Chocolate Factory in Vitoria, Paraty and OMG less than 2 months left!!

This will be more of a picture blog, with a few captions, but I didn’t want to go any longer without blogging, so here we go!!


I went to Vitoria in Espirito Santo for a conference.  There’s not TOO much in Vitoria, EXCEPT they have THE Garoto chocolate factory.  Garoto is Brazil’s chocolate brand! And you can go have a tour of the chocolate factory for a mere R$10!  You can’t take any photos within the factory, so I only have photos from the outside.  But you are allowed to eat unlimited chocolates while on the tour.  However, the catch is you can’t drink any water during the tour and you cant take any with you.  The chocolates were some of the best I’ve ever tasted since they were fresh that day, but I ended up not trying that many because I wanted water badly.  Anyways, the tour was great and almost worth a trip to Vitoria just for that!

In November, Stacey came into town!  We spent a little time in Rio, though I was busy with class and work.  Then she went up north to Salvador for about two weeks to explore.  But, when Stacey came back to Rio we decided to take a weekend trip to Paraty, a small historic town about 4 hours from Rio.  Even though the weather had been terrible in Rio prior to our trip, we had FABULOUS weather in Paraty.  Paraty is a super cute charming historical town.  While there aren’t many beaches in the town, we took a bus one day to Trinidade, a gorgeous beach hideaway near by and then took a schooner cruise the following day.  It was a really great, lovely weekend.

A beach in Trinidade

Stacey asleep at the beach

Reading "The Lost City of Z" at the beach

One of the old churches in Paraty

Saturday evening in Paraty

Lovely beaches in Trinidade

On our schooner cruise!

One of the beaches we swam to from our schooner

On the boat at the end of the day

the view of Paraty from the water

Our last night in Paraty

Other than my trip to Paraty, November was mostly filled with classes, work, and dealing with broken appliances and electronics.

It has more or less turned into summer, except the weather is SUPER schizophrenic.  Some days its super hot, sunny and humid, and sometimes it’s cloudy and torrentially rainy with flooded streets.  So even though it’s “summer” the weather is definitely not consistent.

On Saturday night I went to the lighting of Rio’s big Christmas tree, which floats on the Lagoa.  It is said to be the biggest floating xmas tree in world and the lighting of the tree is said to be Rio’s third biggest event after Carnaval and New Years Eve.  That means this year I will have attended all three of Rio’s biggest events this year! Woohoo!

There was a big fireworks show during the lighting of the tree, but while I attempted to take some photos of them, none of them really came out, so I'll spare you.  But here are some pictures of the tree!  We counted 7 different scenes that rotated through the tree, some were xmas related and some were more holiday/ secularly oriented.  One of the scene was a full blue tree, so maybe it was for Hannukah?! that's what I think! 

Kaylena and I at the lighting.  My hair looks wet because even though I had showered hours before, the air was so humid that it never dried the whole night.

And the last bit of news is that OMG I am leaving Rio to come back to the States on January 31!  So, I’ve got a little bit less than two months to finish up my research and project, enjoy the beach and summer, travel up North with my parents for the holidays, celebrate New Years in Rio, and hang out with all of my friends before my year in Brazil is up!

Wow! Time flies by!  It’s been a great year!!

Long time no talk! Bonito, Pantanal and Visitors!

So, it’s been a long long time since I blogged! (apparently a little more than 2 months—Whoops!)  Life has been SO SO busy!  Long story short after my second trip to Brasilia, the Summer/Winter continued to zoom by.  My parents came to Rio and we had some delicious meals at some fabulous restaurants in Rio.  Who knew that Rio had such fabulous gourmet food?!  I guess I/We do now!!   The weather here in Rio was rainy/cloudy which was a bummer, but at least they had been here before, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure to see “THE SIGHTS”.  After a few days of bad Rio weather we headed to Bonito and the Pantanal.  I had been the Pantanal before, four years ago, but I had never been to Bonito before. 

So, first we went to Bonito.  The city of Bonito is basically composed of one small and rather deserted street.  But, the natural sites of bonito were GORGEOUS.  There were 3 main activities we did in Bonito.

These were some cute pay phones there.

We went to the Blue Lake Cave.

Then we went snorkeling/floating in a river with tons and tons and tons of fish, in wetsuits.  Getting in and out of them was an adventure in itself.

The next day we went to a private farm used for eco-tourism which was gorgeous and had tons of waterfalls on it.

That afternoon we made our way, on a long and bumpy car ride to one of the most gorgeous eco-resorts I’ve ever seen, which was in the Pantanal. We saw lots and lots of animals. And had delicious meals and fresh squeezed juices everyday. And there were capybaras outside my window every am. Heaven.  Here are some photos from the trip!! Enjoy!! 

The lodge which was right on the lake. 

A pantanal sunset

Wild pigs with their babies

An armadillo!

The Giant Anteater

My dad and I took a plane ride over the Pantanal. It was great to see the whole landscape.  Another guy who was in the plane barfed--gross! 

Leaving the lodge

After my parents left Brazil, I hustled over to Campinas which is a large city near São Paulo.  One of the largest and best universities called UNICAMP is there.  Also, the main advisor for my project works there.  I went for a few days to do some research in their archive and also to meet with my professor and to talk to some of the people at his research group.  It was a really productive trip! And, Campinas has one of the biggest malls in South America, so I made one or two visits there.  They had a huge Wal-mart there, were they had “Trackers” who skated around on roller skates and did price checks and other random tasks. It was great!

Soon after I came back from UNICAMP, one of my BFFFFFFS in the world, Wilson came to visit. And we had tons of fun around Rio doing lots of touristy goodness! And beach stuff! It was a blast!

At the beach!

At a samba club!

Once Wilson left I got back into the swing of work and normal life.  The weather has been pretty cloudy/rainy recently, so beaching hasn’t happened.  I hope the weather gets nice soon!!!

Next week I’m off to Vitoria for a conference!! I’ll blog on that when I get back!!

Beijos,

 Hannah