A new group again

Day 62 - 30 de Julio: Quito to Esmeraldas 

This morning was so nice! Got to sleep in until 9:30! Rolled out of bed, showered and shaved and made it for breakfast, just before it closed at 10am. I met a few more of the group, but I would meet the rest really soon. It was funny, news was already spreading around the group about me - about my fundraising success and my travels. I went back to my room to grab my bags - today we were moving to the city beside our volunteer work site. We brought the bags down, but had to wait a good little while for our van to arrive. As it turned out, their usual bus had broken down, so we had to use a tight van to make our 6 hour drive to the coastal city of Esmeraldas. It was fine though - i chatted up some of the members of my new group, and found an ATM to get some money out. It seems that i have a very stupid withdrawal limit on my card, so i can only take out a little at a time. We had a transportation fee to pay today, so i could withdrawal just enough for that. When the van finally arrived, we jumped on, putting the bags on the roof. It was a nice new van, but the legroom sucked. As we were leaving Quito, we stopped by a great sandwich place. breakfast and lunch is included in this program so we were provided with this great food! After, it was time for our long drive. We had a really fast driver though, and this 6 hour drive turned into 4! We made it to this old, but nice resort on the beach. It was a good set up, and the food and drinks are so cheap here! I couldn't believe it - a plate of dinner for $5 and a big beer for $1.50. The group chatted for a little bit after dinner, but we're retiring pretty early tonight - we go to the worksite tomorrow!

Quito

The restaurant

Leaving Quito

Our hotel view

28 hours

Day 61 - 29 de Julio: Sao Paulo, Brazil to Quito, Ecuador

It was an hour flight to get from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo. This was the start of my incredibly long wait and journey to get to the next stage of the adventure - in Quito, Ecuador. It was around midnight when I showed up at this airport, and my next flight wasn't until 8:45 the next morning... so, ya I had some time. It started with me taking a walk around the airport - i found where i'd check in later on in the morning, and also found Mcdonalds where I was still able to use the last of the money on my wyd food card, even though the event was in Rio. There were people wandering the airport throughout the night, but it wasn't too busy until later. I had internet at this airport so at least i was amused. When i decided to check in around 4am or so, i walked to the check in to find it absolutely packed! I literally had to wait in a lineup to get into a lineup for checkin. It was mainly due to the fact that their baggage conveyor belts were not working at this time. It was slow, but i gave myself a lot of time, so at least i was amused. When I got to the gate, i ended up talking to a Chilean seminarian. I noticed his world youth day bags and as it turns out, he spoke english. My first connecting flight was to Santiago, Chile. I was so glad when i got on the plane because i could finally sleep a bit. I slept all the way to Santiago, where i woke up, got off the plane and went to find something to eat. I found starbucks (with wifi) and subway to have lunch before my next flight. I was very amused by the peruvian pesos. 1 dollar was about 500 pesos, so i had a 1500 peso coffee and a 5000 peso sandwich. I slept a little bit on my flight to lima, peru. The other half of my flight was spend talking to an Australian that was sitting next to me. It's cool to meet so many people everywhere. My next stop in Lima had me a little more stumped for what to do, because the airport had no wifi. I started by doing a walk around, then studying a bit of spanish. At this point, I had a good idea. I had a handful of small peruvian change left and my sister collects coins.  My problem was that i had all of the same coin and not enough for a whole set. It was my mission though, so I went around the airport, trading my 50 centimos coins, and a couple american dollars before i finally had a set. That lasted a good while - had a good few conversations with people. Before i finally went to my gate, I actually ran into some of the leaders from the ecuador project. Small world to find them in an airport like Lima. I walked to my gate and again, found some more wyd backpacks. I talked in portañol - the word for the mixed language between portuguese and spanish. They understood though. My flight was delayed half an hour so my incredibly long trek had become longer. It wasn't that bad though. I was so excited to get to Ecuador now - and it was only a few hours away. I got to the airport, ran to customs. They asked me for my immigration form which i was not given, but i don't think they really gave a damn about it at 2 am. They just told me to write my name on a little sheet of paper and sent me on my way. And lucky enough, my bag was the very first on the conveyer belt, so i was on my way fast. The guy from my program was right there to pick me up. After a half hour drive back into town, i was quick to get my room, meet my roommate and get to sleep!

The airport at 4am!!

My $3500 (peso) subway sandwiches

Goodbye Again!

Day 60 - 28 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro to Guarulhos, São Paulo 

The morning lit up a beautiful sky. I somehow managed a few hours of sleep in the last part of the night. It was really cold, but i had managed. Good thing i had brought warm clothes along. The morning involved following a long winding path on the beach to get to the outhouses, and hanging out talking with a few of my friends. We had received news from our priest that he would meet us at 9am this morning. At this time, our group leader left for a bit to meet up with him, while another small team of our group went out to find a supposed starbucks nearby. The crowd was beginning to wake up, and the noise began to rise. People were singing, talking, some were even going for a swim. It was a cool sight out on the water - brazilian battleships were patrolling the coast. The military had a huge presence at this event, which made us feel much more secure. Slowly, our group began to reform - the people who went home came back, the starbucks group returned, and finally, our priest arrived to meet us. It was a joyous reunion. The final sunday mass was about to start on the beach. We were very far down the beach so it was very hard to hear or see anything. We had some of our group with radios, who would tell the group what was being said. Our priest however, had something special planned for us. He threw on his vestments, got out his things and made an alter out of a cushion. He was going to do a mass for us so we got the full experience. It was such a cool sight to see - perhaps once in a lifetime. Our last big celebration together. We were some of the only ones to receive communion this far back on the beach. He first gave it to us, and the remaining was given out to people close by. Our stuff was kind of trampled on with people coming up to try and receive it but it was fine - just sand. Finally, everyone was in suspense. It was time to announce the next world youth day location. Turns out, the next will be in 2016 in Krakow, Poland! That will be a cool one. Who knows, perhaps i'll be a group leader for that one. I have a fair bit of travel/wyd experience now. Anyway, this is when things got a bit sad. I finally had to say goodbye to my group. Although my flight was at 10pm at night, and it was only noon, I still had to expect that the traffic would be chaos and i still needed to make the hour and a half commute back to pack my things and about the same amount of time to get to the airport. Recreio is a little far out of the way of most things. So, i stood in some pictures, gave everyone a hug and as hard as it was, i finally left. As I started my trek alone, it was starting to sink in that this experience, in this place, with this group was over. Had I been a more emotional guy, i imagine i would have left with tears in my eyes, the same way most of my group left Paulinia. Instead, with a smile on my face, I looked up to the heavens and said thank you. With that, it was time to move on; i took off running down avenida atlantica, my cape flapping behind me. I ran most of the way there and got to the busses before most. The volunteers really didn't know how their busses work, so i was directed all over the station before getting on the right bus. In the line, i met another wyd pilgrim heading home. She was 17, and came from a city a few hours away to take part in the final mass and vigil. She spoke very good english, so we talked about our experiences throughout this time. As it turned out, she and her group were on all of my transfers, all the way to Glaucio Gil where i left. On the last bus, her friend even tried to teach me a brazilian dance. I'm not the best dancer to begin with, so trying to dance on a moving bus was an epic failure. She said that I was at least better than the Argentinians (Argentina and Brazil have a bit of a rival thing going on). I got to my house, and went through all my things. I needed to pack efficiently this time as now, I had accumulated more things from wyd to fit in my bag. I managed to make it work somehow. My homestay gave me a little gift to remember them by - they have been so generous to us and really wished that I had something to give them. I definitely will when i return one day. At 4:30, i was ready to go. The guys from the house decided to give me a ride to Alvorada station which was really nice. They helped me pick the right bus to the airport, and as it turned out, i was the only one that got on it. The ride there was a really scenic one, as if rio wanted to say goodbye to me. I jumped off at the airport, and made my way to checkin. I was early, but better early than late. Somehow my bag was still under 23kg (i think they're just being nice to me). I wandered the airport for a little bit before moving to the gates. I got some wifi and started studying spanish. I'm going to need it now that i'm off to Ecuador. At my gate, i met some Argentinians that went to world youth day. They gave me a little prayer medallion from their country as a gift. It's amazing how much generosity i've seen here. I don't think i bought a single souvenir in brazil because people kept giving me stuff. Anyway, the plane ride was really short. I had a great window seat that gave me the most amazing night view of Rio as we left. I then closed my eyes for what felt like a second and we were landed in Sao Paulo. My next flight isn't until 8:45 this morning, so until then, i will have to stay awake. Wish me luck!

Morning!

My priest and I. How many things do not belong in this picture? 

The people i met on the bus

The Pilgrimage

Day 59 - 27 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro

Today was finally the day. The day when every pilgrim of world youth day would gather together for an entire night under the stars. I woke up and hurried to pack all my things for the night, while still trying to make the meeting time of 7am with the group. Luckily, our meeting point was right outside my house - the Glaucio Gil station. With my sleeping bag, towels, toiletries among other things, my bag was decently heavy, but i figured that i'd manage. However, upon meeting the group at the station, they shared some news with Robbie and I that we wish  we had heard earlier. Apparently, officials were suggesting that pilgrims not stay overnight for this world youth day. As Copacabana beach was a backup location (since the original location was flooded), they were saying that they may not have the facilities for everyone. So last night, the call was made to not stay over. Now, I was carrying this heavy bag for no reason, but the group let me run back to the house to drop it off and grab my small day bag. We were still waiting for a couple more people after all. I put on my small bag and my canada flag cape and ran back to the station - my flag made me really look like a superhero. Finally, it was time for to make it to our first location; a park to pick up our boxes of food for the night. Robbie knew of a different bus from Alvorada that he wanted to try, so we jumped on the 333 which took us through a mountain route, eventually stopping at a metro station that would get us there. Onwards to our usual metro station, Cinêlandia! Little did we know that it was closed - we instead got off at the next stop; Gloria. It was almost the same distance from the site, so no harm done. Now, however, it was time for our patience to be tested. The line was absolutely massive. Somehow, the planning committee figured that having only one food pickup station in the whole city for the millions of people would be a good idea. Being nice, rule-abiding canadians, we went to the very back of this line. You could not see the end of it, but we hoped that it wouldn't be too long. 3 hours was the final wait for our food. People were obviously budging into the front of the line. Our leader, Delia had noticed this and told the volunteers to do something about it. The volunteers then linked arms, creating a pathway to the food, only for the people in line. Unfortunately, after the fact, we realized that we waited 3 hours for the same cheap snacks we had gotten in our breakfast boxes the whole week. Some people were more disappointed than others, but I was just glad we had so much food. Next, we decided to go to Vivo Rio to perhaps see if they were letting pilgrims stay the night there (and also use their washrooms). Unfortunately, they were closed and all the close by washrooms had mile-long lines. All we could do then was start our walk to the beach. Just like in Madrid, this was an incredible part of the experience. Walking our pilgrimage walk with everyone else from all over the world. People were cheering us on from the overpasses like we were running a marathon. There was even a point when we were walking, where the Christ the Redeemer statue was in full view. 7km later, we made it to the Copacabana area. I led our tired group away from the crowds, towards the meeting point that we were going to meet our priest, who went to a special mass this morning. We were worried though; with all the delays we were several hours late to meet him. Our group had this thing going that when someone wanted to stop, we would yell stop but it wouldn't work since everyone says stop. So we made a call that was more distinguishable by our group... and much more canadian. Whoever wanted to stop would yell out "beaver beaver" and everyone else would acknowledge the call by yelling out moose. As we got later and later to our meeting point, I was thinking the beaver population in this area was getting a bit out of hand. We finally showed up on the corner of Atlantica and Bolivar. It wasn't a surprise that our priest wasn't there. We waited a good while, but the 3 hour delay at the food station was too much. At this point, we sent a few scouts to find room on the beach for us. Yes, at this point, the plan was reversed and we were now staying at the beach overnight. And just like in Madrid, I was going to do this with no sleeping items whatsoever. Our scouts returned victoriously; a generous group from brazil had given us some of their beach space to set up camp. This event is always very territorial (groups set up camps and guard them with their lives), so it was a real surprise to see this. As this was a beach, pilgrims took advantage and made sand walls around their land. This turned the beach into a new world of sorts, with different countries occupying different plots of land. They would even stick their flags into the ground to claim their land. We had brazilian and peruvian allies on our borders. People kept walking through our stuff though (probably to get to their plots of land). Our group was getting annoyed by these people, kicking sand over all our stuff, so I was about ready to tell them they were stepping foot on canadian soil and needed to produce a passport. 3 of our group members opted to return home tonight to get a good sleep. But the majority of our group was together. Not knowing how tired i'd be tomorrow, i thanked the group for the time we shared together. This group has become very special to me, and I know i've made some friends for life. The part of the vigil that i was awake for was nice, but i (and a few others) were getting tired now, so one by one, we passed out on the beach. I used my canada flag as a blanket and was offered another blanket by one of my group. The night was cold, but I managed. We were all in this together, fighting through the challenges, while admiring the immense beauty that surrounded us. 

Our food box

The pilgrimage

Christ the redeemer

Camping out on the beach

We were all bandana-ed up. One of my group gave me one as a gift. I'm so lucky to have met such great friends

Stations of the Cross

Day 58 - 26 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro

World Youth Day has been incredible so far, however it is keeping up to its trend of being exhausting. I set my alarm for 6:15 this morning, and thought i'd take two more minutes... Half an hour later, i was reminded that I was suppose to be awake and going. Good thing i'm really fast to get ready here. We had to meet at our usual school at 7am today, and if our bus was on time, we would make it. Ha, nope! These buses typically arrive every 5 minutes, but not a single one showed up for at least 20! And funny enough, the only buses we saw going by were going to a station we had never heard of before today ... and that station's name was the portuguese word for patience. So, as we waited for the bus, all we saw was patience, patience. lol. Luckily, we weren't the only late ones. After getting our breakfast boxes, we took our familiar route to Vivo Rio. I'm a pretty convenient navigator - not only do i have a pretty good success rate, but i'm always wearing my Canada flag as a cape, making me stand out well. They call me Canada Man! We bussed the BRT to Glaucio Gil station, waited for one of our members for a little bit, then continued on to Alvorada station. It was the same process as before to get to Vivo Rio. We asked the attendant to stop - this one was less compelled to help us, but we did end up stopping at the same place. I was following our route on my map the whole way, so we were good. My map has sure been through a lot on this trip - with the rain, pockets and wind, it's absolutely mangled. But it's been an amazing map, so we might just frame it. Today, the archbishop of Boston was talking here. Our priest really recommended hearing him - he was a great speaker and really captivated the audience. I think the main theme is that us Catholics are so strong and devoted out here - we have to take that devotion with us after world youth day ends. Next, we departed back to the metro for a cathedral downtown. One of our members suggested we attend something called Taize prayer. I was given the location and got us there pretty easily. The prayer service overall wasn't really for me, especially being sleep deprived. It was a quiet prayer with slow organ music. I was fighting not to fall asleep the entire time! I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one. Next we needed to head to Copacabana again. Today was the stations of the cross with the pope. Stations is a reenactment of the death of Christ, and was done here by the brazilians marvellously. Getting to our spot was hard though. We were trying to find our separated group members from today with only vague directions and instructions. I did a quick look on the main street on my own, but all i saw were flocks of locals wanting to take my photo and trade items. Remember, my canada flag cape really makes me popular. I got a few little brazilian trinkets too, trading with canada pins. Eventually we went to try and set up camp in front of a street on the beach. We were blocked at first, since the road was closed off for the pope to pass. We saw him pass again, but from farther away this time. When he passed, we made it to the beach. While we waited, a few of us took off our shoes and stepped in the ocean. For most of the rest of the stations, i sat on the beach without shoes, which was nice. Like I said, the presentation was spectacular. Great job, Brazil! Once it finished, i brought our group back to the bus station, Ipanema. I took a (safe) short cut and everything, getting us right to where we needed to be. Half our group went home here. The others, including me, stayed behind and had a good dinner at a restaurant. I'm on the bus home right now. It's not as crazy as yesterday but i sort of wish it was. We got home really fast yesterday, lol!

Taize Prayer

When a plan turns out

Day 57 - 25 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro 

The morning came way too quickly today. Of course, this is the general trend of WYD so i have to get used to it. No hangover which was nice. The start to our day made us think that perhaps we should have just slept in. As we were running late leaving the house, we realized that the door was locked, and I had no idea which key I needed to let us out. I found a set and tried a few - no, nope, no. Finally one turned, so i figured it was it... until the key snapped in the lock! I was horrified - this nice family had let us in and I go and break their house. I left a note for them - luckily there was a second exit and our luck with the keys were better. We left in a hurry into the pouring rain. The rain had been incredibly abnormal for Rio. I'm still convinced that vancouver followed us here. That or maybe London - they're pretty on par with us for rain. As we walked to our bus stop, a bus zoomed by and completely tidal-waved us with a big puddle. I was a little luckier since i was wearing some waterproof pants but Robbie was wearing jeans. We were hoping this was the end of this trend, and we got on our bus to the school for breakfast. Luckily, it was the end, and the day turned out to be phenomenal! We all collected our breakfasts and made our way out to our first stop - the place for mass that we had never been before, called Vivo Rio. I had put together a plan to arrive here, and was officially called the navigator of the group. I got us on the first set of busses to a main station called Alvorada. Here, we actually lost a few of our group who were going to a different event. Among those was Robbie, our best translator. So I would kind of be on my own if the need arose. And it did - we got on the bus, recommended by a volunteer and I asked the attendant on the bus to let me know when to get off. It's good i asked because I'm pretty sure it isn't a usual place for this bus to stop, just a spot on its route. She understood my portuguese fine, which was great. I sat up front with my map, waiting for her signal to get off. In the meantime, a group from Venezuela joined us on the bus. I was very pleased with myself as i was able to have a basic conversation with one of the guys that didn't speak any english. He was nice, and the conversation made the long bus ride go by faster. We got off the bus at exactly the right place - what a relief. I'm glad that navigating is something that i can be a help to the group for.  We got there just as the talk was ending and started mass. It was a great one, good speakers. Afterwards, all the Canadians stayed behind. It was the Canada event next in this same venue. It was great to see all our country here. This event was actually televised and started with some of the youth carrying in the flags of our provinces and territories. As you might thing, there were some that had nobody representing them. They asked for volunteers to carry these flags in and i was one of them. Hence, i am now officially a member of Nunavut. I live in igloos and ride polar bears to my job at the ice carving shop. The event was neat - they had talks and great music. We had a lot of fun cheering our country on. Right after, we needed a game plan to get to Copacabana beach to see the pope come in. I was put in charge of this and we decided to try the metro first. We were told that it had been closed but some of our group had just used it. We were also told that these were special days when our normal metro passes would not work. I got us to the metro and not only did our passes work, but the metro could take us right to Copacabana.  We got right on and were taken most of the way there. One of the stops were not working so we had to get out early. It was crazy on the main street. It was closed off because the pope was driving by. We had a great gameplan - get to the back of the beach where there was less people. We got there with almost no effort! We somehow had a perfect spot to see and only had to wait an hour! Everyone was ecstatic when the pope showed up! He actually drove by really slowly this time and I got a great video on my phone. He was stopping places to bless babies and wave to everyone. He seems like such an amazing guy. It was a great welcoming ceremony. Lots of music and presentations and a talk from the pope to us. Of course, we were far back but had a great view of a screen on the beach and were very comfortable in this place with fewer people. When it was over, we hung out a bit to meet up with our group that had separated from us earlier. We all took a long walk to a nearby bus station and got on our bus home. The bus driver was absolutely crazy here! He drove so fast, some of the people standing were being thrown off their feet onto the seats. It was a little fun actually. I talked to some brazilians in the bus on the way back to pass the time. This time, we did not miss our stop. Robbie and i walked to our house, but they were out to dinner (at 11:00 at night) so we had our dinner at mcdonalds. It was still packed, even at this hour! When we returned, i was told that the lock was fine and they never used the key that i broke. Thank goodness, all was fine. It didn't take long for me to sleep last night; hence my tardiness with these posts. 

Canada event

The beach with all its screens

The rain stopped, and we could see Christ the Redeemer

Waiting for the pope - video will be on facebook

The ceremony on the beach

The Plan

Day 56 - 24 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro

Today, we had an early start, despite such a late finish to yesterday. We had our breakfast and catechesis at a high school about 3 bus stops away. Very conveniently, we just realized that by a different route, we were only half a block away from the BRT (the main express bus route of the area). We jumped on and made our way, just before the breakfast ended at 8. There was a miscommunication with this which works in our favour - the breakfast goes until 8:30. Little by little, more of our group arrived, but one did not show up. Apparently when we parted ways last night, one group got lost and didn't get home until really late. So, they decided to sleep in. Our catechesis (church lessons) was done by a great speaker. My favourite part was when we had group questions. We all were told to make groups with unfamiliar people, which was to my preference. I love meeting people from around the world. At the end of the event, we got together and had to decide what we would do today. This is a rare day for world youth day - we actually had a little time to think. A first thing came to mind, lunch. The only thing nearby which took our food vouchers was McDonalds. The walk there would be fine in normal Rio conditions, but we had to deal with pouring rain today. This kind of rain is really rare in Rio - I kept joking that we brought Vancouver with us. We had a local girl here guiding us, so I didn't have to do any navigating this time. When we arrived, the place was absolutely packed! A line was going out the door and when we finally got in, there weren't real lines - just chaos until you got to order. They had all sorts of pilgrim deals as well, so I got a burger special. We hung out upstairs here for a long time - and yes, i really mean a long time! After a good while of hanging out, we decided to have a group meeting. It started out with a general recap of our days. But after this, we had to plan tomorrow and that was hectic. There were two distinct groups of people who wanted to do different things tomorrow. This erupted into a big debate, which ended up with the solution of separating tomorrow. Not to worry though, after the hours of going over every possible detail, we must be the most planned group in Rio. Tomorrow, I will go to mass downtown, then in the same venue will be our Canadian gathering (for all 1000 canadians!). From there, I will be going to Copacabana to try and see the pope and take part in the pope arrival event. It will be a crazy, but exciting day. There was still a lot of evening to go when we finished. We parted ways, but nobody was home to let us in at the house. So we went to the church to hang out. We met a cool group from texas, and another from Argentina. After a while of mingling, we headed back and tried our house again. It was open!! But the night wasn't over yet. Robbie wanted to see his favourite soccer team play in a final game verses a Brazil team. We went to a bar across the street to watch it. Our host brothers came along and treated us to a new drink for me - Caipirinha. We also had a ton of beer. These guys are so nice. Robbie's team lost, but it was still a good night. I know i am still behind in writing but i got to get my precious sleep now. 

Catechesis

This volunteer guided us to mcdonalds and hung out with us

Texas and argentina

My housemates

No room to breathe

Day 55 - 23 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro

My official test of my watch alarm was a complete failure this morning. It was 7:30am when Robbie woke me up and I definitely could have slept more. We were ready to walk to the church and walked out the door, when our host dad flagged us back in and offered us a ride and breakfast. There was a mass at 8:00, but we for sure would be late now, so we would meet at 8:30 once everyone was finished mass. Our first place that we would visit was the cathedral. Our priest needed to get his documents from here and we of course wanted to see this cool cathedral. One of our group knew the bus number we needed and the street that had our stop. But since i've been really good at navigation, i took the lead to get us to that street. We jumped on the right bus and almost all of us had to stand at first. You could definitely tell that the city was full. This bus was over an hour, so most of us got seats after a while. I fell asleep on mine until our stop. It was sure a unique looking cathedral when we got there. Basically one enormous cone. We entered this amazing place while a mass for france was going on, but there were still a massive amount of people taking pics in the background. We had a bit of time to hang out together and walk around. They were giving out city maps here too which was useful later on. Once we were finished here, we moved on to a small shopping mall so that some of the group could get some supplies. I'm wearing my flag as a cape today, so i did the superman pose up the escalator here. Next, we took our first trip on the metro. I sort of helped navigate with this too, since i've got a bit of experience with metro. We made it to the closest stop to Copacabana beach because our opening ceremony would be there later on today. When we got out, it was absolutely packed with pilgrims. People singing songs and chanting their countries' names. It was such an atmosphere. We slowly made our way out and to the beach. I was in the lead again here since i had been to copacabana and the stage the day before. It was completely packed near the stage, but the group wanted to get as close as possible so we pushed through. Eventually, we decided that there was not enough room up close and moved back to a more comfortable standing area. Unfortunately, while we were in the thicker crowd, a few of our group got cameras/phones stolen. I couldn't believe that even our priest had his phone stolen from him! My phone was in my money belt luckily, but too bad, somebody stole my little notebook (probably thinking it was a wallet). Hope they have fun learning portuguese. We waited a while for the mass to start, and some of the group were wondering if we should just go home early to beat all these people to the transit. We decided no, since we already put in so much effort to be here. It was a cool event. So many people had taken part on this beach - probably millions! I actually ran into a guy from our area of town who told me the best way to get back - the 360 bus line. I was told how to get there, so again, I was navigator. I had a flashlight that had a red flashing mode, which acted as a good signal to follow. I suggested that we should stop to eat while the bulk of the pilgrims got on the bus. We had pizza, thanks to father who treated us. After we finished, it was pretty late. I led us to the appropriate bus station, but it still took us a while to get on a bus. It must have been 5 buses that went by, completely full already before an empty one stopped for us. And that's where i'm writing this - on a bumpy roller coaster of a bus. It's nearly 1am now, so i definitely won'f be writing when i'm home. Hopefully it is soon.

We get pics with everyone

The cathedral

The packed metro

The event

On Vacation

Day 54 - 22 de Julho: Rio de Janeiro

Last night, I was texted by our group leader to meet at the church at 8 in the morning. I was going to go with a handful of others to pick up our "pilgrim packs". These are our backpacks of supplies that we will need for the week. The original thought was that we would need several people to carry them since we would have to take the bus to the church that was storing them. However, last minute, a host parent offered to drive with his truck and I was no longer needed. So, i went back home and got ready for the day with Robbie (my roommate this time). The day had officially begun - our vacation from wyd of sorts. We had a free day to do things, and one of the family had offered to drive us places. We were first taken a little ways out of the city to a beach that only the locals know about. There couldn't have been more than 10 people on this whole beach - it was essentially a private beach for us. We jumped into the Atlantic Ocean (my first time at this ocean), and got tossed around the big waves. There was no noise at all from people. It was really beautiful. We hung out for a little bit in the water and on the beach, before continuing on. The guy we were with (Bernardo) wanted to show us a viewpoint next, but the first viewpoint was closed. So, he took us to a more populated beach. On the corner of a beach, there was a mountainous rock in the water. We decided to climb to the very top of it and look at the view of this part of the city. The climb was pretty difficult though, especially since we were in flip flops. The hike got steeper and steeper. Eventually we had to climb the rock barefoot. It was so hot that i could feel my feet burning on this rock. At the last stretch, it was so steep that we had to pull ourselves up with a rope. Finally, we were on top, vultures circling all around us. They probably didn't expect us to make it, and were maybe fans of the white meat. Lol. We had a beautiful panoramic view of the city and ocean. After a few pictures, we now had to face the hike down. It was even harder than going up - there were times when i'd wear my flip flops on my hands and do the crab walk down. We made it, and the ocean felt so nice on my feet. But now, we were feeling pretty hungry, so we went back home. First, we really needed showers. We had a layer of salt on us, covered by a good layer of dirt from the climb. It felt so good to be clean again. For lunch, we had some ravioli dish. It was great, and after a rest, we were ready to go out again. We were first taken to a famous lake in the city called Rodrigo de Freitas lake. It had a bike path around it and was stuck right in the middle of the city. The weather had moved in fast this afternoon, so our intense sunny day was now cloud and light rain. Good thing i had a jacket along, even though it had nothing on Vancouver or Amazon rain. We then moved on to Copacabana beach. It was raining, but the boardwalk beside it was still packed with Pilgrims from around the world. Chile, argentina, manaus! Even ran into a group from Iraq (not a country i'd expect to have catholics). I was so so popular though. I wore my Canada flag as a cape and became king of the gringos - i got stopped for pics and autographs the whole walk. Us canadians are a little rarer this time. We walked a long ways, watching the pope drive down the road on the multiple big screens on the beach. What a guy to get out of his pope-mobile and drive around town in a fiat. Haha. After the walk, we had to make our way back to the church, but the traffic was so rough that we missed the evening mass. We were taken home instead for a bite to eat and then met up with the group afterwards. We were set to go to a party tonight and some of us didn't have rides. So myself and robbie led the walking group. We gave them a bit of adventure, running across the multi-lane freeway. It was kind of like a videogame. There were 3 boulevards to take refuge on across this freeway. I didn't think much of it, but the group thought it was an adventure. As we got closer, we could hear the music blasting from a nearby area. We arrived and met up with the group, to find a huge dancing area and a variety of food being sold. I got some barbecue and a drink, as well as some rice or corn pudding that was given out for free. Some of the group didn't like the alcoholic drink that they got, so they poured a bunch of it into my rice pudding. It tasted a little funny after that. We then got up and danced with everyone else. They had professional dancers out too, which made my dancing look kind of pathetic, lol. By about 10:30pm, we began to walk home. At home, we met our housemates - 6 other brazilians. We mingled, then fell asleep fast

Beach

Climbing the rock

The party

Party

The longest highway home

Day 53 - 21 de Julho: Paulinia to Rio de Janeiro

Yup, that night felt like 2 hours of sleep. I slowly slumped out of bed and made my way down these stairs for the very last time. I brought my enormous blue bag down with me and we loaded it into their car. I wrote my family a letter of thanks for them to keep, and not long after a 4:30am bite of breakfast, I had to say goodbye to my host brother and one of my host sisters. I really wished that i could stay with them longer - the only thing hard about meeting new friends out here is the goodbyes. And with all the amazing people i've met on this trip, there were a fair few goodbyes - from Peru to Manaus to Paulinia! Before long, we were on the road to the church to meet up with everyone else. This road had gotten so familiar in such little time. We arrived at the church to find out bus waiting for us. We took one more group photo and made our final goodbye hugs. It was sad, but I'm sure i'll return some day. Half asleep, we all rode to Campinas bus terminal. Here, we got our real tickets and took a long bus to Aperecida. Some of the trip involved silly jokes, brought on by an extreme lack of sleep, however most of this ride involved sleeping. We arrived at Aperecida, which is a town, surrounding an enormous church! It was like a castle, you could see it from way back at the bus terminal we stopped at. To get there though, we had to walk through a sea of tents, selling everything and anything you could imagine. It was crowded, and we didn't have much time, so we walked around the edge of tent city. Luckily, there was a baggage storage service at the bus terminal so i didn't have to carry my 50lb beast through there. When we arrived in front of the church, our priest along with us wanted to see if he could do mass for us in one of the many chapels here. I learned something interesting today - every catholic priest must do an official mass at least once a day, even if it is only him. So this wasn't just for an experience, it was required by the church. With some persistence, we got a chapel and he said the first english mass I had heard the whole trip. He was a really great speaker, so I'm glad it was him this sunday. Afterwards, we had some lunch here and went back to the bus. It was time to make our next long bus trip - to our final destination, Rio! On this bus, we actually met some nice Malaysians that were heading to World Youth Day too. And as it turned out by some crazy chance, they were heading to the exact same church we were - so we formed an alliance to get ourselves there. By the time we arrived, it was just about dark. We got out and tried to figure out how we would make the final leg to the church. We assumed taxi but needed the details. This is when one of the girls (the one I was sitting next to) realized that she left her camera on the bus. I went with her since we all agreed to never  go off alone here. But when we ran back to the area where our bus was, it was gone. We looked around and asked some people for help. Eventually, we were directed to the booth of the bus company. The guy spoke no english, but he understood me when i told him what happened in portuguese. We were told to wait while they looked. It was a tight spot where we couldn't really leave to tell the group what was happening, but we assumed that we were taking taxis so there wasn't any real rush. Unfortunately, when we finally got an answer, it was that they couldn't find it. And when we returned, our whole group was gone except for the team leader. Turned out, there was an express bus to where we were going. Our group had taken our bags with them and left on the 8:00 bus. We were set to go on the 8:20. It was too bad that we couldn't get any news during all this, but at least things were sorted. We reunited at the first bus stop and jumped on the next bus to our final stop. It was quite late by now, but we were supposedly in a really good area of town. We needed to walk four blocks to the church, and luckily, we ran into somebody from the church that directed us there. When we arrived, we were in for a huge surprise. Turned out, we were assigned to families here too, an not sleeping on the floor of a church like we first thought. It was great news, but not soon after, I was told that there weren't enough families for myself and one other guy from our group (Robbie). Way to get our hopes up! But no worries in the end. When one of the volunteers heard what had happened, he decided to take us into his own home last minute. It was such a nice deed. We were driven to his apartment where we met his family and had some snacks and beer. We decided at the end of the night to sleep on their deck, since it was quite warm. This city is beautiful, so it should be amazing when i see it during the day!

Aparecida church and image

Their candle room

We made it to the church!

No sleep tonight!

Day 52 - 20 de Julho: Paulinia

Today was saturday, so the family slept in a bit today. We didn't have to meet until 9, but I was up early. Yesterday, the family asked what they do with the maple syrup that Alex gave them. So, this morning I decided to make them a good old fashioned Canadian pancake breakfast. I showed Laisa how to make them as well, so she can make them when she wants. I overcooked the first one, not knowing how hot their stove was (even on the lowest temperature setting), so the next few, i had to hold the pan up above the flame to get the right temperature. They turned out great, even with no measuring spoons and regular milk instead of buttermilk. They ate, then we left for the church. There was a bit more food there, but soon, we were right into a group talk (brazilians and canadians together). It was time to say our goodbye speeches. A couple people got up first, and to understand, we had a translator in front. After a little bit, i really wanted to go up and express my gratitude to everyone. But i decided to challenge myself. I spoke my whole speech in portuguese and everyone understood! I felt very accomplished. My family came up too and said some very nice things about me. I in turn said more to the family. At the end of everything, everyone was a bit emotional. Nobody wants to say goodbye. We still had the next activities though. We put on some skits for everyone next. We got random props and our theme was hope. We had fifteen minutes to practice and i think we did well. Next there was a nice prayer service, followed by a delicious barbecue lunch. It reminded me of the campfire meat we would eat on the jungle excursions. I ate at a table with my family so we were able to talk about many things. We left soon after lunch. In our down time at home, i taught my brazilian siblings some canadian geography on google earth. They in turn taught me some geography of rio de janiero. Later on, we had one more adventure - and it was a big one! We were going to a mass in a big stadium with several other countries that had their missionary week in the archdiocese of Campinas. The archbishop put in on and the mass was in many languages. The energy here was massive - some of the countries actually surprised me with this. Italy wasn't nearly as loud as they usually are and Korea had huge energy. There was actually a huge korean presence here and i didn't even know they had a catholic presence. Very cool. Afterwards, we said goodbye to the locals and took our bus back to Paulinia. I was getting really tired, but we still had a bit to go. We had pizza at some family friend's house. They gave us some beautiful parting gifts (rosary, chocolates, chain). It was amazing, and they didn't even really know us all that well. I can't believe that our time here is already ending. Tomorrow morning is really early and i got to get at least a couple hours of sleep now. Goodnight!

Danças Brasileiras

Day 51 - 19 de Julho: Paulinia

Today was the first day that we changed our breakfast location. In a church, a little farther away, we sat down for a quick breakfast. They had pastries and bread, along with coffee and juice. Very typical for here it seems. Of course, as I said before, the brazilians really like to eat. Soon after, we filed into the church and had our lesson of the day - Brazilian history. It was very interesting how the countries were divided and the stories of portuguese explorers.  We were going to have a projector for the slides, but the person in charge of bringing it did not show up, so we just had to watch on a laptop. Still worked out though. The next event had us, and our posse of Brazilians, jumping on the bus and driving to a dance studio. Oh, great - out of all activities we could have done, they had to choose my anti-talent! It was fine though - there were others in the same boat. We were first given a concert of typical brazilian songs. There were even some english ones. But the impressive thing was that the guitarist playing for us was blind. He was so good though! Eventually, the music was accompanied with dance; several different brazilian dances. These people looked real professional - and when they eventually said it was our turn, I was thinking that there was no way i could do any of that. When we partnered up though, i was actually partnered with a girl from this particular dance studio, so she could help me with my footwork. She sure was a talented dancer. After learning 2 or 3 types of dances, we headed back to the church for lunch. It was another of the same rice and bean dishes that are so common here. It was cool, because while i ate, i had a conversation with some of the brazilian youth, entirely in portuguese. I'm so happy that the language is coming to me! After lunch, we had a quick meeting outside, and when that was finished, i brought a bit of personal best martial arts to brazil. I put on a little class in the yard outside and had about 5 copying my kicks and punches. It wasn't a formal class, but it was fun and they loved it. Since it was starting to rain now, we could not do whatever our next planned activity was. However, we had a backup; we travelled to campinas to visit the biggest shopping mall in latin america!! And it was massive. You could easily get lost in there. And as myself and one of the brazilian guys with us pointed out, it is a girls paradise. There are literally shoe stores everywhere you look. I've never seen so many shoes in my life! But anyway, i didn't end up buying anything here, but i'm sure glad i went to see it. We drove back to the church for 5pm, then met up with our host family. We got a tiny bit of rest (i even napped a bit), then we were right back out again to church. We had a great mass - our priest from canada had a speech for the brazilians that brought them (and some of our group) to tears. We will definitely all miss each other a lot! I hope to return again some day. The day ended really well!! We had a party planned afterwards. Although it was a typical kind of brazilian party, it was basically a country hoedown. The youth were all dressed up in country gear and put on a great dance for us. Afterwards, they invited us to try - more dancing. Haha. Well, the night continued with dancing, good food and these firecrackers that people continuously set off. Later, we returned home and i hung out with my family some more before going to bed. I was super tired so that's why this post is late. It's brief, but that's all i have the energy for these days.

The music for us

My dance partner

Country dancers

My paulinian family

Me dressed up for the party