We got here by boat, it was about a 20 minute boat ride from the mainland and city to our isolated little hotel (which, by the way, was closed for about three months this summer because the water was so high that they were flooded out, luckily it was down and the hotel remodeled and fixed by the time we got here or I don't know what we would have done).  It is super cute, it is right off the river and by a swamp kind of thing that has at least two 

 caimen-that is what they call them here anyway, kind of like a small alligator-that lives in the swamp, and the houses you stay in are located around it.  You have to walk over a boardwalk type thing, the wooden walkways built over water, to get to our rooms.  The houses are built on stilts and so have water underneath them and they are just super cute.

 

They met us on the dock with a big glass of Brazilian juice and that just hit the spot and set the mood right there for the rest of our stay.

    Ok, now we are going to get into the really good stuff.  After having time to play in the pool and rest up a bit, we went out fishing for piranas, so exciting!  On our boat we had Vanessa and her kids-Marcello, Felipe, Danilo and Natalia, as well as Joe, Cristina and I.  Basically we had the coolest driver and guide ever.  The spot they took us to was hopping with fish, we caught around 30 fish all together, mostly piranas, but a few sardines.  I caught 6 all on my own, well one or two were sardines but it was still cool.  They gave us fishing poles that were made from bamboo and then a cup of raw meat, kind of 

  gross but perfect for what we were trying to catch.  At first Marcelo was like, the only one catching anything, and poor Joe only caught one the entire time, but Felipe ended up catching the biggest ones, Vanessa caught the most Sardines, and I myself caught 6 like I said.  Numbers 4 and 5 were a little bit sassy, one of them might have been a sardine, but the fact of the matter is that while I was trying to have my picture taken with them, they decided to jump of the hook and flop around my feet!  The funny part was that most of those fish I caught while I was not paying 

 attention.  I was super busy trying to take a picture of the amazing sunset, take a picture of Natalia with her catch or someone else, and that is when I would feel my pole start to take off!  Basically they thought they were pulling a fast one over on me but boy were they wrong.  It was amazing, the Amazon is just gorgeous and the place where we were fishing, it was beautiful.  It was definitely very relaxing to be in that location just lounging around fishing.  He put all of our fish on a line, it turned into a pretty cool looking necklace.  They are going to make a soup out of them that we will get to eat tomorrow, how amazing is that, I actually caught my own dinner...which was a pirana!

 

Once it started to get dark we gave up on fishing and went searching for Caimen.  Our guide had a light that he was scanning the vegetation with because when light hits their eyes they glow.  It was the coolest thing just cruising on a river, in the Amazon, in the dark scanning for these guys.  Our guide finally saw one so they slowly took the boat over, he leaned over the front, and just snagged it right out of the water!  It was super cool to see, our very own Caiman.  We named him Elmer, till the guide informed us that she was actually a girl, then I think Danilo renamed

 her Betty.  We all got to take turns holding her and getting our pictures taken-this place is phenomenal.  Our boat was awesome, I am pretty sure we caught the most fish out of anyone and we are the only ones that caught a caiman, so of course we kept him on the boat and showed him to all the others and let them take pictures, which was cool, but I am so glad I was on the boat that actually caught it because it was a lot of fun to see. 

     After we handed Betty over to another boat we started towards home, still searching for more.  And we found one.  When we found Betty, I didn't know what was going to happen exactly until they already had her on the boat, but with the next one I was prepared.  We had an awesome angle where you could actually see the eye glowing as we slowly road up to it.  It was legit, just this bright, glowing thing in the night.  Anyway, our guide went to try and catch it, but then jumped back-apparently it was over 2 meters long...however long that is, but it must have been too much for him to handle.  Anyway, all in all I was in the best boat and we had the absolute time of our lives!

When we got back to the hotel we found a frog in the bathroom, he was pretty big too.  Someone named him Tom, as in Peeping Tom, seeings how he was in the girls bathroom and all.  Then I got back to my room and Michelle was already here all upset because she could've sworn that she heard a plop in the toilet when she got back and was pretty sure she saw a little frogy and he was hiding in our toilet.  Well, what can you do?  She didn't want to flush him, but she needed to use the facilities and we couldn't find it anyway to prove if it really was there, so I flushed it, and out of the hole part in the front-I think it reduces water when you flush it, anyway, something shot out of that and then was flushed so poor Michelle lost her pet frog :(

    So that is the beginning of my trip to the Amazon, hope you enjoyed it even 1/16 of what I did because that would make you so happy.

Come Sail Away

So, last...Thursday maybe, or Wednesday we went on a daylong boat ride out to two different islands off the coast of Salvador and they were just beautiful.  The first one we were able to get in some good beach volleyball time.  My team was struggling and that might be the reason why, but I was actually not doing too poorly :) Then I got a little bit of time to swim and it was pretty cool because there were these little fish in the water that would come and nibble at your fingers and toes.  Apparently I am not the right flavor because there was only one little fish who tried to nibble on me, then he warned the rest to stay away because I tasted vile.  Everyone else got quite nibbled over.  Maybe I should try swimming with the sharks one day to see if I am appealing to them.  It is kind of disheartening to know that if I were to drown in the ocean I would not become fish food because they don't like me, I mean, how would that make you feel?  I feel just downright undesirable and plain now, they just shot my self confidence and self esteem right out the window.  It has taken years to get it to where it was, not I have to start all over again, oh bother.
    Well, if I come home all depressed and unhappy with life at least you know who to blame and you can remedy the situation by taking a fishing trip to Salvador and getting rid of all those dratted fish!

 This is the little band that was playing on our boat ride.  They were a lot of fun and played fun Portuguese songs, I didn't know any of the words, but I tried because he was leading us along and trying to get us to sing with him-it was a blast, that would be like the best job ever!

And we had an awesome sunset to finish off the day just as we were pulling back into Salvador.  We also saw some flying fish or something cool like that.  Michelle, Cristina and I sat up on the prow for the entire trip, there and back, we absolutely loved it out in the sun, feeling the wind in our hair.  It was glorious!

Doom on You

Hold an eel-check
Pet a stingray-check for the top and check for the belly
Feed a monkey-check
Go to one of the most dangerous cities in the world-check
Send my roommate to the Hospital-check
Lounge in a hammock, on the beach, on an island, in Brazil-check, check, check and check

Good times here in Brazil to be had by all.  If you have any comments or concerns about anything I just told you...well you will actually have to email me to find out since apparently my comments thingy majigger still isn't working.  Moving on

Yesterday here in Fortaleza, with my roomie in the hospital and our director with her we were sent out in small groups to infiltrate the government and plant spies throughout the network...or just to look at some historical sites-go with whatever story you like best.  I ended up going with my friend Fernanda as well as Shawndeen, Cristina, and Brady.  We had fun, but we ended up going to the wrong place and went to a theater instead of a statue, one was called the Teatro Sao Jose, and the other was called Theatro Jose de Alencar, so with Jose being in both of the names and then Teatro and Theatro being so close to one another...we ended up going to a cool theater instead of a kind of cool but not really statue (thought we did finally get over to that as well-do not worry Vanessa, we went to everything that we were supposed to!)

This church had some of the most beautiful stained glass windows in it, I feel like I just said that somewhere...maybe the last blog.  Darn it, I am officially losing my mind.  I know most of you saw it coming, you can now point at me and laugh and say I told you so, but who would expect it at the ripe young age of 25?  This is an utter disaster, hoo hoo, hee hee, hoo hoo, hee hee...breathing in and out like that isn't even helping, ahhhhhhh!
    Alright, my mind is back, crisis averted.  Anyway, this is in the top three largest churches in Brazil and if I could figure out how to rotate pictures on this computer maybe I would put in some pictures of the windows from the inside as well as the statue we went to, but alas, I have yet to figure out how to work a Mac, curse you aqua scum!
    We also went to Centro Mercado which is kind of like the swapmeet in Hawaii with just tons of stands selling different things, till you get about halfway around, or even sooner, and they start repeating themselves.  Only difference is that it is in a building, a huge building with multiple floors.

You can kind of see some of the shops behind Brady and me, cool huh!  All in all the day was really long because we decided to walk to all these places from our hotel and it was a long way, and Fortaleza is hot, hot, hot!  The way back was pure torture, but we made it. 
    I went later with Fernanda, Cristina, Brady, Mitch and Carla to a club playing techno music.  We were pretty much the only ones there at first, and then about 5 other people came but we totally rocked that joint!  I did the worm for the first time since high school, didn't know if I still had it in me and I was super nervous, but I did it twice even-my arms are sore today though, as is my neck from whipping my hair back and forth and headbanging.  If you can't tell, I had a lot of fun!

Holy Guacamole!

Speaking of guacamole...not that I really know how to spell it or anything, but you know how I was completely addicted before I left?  I am really craving some of that piece of heaven right now, (sigh of long suffering) but instead of being able to eat that I had to go to some mom and pops joint and eat a delicious hamburger, drink some Guarana (Kevin, Jimmy and Derek will be able to feel for me on that one) and watch a soccer game between Brazil and...somewhere that doesn't really matter, all while surrounded by Brazilians in the beautiful city of Fortaleza-and some people think I am lucky-meh!  Just kidding, it was awesome, you really can't get too much more into the culture than when you are gathered with your friends on Sunday, eating and having fun while watching the Brazilian soccer team win a game.  It was super funny too because after we ate we went over to a military fort and our teacher Vanessa, thought that she needed to share the score of the game and what happened during it, with the guard at the gate, haha, I love Brazilians!
     So I still need to backtrack and finish the awesomeness that was Salvador, but might as well start with what is fresh and at the front of my mind.
    First things first though, I still have a few people that I need to tell you about from the group.  So let's start with Cindy and Jordan Guillory (I hope I spelled their last name right!)  They are a young married couple, they actually had their 2 year anniversary on July 2nd out here with us.  They met while Jordan was on his mission.  He served here in Brazil, and her mom is Brazilian so she was here visiting family and they met once or twice but didn't really talk a ton.  Anyway when he got home things just worked out.  They are super cute together.  Cindy is studying speech therapy and something like...audiology or I don't know what and then Jordan is studying to be a pharmacist and also to get an MBA and he seems super excited about it.  I will have to get pictures of them on here later.
     Here are just some fun pics from Fortaleza.

 Shawndeen, Fernanda-she is a student from the English immersion program we played sports with and had the 4th of July party with.  She lives here in Fortaleza and we have been plotting to meet up ever since we met in Recife.  Hopefully I will have some pictures with Marcilio as well, another one of those students who live here.  Good group of people!  Then there is me, rocking my Porto de Galinhas shirt, and Brady is on the end.  His birthday was actually on Friday the 27th, but I will write more about him in a minute.

Above is the sunset from our first night here, so glorious isn't it.  We decided to eat dinner at a little beach front place, but even being beach front it was still a little bit in for obvious reasons (such as the tide and whatnot) but we decided to run down to the beach while we were waiting for our food and this is what was waiting for us.
    The picture on the right is in front of a stained glass window they have up on a theater downtown, fun stuff!

Fernanda and me again, goodness I just love the ocean and walking along the beach.  The sand here is super nice, soft and almost even fluffy.  If sand wasn't so messy I would just get a box of this for my living room instead of a comfy rug, this stuff feels amazing!  Almost powder-like really and it doesn't stick to your feet and legs like other sand.  Anyway, I feel like I am becoming a sand and beach snob the more we travel and go to different beaches.  Never saw that one coming.

Ok, so Brady Squires is next on our list of peeps to describe.  Like I said he just had his birthday and turned 23, happy birthday to him!  He is a great kid, one of the few guys on this trip that I have had an actual conversation with for an extended period of time.  He has really interesting conversations stored up in him so it is fun.  He served in Florida and didn't know Portuguese hardly at all before the trip but he is super dedicated to learning it and so is always taking notes, jotting down vocab and reading in his language books.  He is not too much into technology like texting, emailing, chatting and whatnot and also would rather be doing stuff 

than watching a movie.  He is trying to get into dental school right now and is really looking into doing about a year of his schooling at a school which I think is in Sao Paulo (sorry I don't have the computer with the built in accents anymore and I don't remember how to do them so the a in Sao Paulo should really have a squiggly line over it-use your imaginations).  Anyway, if he were to do a year there then he would be licensed both in the US and in Brazil so once he got a practice up and going back home he would like to come and start some down here as well.

Questions, comments, concerns or bad mouthing!

Hey there ladies and gents, fasten your seatbelts because there is a new and improved option in Tawnya's wonderful world of blog posts!  Yes that's right, you hit it right on the nose, I have finally looked into my settings and made it so anyone who ever had even the tiniest desire to leave a comment is now able to.  That's right, you can comment, be sarcastic, moan, make fun of or compliment me anytime you want (actually the real point of this message is not to let you know that you can do, it is rather a cheerful way of telling you that now that this is an option YOU BETTER START LEAVING ME COMMENTS AND LETTING ME KNOW YOU ARE ALIVE!!!)
     Phew, I almost lost my cool there.
Anywho, back to Salvador

Here are just a few pictures of the beauty, not only of Salvador, but of Michelle and I as well!

We were twinners today with our hair, so cute.  She actually did my hair for me today, but I have been doing some mean french braids since coming here, Erika and Heather would be proud!

Now on to some historical things.  Like i mentioned before, Salvador was a huge port for slave traders.  Our first day we went to a market that used to hold slaves before they were sold.  There is a basement there where they actually used to keep slaves that tried to start riots and were leaders of the revolution.  Now this basement part is actually below sea level so if the water were to rise or there was a storm, well the people being held down there would drown, and the guards wouldn't save them.  Vanessa was actually telling us that at one point President Eyring actually came here and he was going down the stairs to go and tour the place, but got such a bad feeling that he couldn't do it.  We didn't even get the option as it is closed for renovations, but this stuff is real and there were bad things that happened down there.

  There are only like, a billion churches in Salvador.  We actually got to go to mass at one of them and it is super interesting to see how they have mixed Catholicism with Canumble-the religion and practices of the slaves.  They had all sorts of singing, drums, dances, people coming in carrying stuff, it was really cool.

The only thing that I could have done without in Salvador are the cobbled streets.  Sure they are historic, look nice and are different, but walking around in flip flops for hours on end kind of takes away any appreciation one might have had for their unique beauty.  Our poor little feet were so tired after our march through the city, but it was still fun.