Getting Flinntimate with the local Guays.: Vacation!!!

Towards the end of June I planned on taking what may or may not be my final Peace Corps vacation! I had decided that this year I wanted to run a marathon and was informed by other volunteers (thanks Connie!) that there was a beautiful marathon every year in Rio. The run was said to be fairly flat and you ran beside the coast the whole time. I started training in early March and it was about as fun as it sounds. The marathon was on July 7 and I had to be back in site by July 9 for an eye glasses event (future blogs will cover this is obnoxious details). I was not thrilled by the idea of running 26.2 miles the day before a flight to Paraguay but it was too late to back out.

Getting to Brazil was a bit of a challenge. Brazil has been going through an interesting time politically and there have been a lot of protests, especially in the Rio area. Four days before I was set to leave I received a text from my boss saying the trip had to be cancelled. I was not happy. I understand that Peace Corps needs to keep us safe but I had been running for 18 weeks training for this event! All of the volunteers planning to go immediately started calling one another. In the end the trip was saved by a volunteer named Julia. Julia relentlessly called our boss and broke her down! I found out the trip was back on two days before we were set to leave.

The first part of the trip was spent in Ilha Grande. It is a nature reserve on an island near Rio. It was amazing. It had fantastic beaches with great waves and hiking. We saw monkeys climbing trees at the hostel most mornings and spent our days exploring. We spent the first day hiking around and visiting different beaches. One beach was extremely calm and then 30 minutes later we were body surfing huge waves on a different beach! I went on the trip with Elijah, Bryce and Matt. All of them are fairly active so we made sure to see as many beaches as possible. On one of our last days we decided to go snorkeling. I love snorkeling and was extremely excited, especially since I have a water proof digital camera. Ironically, it decided to not be waterproof immediately upon entering the water and I spent the rest of the trip camera-less! That being said the water was full of starfish, coral, and interesting Brazilian fish! The pictures below are from Ilha Grande only, or I stole them from Bryce.

When we finally made our way to Rio (with our bosses permission and my father shaking his head), we took a ferry and a 2 ½ bus ride. We decided to stay at an apartment, not a hostel. The idea was they are more or less the same price but at an apartment it would be quieter and we would not have to deal with loud drunks the night before our marathon. Rio is magical. I normally hate crowded beaches but Rio had this amazing self-confidence (I know that sounds weird since I am describing a city but it is true!). Everyone wore the smallest swimsuit they could fit into and they rocked them! Okay, so I will say that a few people did not rock them and maybe I would have preferred them to have covered up a little but they thought they were rocking it! There were people selling food, drinks, swimsuits, soccer balls, and other crazy things. I bought a swimsuit from one beach vendor (I had to search for the largest bottom available, it says adult but I am convinced it is a toddlers Large).

We ended up going out to restaurants, visiting Christ the Redeemer, hanging out on the beach and finally Elijah and I ran a marathon! The marathon was not that fun. The first 13 miles went really well and then it was hard to not focus on what I was doing. I was running for about 5 hours. I had trained mainly on dirt roads and my feet and knees were not enjoying the switch to concrete. That being said I am already looking back on it nostalgically. I am glad it is over and I am proud I finished. After the marathon I went looking for whiskey gingers and food. We met up with some other volunteers and had a final meal in Brazil! In the morning it was back to Paraguay and what has become ‘the real world’.

I would absolutely recommend heading to Brazil if you get the chance. I could have spent a week sitting on the beach watching everyone walk by. It would have been nice to speak the language but everything worked out in the end. We made it back without any problems! As for my recommendation on marathons? Why not! Get out there and do it! I didn’t do as well as I had hoped but I did it and it was an amazing excuse to travel to Brazil!