feliz natal

leaving parati we planned to go through rio and catch a bus to porto seguro, up the north east coast of brazil. things were not to turn out that way, since the bus leaving from rio was full that night, and so we were stuck in rio. luckily we still had the phone number of the sweet carlos, who had put us up for a night the last time we were there. we called, and he was actually glad to hear from us :). when we arrived his wife giuliana let us in, we went shopping together, and ended up being invited to an amazing vegan curry dish... mmmm. we proceded to spend the evening on their huge couch talking and watching strange malaysian watermelon musical-porn.

the next day was pretty lazy, hanging out in leblon and on their couch, and early evening we headed to the bus station. the following bus ride will be remembered for a long time... it was supposed to take about 19 hours, but we ended up in porto seguro 24 hours after the planned departure, having experienced the following: an almost crash on our part (the side mirror was taken by a passing truck), an accident on the road ahead of us delaying us by an hour, about seven hundred stops at the bus company´s bus terminals (meaning all the food money went to them, and we spent a LOT of time there), an interview session of all the bus inhabitants, started by an argentinian couple and a slightly crazy italian man. finally in porto seguro the argentinian couple (lautaro and paula) took a liking to us and we have spent the last while living in the same pousadas and hanging out together.

we stayed in porto seguro for one night and then headed to arrail d´ajuda, a cute little touristy beach town. we stayed there for a night, enjoying the beach (yes, we´ve been doing a lot of that... and lucas> i have so beat you in terms of stomach-tan!!), walking around the expensive center, and admiring hippy jewellery.

the next day we set off to trancoso. the start wasn´t great, as we were stalked by a `tour guide´ who would not let us in peace, but once we had found our colourful and beautiful family run pousada we felt a lot better about trancoso.



the first night we spent at a forro-reggae concert, watching all the young brasilians dancing (they ALL know how to dance!!) and being groupies of the band. christmas day we spent online, calling family and then heading to the beach for the afternoon. our christmas dinner: sushi :) mmmm... the planned beach rave party turned out not to be as great as advertised, and so we sat on the beach in the light of the full moon and talked to some more people we keep meeting from the epic bus ride.

that was trancoso. up next is salvador. yay for bahia! and check out photos... the internet has finally been fast enough for me to upload some... starting from perito moreno. enjoy :)

parrot-tea

parati treated us well. we met louis at the bus terminal and with him managed to bargain a good price for a cute little apartment a little outside of town, right by a beach. we spent our time in parati making delicious food and going swimming in the ocean in front of the pousada (guesthouse). we stayed a few nights, exploring the cute little town full of picturesque white houses with colourful door and window frames, and taking buses a little ways out of town to visit beautiful beaches and swim in a `natural pool´ (sounds cool, but it just means that there were some rocks in the sea, that happened to be in a cirlce... it was really pretty though!).

the bad part of parati was that we had to say goodbye to alex... he left us to go to fly to the states and spend christmas with the family. ridiculous concept, isn´t it. now that we´re just three girls things can get annoying in brazil, but travelling you always meet people and until now we´ve usually managed to be in a group of at least five... but we definitely miss our charles and our alex.

photos

new photos!

check the glacier post (it´s only five, i know, but the internet is sooo slow here), and i´m working on adding more albums of the other locations, too.

they´re albums, so click on the photo for more.

rain, mud, slippery, swimming and joy

yay for ilha grande! the bus arrived in angra dos reis, where there is a ferry to ilha grande. after another hour and a half on the boat (passing lots of little palm tree covered islands on the way) we arrived on ilha grande. it was raining in buckets, but even the rain couldn´t take away the beauty of the little houses, beaches and cute little muddy streets. there are no cars on the island, except for the garbage-tractor and the police golf carts, which add to the charm.

we got settled in the HI hostel after bargaining down the price, having the advantage of being six people (we had picked up two swiss people in angra dos reis, who we hung out with a lot during our stay on the island).

we had hoped for wonderful weather, but no such luck. our first day on the island was as rainy as on arrival, but it being summer and tropical, the rain was warm, so it was only a minor inconvenience to our fun-having-ness. we walked a little trail that takes you past a pretty little beach with lots of cool black sand, a deserted old prison, an ex-aqueduct and a cool river with a little pool formed by rocks, which we frolicked in. we headed back to meet our swiss people, and then walked down the same path again with them, to get to a waterfall beyond the aqueduct. the path was crazy fun, muddy and slippery (we walked barefoot again, making our feet a little sore), with beautiful flowers and cool trees everywhere (including a not so cool tree that smelled of armpit).

the next day we finally had sun! joy! we used the opportunity to walk the two hours to the most amazing beach of brasil, lopes mendes (we took four hours getting there because we stopped at every beach on the way). the beach is quite amazing, a broad band of white sand that made a cool squeaky sound when you walk, shallow water with huge waves, perfect for surfing, and beautiful palm trees everywhere. we aren´t sure if it´s the most beautiful beach, since the ones we passed were pretty amazing as well, but it was definitely worth the hike. the path there was muddy like the others, and made our feet even more sore than the hike the day before (i stubbed my toe on the way back, which is now a pretty purple colour), and was adventurous and fun. we even saw cute little monkeys on the way there... crazyness.

having explored the best (or most advertised?) of the 120 beaches on the island, we left the next day, taking the boat back to angra dos reis and catching a bus to parati.

living under the aqueduct

our arrival in rio de janeiro could be considered slightly chaotic... (chaos seems to show its face a lot on this trip)

we had arranged to couchsurf with humberto, who ended up not being at home, and not actually officially living in the apartment of which he´d given us the adress. carlos lived there, and luckily showed up while we were waiting in front deciding what to do. humberto had mentioned us in passing, saying there were two of us, and that sao-mai was vegan. he seems a little confused. carlos was taken a little by surprise by the huge amount of people he was expected to put up, but told us one night would be no problem. humberto showed up the next day, mentioning nothing about the chaos, and escorted us through rio. people are very easy-going here :)

from the second day we stayed in samba villa, a party-hostel in lapa, in the center of town under the old aqueduct. we had a great time in our hostel, sitting on the terrace sipping caipis and watching all the party people on the street below. our rio stay was filled with partying, and drinking caipirinhas, and eating delicious meat sticks, and going to the sugar loaf (great view of rio) and the christ the redeemer statue (which really is not that impressive) and lots of beautiful beaches (and very butt-naked-bikini-ed girls). one of the best experiences was meeting the same circus people that we had met in buenos aires (are they stalking us??), who immediately invited us to a party that night in santa theresa, a pretty, twisty-streeted part of town. we arrived in a beautiful little colourful house full of street performers, trapezists, travellers and other random people living in rio. there was a wonderful atmosphere, with people playing music, and about 10 different languages being spoken at one time (portuguese, spanish, english, italian, french ...)

the day before we left rio we had to say goodbye to charles, which wasn´t fun. we´re trying to convince ourselves that he has simply left to get some beer, or is spending a looong time on the toilet. denial is a wonderful tool of brain trickery.

left with a group of only four, we took the bus the next day and headed to the island with the most wonderful beaches of brasil - ilha grande.

wet wet wet

our next destination: iguazuuuu

being spoilt from buenos aires and sofia, we chose a hostel with a swimming pool, and made immediate use of it. we cooked some yummy pasta, had some wine, and went to sleep. yaaay.

the next day, however, was exciting. we went to the national park containing the most amazing waterfalls ever. HUUUGEE massive amounts of water cascading down mountains. we got completely soaked over the day, because of the mist and the continuous rain, but that didn´t diminish the experience in the least. we even got to stand right under a waterfall... amaaazing views. sadly the little island that you can take a boat to was blocked off, since the water had risen too much due to the rain. that didn´t matter tho, since the park has been designed soo well, and we had a great time walking down all the walkways (barefoot at times, since it was so slippery), and trying to keep our cameras safe from all the surrounding water.

back at the hostel in the evening we had a delicious dinner, and went to a hostel bar for caipirinhas and some billiard. exhausted, we fell into bed.

that was iguazu... i know i´m racing through this, but i´m trying to get up to NOW, and there are still a few cities to get through :)

the next morning we boarded the bus for rio de janeiro... we left argentinian soil and have entered the humid, vietnam-like-vegetated, expensive, beach-filled, exciting brasil. yay!

VIPs

cordoba

we were lucky enough to have sofia as a couchsurfing host in cordoba. after 21 hours of bus we arrived at her place: an amazing house with a beautiful garden and a pool. and that wasn´t all... shortly after her father started barbequeing, and we had the most delicious chicken, salad and mashed potatoes in their garden.

cordoba is a pretty city, with lots of churches and a cobblestoned city center. we spent our days in cordoba in her garden, doing massage exchanges, tanning, admiring her cute little baby puppies, and exploring the city with sofia as a tour guide. sofia took us a to a world aids day exhibition (with free wine and condoms), and took us partying as VIPs at a big club in cordoba. on the last day sofia served as our mate-expert, showing us which mate cup to buy, and explaining to us how to make delicious mate.

fat life

our time in buenos aires (and much of that to follow) has adopted the description of FAT LIFE, because our life is just too good to be true.

i havent updated since the 26.11, and im going to do this part a little quickly because its been sooo long again...

26th - met `the girls´ (since im surfing with the guys, i´m not considered female??) in la boca, a poor part of town which has become popular due to its colourful houses and touristy tango in the streets. in the park there we met roberto (if youve been reading sao-mai´s blog you know about him... a homeless guy that lives in the park, writes poetry, and is very sweetly romantic), who told us about love and then gave us a tour of la boca. we then took a bus to plaza de mayo, and hung out on non-existant grass, while `the girls´ reminisced about the pride parade that had taken place there the week before.

the evening was fantastic> we went to a drum concert and then danced in the street to more drums, meeting cool people and drinking wine, till the police sent us away because of the noise. we finished the evening with monica and sm´s couch-host in a bar, and went home dead tired.

27th - we lived the fat life to the extreme, spending the day on patricio´s terrace roof with a pool, going out to dinner and then going to bed... not a very eventful day, but such a nice one anyways.

28th - parca las heras for breakfast/lunch, a great happy street concert by pollerapantalon (skirtpants), and then a modern tango concert called mucha mierda (much shit), decorated with bathroom tiles and toilet paper, and with amazing energetic and dramatic music.

29th - more of the fat life :) `the girls´ brought us delicious deli-food onto patricio´s terrace, and so we tanned and ate watermelon and enjoyed life. in the evening we had a goodbye dinner for their couch-host and his friend karolina and finished the evening in a bar frequented by transvestites, with some good red wine and a little bit of dancing.

30th - we met at the bus terminal in the morning to buy tickets to cordoba, and then met karolina on the white bridge of the 3rd of february park. buenos aires is wonderful like that: dotted with so many lush green parks, and beautiful squares and buildings. we took a little bicycle boat tour around the lake and then headed to the culture centre to look at art made by street kids in b.aires. as always, we were late and had to rush to make it to the bus terminal on time for our bus. we´ve become so used to buses that we actually look forward to spending the night on them, and spending the day staring out of windows, listening to music, thinking, chatting and doing nothing...

we were all sad to leave buenos aires, but thats the point of travelling: to discover fantastic new places (this one we plan to return to in 7 to 10 years...)

there we go, that´s something. coming up blog-wise are cordoba, iguazu and rio de janeiro where we are now. we´ve had to say a sad sad goodbye to dear charles, who is now back in france, and tomorrow we´re on our way to isla grande to make our way to sao paulo where alex is leaving on the 18th. our group is shrinking!! help!