Semester at Sea – Spring 2007 (Alex Song) On a ship, traveling around the world, at 20 miles an hour

We’ll be disembarking the ship in less than 24 hours to beautiful Bahia (Salvador) where I’ll be spending 4 days deep in the heart of Brazil. My itinerary (yes, there was a lot of copying and pasting involved):

On Saturday, February 17, we’re being picked up by an air-conditioned van that’ll take us to the colonial mining town of Lencois, “the gateway to Chapada Diamantina National Park”. It’ll take 5 to 6 hours to get there (267 miles), of which time I’ll try to spend getting to know my tripmates. Once we get there, they’re giving us a quick city tour and we’ll be checked into our hotel “Pousada Alto do Cajueiro”. It was an extra $30 upgrade or so from whatever hotel we had before, but this one offers us a panoramic view of the town and Sincora Mountains. The other selling points they make are the fact that it has a tropical garden, balconies, hammocks, and ceiling fans. Definitely not a Ritz or Hilton – which is why I love it.

Afterwards we have free time for lunch, and later on in the day we’ll be meeting children from the community who will guide us to a trail that once served as the road used by the region’s gold and diamond miners. We’ll then walk along the margins of the Lencois river and visit the sand saloon, where colored sand is extracted for handcraft production. And then I suppose we have free time for dinner/shopping/whatever.

On Sunday, after breakfast, we’ll be hiking to Cachoeira de Fumaca (“Smoke Falls”), which is apparently the most famous attraction in Chapada Diamantina. We’ll be driven to the falls themselves and hike 45 minutes to the top, followed by 90 minutes of walking along the top. This will be my first physically exerting activity on this voyage and I can’t wait to sweat off these extra calories from the ship food.

On Monday, we’ll be headed to the Poco Encantado (“The Enchanted Pool”), an underground pool with deep blue water so illuminated that we’ll be able to see the rocks at the bottom, 60 meters below. We’ll then goto the equally stunning Poco Azul, where we’ll be having lunch and allowed to swim (bad combination?). Then it’s back to town for dinner. In the evening we’ll be meeting some kids from the community, who will be bringing a percussion, music, and dance cultural workshop to us.

And finally on Tuesday, arguably the most exciting day of all, we’ll start off by hiking 4 kilometers to the Gruta do Lapao, one of Chapada Diamantina’s grottos that features “unique and beautiful” rock formations. Once we get there…we’ll be rappelling 45 meters into the depths of the grotto. Afterwards, we’ll be bungee jumping from the top of a 50 meter (150 feet) cliff. Rappelling and bungee jumping are two things I’ve always wanted to do, and even though I feel a little queasy thinking about it, I can’t wait to go through it.

Afterwards, we’ll be returning to Lencois to have lunch and pack, and return to Salvador. And that’s when the party begins – at Carnival.

Most of you know about Carnival in Brazil and how the entire country shuts down for 6 days (including government offices, banks, schools, shops, etc). And what a party…it’s estimated that there are 1.5 million people dancing on the streets at any given time. There are these Trio Eletricos, which are huge trucks loaded with thousands of wattage of sound equipment with a band playing on top, that slowly drive around the city. Hundreds of security guards carrying a rope surround the trucks. Entrance into the trucks and roped off sections are determined by a t-shirt called an Abada. These act as entry tickets. The company we went through were able to provide us with Abadas for $100 each. So at 1900 hours (7pm), we’ll be partying it up in Salvador!