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
Party
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