The Travel Curse Strikes Again

The last time I came to Brasil, I got sick from some bad food. This time, I picked up a suck-ass head cold from some loser on the airplane ride over here. I remember him, sitting four seats to me left, sniffling and snarfing and coughing all the way over the gulf of mexico and the carribean.

So day before yesterday, I got a runny nose with sneezing, which quickly became a good head cold that moved down into my upper chest. As a result, I didn't really do much yesterday except go out for dinner with Tatiana. The bright side is that a) there are like three pharmacies on every block here and b) very few of the pharmaceutical offerings require a prescription. So, I purchased some high octane cold buster/ cough stuff and it has been working fairly well. Today I felt much better, and so I spent the morning on Ipanema beach getting sunburned and drinking caipirinhas. 

I have lots more pix to show you guys, but not a lot of time to sit and upload them all. Soon, I promise.  

Let the Sunshine In!!

Finally, the sun burned its way through the cloud layers today, so I was able to head out to one of Rio's famous landmarks: Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf). This thing is really old and really cool - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain_(Brazil)  for more info.

Here are some shots of / from this place:

Sugarloaf peak, seen from the main boulevard in Copacabana beach.

Heading to the top in a cable car

Copacabana Beach, seen from the peak

Tatiana took a million pictures!

Looking down at Botofogo beach and neighborhood. The famous statue Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) is on the sharp peak to the upper left

If the weather holds out, I'll make another foto excursion tomorrow - up to the Cristo Redentor statue. However, the forecast does not look good enough to do that until Friday.

Stay tuned.......

Weather foo

So the weather has not been cooperating. The whole time I have been here, it has been cloudy and/or raining - and usually about 80-85 degrees with 70-80% humidity. Sticky. 

I have also been remiss about fotos. I didn't take my camera with me for much of what I have done so far, and last night Tatiana brought her camera but forgot the battery in the charger!! ha ha ha!

I tried my luck at another irish pub-style bar here. If you have read all of this journal, you know that my last visit to an irish pub in Brasil didn't work out so well - they were out of Guiness, and I got sick with food poisoning that night as well. Well, last night was much better. There was all the Guiness I could drink, and the night was fun, and I didn't get sick.

Another thing: they always have some live music in these bars, and strangely its always american songs. The singers know the words, but they seem to have learned the lyrics phonetically - because they don't always get it right. But still, it's nice to hear familiar tunes. 

Last night, there was a group playing in the irish pub, and as they were getting warmed up, the guitarist was playing a familiar Hendrix riff (Little Wing) and playing it beautifully! They launched into the actual song and did it fair justice (as good as a white Brazilian singing phonetically can). But then, just as I was warming up to this little band for the nice opening, they broke into "Mustang Sally" and ruined EVERYTHING. Not that they played it badly: the problem was the song choice. Especially right after showing some Hendrix chops. It was like "hey, listen to us, we're pretty good, we know our shit - and now we're going take a shit all over you with a boring club song. Enjoy!"

Anyway, it is hot and rainy again, and i just got back from an open air farmers / crafts weekend market in the park. I'm hot and tired and sticky, so I'm going to take a cool shower and just chill for a while.

More later - 

  

Brasil Reduex

Hello all - 

I am here in Brasil again - this time, in Rio de Janeiro. I got in this afternoon, ran a bunch of errands, went to a birthday party, and now I'm exhausted. I'll post something more, with fotos, tomorrow.

More later -  

Hey, there's more to come.....

Hello! 

This blog is not yet dead. There will be more content soon! The best part.....this will be NEW content. Yes, that's right folks, your magnanimous host is heading back to Brazil. Soon. Next week, in fact.

I am going to Rio de Janeiro this time. I will be spending spring break there hanging out with Tatiana (see "Here comes the rain...again..." from January 9, and "Life is a zero sum game" from January 13), who lives in Ipanema and is going to show me all the cool things to see in Rio. Stay tuned!

Catching up a bit

Hello again - 

I am back in Reno now - but the fun is not yet over! I have more to say about my time in Brasil, and more photos to show you. Also, an added bonus in this edition: video! That's right boys and girls, I made a few movies while I was there. You'll see. But first....

There is more to the sights in Florianopolis than just beaches and sunshine. The nights can be quite beautiful as well. 

Baia Norte, the north channel between the island and the mainland, seen from the Joao Paulo neighborhood on the island. The light in the distance is the town of Biguacu, on the mainland.

I stayed in a nice little apartment for the second part of my trip, in the seaside hamlet of Barra da Lagoa, located on the northeastern shore of the island. It was a complete apartment, with secure parking and nice decor, and...sporadic...internet access. Check it:

My place (just the ground floor!) and my nice but weak (1L engine!) Chevy Celta.

In the last few days of my time in Brasil, I made the rounds of several beaches on the north part of the island. There are some 42 beaches on the island! I had pie-in-the-sky plans of visiting all of them, but I got too busy with other things. Here are the spots I hit, in no particular order:

Praia Brava. Small but very nice. There is a well-known bar there, Kioske do Pirata, which regularly host world-famous parties.

Praia Barra da Lagoa (name scrawled in the sand). My home for two weeks. Pictured here is Luiza Da Silva and her dad, Professor Guilherme Da Silva (I took the pic. The one of me didn't turn out well).

Me on the rocks at Praia Joaquina.

Praia Canasvieras. High tide! There was maybe 10 meters of usable beach space that day.

Praia Jurere Internacional. Very posh locale, trying (and fairly well succeeding) to be the new Ibiza or Punto del Este. Pricey homes, fast cars, and world-class shopping to go with a world-class beach.

Praia Ponta Das Canas. Popular with families for its calm, clear, warm waters.

Praia Lagoinha. Another place with calm, clear waters, and some cool sand dunes to boot.

Praia do Santinho. Directly open to the sea, so it has great surfing.

Praia Mole. Known for its soft sand (too soft to draw the name in the sand!) and great surfing. It's a party beach popular with younger crowds, but the steep underwater drop-off just a few meters from the shore makes it a tricky place to swim sometimes. 

I spent many of my nights in and around the Lagoa de Conceicao area of the island, about halfway between the main part of the city (Centro Florianopolis) and Barra da Lagoa. Aside from all that Centro Floripa has to offer, it is the epicenter of night life on the north part of the island.

OK, that's all I have for right now. I'll probably make another post or two before all is said and done, so check back from time to time. I'll keep the site going for probably another month before I take it down.

More later - 

I have been a bit remiss...with reason....

Hello all - 

A short post to update you: I am home in Reno. Just got back a little while ago. The last few days I spent in Floripa were pretty busy, and my internet went down again, so I never got a chance to make new posts.

I am going to get a shower, unpack, relax a bit, and sometime tonight or tomorow I will post an after-action report of my last time in lovely Brasil. Stay tuned.

T.

Life is a zero sum game

I've always said that life is a zero sum game - for everything that is a positive, there must somewhere be a corresponding negative. Well, I have been having such a good time here that it was inevitable that something would come along to spoil the party.

That something has a two word name: bad mayonnaise.

I went out on the town Sunday night with Tatiana, Marcus, and Illeni, and found an Irish pub in downtown floripa...well, at least a reasonable Brazilian interpretation of one.....

A while later, we were hanging at a sidewalk nitespot on the main drag of the Beira Mar area (a condo and hotel-filled of Centro Florianopolis, right on the water).

Beira Mar

At some point, I started to feel sick to my stomach, and ended up spray-coating the inside of the bar toilet with my dinner. That's right, folks: food poisoning. Yay.

Tatiana dragged me home, and I spent the rest of the night and next morning forcibly expelling fluids from my body. I think we have all been there at some point in our lives, so no details need be provided. 

Anyway, I passed monday drinking Gatorade in a semi-feverish daze. It is now Tuesday morning, and although I feel like a soccer team practiced their goal-kicking on my stomach and lower back, I am bouncing back pretty well, and I think I'm going to get in the car and cruise the island today. Lots of beaches to see! I only have three more days left here, so I gotta get while the getting is good.

Thanks for taking care of my sorry ass, Tati!

 Tatiana, shortly before the night took a nasty turn.

Another beach....

I made it out to another beach today, Praiha Joaquina. It was supposed to be rainy today, but the drops never really fell - it was mostly overcast and about 80 degrees. A few pix:

On the rocks, Praiha Joaquina, Florianopolis, Brazil

I'm really starting to notice the small differences in the way things are done here. For example, when you order a drink with dinner (any kind, soda, beer, whatever) the garcon brings you a bottle and glass, opens the bottle for you, and then pours a quarter to a third of a glass for you. That's it. If you want more in your cup, it's up to you. Don't know why they do this.

Also, there are a hell of a lot of Argentines (locally, Argentinos) here. It's something akin to New Englanders flocking to Florida...if you don't have warm tropical beaches at your latitude, head south (here, it's head north). Brasilieros don't lilke Argentinos, and vice versa. Yet the place is practically overrun with Argentinos. 

One last thing, something I have debated bringing up. There is one little part of daily Brazilian life that does not make it in the travel brochures. It's not a big thing, but it does take some getting used to. Apparently, the Brazilian septic systems cannot handle paper. Of any kind. Even the soft stuff that comes in a roll and is usually found in a bathroom. Look:

 

See the little can on the left? It's not a trash bin. It is dedicated to being a receptacle for used paper. When you do your business and give yourself a wipe, you don't drop the paper and flush it away. You put it into the little can. It's why they ALWAYS have a lid, to prevent certain smalls from permeating the place. In a warm humid climate like this, it's necessary to change this thing out every day or two. 

Here comes the rain....again....

There is some bad weather heading this way again, just in time for the weekend. Tomorrow, I was going to go to the island of Campeche, but it looks like the weather is going to suck. Especially for a boat ride out in the ocean. Oh well.

On the bright side of things, I've made some new friends here - most noteably Tatiana (remember the song "The Girl from Ipanema"? well, she actually is from Ipanema, in Rio de Janiero), Marcus, and Roberta. They are all cousins and good friends of Maria, down here in Floripa visiting family. I've been going out with them when Maria was busy with other things, and having a good time. (photo, L-R: Roberta, yours truly, and Tatiana, at Priaha Brava).

Do you remember the movie "Almost Famous"? There is a scene in that movie where the singer of the band Stillwater (played by Billy Crudup) is at a house party with a bunch of adoring teenagers, and he is standing on the roof of the house, about to jump into the swimming pool below. At one point he spreads his arms out wide and shouts "I AM A GOLDEN GOD!"...well, earlier today I was looking at myself in the mirror, and that line came to mind, only slightly altered:

I AM A BRONZED GOD!!!

He he he just kidding. But I am getting a fantastic tan......

Internet foo 2

OK, so I have a little problem getting online. That is to say, the place I am staying does not have internet.

Well, that´s not true. It does. Wifi. The only problem is, my laptop and the router can talk to each other, but the goddamn router won´t let the internet flow into my netbook.

The person that owns the place I am staying at would probably be very helpful in resolving this issue, if it weren´t for the fact that I am never there when she is, and vice versa.

AGH!!!

So, I have to drive 10 miles to a cafe with free wifi if I wanna use my laptop to make posts.

I´ll try to get this ironed out soon, so I can post things more often.....

For now, soak this up:

Me, Marcus, and Tatiana on the town

A quick funny thing.....

I don't think I want to shop here.......

Internet Blues

Yesterday, I moved into an apartment that I rented in Barra da Lagoa. It´s a nice little place, clean, with secure off-street parking for this tiny little GM Celta I rented (well, it´s not the smallest car I´ve ever seen, but it has a itty bitty 1 liter engine...he he he).
Last night I went out with Marcus and his cousin Tatiana (visiting from Rio de Janiero right now), some good friends of Maria´s from way back. In order to go meet them, I had to make my first real attempt at navigating this place while actually driving - an interesting prospect since it was midnight before I left, and it was raining a bit.
However, persistence
has its rewards, and after a while I found them all, and had a pretty good rest of the night.
I think I crashed about 4 or 5 am, and got up at around 10. It was supposed to still be rainy here today, but when I looked outside I saw....sunshine. Blue skies. So. I threw on a t-shirt and my swim trunks and my Haviainas (basically, Brasilian flip-flops, very popular on the beach areas) and made my way out to the beach.
The beach here is mostly east-facing with a reverse j-hook at the southern end, and runs north to a point near the Rio Vermelho area, where this particular beach ends. It´s about 5 miles long from end to end. When I got out there, I started walking north. After a while, I ran. Then I walked some more. Then I ran some more. All the way out to the northern point, and back. round trip of roughly 8 miles, given where I actually started.

I have internet blues right now. My new place does not have wifi. Right now, I am in an internet cafe around the corner on a rent-by-the-minute desktop computer. Scary!

Tomorrow, I am heading north, on the mainland, to a place somewhere north of Camboriu where one of Maria´s aunts or uncles live. I don´t know exactly how long I will be gone, or if I will have internet access while there - so you might not hear form me for a little while. Don´t worry - I´ll be back.

No time for pleasantries....

Hello all - 

It's been a busy day, and a rainy day, and everything is running behind schedule, including me. Tonight Maria and Ana are going to pick me up and take me back out to Barra da Lagoa, and we are going to hit the local clubs. I'll be there all day tomorrow for another churrasco, and maybe back here in the central part of town tomorrow night. 

In any case, it might be a while until I post something else here. The weekend beckons. Beers await my drinking. Women await my attention.

I want to be ready. So I'm signing off now....catch you on the flipside.

Oh, one more pic, just for fun:

There's only one person on this entire planet that knows what this is, where it's from, and how it was obtained. For you, that one person, I have this to say:

"One day...one day....yes, it'll happen. I know it. Be smart. Don't forget about where the bad things in life come from and where the good things in life can be found."

Goodnight all - peace out.

Feliz Ano Novo!!!

Greetings from Brasil 2009!

Last night was a completely new experience for me. For the first time in my life, I spent a New Year's eve celebration on a tropical beach in South America. Warm. Nice ocean breeze. Wearing shorts.

Yes. Shorts. I can't think of a single time in the US when I wore shorts to a New Year's party.

Here's a few pix:

A Familia DaSilva, L-R: Luis, Ana, Guilherme, Edna, Maria, e Rodrigo.

Eu e Maria

Maria's parents (and party hosts), Guilherme e Edna DaSilva

Ana and Maria

Festa Ano Novo na Praia da Barra da Lagoa, 2009

A few words about last night:

I arrived in Barra da Lagoa around 4pm after navigating the local bus system (which is pretty good, actually, just a bit hot if you're not on an executive express bus), with the day's festivities already under way. I was immediately handed a beer. I drank it. When I turned to talk to someone, and then looked back, my glass was mysteriously full again. This happened all day long!!! Another thing: I smoked a Cuban cigar. A Real one. Romeo y Juliet. Now I understand why they are so treasured! Cuban cigars are definitely a class above anything else. 

I went for a walk on the beach, just me, and soaked in some of the Brazilian sun. I told everyone I was only going for a short stroll, but somehow my short stroll ended up being more that an hour. It's easy to lose track of time here.

We set out a big spread and ate, drank more beer, and prepared for the short walk to the beach itself. In Brazil, it is traditional to wear white for the passing of the old year into the new year, which brings luck. Another tradition: After midnight, you eat seven grapes, then you go to the water's edge and hop over seven waves. Another good luck thing.

This was definitely one of the best, and maybe the best, New Year's celebrations I've ever been to. 

Well, I have things to do now...as soon as my laundry dries, I think I'm heading out to Barra da Lagoa again (btw, about 20 miles from where I am now. A bit of a journey by bus, but worth it).

Happy New Year to all of you. Stay tuned for the next edition.

Barra Da Lagoa

Today I had Portuguese lessons in the morning, and then in the afternoon went to the beach in Barra da Lagoa (the place I will be staying starting next week). It was my first chance to make it out to a beach since I arrived, and it was pretty cool. A little overcast, not unusual here in the afternoon (typical tropical pattern: hot, sunny morning, clouds roll in sometime in the afternoon, and maybe some evening showers after that) but still a good time.

Barra da Lagoa

Also, I received some pix taken with another camera at the churrasco I mentioned in a previous entry...the one with all the guitar playing...well, check it:

Me, laying some sweet tunes on the locals

Also got a nice pic of me and my friend Maria from the same party ( for those that don't know, we go to school together in Reno and have been good friends for about two and a half years):

More later. New Year's eve is tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll have time to post something. In case I don't, let me say this:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Day of Lessons

Today was my first day of lessons in Portuguese. The school is in a house in one of the nicer residential areas of Florianopolis (not unusual, BTW; it seems that anywhere is fair game for setting up a business - zoning laws seem to be a little more lax here) and it was already pretty hot when I arrived at 8:30 this morning. I met up with Miguel, who runs the place, and he passed me off to Eva, who is a good instructor and as a bonus, kind of hot....

Felix (student from Germany), Eva, and Manuel.

It went pretty well. My feeble portuguese was exposed by an assessment exam, and Eva immediately began the task of setting things straight.

Ok, some random observations:

There are crocodiles here. I didn't know that. I saw one in a canal, in the neighborhood where my school is. Hope they warn the neighborhood kiddies.....

Croc!!

Brasilians have a different idea about home security than Americans do. They are a little more proactive:

This sign says, in a rather benign and matter-of-fact way, "Careful: energized area". It's a nice way of saying "Stay the fuck out or you're gonna get 50K volts pumped up your ass". Keep in mind, this is residential security in a nice area, not a business or military compound of some kind.

Tomorrow is day 2 of lessons. I have seen the beach, but not been to it yet....too busy. Soon I'll have about two weeks of nothing but beaches, so I'm not in a huge rush. I'm still enjoying soaking up the local culture....and the caipirinhas.....and the local women.....

Oh, one more thing: the place I am staying for the first week, the one the school set up for me, is a real shithole. Look:

Life is SO rough sometimes.......;-)

Quick, Quick...

OK, my laptop battery is running low, and I have negelected to get the correct power adapter for this thing. I'll score one today. For now, here's a pic:

This is the view from Maria's condo, centro Florianopolis, looking south.

Ok, another blur....

Today I got up after very little sleep, walked down to a local bread / coffee shop, had a cappuccino with LOTS of a chocolate / caramel sauce in it (apparently here cappuccino means "a really sweet caramel mocha") and then walked around a bit. Lovely place it is, a bit hot for me, but I expected that after acclimatizing to the cold in Reno already.

This afternoon, Maria and I went shopping for a few basic things, met her friend Renata for lunch, then met up with another friend of hers Nicole and her husband, and eventually ended up at a bbq (called a churrasco). Let me tell you, Brasilians do a bbq differently than we do. The main even is meat. Meat, meat, meat, and more meat. And it is flame roasted on a spit. The men hang out near the fire and tend to the meat while getting smashed on caipirinhas, and the women prep other food elsewhere while continuously making caipirinhas for the guys - all the while, throwing back just as many caipirinhas. Beer is in the general mix, too.

Then meat is pulled off the spit in small lots, cut up on a common board, and everyone eats bits of meat by hand, with bread, from that common cutting board. No one really needs a plate.

After a while, some guitars come out, and the music begins. Tonight, I started out playing a few American songs for everyone, and then switched to bongo drums while a couple of locals took over the melodies with a bunch of Brasilian songs. It was great.

Right now, It is 11:30 pm, and I am at the house of my hosts Carmen and Antonio. The place is beautiful! It even has a pool. I'll post some pix tomorrow. 

Gotta try to hit the sack now. I'm tired all the time still, and I gotta get up early tomorrow.

The little things you notice....

Good morning and greetings from Floripa!

Last night was a kind of blur, being very tired and all, but I went to Maria's family beach house in Barra da Lagoa for a BBQ. of course it was late, and dark, but here it is:





The house is beautiful. Maria's father Guilherme likes to cook all kinds of meats for this: pork, chicken, beef, ribs, etc. all very tasty!

So already I have noticed little things here that I don't usually see in my normal day-to-day life: for example, Brasilians keep eye contact with you longer than you would expect, just passing on the street. Also, what I have seen of Floripa reminds me of European cities of similar size: lots of people living crammed together in tall buildings, small streets and even smaller cars, and the place has a kind of laid back vibe that you don't come across in the US very often. Also, the drivers are crazy and the motorcycle riders are even crazier!!!!

This is Maria and her godson Gabreil, a nice kid who wants to practice his english with me. I'll be careful not to teach him some of the "saltier" bits of english language (at least not until he gets old enough)!!!!!

Today there is shopping, beach, and relocation to another part of town where I will be staying the rest of the week. More later...

Cell Phone Foo

OK, as promised, I am reachable in Brazil by phone. My mobile number here is

011 - 55 - 48 - 9136 - 8880

011 gets you international dialing 55 is the Brazil country code, 48 is the area code, and the local number here is 9136-8880.

Its late and I'm tired. I'll post a few fotos tomorrow.

I Made It!!!

After all the delays and crap, I made it to Florianopolis tonight. Maria just picked me up, and is now whisking me off to a barbeque. Haven´t even had a shower yet.

I am alive and well.

More tomorrow.

Stuck in Chi Town

Hello all - 

So I made it to Chicago, and the weather here sucks. Lots of delays and cancellations.

My plane is actually here, and ready to go - except for one thing: we are short one pilot.

He's in Cleveland.

They are trying to get him here / get a replacement. Flight MIGHT leave at 11:30, but they're not sure.

It's all good, though. I had a six hour layover ahead of me in Sao Paulo, so I have a little wiggle room.

More later - 

Let the journey commence

Right now, it is 9:40pm on Thursday night. I leave in the morning. I am both excited and nervous! I have a long journey ahead of me (about 25 hours total travel time) with some possible weather complications - but it also means that I get on a plane in a 19 degree icy city and get off one in an 85 degree summer paradise.

My next post will be from Brazil, sometime over the weekend.

Let the journey commence. I am ready.

 

Hmmm, things that make you worried...

So I was talking to my dad today, and I remarked how the weather was making me a little nervous about my trip - it's been really crappy all over the US, really screwing up travel. There was that plane in Denver that slid off the runway a few days ago, and just this morning a bunch of people got really sick on a plane in Seattle because ice jammed up a ventilation valve that was supposed to be closed, and when they sprayed de-icer on the plane, fumes got inside and made everyone sick. Yay.

Anyway, my dad laughed and said that wouldn't be a problem for me, because there is nationwide shortage of de-icing solution.

What?

Yes, that's right folks...a nationwide shortage of de-icer. So, If I hit bad weather on my outbound trip, there may not be a way to get the ice off of the plane, and therefore I might be stuck. In Denver. Or in Chicago. And of course, we all know how LOVELY the winter weather is in those towns.............

Anyway, I know it's probably much ado about nothing, but these are the things I think about now.

The Reno skies are going to crap some more snow (splash! splash! splash! <--- for you, cur cu par!)  onto us tonight and tomorrow, but Friday is supposed to be clear. We'll see.

Tonight I am going to hang out with a couple of young Brazilian guys I met recently (Maria's new roommates) and about 5 Brazilian girls they managed to meet in the short time they've been here...good Portuguese practice for me....;-)

Getting Ready

Today is Tuesday, the 23rd of December. I'm leaving on Friday morning, and there's still a lot of things to do. Up until this week, I haven't done much as far as preparation goes, except for renewing my passport, buying airline tickets, getting my visa and the like. Last week, someone I like a lot was getting ready to move away for good, and I spent as much time as possible with her, helped her pack, and took her to the airport last Saturday morning. As a result, I did very little to get ready for this trip.

That resulted in a kind of lost weekend. I was pretty sad about her leaving, so I just holed up in my place and didn't do anything at all. Then Monday came, and suddenly I had few precious days to prepare for it all - especially if you consider that almost everything will be closed tomorrow and Thursday!

So, the last two days have been a blur of errand running. Going to the bank, buying things I need, shipping packages, doing more shopping, going to the gym, going here, there, everywhere, running Maria to the airport for her flight to Brazil, and all that.

Also, my place is an absolute mess. I'm going to have to do something about that before I go.