Unfortunately, my room was right above the restaurant, so I was woken up bright and early by the kitchen staff setting up breakfast.  On a positive note, I was the 1st to arrive breakfast and therefore the 1st to arrive at the pool, so I was able to get the best seat as witnessed by this photo…

Not a bad view, huh?

The hotel pool.

I knew that the next week ahead was going to be filled with lots of activity, thus I decided to just relax for the entire day.  Around midday I went for a stroll along the beach.  Here are some photos from the walk:

One thing that I took note of is the incredible confidence Brasilian women have.  Every single one of them, no matter age or size, exude this enviable lack of self-consciousness.  Having grown up in the States, where girls from an early age develop all sorts of issues with their bodies, it was delightful to see a culture where all bodies are celebrated.  And I could tell that the men loved it too!  I decided that I was going to try and adopt this attitude for the rest of my trip.

My 1st attempt at acting like a Brasilian woman was to get photographed in my bikini (eeek!).

The day came to and end way too quickly and before I knew it I was saying tchau to Porto and heading back to Recife for my evening flight to Rio.  I could have easily spent another week in Porto, but I was excited to finally experience Rio.  I have been wanting visit the infamous city for many, many years!

A view of downtown Recife from the airport.

My trip had really begun the day before, thus I should say this is “Day 2″, but nothing too exciting had happened as I had been traveling for almost 24 hours to arrive at my ultimate destination of Porto de Galinhas.  Porto, as it is affectionately called by the locals, is a sea-side village about a 1 hour car-ride away from Recife.  Recife is a much larger city and it definitely deserves to be visited, however my time was limited and I opted to skip it and spend my time in Porto, which is known for its awesome scuba diving sites.  I had to wake up quite early on this morning, since my 1st dive was scheduled for 7AM.  Normally, I am not a morning person, but the excitement from traveling erases all sense of time for me.  Plus, I had this view to greet me as I walked to breakfast…

Sunrise in Porto.

As I ate my 1st delicious breakfast in Brasil, which consisted of tropical fruit and Brasilian coffee, I wondered why more people do not travel?  I understand that there are things that get in the way at times, ie. finances, work, and family to name a few, but I firmly believe that if you make it a necessity, rather than view it as a luxury, then it becomes possible.  Life is magical when you travel.  Every day you wake up not knowing what adventure you will face or what person will cross your path.  The possibilities are endless!  Why people would not want to experience this from time to time, to break from their daily routines and live a life less ordinary, is something I will never understand.  Nonetheless, I feel blessed to have discovered traveling and I will definitely continue to make it an integral part of my life, a necessity, as previously stated.

Porto de Galinhas means “Chicken Port” in Portuguese.  According to my Lonely Planet guide it received this name because, “The original name was Porto Rico, but after the slave market was prohibited, slaves had to be brought secretly to Brazil.  In this port the buyers and sellers started a code; when there were ships with slaves in the docks they would say “There is new chicken in the port”, and that is why it was renamed to Porto de Galinhas.  I hate that the name is based in racism, but I cannot change history.

My 1st encounter with a chicken statue (these can be found all over town) was with 'Scuba Chicken.' How appropriate, since I was on my way to scuba dive!

The dive center that I used was called Porto Point and was located in the center of town, directly across from the beach.  None of the people in the center spoke 1 word of English, despite me being told otherwise.  At 1st I was a little alarmed and then I decided to just go with it.  I have dived about 30+ times and figured by now I know what I am doing.  I followed my dive guide to the beach and then proceeded to get on the most interesting “boat” I have ever ridden on before!

My ride to the reef.

Our gear on the "boat." I took this photo from the water.

Once we began the dive I found it quite humorous that while my guide and I did not speak the same language and could not communicate on land, under the water we did speak the same language of scuba dive hand signals and had no problem communicating now!  I descended about 20 meters on my 1st dive and 15 meters on my 2nd dive.  The most exciting spotting was of some sea horses (a 1st for me).  Having dived in the South Pacific, Caribbean, and the Australian and Belizian Great Barrier Reefs I consider myself a bit of dive snob now.  So, it takes a lot for me to be impressed.  At least, I get to say that I dived in Brasil now though!  In addition, it was nice to have my guide to myself (also a 1st).

Me in my favorite place to be, under water!

After my dives, I returned to my hotel for some much needed sunbathing and caipirinhas.  If you have never had a caipirinha, then get yourself to your local watering-hole pronto!  This drink is simply mouthwatering, though I am certain it would not be as tasty if you were drinking it in Brasil.

What could be better than drinking a delicious caipirinha on a gorgeous Brasilian beach? I guess if I had a sexy Brasilian man next to me...

After I hydrated myself sufficiently I took a walk along the beach and thought about what New Year’s resolutions I would make for myself this coming year.

Stunning, right?

I could have stayed at the beach all day, but I was eager to go back into town to do some shopping.  Heads up ladies, Porto has some adorable boutiques!  I bought some sundresses and a beach cover-up that I fell hard for.  I was quite excited to wear it the next day!

An example of one of the boutiques.

I wish that I could say that I celebrated my 1st night in Brasil in style, however I was exhausted and retired to bed early.  What a 1st day though in a country I was already enamored with!

My trip to Brasil began to materialize last June when I discovered that USAirways was starting a new direct route from Charlotte (my hometown) to Rio de Janeiro the following December.  I had 100,000 points with the airline and had been waiting for the right opportunity to use them.  Plus, New Year’s is my favorite holiday and I made a pact with myself several years ago, after a particularly boring one, that from then on I would celebrate it some place fabulous.  The previous 3 countries that I was in were Spain, Australia, and Peru, thus Brasil seemed like the logical next country to go to!

Once the tickets were booked, I began planning how I would spend my precious 10 days there.  I knew that I would definitely be in Rio on the 31^st, but I wanted to see other places besides Rio.  I spent countless hours perusing websites and books related to Brasil, which in the end helped me become more familiar with the country, however they confused me even more on where to go, as every place looked like Paradise.

Finally, I came across a website that had travel agents who were able to put together specialized trips for no extra cost.  I emailed them stating that I wanted to scuba dive, spend New Year’s in Rio, and experience the Amazon…and that I only had 10 days to do all of this.  I thought they would say that it was impossible, although within 24 hours they responded that this would in fact be possible and within 1 week the entire trip was planned (and for an awesome price!).  One thing that should be noted is that if you intend to take a lot of domestic flights within Brasil you should consider buying the Brasil Airpass, which starts at 4 domestic flights for $500 and goes all the way up to 9 domestic flights for $1100.  I decided to purchase the 4-flight package, as it would save me a lot of money.

My itinerary was now: December 28-30 Porto de Galinhas , December 30-January 3 Rio, and January 3-6 the Amazon.

The cities that I would be flying to on my trip were: Recife, Rio, and Manaus.

Once my trip was completely booked, I decided to contact some people from Couchsurfing to see if they would like to meet up.  To my absolute delight I discovered that while I would be there the 1^st ever Couchsurfing Pan-American event would be held.  There would be around 600 Couchsurfer’s from around the world in Rio and daily events for all of us to attend.  Knowing this helped my slight anxiety of traveling alone.  This was to be my 1^st solo-trip in a country where I did not speak the language.  I had previously traveled solo in China, Argentina, and Australia.  Those trips sincerely changed my life and instinctively I knew this trip would to.

While I love nothing more than to be surrounded by friends when I am traveling, I do crave my solitude as well.  I truly believe that nothing teaches us more about ourselves than solo-traveling.  It pushes us in ways that are unimaginable and we learn things about ourselves that we never knew.  Traveling alone is its own little niche of touching into a culture and most times you will attract more interactions amongst the locals that way.  Besides you are never really alone; there will always be people around you.  Do not get me wrong, traveling with someone, especially your partner, has its benefits as well.  Sharing those once-in-a-lifetime moments with another person is priceless.  However, I think it is necessary for the growth of the soul to every once in a while pack your bags and go on a journey by yourself.  And this is exactly what my trip to Brasil was all about!