Hot Link

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/travel/11party.html?scp=1&sq=florianopolis&st=cse


Wish you were here!!!!

(Rest assured that nothing will be left on the table...except the rest of my budget I will need for the remaining months...maybe)

TCHAU!!

Feeling warm and fozzy in Iguaçu

This is hopefully the only whirlwind period in my voyage. After spending a considerable amount of time in Buenos Aires, I have made it safe and sound to the border region of Iguaçu. You can see why Brasil and Argentina each wanted a piece of this paradise! My flight out of BA was at 7am. This allowed me enough of a window to get to my hostel after the 2hr flight, visit the Argentine side of the falls, spend one night, and get to Brasil the following day (today). What wasn´t helpful : My hostel in Buenos Aires had a rooftop bbq gala on my final night so I stayed up until 2am practicing my portuguese drunk talk (yet again) with the sizeable brasilian contingent staying there with me. On two hours of sleep, I was still able to make my connections and got to my next hostel no problem. Since I was a little tired I decided to sign up for a guided tour. Part of the tour included a power raft trip under the falls. It was a nice way to wake up on a hot day. Crossing the border today into Brasil was interesting. I took a bus and we all got off to go through outgoing Argentine custom formalities. When we got to the Brasilian office, I was singled out and had to go to immigrations. I thought this was weird because I know for a fact there were other Americans/Foreigners/Gringos on the same bus...anyway they were really nice to me there (much like at the Consulate in SF). Most of the officials were teenage/early 20´s and they gave me good directions to my next hostel. The Brasilian side of the park offers great perspective of the entire waterfall system whereas the Argentine side allows you to get more up close. This may be evident in my facebook pictures (if you want to see more pics of my trip I recommend you sign up for a free facebook account). I have a 16 hour bus ride tommorow night to Florianópolis. It is definitely going to be worth the ride. I will be able to hang up my clothes and thusly not have to live out of a suitcase for at least6 weeks! My stay there will allow me just enough time to visit all of the 42 beaches around the city (I think). I am going to live just a short walk away from my school with a Brasilian family; consisting of a single mother who has a daughter. Her parents live in the lower level of the house. I am interested to see how living in a family dynamic will work out and I am excited to get there as I have already made contacts in this city outside of my school. There should be plenty to keep me busy. See you from there!!!

Uruguay..¿¿what can I say??

Uruguay was kind of lame. Well maybe that´s not fair to say. Montevideo was kind of lame. Very laid back. The whole freaking town was empty as it is summer vacation and seemingly everyone had made it to the ocean beaches to the east (such as world famous Punta del Este). Punta del Este did not seem like my kind of place upon research. Punta del Diablo sounded good as it is less crowded and overblown but it is way out to the northeast near the Brasilian border. My itin. has me re-entering Brasil at Foz de Iguaçu so going out to Diablo was not an option. This is the part of my itin. where I do not have any flexibility and I must admit that I think I have stayed in Buenos Aires/Montevideo a bit too long. Oh well travellings a tough life sometimes :) Anyhoo I made the most of it. Montevideo is kind of like BA only a little less lustrious and not as well planned. My first full day I rented a bike from my hostel and rode around downtown and then out to a beach closer to the city. The water is protected by a harbor which amounted to little waves and brownish water. People still swim though. Maté is huge in Uruguay. All through the day you see men and women with their little maté bongs in one hand and a thermos of hot water in the other. You can even take them on the bus...¡¡¡amazing!!! The coolest thing about Montevideo was the barwomen at my hostel. She was really nice and fun and easy to talk with. That pretty much sums it up...oh yeah..I had a hellish period of about 40 minutes on my first night in Montevideo when I thought I had lost my wallet...Turned out it was hidden in my bed covers but it made me realize that I have been carrying too many valuables on me. Needless to say I will be planning ahead from here on out. I am back in BA now and thank goodness. Today I splurged and decided to get a much needed massage. I had the hostel receptionist refer me somewhere and made sure that he mentioned that I needed my feet worked on. I get there for my 1 pm appt. and there are 2 therapists waiting for me!! 1 hour of complete bliss where it felt like I was either an aritists canvass or underwater only cost me about$32 usd. Not too bad. Oh yeah and to top off my most hedonistic day ever....I went out with some hostel people from PDX to have some Kobe steak at about 11pm last night. Complete bliss..good thing I´m doing a lot of walking!

I fly to the waterfalls on Thursday before taking a 14 hour bus ride to Floripa on Saturday night. Vejo-te de la!!

Tchau

Beautiful Buenos Aires

There are so many things to like about Buenos Aires. I knew right away that this was my kind of town. Good public transportation, relatively clean in most areas, great weather, nightlife, daytime markets/fairs, a strong dollar and an attractive spanish heritage with a considerable italian influence i.e. the women here are amazingly beautiful! My hostel is quite different than the last one in Rio. The vibe isn´t as cool but it has way more amenities, such as posh rooftop bar! Another thing I love about this place are all of the parks and squares where you can relax and let time stop for a bit. No wonder everyone here eats dinner at 11pm and parties until 4am! Speaking of which a funny thing that happened earlier this week was I woke up from a long nap. I saw the sun shining in and the Italian couple sharing my room told me it was Saturday morning. I went on believing this for the next 45 minutes or so. It was cool gaining 12 hours right before I joined a group from the hostel on the way to a tango club in the trendy neighboorhood of Palermo. We paid a nominal entry fee of 16 pesos (about $4-5 usd) and they gave us a short tango lesson before a professional show was put on. My dance partner was very patient, thankfully, as I had a bad experience back in Rio where the woman thought it was a joke and wanted her money back...anyway

I think its understandable that when you and a lot of your hostel mates are kind of on the same backpacking circuit that its possible to run into eachother in other cities. I ran into a recently engaged Irish couple in La Boca and also a German MC at a club in Palermo. These were all people I met originally in Rio about 2 weeks ago. Something a bit more strange and a larger testement to it being a small world afterall: When I first arrived at my hostel I recognized a guy who had stayed at the same hostel as me in BARCELONA..a year and a half ago!!! He didn´t remember me and he was a little freaked out....I think he might have OCD too which didn´t make it any better for him....too bad.

I still need to eat some good Argentine steak....thankfully I have 6 more nights to go. I leave for Uruguay on thursday morning and will return to BA for 4 nights more before flying to the Brasilian border at Foz de Iguaçu. One annoyance about BA is that due to the fianancial crises there is a...get this...Coin shortage?? Its hard to make change for the bus and Ive already had some arguments with counter people to give me coins instead of bills. Whatever.

If you desire to travel to Latin America and maybe are a bit wary of crime, cleanliness etc... I would recommend BA. Its a great city and people are really nice (but there is no beach).

Going Boho

The most exciting part of my last week in Rio has been my hostel. It is located in Santa Teresa which is a historic neigboorhood filled with ornate houses often times occupyied by artisans, musicians etc.. The hostel definitely retains that vibe in large part by the guests it attracts. My first night was a thursday. I was having some whisky at the roof top bar and practicing my Portuguese with some people from São Paulo. I turn around and there is a line up of muscians by the pool. The percussion instrument was akin to a calypso or steel drum in sound but was not as large. Another hippie guy played a half assed bongo. There was a Vancouverite on acoustic guitar and singing. The guy who called it all together was a trumpet player from Amsterdam but the purveyor of the whole jam was on the motherfreakin digereedoo!! They improvised the whole time and it was a blast.

It was advantageous that I stayed off the beach this week as they weather was not steller. We are about 10 mins walking from Lapa and I made sure to make it to the original samba club on a sunday night to shake my booty. It was cool. Other than that this week has been pretty low key. I met a lot of cool people at this hostel (see photo), and I may return here when I stop through Rio before I return home. Buenos Aires here I come! Hasta Luego!!

Feliz ano novo!

Happy New Year everyone! Has all of the snow melted yet? Anyway my first week in Rio has had some good highlights:
I maladjusted to the time difference by staying out until Madrugada (5am) my first night. My friend Rodrigo was having a hellish day (car trouble) and told me he was only going to have 4 glasses of wine in a relatively tranquil neighboorhood in the zona sul, which was where the hostel was located. Another friend of his joined us and we convinced Rodrigo to go to the historic bohemian neighboorhood closer to downtown called Lapa (which is where my current hostel is near). This automatically translates into staying out until Madrugada. It was a funny night.

My Bday was interesting. I went out by myself (which I do quite often) to the main city on the east side of Guanabara Bay called: Niteroi. The best thing about this city are the views of Rio (see my facebook). During the day, I walked waaay too much and did not eat nearly enough. When I got back to the hostel after sundown, none of my traveler friends were there and I almost started to feel a little down. Two attractive Brasilian women were on there way out at the time so I ran into reception and demanded in Portuguese to be sent out to do something. The guy at reception told me to go with the girls, who were on there way out to a samba school. One of them was actually the host and the other a guest. I payed the nominal activity fee and was ¨picked up¨. On the van ride, it was quickly apparent that I was the only gringo in the group. I introuduced myself and told everyone that it was my Bday and was immediatly serenaded by the Brasilian Bday song. The Samba School :Salgeiro was freakin insane. They played various musical styles and even gave a shoutout to all the Bday people in the house! We were supposed to stay out until 12:30....we returned at 3a. Im not saying that Ill keep this pace up forever put I am having fun this first week.

New Years....well maybe I should not admit this but it was a bit anticlimatic. I went out with the hostel group. I lost them on the beach! To salvage the situation...I just sat next to a single gal on the beach named Barbara. It was good portuguese practice and at least I got a hug at new years! Whoo hoo 2009!

Staying with so many world travelers means that the majority of conversations are in English. This obviously does not bode well for my portuguese/culture immersion. I am looking forward to my class starting in about 2 weeks in the lovely beach town of Florianopolis!

The weather has been a bit iffy...the first sunny day I witnessed a mass exodus to the beach. The scene at Ipanema is nothing to mess with... a lot of eye contact and smiling..its nice.

Im glad that I have so much time. There is less pressure to see everything at once and just FYI Im thinking Ill leave the Cristo Redentor (Christ Statue) out until I return to Rio in May. (less rain and crowds).

Sorry for the delay on this post. Im planning to post maybe once a week so stay tuned!

Tchau e um abraço

Mike