Well ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Brazil. Me-a girl from the USA, departing from Chile, with all my classmates, to Brazil. It sounds too good to be true, but I have pictures to prove that it is! In Chile, it is custom for each course (people are in the same course with the same people, with whom they share every single class every single year from kindergarden until graduation) to go on a trip together at the end of Junior year. It is called the Gira de Estudio, and different schools go to different places. Sometimes it's within Chile, sometimes to Argentina, and in my school to Brazil.
We left Chile at 3am on the 15th, to arrive in Camboriu, Brazil, in the morning. We hit the ground running by immediately checking out the pool and the beach. Our hotel was located right on the beach, with an amazing view of the whole bay. Every 20 meters or so, there are little shacks that sell coconut and churros, which we discovered right away. The coconuts are the most delicious thing in the world, and I decided right away that I would need to drink/eat one a day minimum. First you drink the milk, then you can ask for them to crack open the coconut so that you can eat the fruit.
The first day in general was a beach and catch up on sleep day. The second day, we got up early and went to some typical tourist shops to buy gifts and swimsuits. Brazil is famous for their swimsuits, so all us girls ended up buying a few. We also went to a little German town where there was artificial snow and beautiful buildings. Then we went to a huge water park a few hours away to spend the rest of the day. The slides were amazing. There was one that was at least half a kilo-metro, and another one that was really wide, so all 18 of us could go down at the same time. We also found a waterfall down a path at the park where we all got the chance to see what it was like to be inside the fall- in the part between the rock and the falling water. It was breathtaking and a bucket list moment. That night, we went to a foam party, which is like a normal party, but with a huge machine that spits out foam so that everyone is soaking wet and covered in soap. We danced until early hours of the morning, then returned back to the hotel to get up early the next morning to go on another adventure.
The next day we went on a cableway up to the top of a hill, where there were activities and stores. It was really beautiful to ride the cableway up because we could see the entire bay. Once we were at the top, we went down on the other side of the hill by way of zipline! This was my favorite activity. It is the longest zipline in South America, and the view on the way down was breathtaking. Then we went to a beach on that side of the hill for the rest of the day until returning to the hotel to have a free night. Free nights consisted of a lot of swimming and dancing on the beach with all of my classmates. The music in Brazil is really fun to dance to because there are more coordinated dances which once you learn the moves to, you can do weather you are terrible at dancing like me or not. In general, there was an impressive amount of dancing during this trip.
The following day we spent on a pirate ship to tour a close-by island. On the boat, there was music, dancing, and a lot of Chileans. We stopped at one point in a picture perfect bay so that everyone could jump of the boat into the ocean. The water is extremely warm in Brazil, and it was a big boat so it was thrilling to jump off. I loved swimming in the ocean in general because it is so easy to float with all the salt in the water. In a swimming pool, my legs sink immediately when I try to float on my back, but in the ocean I could float forever. We then continued onto the island, where we spent multiple hours enjoying the water, the view, and the dance classes.
After a second free night of no sleep and a lot of swimming, we got up and went to an amusement park a few hours away. The park was fairly underwhelming, but we enjoyed ourselves just the same because we were all together.
After a third free night of no sleep and a lot of swimming, we went to a water park to compete against other schools in a competition which included mud, human Foosball, volleyball, and much more. The most beautiful thing about this day was how much we worked as a team and came together in order to win. After all the activities, there was a talk which started off funny, then transitioned into something which left most of us with tears in our eyes. The speaker reminded us to be grateful for our families back home, to appreciate life, to cherish this time we had together as a class, etc. He said to go up to each classmate, give them a hug, and tell them you love them, because this may be one of the last times that we will be all together like this. (For Saint Clare's folks, this reminded me of moments in New Beginnings or Happening. ) Our tour guide also repeated this topic everyday. He reminded us everyday to be exclusive on this trip, and to cherish this time we have together. Normally, I think of exclusive as a negative thing because it often means leaving people out. But on this trip, it was something beautiful.
That night, we went to a pool party in the rain, and danced the night away. The next day we had a beach day. We explored a little more the town, and soaked up the sun. We also spent hours in the ocean and kept on saying to each other that we didn't want to leave. I don't think I have ever laughed as much in one way as I did this one. It was nice to take a break from doing actives and to simply spend time together on the beautiful beach.
That night we went to the Cristo-luz to have a fancy dinner. We got dressed up, and took a bus up the hill to where the cristo-luz over looks the whole city. Then we sadly returned to the hotel to pack our bags and catch the 8am flight the next morning.
I enjoyed running during the whole week, and explored both sides of the bay. On one side, I found a pier which reached out a mile into the water, and on the other side, beautiful rocks with crabs crawling between them and waves crashing dramatically. I also liked observing the people on my runs. A few things that I noticed were that everyone is more friendly, a lot of woman wear skirts while running, more people run, and everyone wears less clothes. Regarding the clothes, it was very notable because more men wore speedos and the typical swimsuit bottoms for women were borderline thongs. Additionally, be it because of the heat or the culture, very few runners were wearing shirts. It may seem bizarre, but I liked this difference. It was a little shocking to see so much of peoples bodies, but I liked what it reflected. Everyone carried themselves confidently and it didn't mater if you were skinny or fat wearing a speedo or walking without a shirt. I think that the shamelessness of one's own body in Brazil took away beach-body-stigmas and self consciousness. I certainly began to think less and less about how I looked throughout the week. It leaves you subconsciously judging and analyzing both yourself and others less, and seeing each person not as ugly or pretty, in shape or out of shape, but as different. It made the differences between bodies less notable, and made stereotypes of what is beautiful fall away because everyone showed their bodies with confidence, not just those who fit what the magazine adds show.
This was by far the best trip of my life. Not only the location, but getting closer to my classmates and sacrificing a week of sleep in order to spend as much time together as we could. We all came back to Chile full of love and good memories. I said dramatically to my host mom that we left for Brazil as classmates, and came back as family.
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