Friday August 15^th – Day 5

            Today was our day off.  I still got up in time for breakfast and drank lots of tea because my throat was becoming sore.  A lot of us have started to get sick from travelling and close living corridors.  We went looking for shoes to wear for the rafting trip tomorrow and roamed around Florianopolis.  We went to a cute café for coffee and had first had experience with the language barrier.  I successfully ordered coffee while Kim, Jessica, and Fowzia all ended up ordering a hot cup of milk!  

It is interesting to think of the similarities and differences between what I’ve seen so far in Brazil and the United States.  Styles, trends, and infrastructure are similar and the places we’ve seen have been more modern and developed than I expected.  The money here, reals, is about half of the dollar.  23 reals is equivalent to 10 dollars.  Most things here have comparable prices to the United States or are less.  Certain products such as peanut butter and McDonalds are much more expensive here than in the United States.  It is not suggested to drink tap water in Brazil and only bottled water is served at restaurants.  Buffets are very popular and fruits, along with fruit drinks are more common than in the United States.  Motorcycles and small vehicles are the main forms of transportation, along with buses.  Buildings are brightly colored and the architecture is beautiful.  There are also tons of stray dogs roaming around the streets.  These are a few of the things I’ve noticed, though I’m sure visiting the favelas in poor areas would be a different experience all together. 

While exploring Florianopolis we watched a band playing on the steps of a church in a courtyard area with vendors selling their goods.  For dinner we had the hotel order Bob’s Burgers for delivery which is a type of fast food chain in Brazil.  It was good except for the fact that by mistake we got a cheddar cheese whiz on the burgers, challenges ordering food today.  At night the four of us went to an awesome bar and had Caipirinhas and danced to rock music.  It was a blast and a completely different taste of Brazil than the night before!