Bye Bye Brazil!

Brazil, it's been fun, but I'm so ready to move on. Showed up at the airport in Campo Grande and bought a ticket to Uruguay. (That was cool! I've never done that before!)

I was lucky to get to see a lot of Brazil so what follows is a quick recap:

Rio de Janeiro: For me, it's eh. Maybe I had high expectations of Rio but I just wasn't impressed, even after seeing it during carnaval. It's dirty and gritty and the "must-sees" like Sugarloaf and the Christo are expensive and really not that amazing. There are a lot of rundown buildings and trash....and maybe I didn't kno where to go, but the food wasn't so great either. I did love the friends I made in Rio (Lolo, Aldael, Diego, Tulio, etc...) but I'm definitely in no rush to get back to the city. Feeling lucky about meeting a great group of people... Feeling bitter about the numerous times I felt screwed over...

Salvador: There's something about Bahia that I just love! It's carnaval beats the pants off of Rio's carnaval, but the city is also just alive and beautiful in so many ways. The sunset I watched over the Porto do Barra in 2007 is still one of the best I've seen in Brazil and it absolutely makes sense why the Bahians applaud their sunset each day. The street food, too, is amazing! Best meat and cheese sticks ever! And thanks, Greg, for making it an awesome visit! Feeling lucky about the nice people who helped me during Carnaval and getting to spend time with Greg... Wish I hadn't had that rough start, but it definitely made for a good story (I hope) =)

Recife: I have no real feel for Recife because I ate and beached... but if those are things you are interested in, it's great! Are they the best beaches I've ever seen? No... The water is warm (and therefore not refreshing when its super hot outside) and the shark-attack potential at Boa Viagem is scary! But, for about $6 you can sit under an umbrella on a comfy chair and enjoy a big Brazilian beer. Not bad at all.

Belem: Definitely worth visiting if you care about trying new foods. You can get some amazing stuff for so cheap too! For 6 Reais ($4) I got an enormous piece of fried fish and then a second plate full of accompaniments: rice, beans, noodles, and vegetables at the Ver-o-Peso market. They also gave you free, cold, and I'm assuming purified water. Awesome! The friends I made here I also love and can't think of a better way to spend my Thursday night than sitting with them outside of a gas station, on plastic tables and chairs, sharing beers. I'm still not sure how dangerous the city is, but Belem also has some beautiful spots where you can see some really amazing wildlife. Also feeling very lucky about meeting people (Nathalia, Bruno, Franca) who, though they didn't know me, were so good to me when I was there.

Marajo: Loved Marajo! It was the first Brazilian city I visited on this trip that I just loved. The people were super friendly from the hostel owner to my Salvaterra mototaxista. Mototaxi is definitely my preferred method of travel. Maybe it's because I read someone's blog about visiting Marajo, but I had "Home on the Range" stuck in my head the whole time. "Oh give me a home, where the buffalos roam...." (In Marajo, there are more buffalos than people!) They taste good too! It tastes like mom's empal except with (buffalo) cheese on top.

Ilha Grande: Got crabs? Ilha Grande does! At night, they come up from the beach and are just everywhere. I got a few pictures of a crab who kept trying to do his sneaky sideways crawl into a restaurant. The host wasn't having any of it and kept kicking him out. =) Other than that though, I'm a little underwhelmed with Ilha Grande. Though I absolutely loved snorkeling with Theo and loved exploring beaches via high-powered speedboat, it was expensive, the food was boo, the people were just okay, and there were little buggies everywhere. One night, I got seven mosquito bites - 4 on my face - and while half asleep, I started conspiring as to how to get them to start biting Theo and stop biting me! I might be a bad girlfriend lol

Angra dos Reis: Only saw this town for about 10 minutes because the ferry from Ilha Grande docked here and from there it was straight to the bus station. But, from what I saw, it's a really pretty beach town that I'd love to come back to to explore.

Florianopolis: Love this place! The beaches are so beautiful and yet so different from one another. The food is great here too! And, the people are also incredibly nice! Right when we arrived, one guy tried to help us find a good, cheap place to rent a car. That didn't end up working out and we had to walk quite a ways back to the bus station, but another guy helped us carry our bags. It seemed like for him, it was ridiculous that we carry so much stuff if he, with available hands, could help. People were just really nice about everything, especially when helping us with our stick-shift disaster. Definitely want to come back andspend more time here.. and also Tucano House Hostel.. maybe not so awesome for location, but really awesome for everything else!

Foz do Iguacu: I think for being such a touristy attraction, the infrastructure is beyond terrible, but then again you may or may not have already read my rant about that :) I didn't end up seeing the Brazilian side, but everyone I heard from said that the Argentinean side is better! I really did enjoy the falls themselves, and in particular, the most amazing rainbows and butterflies ever! Inferior circuit on the Argentinean side is awesome, btw!

Sao Paolo: Surprisingly, love this city! Probably my favorite city in Brazil or at least tied with Florianopolis. Paulistas I had met while traveling didn't impress me, but I liked everyone I met in the city itself. Food was amazing and prices weren't bad either! You can do a lot of cool stuff for free in this city and there's not all this pressure to spend a lot of money like there is in Rio. It's not a city that has dedicated tourist stops, but I really liked that.

(New Stuff)


Bonito: AMAZING! Well, to be specific, the Recanto Ecologio Rio da Prata is amazing! After about a 40 minute hike, I got to the olho d'agua where a group of us started the most amazing snorkeling experience ever. The waters are crystal clear and they try to keep it that way by, for example, not letting people wear sunscreen or deet before going in. There were fish everywhere and when we'd stop long enough, the little ones would bite our lips and knees. (Kind of cool, but it also kind of creeped me out). I haven't done any Hawaii snorkeling or anything, and Bonito is definitely more off the beaten path than other touristy destinations, but I think it is so So worth seeing!



Pantanal: Great trip! The pantanal is incredibly beautiful, especially at sunset.


I did a three day, two night stay with the Lontra Pantanal Hotel and it was fantastic! After arriving, we started the day by going out piranha fishing! I didn't catch any piranhas but I got a pacu and a piraputanga. (No idea what the English equivalents are...) I loved this trip and and at one point, laughed so hard I cried. I've never fished before and there's this way you sling your pole so that the line flies nicely into the water... mine would do this pathetic little drop into the water and one of the times, it struck me as being just so funny. The guide told me I had to be quiet because otherwise, the piranhas won't come. This of course made me laugh harder. Then I started thinking about a story Theo told me about going fishing with his dad and dropping his pole in the water and I was a laughing mess for a good five minutes. :) After about three hours of fishing, we jumped in the river to swim with the piranhas and then ate the ones we caught for dinner. Awesome!


So, the pantanal is famous for wildlife and though I didn't see any jaguars or anacondas, I saw capybaras, otters, foxes, deer, black pigs, and a lot of birds. We were lucky during one of our boat safaris because there were about 10-15 tucans just sitting in a tree, giving us opportunities for photography. (Ha, I like that rhyme.) The tucans posed for us to each take about fifty pictures of them. During a night safari, although the hundreds of flies in our faces tried to obscure the view, we saw caimans (crocodiles) and if you'd pass the light over the water, you'd see pairs of red eyes staring at you :) We found a caiman jaw - our guide carved the teeth out and made me a really cool necklace. It was amazing actually, as his raw materials were a tooth and some leaves. I currently wear this really amazing creation on my ankle :)

The pantanal is a litle bit rough though, and you definitely have to have tolerance for bugs everywhere. The bugs would fly into our food and drinks at dinner and before going into our room for the night, you had to run to get the mosquitoes off you. There were also blood stains on the walls from where people got revenge on mosquitoes. I also had 100% deet and sunscreen on me 24/7 so my skin felt awful for the few days I was there. That said, definitely want to come back some day - maybe in the dry season when everything isn't flooded :)

So that was Brazil for me... I got to do and see a ton, contribute significantly to the Brazilian economy, and manage without major incident in a place where I encountered the biggest language barrier ever. According to my travel map (see below), I've been to 20% of the world and really, it's never been so hard as it was in Brazil! But, the highs were really high to match those low lows and the little victories were especially sweet. I'll be back someday, but for now, I'm quite happy to leave behind Portuguese, the expensive prices, and everyone and their mother asking me if I'm Japanese! Good last memory of Brazil though... two boys from Fortaleza gave me some money (like 40 cents lol)so that I could send one last postcard!

Carnaval in Bahia (Salvador)

I got off the plane in search of a taxi. When I landed, I knew very little: I knew to meet Greg at an address in Campo Grande and I knew that the address was on a circuit. I didn't know where I would be staying, I didn't have a phone number where I could reach Greg, and I didn't know a taxi would cost me 100 reais! (~$62 yikes!) I acquire a completely useless map (in French nonetheless!) from the information desk and arrange for a taxi to take me to Campo Grande. So far, so good enough. Greg had told me that the apartment is on a circuit, but I didn't fully understand what that meant. I thought it was like when they have a street fair in SF - they close down a couple blocks of the street, but you can access your destination from another street. I was so so wrong.

After about 45 minutes in the taxi, the driver explains to me in Portuguese (which I don't understand) that he cannot access the road I need to be on. He drops me off on a random street and points up - I have to go upstairs to get on the street I need to be on. That sounds easy enough. But the taxi driver doesn't know exactly which street is Sete de Setembro. He was super nice though, and stopped a lady to ask her where I should go. She took me by the arm, led me upstairs, and told me to go two blocks to the right. Now I'm on my own. I start to push through a ridiculous crowd because the blocos are going in full force. I'm still optimistic though... two blocks, and I'll be fine, right?

Wrong again.

Two blocks later, the street is definitely not Sete de Setembro. My map, btw, didn't show any streets, just areas - like a map of San Francisco showing you only "The Mission," "Downtown," "Lower Haight," etc. I stop at an information booth and a lady makes a loop sign and says that I have to get past the plaza and go the other way. (There is no plaza in sight, just thousands and thousands of people.) I try to go around where the bloco action is not happening, but it's everywhere. I had no choice but to get right back in the thick of it... being pushed and jostled by everyone and their mother, literally. I had people pushing me in every direction.... I had people pounding on my backpack... I heard people calling me "japones" or "loca" or yelling other things i didn't understand in Portuguese. It was awful... I never had to fight so hard not to cry.

(imagine fighting your way through this crowd...!)

It was pretty much the single most terrifying experience of my life. Here I was, wandering amidst carnaval blocos, lost for two hours, and with no way of getting in touch with Greg to tell him I'm lost. I was also a big target amongst drunk people everywhere and to top it all off, I had everything valuable to me on my person...passport, netbook, credit cards, etc. Every now and then I'd stop and ask someone where the street is and they kept telling me to go straight. I had no choice but to keep going.

Eventually, these people stop me and I didn't understand much, but a lady was scolding me in Portuguese and shaking her finger at me. I showed her the address I was looking for, and she tells me to wait. I understand that she wants to help. One of their friends tries to flag down one of the military police so that maybe he can escort me to where I need to be. No luck. (People btw do not mess witht he military police, they jump out of their way as soon as they seem them coming down the street.)

So I stood there with these people for a while, meawhile the blocos kept continuing on. I was still getting pushed and justled, but not as much. Every now and then, someone would look at my pathetic piece of paper (that was now crumpled and starting to tear) with the address, and then hold up a hand to tell me to wait a few minutes. After maybe ten minutes or so, one of the guys talked to another guy who works at a nearby hotel. That guy comes over, assesses the situation, then gives me the hand to wait. He disappears with my piece of paper, but comes back and leads me through the crowd to a hotel. I got to put my stuff down... this felt really really good. No one spoke English though ... they just understood that I was a stupid girl with all my stuff on me, stuck in the carnaval crowd. I'm not able to explain why I'm in this situation, and they are not able to figure out what's wrong with me. I point to a sign that says Wi-Fi, get confirmation that it's okay to use, and pull out my computer - I was thinking I could use a translation website. Wi-Fi didn't work, but the hotel security guard let me into the backroom so I could use the hotel's computer. I open up a translation site and explain what happened, get permission to leave my stuff overnight (since everyone keeps telling me how dangerous it is to have it all there), and send an e-mail to Greg. Greg says he will come meet me. Thank God! When he showed up about twenty minutes later, I burst into tears (Sorry, Greg!)... It was relief and joy and just finally feeling like I was going to be okay. *big sigh* Apparently, I had arrived on the big night for Campo Grande, so it was the most crowded it could possibly be.

Onto the fun stuff. Carnaval in Salvador, now this is the carnaval I remember!! I think, for me, Salvador > Rio in terms of music, street food, and overall carnaval atmosphere. Hearing Samba music is nice and all, but hearing Axe just makes you want to dance! You feel the music move you... you feel it in your heart! It makes you feel alive! In terms of street food, I mostly saw salsichao and tapioca (a crepe-like thing) in Rio but Salvador had the churrascos (meat sticks) that were really amazing! They also do this cheese-on-a-stick in Brazil that they heat up over hot coals - it doesn't melt, it just burns. It's awesome!!

I love getting to compare my experience in 2007 to my experience this year... Last time I arrived on a ship and went back to it every night. This year, I as staying with Greg's friends in an awesome apartment in probably the best location possible! Not sure if it was a good or bad thing, but you heard Carnaval out the window 24/7. Another change is that the experience has gotten a lot more commercial, with the trucks are much more pimped out with sponsor logos. The people on the trucks also toss slap bracelets and inflatable batons from sponsors into the crowd. Some things haven't changed which was kind of nice to see... the kissing, for example, is still in full force. There are people making out everywhere! There is a bloco called Filhos de Gandi; they wear a lot of bead necklaces and give them to girls in exchange for kisses. I have four necklaces but only because I bought them. No kisses for me until March 18th :)

So pretty much Carnaval in Salvador is unlike any other Carnaval in the world. (so i've heard...) Whereas in Brazil, one bloco would come and go, in Salvador, 20-30 trucks would line up and if you wanted to, you could stay put in one spot and see them all. In Salvador, each trio electrico (truck with a stage on top) has a a crowd both on top and surrounding the truck. People who pay for the abadas (special shirts that designate your belonging to a bloco) have access to a roped off area around the truck. Everyone else dances around them. It goes on for hours and hours. It's so fun!! Each song has its own dance and when you don't know it, the music is so energizing that you can jump around and have fun anyway. You can follow your favorite bloco throughout the entire circuit for probably 8 hours if you wanted to. Twice, Greg and I stayed up until the sun came out.

Random moments:

- The only Asian most people know is Japanese, and they yell "ey, Japones" (ya-pohn-nays) and they do a bow sometimes...

- One guy was asked, Japanese (with a bow accompanying the question)? And he said no, Vietnam. And the asker says, "Oohhh" (while making the gun symbol with both hands and firing it into the air!

- People liked me and Greg most when they thought we were Japanese. When we told them we were American we got a "Oh, American..." and they'd turn around and ignore us

- Greg and I did our best to dispel stereotypes of uptight Asian people. We danced to cheers and applause in the middle of a dance circle :)

- The last night, David Guetta played the Black Eyed Peas' remix of "Time of My Life.." Yeah, that's about right.

- Greg was handed a flyer for a "California Cantina." The guy handing him the flyer is the son of Greg's Aunt's best friend. So random!

Best Quote: "Everyone's always dancing in Brazil, that's why I love it" - Greg Low <3

Carnaval is an amazing experience, but probably one I don't need to have again for a long while. It's exhausting to dance for seven days straight... I mean in the US, we do Bay to Breakers for like a couple hours, ONCE a year. This is seven+ days straight of drinking, dancing, and debauchery. So I'm very happy that I went... I'm very happy to have survived it, and it's definitely a relief that it's over =)

Finally!

1st, Carnaval is here! I'm currently at the Sao Paolo airport waiting for my flight to Rio de Janeiro! I will spend three days in Rio and then fly to Salvador. Super excited to see two of the best celebrations of Carnaval in the world!! (Carnaval, btw, is what I planned my entire South America trip around.)

2nd, My first visitor is here! I'll get to spend the last days of Carnaval in Bahia with Mr. Gregory Low! Hi Greg!!

3rd, Pictures are up! Pretty much every single picture that I've taken since I started my trip is uploaded and ready for viewing on flickr! (Okay, so some of them need to be rotated.... but the point is, they're up!) Available for viewing: Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Wedding, Manado), Argentina (Mar del Plata, Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia, El Calafate, El Chalten, San Carlos de Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta), Chile (Puerto Natales-Torres del Paine, Osorno, Pucon, Santiago, Valparaiso-Vina del Mar), Antarctica (all ports and ship life), and Bolivia (Atacama-Uyuni trip, Potosi, Sucre). See links on the right side of the page or visit flickr.com/kwiesbrock .

Might be out of touch because of Carnaval but an update on Bolivia and Carnaval will be coming eventually. Hope you all are well!