Brazil in a blur...

Life has been a colorful blur since we arrived to Brazil.......

4 days in Salvador, the center of Bahia and afro-brazilian culture was a highlight and our side trip to a beautiful beach north was memorable (monkeys and sea turtles!) Then we took off for the mountains, Lençois, to do some hiking and exploring. We took a cave tour and snorkeled in a blue abyss that emptied into a dark cave. It is hard to explain the feeling of swimming in complete darkness (with a flashlight) inside a cave, rich with minerals.

I will post pics soon, as we are in the middle of carnival things are a bit crazy.

Carnival in Olinda has been amazing. It is a small village in the north, tucked to the side of a large city. It is green and historic, with cobblestone streets and old churches. It is the very first place the portugese `discovered´ in Brazil. We arrived 2 days before carnival and found a great apartment overlooking the city and a lush garden (with a pool and hammocks) We are lucky to have a place to hide when we get tired of the sweaty crowds and noise.

Carnival is a crazy, insane mess of everything you can imagine. Costumes, music, singing, parades, dancing......and it never stops! One of the best nights was full of drums, new friends and dancing in the rain.

Large beers for 50 cents and tropical drinks for 1 dollar always lead to a good time! Needless to say, Greg passed a wonderful birthday here in Olinda.

Life is good, we are happy, tan and well fed. We leave tomorrow for Fernando de Norohna, a smal island off the coast of Recife that contains 5 of the best beaches in Brazil (there are 8 best beaches total). We are looking forward to the quiet, lonely beaches.

de Salvador a Lencois

To translate, try translate.google.com.

On a passe 5 jours a Salvador. On s'est fait quelques fetes d'avant carnaval. Ca promet d'etre enorme! Ou va-t'on le passer ce carnaval? On a exclu Rio parce qu'il parait qu'on est assis a regarder la fete. Salvador, c'est extravagant mais cher. Recife/Olinda pourrait etre un juste milieu. Pour le moment, on decide d'aller a Lencois. Pourquoi? On avait jamais entendu parle de ce village avant. Lencois est un village a cote du parc "Chapada Diamentina".
Et la, je vous laisse faire une petite recherche d'images sur Google. C'est allucinant!
La vie est tres relaxante a Lencois. Ici, ils ne s'inquietent pas de la crise financiere, s'il fait chaud, ils vont se rafraichir a la riviere. On a appris a faire des Dreamcatchers avec un petit mec qui habite une petite baraque paumee dans la foret. Et la, pour la premiere fois de ma vie, j'ai bu de la cachaca marinee avec un cobra, il parait que c'est bon pour la vitalite, j'ai dit Banco! Et je dois dire que je sens la force du cobra en moi... apres avoir dormi 10 heures d'affilee, bien entendu.
On decide de passer le carnaval a Recife/Olinda. Beaucoup de locaux nous disent que la musique y est meilleure qu'a Salvador. Bon, on a pas vraiment d'endroit ou dormir la bas, c'est vrai. Alejandra commence a se faire au style de vie que j'ai adopte il y a bien longtemps; Ne rien organiser vaut mieux que 2 tient tu l'auras, et la caravane passera de toute facon.

Salvador de Bahia

Arrival to Rio was uneventful, as we never left the airport. We decided to get on a plane right away to the north, and purchased a ticket to Salvador de Bahia. The idea was to get to Salvador before the craziness of carnival started....

more to come.....we uploaded pics, check it out. on our way to a national park....

Adios Argentina, Adios Chile

After 4 great days in Mendoza, Argentina we crossed the cordillera de los andes into Santiago, Chile. Because of the overnight bus ride (where we were violenty awoken to cross the border, placed in a room and cross examined about whether we had fruits, meat or leather in our bags by the Chilean police...) we were tired and needed to gt some rest before our flight to Brazil the next day.

After sleeping on the floor of the bus terminal from 6am to 8am, we took off on foot to look for a place to stay. Because of a herbalife conference all the hospedajes and hotels were full and eventually we got in a cab to drive around looking. The mistake was to ask the cab driver where he thought we should stay (for cheap of course) and we ended up at a hooker hotel, complete with curtains to cover your car with and mirrors on the ceiling. We decided not to stay there. Eventually we found a great place in the center and had a blissful rest.

At 5:30 the next morning we were in a cab with smiles on our faces, next stop Brazil.

Mendoza, Argentina

Once again, visiting places I have already been...but still wonderful to be here with Greg.

We arrived to Mendoza this morning at 6am, torn back with fatigue from the very uncomfortable bus ride here.

Taking in some quick internet use and then going to have some parilla (carne! meat!).

Horsebackriding in the Pampas tomorrow=) Then maybe some bikes and wine the day after.....we will have a drink for all our loved ones!

Valparaiso, Chile

It had been 6 years since I left Viña del Mar/Valparaiso and I never thought I would make it back there. It is a weird thing to go back to a place you thought you said your last goodbye to.

Valparaiso is the oldest port in South America and Viña is the city next door that hosts thousands of Santiaguitos on their beaches every summer. Viña del Mar is where I lived and studied in 2003.

Greg and I loved wandering around ¨Valpo´s¨ alleys ways and pasajes. We arrived on a Monday, so all the museums were closed, but we kept busy walking around and checking out the cool murals and grafitti. Greg´s highlight of the day was when a cop came up to us making sure we were going in the right direction, because if we turned right we were headed into trouble. That night we feasted on ¨completos¨ (hot dogs) and wandered home early with a bag of grapes to read our novels.

Day 2 we awoke in our amazing hospedaje overlooking the city and bay, ate a small breakfast and visited La Sebastiana, one of Pable Neruda´s various homes. The house was built specifically for him, with a nautical feel (he liked the feeling of being on a boat, but did not necesarily appreciate the feeling of being on water). The house in built on 4 stories, each story quite small but filled with the eclectic taste of the famous poet. The house is quiet poetic in itself.

After our tour, I was excited to walk around Viña del Mar again, checking out my old apartment, trying to find favorite places to eat and our coffee place we used to hang out at. We chilled on the beach (our tans are getting pretty good!) and then wandered around. Greg patiently listened as I went on about remembering this and that. In the end, it was nice to visit Viña once again.

We roamed back to grab our backpacks, have some dinner and catch our 10pm bus to Mendoza, Argentina. We had decided it was time to get back to Argentina (as Greg´s Argentine spanish was starting to fade), plus we really wanted to eat some more meat and show off our tango skills.

Eating our way through Pucon, Chile

Greg and I were lucky to be able to stop over in Pucon, a small town in the south of Chile. I visited Pucon in 2003 and made a great friend there, David. I was so exited to see him again and spend time in my favorite town in Chile.

Pucon is lakeside and close to one of the most acvtive volcanoes in South America (the one I climbed in 2003). The town is a major destination, for both rich Chilenos and international tourists. During our visit, we saw mainly Chileans, enjoying the amazing summer weather.

David invited us for lunch one day and prepared a typical chilean dish of meat and shellfish steamed to perfection. We started the lunch sipping on his delicious Pisco Sours (a typical drink in Chile, made from Pisco and limes) and did not leave until after 8pm that night. We were invited the next day, as David´s dad wanted to show off and cook his famous dish of congrel soup. That day more pisco sours, more delicious food and once again another invite for lunch the next day! David´s mother wanted to show off this time with her famous dish, pastel de choclo (a super chilean favorite, a sort of corn sheperds pie).

In 3 days we ate like royalty and had a great time hanging out at Casa Buchoff, our favorite people in all of Chile!

Greg and I had sushi in Pucon at the retauraunt David works out after his day job as a civil constructer. =) It was super good and met our craving....

After 4 days in Pucon, we pulled ourselves back together and hit the road. Next stop, Valparaiso.

Our map 02/02

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