Saturday, August 29, 2009

Back in Bolivia

I crossed the border of Brazil and Bolivia yesterday. It was a long trip, my flight got into Campo Grande at about 10:30pm and then I took a taxi to the bus station and an overnight bus to Corumbá. I got in at 6am but I had to wait two hours to get an exit stamp from Brazil so I could enter Bolivia. A bus and taxi ride later I was in. The officer at the border made sure I understood I was to stay no longer than 30 days and that I couldn't return until next year. So, I will have to go to the immigration office in Santa Cruz to look into getting an extension on my visa. If you overstay there is usually a fee when you cross the border to enter another country but since Im leaving from the airport it may not even matter.

I realized I am much more comfortable here, in Bolivia. When I was in Brazil I didn't notice immediately how much more difficult it was travelling in a place where I didn't speak the language. I was always able to communicate what I needed somehow, whether it be in Spanish, English, or broken Portuguese, but it is much less stressful (and embarrassing) when you can communicate with locals easily. The hostel here is great, there are only 3 guests so I practically have the whole place to myself.

There is a huge pool and it is right on the edge of the Pantanal. I was relieved to find that it is hot here because some of the places I visited in Brazil were quite cold. The only bad thing is that the mosquitoes come out at sunset but I will just have to get used to it because in a few weeks Ill be back at the park. At least I can hide in my room or in the common areas here. Tomorrow I will be taking the `Death Train` to Santa Cruz (15 hours). It earned its name in the 80´s when locals used it to transport contraband and sat on the roof. When the train derailed, which happened frequently, people often fell of and died. Its much safer now, and I will most definitely not be riding on the roof ;)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Curitiba, Brazil

Im leaving Curitiba today to fly to Campo Grande and Ive had a lot of fun here the past 4 days. Im staying with Mariana´s sister, Flavia. Her apartment is located right in the downtown area so it has been very convenient. Ive done a lot of sightseeing here but Ive also been quite a bit of of shopping and eating. :) Our first night we ate at a really cool pasta place where you select the type of pasta you want, the sauce, and the other ingredients and they cook it for you right there. (Sortof like Fire and Ice except its faster and a lot cheaper!) Ive also had delecious gelato, cheese bread, and other brazilian desserts. We also discovered a lunch place called ´Green Time´ that only serves food grown locally and organically. We´re eating lunch there today for the second time this week. The other day we went on a mission to find a shirt I saw with a jaguar on it in the correct size. After three malls it was a sucess :D

Flavias soccer team was playing on Sunday and I went to the game with her and and friend. It was a close game but Atlético won in the end; The game was similar to the one I went to in Florence - sports fanatics in the US cant even compare. The visiting teams fans never even come in contact with the home teams fans. They have seperate entrances and their section is blocked off an guarded by two rows of security guards!

Curitiba is famous for its pioneering transportation. They have the most effective public tranit in all of Brazil and the city is considered a global model for efficiancy. I took the Tourist Line which was an awesome deal. It takes you all over the city to 24 places of interest to tourist and you can get on and off the bus which they tell you a little bit about what you´re looking at. This is also the coldest city in Brazil and its the winter here so it was a little chilly on the top of the bus. Im glad that Im heading inland and their winder is coming to an end! One of the stops I got off the bus at was the German Woods. They have memorials all over the city to each ethinic group that has immigrated here. In the german woods there is a trail you can follow telling the story of Hansel and Gretel.

Ive just finished a book called The Omniviores Dilemas and it was one of the best books Ive read recently. It was about where our food in America comes from. Very interesting, and a little disturbing. I highly recommend it to anyone who makes a concerted effort to eat healthy! The author, Michal Polin has a new book called In Defense of Food that Im looking forward to reading when I come home.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Southern Coast

The past few days Ive been on the Southern Coast of Brazil in Balneário Camboriu and Florianapolis. I started out in Pouso Alegre where I met my friend Mariana. The night before we left we had a big Mexican themed dinner party (she just returned from Mexico)and the food was delicious. We had to leave at 3am to get the bus to the airport and we arrived in Navegantes. We took another bus to Balneário Camboriu which is a city on the coast. We ate at a really great restaurant on the beach here. Lunch was $7 each ;) There was an awesome view at night of an island near the coast that they lit up at sunset.

Yesterday we went to a little museum about the Tamar Project which is run by an organization that is working on preventing sea turtle from becoming extinct. Today we hung out by the pool in the morning and went to the beach in the afternoon. The place we´re staying, Backpackers Sunset Hostel is by far the most amazing hostel Ive ever stayed in! Its on a cliff overlooking Lagoa Conceição and the views are amazing. This is us at breakfast.

And me on the rocks at the beach ... I was the only person in the ocean without a wetsuit. (But I think the water at the beachs at home is much colder!) The beach we were at is very popular with surfers so there are tons of them even in the winter (now).

We did come across a depressing sight while we were walking on the beach though. We saw four dead penguins and could not figure out what happened. We asked someone at our hostel if it was common and Unfourtunately is it. The penguins swim north from antarctica during the winter months in search of food. On the way a large percentage of them come in contact with oil pollution from large ships transporting international goods. The oil is not concentrated enough in the water to kill them immediatedly but it eats away at the protective coating of their feathers and most eventually die and wash up along the southern beaches of Brazil :(

Monday, August 17, 2009

Parati é o paraíso

I made a last minute decision to visit Parati for 2 days because Juliana and Camilia have work and school and I saw most of Sao Paulo during the week. I'm so happy I came! Parati is a small town on the coast north of Sao Paulo in the state of Rio. I took an overnight bus and arrived this morning. The BBQ last night was awesome I had a lot of fun and met a lot of cool people. I was a little sad to leave Sao Paulo though.

The weather here is perfect, it was 90 and sunny. I walked around an old fort and then went to the beach. Later on I decided to explore the old town. They had some of the most interesting shops and artist I´ve seen so far in all of South America. One of them had really cool acrylic and resin designs.







I also discovered a self serve ice cream sundae place where you can get as much as you want and they weight it to determine the price. Mine was about $5 but I definitely got my money´s worth ;) Tomorrow I´ll be taking the bus to Pouso Alegre, a town in the state of Minas Gereis. Mariana lives here and we´re going to Florianapolis on Thursday morning. Hopefully I can upload my pictures to Picasa while I'm at her house!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Sightseeing!

I had a full day of tourist activities today. I made breakfast at my hostel and then took the Metro to the "Luz" station. It's a beautiful building and it was actually assembled in England and then disassembled and sent to São Paulo. There was a very interesting museum there - the Museum of Portuguese Language. They had great exhibits but unfortunately I was limited in understanding a lot because nothing was in English or Spanish. After that I went to the Pinacoteca (literally means picture gallery) which was a museum that housed all different types of media by brazilian artists. There was a huge whale made out of denim material. There was also a unique textiles exhibit by the artist Norberto Nicola.
I took a break and walked around the park next to the museum which was really nice because they had all different kinds of sculptures and trees in it. Then I decided to head back in the direction of the hostel and walked through the downtown area. I got a really cute pair of shoes too for about $7 USD!

After a lot of walking around I went back to the hostel to make dinner and decided to stay in for the night because tomorrow will be my last day in Sao Paulo. I'll be posting the rest of my pictures soon, look for a link on the right side of the page :)

Friday, August 14, 2009

I´ve arrived in Brazil!

I had an overnight flight on Monday that arrived Tuesday morning in São Paulo, a city near the coast in the southern part of Brazil. It is the middle of the winter here and I didn´t realize how cold it can get sometimes! Most days are between 70 and 80 but it can drop down to the 50´s at night. I´ve been having a great time with my friends here. Two of them live in the city and I'm going to the country to visit my other friend, Mariana next week. It is Camila´s birthday so we have been celebrating all week. We went to play pool (it´s called a Snooker Bar) the night I got in and last night we went to a Latin club and went salsa dancing. I had a lot of fun and I managed not to injure my dancing partners!! I´ve also been learning a little Portuguese because although many people can understand Spanish they often don't speak it. I haven´t had any trouble communicating with Juliana and Camila´s friends because most of them speak Spanish or English. On Sunday Camila´s parents are having a big barbecue for her birthday so I will get to eat a lot of tasty Brazilian food this weekend :) Next week I will take the bus to Pouso Alegre (a town in the countryside) to visit Mariana. I´ll be doing a little more traveling in Brazil before I head to Bolivia. And, if you´re interested in reading about the park there was an article written by an journalist I met when I was there in this months Outside magazine about it. You can read it online here. There are links to my pictures from the park on the right side of this page.



Where are you in the world?