A musical goodbye

You know sometimes you meet someone and you just become instant friends? That is what happened with us and Mark, a South African guy we met at our hostel in Buenos Aires a couple of months ago. He is traveling around South America for a year surfing. Fortunately for us, fate brought us together once again when he spent the last month or so in Rio.

Last week, he took off for Colombia to complete the last 2 months of his trip so we were invited to a going away party for him at the place he was staying. The people he stayed with are all musicians and we spent the whole night listening, singing, and attempting to play the various instruments they had lying around. One was a metal bucket that they had drilled screws into so you could play it like a drum. There was also a small keyboard that worked like an accordion with a plastic tube you would blow into while pushing the keys. I managed to remember part of my 7 years of piano training but would forget to blow on the tube to make it play!



The night ended with Mark playing American Pie on the guitar and everyone crowding around him to sing at full voice. It was spectacular and a wonderful way to send off a good friend that I hope to see again, sometime, somewhere.

More things Brazilians are obsessed with

-Dancing
*anything, anytime, anywhere

-Ticket system
*When you enter a bar or store, you are given a ticket. you then get the things that you want to buy, and they mark it on your ticket. Then you pay when you leave Problem: sometimes people consume a little more than they can afford and are then stuck begging to their friends to pay their bill so they can leave. Also, if you lose your ticket they usually have a minimum price that you must pay which is somewhere in the REDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE category. No pressure or anything. (PS- Brittany, you would not survive haha)

-Inefficiency/Job Creation
*To go along with the ticket system, this often means that you must wait in two different lines. For example, when I need to buy something from the bookstore at school, I must first wait in a line to get my ticket. Then I take the ticket to a different line, where I then wait to pay. The only upside I see to this is that more people are employed. If anyone can think of a more logical reason for this, please, tell me :)

-Butterfly Hairclips
*Yeah, remember those hairclips that make it look like a butterfly is perched on your head? They love em. Come on guys, that was sooo 6th grade. :)

-Spandex
*You would think the extremely hot temperatures would prevent people from wanting to wear extremely tight clothing, but it seems to be quite the opposite. Not only do you see way to much of some people, but this also makes it acceptable for men to go running in nothing but a tight, brightly colored speedo. Bahhh.

This island is BIG: Ilha Grande

With another 5 day weekend this past week, we had been discussing places to travel for weeks. First it was the Amazon, then the Pantanal, than Minas Gerais, than Búzios, and we finally decided on Ilha Grande two days prior. On Thursday, we literally woke up, drove to the bus station and looked for bus tickets to head the 3 hours south to the point where we can catch the ferry over to the island.

The history of Ilha Grande is pretty interesting. First, it was a pirate hideout, then a place to smuggle slaves. Then it became a leper colony because ships would drop off their contagious passengers on the island and leave them. Next, a prison was built to house criminals. Because of it’s tumultuous past the island still does not have much development to this day. Many people are wary of building in a place with such a dark history. I didn’t find it dark at all, in fact, it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Me and seven others arrived at the island close to dusk without a place to stay for the evening. Luckily, William, a French ex-pat who started a hostel 6 years ago met us and coerced us into the jungle with him to his cute little hostel. We had a whole cabin to ourselves… well, expect for the killer mosquitoes. We ended up sleeping three to a bed under a mosquito net and STILL managed to get eaten alive.

The next day we still had no plans, and set out for the only town on the island (consisting of about 2 streets). The only things existing on these streets are hostels, restaurants, and tourist companies. Luckily for us, that is all we needed. It wasn’t long before we were approached by a hostel worker who told us about a boat cruise that was leaving in an hour that would stop at 3 different beaches and 2 lagoons. A live band and free food and drinks were all he had to say. We were there. The rest of the day we spent jumping off the top deck of our 2-level pontoon boat, dancing to the Argentinean rock music the band was playing, and swimming in the crystal clear water. We had an absolute blast.

The next morning it was raining very hard, and we didn’t know what to do. We ended up hanging out at our hostel until mid-day when the rain stopped, and then heading down to the beach to take a water taxi to the most famous beach on the island, Lopes Mendes. Lopes Mendes beach was ranked one of the Top 10 Beaches in the World one year, a fact that you hear from every local’s mouth. To get there, you have to take a boat about 30 minutes from the town and then hike another half hour or so. The only problem was, we didn’t know about the hike part and one of our friends had a nearly broken ankle. The short hike turned into nearly an hour while Johannes hobbled up the steep hills aided by a makeshift crutch bamboo stick.

The beach was better than I expected! I spent the whole day watching the ocean because I was too scared of the massive waves to get in. We also relived our childhoods by jumping around and climbing all of the rocks in sight. Overall, it was a great trip and I hope to return on a weekend with better weather to spend more time there.

Just another day in paradise..

I just had a wonderful run on the beach this morning. Jamming to some great songs, I prayed and reflected on everything that is happening in my life right now. The sun was shining and everyone was out walking, running, playing soccer, lounging on the beach, and drinking cold coconuts at the little huts all along the beach. The newness of the environment wore off a couple of months ago, but I still have moments (like this morning) when I just think, “Wow, I’m really here right now.” Weekends are a time to spend with family for most Brazilians, so it is common to see grandma, grandpa, mom, and dad, strolling along the beach while several little children run around their legs. Sometimes it really makes me miss my family. I love you guys!

The most Brazilian weekend you can imagine

This weekend was INCREDIBLE. I think what made it so great was that I hung out with Brazilians the whole time and practically spoke only Portuguese the entire weekend. It was great. I feel like I’m really improving my speaking skills and it’s really exciting. Here is a quick recap of the weekend:

Thursday (yes, the weekend starts on Thursday ☺ )
We met up with Mark, a South African friend we met at our hostel in Buenos Aires. He has been surfing all around South America for nearly a year and is on his final stretch in Rio and then to Colombia. It is so cool that we can still keep in contact with people that we have met on our travels here! In fact, the same night we also met up with a guy that owned the hostel we stayed at in Florianopolis just 2 weeks ago. He was in Rio doing promotions for his hostel! What a small world ☺

Friday night
Went to a Brazilian girl’s birthday party and danced funk at a club in centro at 10pm. The place was three stories, had dancers on a stage and videos of surfers on all the TV’s (kind of random, but cool haha). It felt like a 2am rage at 10pm and I knew it was going to be a good night. Then we went to Lapa (another area of the city with lots of bars, clubs, and outdoor places to hang out). As we were wondering up one of the side streets, we stumbled across this little parking lot that had been transformed (via a bar in a corner and a loud speaker system) into a Forró dancing place. I think I have fallen in love with Forró music. It is a lot like country/folk music and the dance is so much fun. Check out this link to see what I mean→ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dprByOLIxB4. We danced until 5:30am… sleep is overrated. Here is another link to some cool information on Forró: http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/forro_720/en_US

Saturday
I went straight to our university from Lapa for an all-day field trip with the International Program to a farm 2 hours outside of Rio. Thank goodness we had 2 hours to sleep on the bus ☺ The farm was really cool. It is actually a hotel, ecological preserve, and farm (cattle and they make their own minas cheese). There was so much to do there we couldn’t possibly get bored. I zip-lined from a really tall platform about 100 meters (wait, am I using the metric system now? Haha) into the lake. There were also a ton of obstacle-course like things to do over the lake as well. If you fell, which I definitely did, you fell into the lake! We also played volleyball, slept by the pool, and did a hick version of a slip-and-slide, complete with a tarp, soap, and a hose. It was a wonderful day!

Sunday
Sunday afternoon I was invited by my Brazilian friend to a family birthday party in a north suburb of Rio. The hour and a half bus ride north passed by miles and miles of slums, for as far as the eye can see. It is incredible how big of a difference there is between the area I live in, and other parts of the city. Because the birthday boy happened to be a HUGE Flamengo soccer team fan, and the party happened to be on the night of the Rio championship soccer match, of course the birthday was Flamengo themed. A bright red Flamengo cake and red and black balloons adorned the backyard. When we arrived in the middle of the game, the entire party was crowded around a 15” TV monitor, sitting on a stool in a corner of the patio and people were SCREAMING at the TV. I have never seen so much passion in my life. We ate some churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) while pretending to be absorbed in the game as well. The owners of the house support Botofogó (the opposing team), so when Botofogó won, the (very drunk) man did a belly-flop into the pool, then started popping all of the birthday balloons screaming about being the champions. The game was quite a buzz kill for the party because everyone was so pissed off after, but an hour and a couple drinks later, everyone was back to having a great time.

The people we met were so incredibly friendly. The woman who lived there gave us a full tour of her home, invited us on a family day-trip, and invited us back for a family dinner! Overall, it was another wonderful weekend in Rio.

Surviving a Natural Disaster

If you haven’t been following the news, let me fill you in. Rio just had the worst flooding it has seen in recent history. It rained HARD for over 48 hours and on and off for 3 days after that. So far, 180 people have been confirmed dead (mostly due to mudslides) and hundreds more are still unaccounted for. No one could go to school or work because all the streets were flooded. My host brother told me he has never seen it this bad. The lake just down the street from me completely flooded its banks, which no one can remember ever happening before. Water stood in some streets over 5 feet high. Although for many people this was merely a inconvenience because they could not get to work, for people who live in favelas or up on the mountains, it was VERY dangerous.

For 2 days I couldn’t leave my apartment because the street outside was a rushing river of trash infested water. My school canceled classes for the entire week because of electrical problems. Luckily, Rio has a great system of street cleaners and the roads were pretty clean a few hours after the heaviest rain stopped. Apparently, the drainage system in this city is not large enough to handle the amount of rain that they get. Every time it rains hard, it floods. The difference this time was that it rained in 2 days what it usually rains in 1 month!

Here is a link to a news report: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/08/world/international-us-brazil-floods.html?_r=1&ref=americas.

To see more pictures watch this slideshow, which includes many of the places I see everyday: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/0,,GF81194-5606,00-VEJA%20IMAGENS%20DAS%20CHUVAS%20NO%20RIO%20DE%20JANEIRO.html

Hopefully they fix this problem before the World Cup and Olympics!

Easter Break in Floripa

For Easter break, three friends and I headed off to Florianópolis (aka: Floripa), a beautiful beach city on an island in the south of Brazil. It is a famed vacation and honeymoon destination because it has over 40 beaches on the island, many of which are only accessible by boat.

Me and one other friend decided to save some cash and bus the 18 hours down on Wednesday after teaching English. Unfortunately, we underestimated how long it would take to get to the bus station and between that and the horrendous Rio traffic; we missed our bus by 15 minutes! The bus company helped us switch our plans to take a 12-hour bus to Curitiba, and then a connecting bus to Floripa. The next afternoon, we arrived at our (AMAZING) hostel called Tucano House, run by a brother and sister who are not much older than I am. One day while his mother was at work, Caiel (the brother) knocked down a wall in the house that he grew up in, and told his mom he was converting it into a hostel. That was 2 ½ years ago, and since then, the hostel has one numerous awards; most recently, they were named “Best Hostel in South America.” They make wonderful home cooked meals for the guests every night, organize beach trips during the days and trips to clubs/bars in the area every night. At the hostel, we met up with our other two friends who had flown there, had a delicious sushi dinner at the hostel, and went out to a very fancy club with the people we met in our hostel.

Friday, we spent the day at a secluded beach called Solidão (Portuguese for “longing”) playing frescoball (kinda like ping pong without the table), hiking to a beautiful waterfall and swimming in the cool pool beneath, and sleeping on the beach. On the way home, the bus driver suggested we stop at a well-known “cachaça factory.” Cachaça is sugar-cane rum that is the signature drink of Brazil. For the next 45 minutes, our van climbs further and further up into the mountains surrounding the beach. At one point, we all had to jump out of the van so that it could make it up the steep dirt road. Finally, we wander down to a farmer’s barn. However, this was no ordinary barn. This was a straight up moonshine barn. The walls were lined with 2-liter coke bottles, jars, kegs, and even GASOLINE CANS full of homemade cachaça of different kinds.



We tried several different kinds including mango, banana, passion fruit, apple, and straight 80% cachaça (which he even poured on a table and lit on fire as some kind of proof that it could probably run a car). Only in Brazil… Later that night we had the most delicious seafood at a local restaurant. We ordered the island specialty “Progression of Shrimp” in which plates of shrimp prepared different ways are brought out one at a time. After eating so much beans and rice in Rio, the flavors were greatly appreciated!

Saturday, we took a boat to Campete Island to hang out for the day. The island closes every Easter for the fall/winter season because it is a very protected island and they want to preserve the vegetation there. Pulling up to the island, I nearly had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. The water was crystal clear and blue. The white sand gleamed in the sun and dark, beautifully shaped rocks jutted out from the sides of the beach, and the remainder of the island was forest. Yachts docked in the shallow water and people lounged on the beach. We passed the whole afternoon enjoying the beautiful sunny day and again eating more seafood at one of the two restaurants on the island.



Our last night on the island, we joined the organized hostel trip to a club via two party buses to the mainland 1 ½ hours away. The club was actually built IN A CAVE. They had three dance floors, each playing different types of music and each in a different cave. It was incredible! We stayed out all night dancing and went straight to the beach when we got back before catching our bus back to Rio. We had 18 hours to sleep on the bus so might as well sleep then, right?

Overall it was a wonderful trip filled with great food, amazing beaches, good conversation, and great friends. What a great way to pass the Easter holiday ☺