Vitoria

    Back to Rio and back to Che Lagarto Hostel in Ipanema. It is comforting to re-visit a place, knowing where the best eats and hang-outs are. Paul arrived last night and I am excited to join up with him for the rest of my South American adventure. I find him sleeping off the plane ride, but decide to wake him up for a jump in the ocean. We have known each other since pre-school, so it doesn't take long to get back to the basics. Paul came bearing gifts from home: a new book from my mom, my laptop, a waterproof camera, some extra bottles of sunscreen, and best of all, a volleyball.
    We head down to the beach and pepper with the volleyball as we catch up on each others lives over the past couple months. Each of us left a lot behind in the States, we live good lives, and this journey will have many twists and turns both good and bad, but one thing is for sure, it will be quite an adventure.
    I happily act as guide through the streets of Rio. After a night at Che, we move hostels to a sweet place called Bonita. There is a nice lounge area and a swimming pool that should have signs 'swim at your own risk . . . mangoes'. Every so often, there is a big splash as a large ripe mango falls from the tree above into the pool. We made a couple new Australian friends traveling from Melbourne at the end of their 9 month journey, it is cool to ask them about their experiences in the places that we plan to visit.
    A couple nights in Rio and Paul trusts my judgment on visiting a non-tourist type of destination called Vitoria, 8 hours North of Rio by bus. We take our first of many overnight buses together and pay for the executive bus (twice the price) in order to get a good night of sleep. Both of us cannot sleep at all and we decide not to pay for the executive bus the next time. We arrive around 7 in the morning in Vitoria sleepy-eyed and didn't plan ahead on where to stay. There are no cheap hostels in Vitoria, so we go to a expensive hotel and hack into their internet to try and find a place to stay. It is Saturday morning, so none of my friends from Vitoria are awake. After we stretch out a long breakfast in the hotel, we finally reach a friend who invites to stay at his house with his mom, we gladly accept.
    Leandro picks us up and we drive over the highest bridge in Brazil to an Island where he lives. His mom, Eleane, greets us and shows us our room. We chat for awhile, and trying not to be rude when we hint about how tired we are. They get the point and show us our beds where we crash out for a couple of hours of much needed rest. We wake up to a prepared lunch of pasta and salad. Eleane makes it her business to feed us breakfast, lunch and dinner during our whole stay which we are very thankful for. Then it's off to the beach with Leandro. The beach is very windy, so we don't stay long, time to prepare for Samba.
    Leandro takes us to a local bar that plays live Samba in the streets as we pass around the local beer. Ramon shows up, another friend I made while traveling in Bahia and then we are introduced to Brazilian after Brazilian, trying to get their names right at least once. I realize that Portuguese will not become my second language on this trip, which makes me really look forward to taking on Spanish once we leave Brazil. Brazilian's love to party, which means they never seem to want to go to sleep. Paul and I are guests of Leandro's, so we are forced to stay out close to morning every night, until Leandro is ready to call it quits.
    Paul and I joked that our stay in Vitoria made us feel like little kids again. We had no key to the house we were staying at, no car, no access to food, so we relied on our Vitoria friends to keep us entertained, well-fed and occasionally rested. Eleane made us a bunch of spectacular meals, including muaceca, a fish dish local to the area of Vitoria.
    One day we would roll out to a beach many kilometers away with local drum music and partying in the streets. The next, we went off to a secluded beach with Rayessa and Fernanda and had fresh crab for close to nothing (the only thing that wasn't expensive in Brazil). My favorite night was a Carnival Samba practice, where a bunch of youth from town and a huge crew of drummer's, singer's, and dancer's played live samba as everyone danced and sang along to the songs. It was such high energy, and Paul and I seemed to be the only gringo's, I was glad to see a tiny glimpse of what carnival might be.
    Leandro took us out for a day of longboard skateboarding by the beach, then to watch a sunset at the University overlooking the mountains and lake surrounding the town of Vitoria. On our way to check out the sunset, we drove by some friends of Leandro's and they told us to follow them. Next thing I know, we roll up on a beach soccer court, where we play 5 on 5 to 4. I scored a goal on Paul, and Paul scored a goal off a corner kick with a header into the top corner of the goal. It felt good to play soccer and made me want to improve my skills. Maybe I'll start up a soccer league when I get back to SC.
    All in all, our Vitoria friends showed us a great time, keeping us on the move from the moment we arrived until we hoped on a plane to Floripa. We went to see a live Samba, Folha, Jazz, Carnival Samba, Portuguese Free-styling and live drumming. I kept telling my Vitoria friends to come visit me in Santa Cruz if they ever get a chance and I will show them the hospitality that they showed Paul and I. Vitoria was not on my list of places to visit in Brazil, but it was an unexpected great time, not so much because of the place but because of the friends we made during our stay.