August 1, 2015
Rafting in Apuama, followed by relaxing at the Àguas Mornas Resort.

Since it was the weekend, our schedule allowed us to take the day off from learning about Brazil and its energy. This meant a short bus ride out to Santo Amaro de Imperatriz and Apuama (2 adjacent towns) to go rafting. Since there were 7 of us participating, we had to take 2 rafts. There were 3 other people in my raft: Katreena, Sam, and our guide Marcelino. On the bus ride out to Apuama, Dr. Abad had warned us that one of the guides was a little "crazy," and that if we were lucky, we wouldn't have him in our boat. Turns out Marcelino was the crazy one. Within 10 minutes of getting on the water, my boat flipped, dumping us into the river. Luckily no one was seriously hurt (Sam bruised her leg a little) and we were able to swim to the river bank and get back in the boat. The next 45 minutes were filled with Marcelino's voice, yelling commands, whistling at the other boat, or making animal noises when we passed wildlife. It was a pretty great time. [I was unable to take picture because I was rafting, but another guide got a ton of pictures which I'll upload when they send them to us].

After the "EXTREME HRAFTING" (Marcelino's words), we took a short bus ride to the Àguas Mornas Palace Hotel, a resort just outside of Apuamas. We hung out in the pool, sunbathed, and played bocce ball... not bad for a mid-winter's day. Some of the girls got massages in the resort's spa, but I went to the basketball court to shoot around. One of the hotel's guests, an elderly Brazilian gentleman whose name I unfortunately forgot, taught me a shooting game similar to around-the-world. It consisted of 2 players taking turns shooting their way through 4 stages, each stage getting further from the hoop (or [circle] in Portuguese). In stage 1, you have to make 5 shots from inside the paint and under the basket. To move on to stage 2, you must make 5 shots in a row from the first stripe, then 3 consecutive free throws (this basketball court was set up a little differently from American courts). Stage 2 was 6 shots from different points around the key, followed by 5 and 3 consecutive shots from the free throw lines ("lance livre"). Stage 3 was 8 shots from around the key, and stage 4 was some shots from beyond the 3-point line. Our class had a planned dinner-time, so unfortunately I couldn't play out the game. Its probably a good thing, because by the time I left, meu amigo was on the 4th stage while I was still only shooting my second set of free throws. It was a great learning experience, as he taught me a few phrases in Portuguese and shared some English phrases ("Senhor, you're heating up"). One thing that continues to amaze me about Brazilian culture is how friendly and helpful people are, even to ignorant Americans like me.

Originally from Rio de Janiero, meu amigo has lived in Florianópolis for 30 years