Case in Brazil: Snorkel, hammocks, boat

The Case Western Reserve men’s basketball team is in Brazil, and blogging about the experience as well. Tim Maleski writes:

Day number two in Paraty started out in an unusual way to say the least, as Reid, Ryan, Alex, and I woke up to the fresh smell of rain after spending the night sleeping in the hammocks located outside the rooms. Our group originally started with six members, but Brian slept inside after failing to fall asleep after an hour lying in the hammock and Colin left due to his constant fear that he was definitely going to fall out.

We were set to leave for our boat ride on the Atlantic Ocean at 9:30, but due to inclement weather that we have been getting a great deal of lately, we had to push our ride back to 11:00. So once the time came, we walked to the bay to board our boat. The first place we stopped allowed us to get in the water for the first time. We swam, jumped off the boat, and snorkeled. We tried to catch fish with a three reals bet that we couldn’t. Unfortunately, we had no success with this with endeavor.

Case on a boat in Paraty, Brazil

Our second stop on our boat trip landed us close to a beach. After swimming into shore, we spent the next hour jumping off rocks, playing a game of soccer, and diving into the water in our attempts to catch a soccer ball. The highlight of our trip to this spot was our dancing. With techno music blaring from another boat in the background, the twelve of us did the famous “Party Boy” dance on Coach Gorski. We though it was hilarious, but the same couldn’t be said for Coach Gorski. Not only did he almost drop his prized iPhone, but he also came out of the dancing with a bruised lip.

After we pulled up our anchors there, we sailed a few more minutes and settled down on the boat for lunch. Upon finishing lunch, we headed to our final destination. It was here that we searched for turtles and jumped off the boat to catch soccer balls. From the boat we watched a local man climb a twenty foot high tree and throw coconut after coconut down to a group of girls. Chris even went on a solo adventure to the shore. He said he was looking to grab a coconut, but the rest of us knew he just wanted to talk to the group of girls. Lucky for him, he did manage to come back with a coconut full of juice, but we knew it was just an excuse. Most importantly, our entire team had a really impressive feat catching the soccer ball that can be seen with the videos.

We headed back to the dock to end our boat trip. Feeling both fatigued as well as sunburnt, we were ready to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the night. Our time in Paraty was coming to an end, and tomorrow we will head for the mountains.

Behrend: Last game

The Penn State-Behrend men’s basketball team is Brazil. Dom DiVito blogs:

After an early check out on Sunday morning we were off to play our last basketball game of the trip. When arriving to the gymnasium we knew we were in for a competitive game since the court was better kept than most in Brazil. The team we were facing was the best team we have faced thus far. We were extremely excited and ready for the challenge. The fans were surprisingly very loud and were very appreciative towards both teams.

Although we came up short in our game, it was a great learning experience for us and it will really help our team for our upcoming season.

Day 5

We received a shirt and postcards from the opposing team so we tried to make sure every player received some of our Behrend gear in return. It was tough to see a player from the other team wearing our jersey after he just scored 20 points against us … But that’s what it is all about. Russ (the big fella) got hooked up with a uniform that is big even on him.

After leaving the game we had a five hour bus ride to Paraty. During those five hours, most of us were in and out of sleep. If you couldn’t sleep you were lucky to see more beautiful mountains within the forest. Our highly skilled bus driver (Stocko) propelled us on the winding and dangerous roads without a concern in the world.

When arriving to the resort I was truly impressed with how nice the location was. There was a beautiful pool in the back with a river running behind the pool deck. If you are up early enough you can interact with the monkeys that jump from tree top to tree top over looking for bananas from the tourists.

The scenery in Paraty is a different experience from the other resorts we stayed at mostly because of the historical village. Little history lesson: Paraty was colonized by Portugal to be used to export the gold found deeper inland. The result is a beautiful village with stone roads and historical buildings at every corner.

Some of the buildings from the Historical Center were from the 1700s and the road remains the same as it was. Another unique intricacy about the village is that it is located at sea level. This means when the tide is high, some of roads in the historical village get washed with sea water.

I have been extremely impressed with the sites in Brazil and couldn’t expect more. Fernando told us that 90% of the wealth in Brazil is owned by 9% of the population. We have seen the eye opening poverty areas as well as the picturesque areas, and we appreciate the experience from both.