Chicken Port!

Yesterday we had the AMAZING opportunity to visit Porto de Galinhas, or Chicken Port. Yeah, it seems like a strange name but it has historical significance. Back in 1888 slavery was abolished from Brasil but it still continued, just kept under wraps. During this time African American's were galled "galinhas" or "chickens" so that when they were trying to send slaves in they would say they were bringing in some "chickens" so as not to get caught. So the actually name is Slave Port. Today, it obviously has nothing in common with what it used to be used for. What it is known for now are the beaches. It has been voted to have the best beaches in Brasil and it has held this title for 8 years.

Having spent a day there, i can agree that they are the best beaches that I have seen yet. It was seriously such an awesome experience. When we arrived, we broke off into groups and got on these little boats that took us out to this huge reef where we could walk around and see little pools with bright colored fish and little crabs, and where we also got to feed the fish. the water was so green and clear, it was seriously beautiful. Then we got back in the little boat and the guy started to take us through this winding reef path to another sections when he randomly stopped and asked us if we wanted to swim in that part. It was just a deeper section in between reef and we were like, "oh yeah!" We jumped in the water to start swimming around and he gave us goggles to look at the fish under water! I started swimming as deep as I could and I was getting right up in the reef. It was AWESOME.

When we got back to shore Cindy and I decided to take a walk around and shop a little and get to see the town. It was a really nice place and we got to have lunch at a little diner and buy some fun stuff. It was nice having a date with my honey, especially in a beautiful town like Porto. We spent a couple hours together then went back to the beach. We started looking for our group and something terrible happened... I was looking over at some sun bathers and noticed a really fat guy laying on his back covering his face with his arm. I thought something looked wrong and I kinda stared for a minute before Cindy said, "Jordan, that's a girl.." It was a very large, huge breasted older lady tanning topless..... yeah..... *shudder*

Aaaaanyways, we made it to out group and played in the water for a while. I got to meet a professor for the University of Sao Paulo who is a physical therapist. He was a nice guy and was on vacation with his family. It is funny how people automatically assume we don't speak Portuguese when we go to more touristy locations simply because American's that go there tend to be wealthy and don't even try to learn the language. It's fun surprising people.

Anyways, it was an awesome day. Cindy and I had a blast and I won't lie, I would love to take my kids there one day. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a GREAT time!

the little boats we were cruising on

 part of the reef we walked on and the paths the boats take

 on the reef

 our diving spot!

 fish pool!