No longer in Brazil and well behind on my blogging

Well, hello again I guess. So, in case you all don`t know I`ve left Brazil. Why? I dunno. I think I was just in search of an adventure, and that is certainly what Ive gotten myself into. Just as a brief outline as to what Ive done so far. I went from Floripa, to Iguazu falls, and then from there to Buenos Aires. I did all of that by bus, it was long, to say the least. i think 31 hours on a bus in four days. From BA I flew down to Ushuaia, Argentina. This city is affectionatly known as "el fin del mundo" for those of you who dont speak Spanish that means end of the world. Ushuaia is the Southern most city in the world, located in Tierra del Fuego a cool 1,000km from Antartica. It was cold, the weather was unpredictable, the water looked scary. This was Cape Horn, where the waters of the southern Atlantic and Southern Pacific meet. It has been well known throughout sailing history as one of the most dangerous and terrifying places to be while on board a ship. The weather, well what can i say we were near Antarctica. It would snow for two minutes then be sunny then sleet and rain at the same time and hour later. It was fun. I`d also like to remind everyone that I packed thinking I would be living on an island in southern Brazil for 8 months. Needless to say, I was not appropriatly packed for the Southern most city in the world. I was cold. Quite cold. I bought a hat and a jacket, and yes even then I was still cold.
By the way, when I say "we" I mean myself and my friend Mike from Minnesota who I met in BA. We decided to travel together, because its just more fun that way, and I am a firm believer in safety in numbers, especially when going into Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. Which it appears to be where our adventure is heading. Mike is a good kid, I`m going to need to teach him how to drink tho.
From Ushuaia, we went to Puerto Natales, Chile. Here we did two day hikes. One local one that was about 5 miles, and another one that brought us into the national park Torres del Paine. Here we did a 25km hike to see the "torres" in the park. Pictures should be up shortly on facebook. From there we went to El Calafate, Argentina to view Perrito Moreno glacier, one of the only glaciers in Patagonia (the name for the part of the continent we are on) that is actually advancing and getting bigger. It was impressive. I am actually writing from Perto Natales right now having arrived back here a few hours ago. in 4 hours, Mike and I will be boarding the Navimag boat (check it out online) and sailing up the Chilean coast to Puerto Montt for four days. I hear that its a sight seeing tour meets booze cruise. The ship itself is a cargo vessel that was partially trasformed to carry people, reasonably comfortably from what I hear, up the coast. This should be fun.
Some side notes...My trip right now is looking like this, and its all done by bus: Bariloche for Christmas, Mendoza for New Years, Salta after that. Then into Bolivia, Uni, Potosi, La Paz, Cochamba, and copacobana. Then Peru, not totally sure here we are hiking the Incan trail for sure and going to check put Machu Pichu. we`ll hit up some of the major cities as well. Then to Ecuador, who knows here, and then into Colombia, Cali, Medellin, Cartegena, and Bogota. At this point, sometime in late March Mike will be leaving. From there I plan on hoppin on a boat with a hammock and taking an 8 day boat trip down the length of the Amazon to Belem on the deck of a boat in my hammock. From there I am working my way down to Rio. That should bring me to the start of May when I will be flying to Buenos Aires for probably two weeks and then home. At that point I will have made an almost perfect circle of this continent. Missing Only Venezuela, Paraguay, Guiana, French Guiana and Surinam. I really think this has potential to be the trip of a life time. I plan on getting robbed at least once, I plan on waking up in a gutter in Bolivia or some other gem of a country more than once, and I plan on having heaps of stories to tell you all if I can bring myself to go to an internet cafe, if im in a city with electricity or internet.
I want to tell you some more about my past few weeks but that would take a reasonably long time and I dont totally have that at the moment. Ive met some awesome people though, had some amazing times. Said goodbye to some friends, made new friends, meeting up with people I thought I wouldnt see again its cool. Let me tell you by the way, There are 10 million Israelis down here, all traveling after their mandatory military service. And I have to say, all of the Israelis that I have met are awesome. I actually went to a hanakuha party in BA at a club and it was out of hand. Thats a story for later though. Lets just sya after leaving the club at 630 in the morning I ended up at the airport bar 45 minutes away with my new argentinian friend and a couple kids from the hostel. Mind you, none of us had to fly anywhere that morning. More to come. If you have no friends from that part of the world. make some. Also, if you ever make it to Buenos Aires stay in hostel Estoril. Greatest place ever, absolute shit show. Alright im off I have to go buy some booze for this boat ride. Nothing like cheap rum and high seas, you can call me Captain Jack Sparrow. If we dont hit any icebergs ill be writing again in a few days explain about my life up until this point. Take it easy all.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanekhua (spelling), and happy New Year
Captain Jack

Super Models Everywhere. Well kinda.

So when you think about a Brazil, who comes to mind? I´ll tell you. Giselle. Don´t deny it. You would be lying. If I said: what comes to mind? It´s a safe bet the word would be either bikini or wax. Before I got here, I was under the impression that all the girls here would be above six feet tall, and they would only want to sleep with Tom Brady, that lucky bastard. However that is not true. The Brazilian population that I have seen as a whole is not all that tall. As a matter of fact, I would say they were average height at best. (Mind you, being a guy, I´m gonna be biased and say nothing of the male population cause I can´t judge that kinda thing. But I can say that if you are a lady, and you like surfers, this is the place for you.) But, that is not to say that the occasional girl does not walk by that does not fall into the super model category. In those instances, John and I tend to stop walking, fearing we will trip over our own feet, and we stop talking, because all guys know that their brains stop working when pretty girls go by. John actually likes to keep talking and seem smooth. These sentences are usually a collection of verbs and adjectives with no relation to each other. Something along the lies of "sprint hot springs airplane." I´m pretty sure that was a direct quote, and I´m also pretty sure we were talking about the ocean before John went off on this gem of a tangent. We remain in said stupor until the girl passes us with a polite smile, and then we both look at each other and wonder what they feed those angels. The only logical explanation is that the government grows them. But the more I think about it that makes very little sense because as far as I can tell the government can barely keep the electricity on for 24 consecutive hours. Power outages are so common that buying meat or dairy products is like playing Russian Roulette. How many times do you think that T-Bone has been frozen and thawed? I try to never ask myself those questions, seeing as how I really like the yogurt here. Anyway, back to the point, this would lead me to believe that growing super models would be out of the question because that has to take a lot of continual electricity. Where these girls come from will probably always remain a mystery. Maybe heaven, it has to be some place good that is all i know. I do have to say though that on a whole the Brazilian female population that I have seen is attractive. My disclaimer: I had to throw in this blog because; one, I´m a guy, and two other guys have been asking me about this particular topic. And yes the Brazilian Bikini is not just something that you see on models. It is the bathing suit of choice for the majority of the female population. Its a great thing. Most of the time. Sometimes great is the exact opposite of the appropriate description, but hey, they can´t all be winners.

Fire!

I´ve been electrocuted once or twice, not totally by choice. And anyone who was in Spain with me knows that I´ve been burned. But, never in my life have I had anything explode with me around it, save a truck carrying jet fuel in Moracco; but i was reasonably far away. That almost all changed today. We have a stove/oven appliance in our kitchen. I have never seen an actualy bomb, but this thing looks like it came from one of the una-bomber´s nightmares. The stove/oven looks like it was made around the time of World War II, and it may have been sitting outside since 1951. Attached to it, is our 13kg gas tank. I don´t actually know how much gas is in this metal container, but I can assume that if it were to blow up it would probably destroy our apartment and probably all of the apartments above and below us. A guy on a motorcycle came to the place today with the gas tank on the back of his bike. Our landlord was on hand when she arrived at the request of John and I. We wanted her to show us how to use it. They attached the tank and turned on one of the burners. The guy who brought the tank lit a match. In that instant, our landlord lost all of her arm hair, and the "gas man" burnt his hand pretty bad but walked away with his eye brows, barely. Needless to say, the burner was lit. "it works!" declared our landlord. John and I almost cried. So about an hour ago, John and I were trying to cook our first meal at home. I was cutting vegetables. John struck a match near the stove and the entire area underneath the burners began glowing. Now normally glowing is a word that inspires awe or closer inspection. This particular orange glow was fire inside our applaince, and this particular glow inspired terror. "Fire! Shut it off!" We managed to get it contained, but we were a little shaken up. Round two we thought. I got to light it this time. I lit one of the back burners the flame came out from the appropriate spot, a little large, but ok. All of a sudden, the flame jumped another burner was lit. That is not suppose to happen, ever. "Shut it off!" That was twice. There is a saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." So what did we do? we tried again. I lit the other back burner the flame was out of hand and there didnt seem to be any shutting it off. Again we get nervous, I try to blow it out and fail. We shut the gas off at the source, the big metal "pipe bomb" object standing next to the stove. We were done being stupid. We went to our landlord and asked for a new stove. She asked why. John responded that it was dangerous, very dangerous. She agreed, most likely remebering the searing of her arm from the afternoon. So tomorrow, we get a new stove. But, I am using the word "new" very loosely. I´m using the word "new" to replace different. I just hope that it was made within John or my lifetime. That´s not asking to much is it?
Other than that, we have a pretty serious pest problem in the apartment, and we are trying to get that under control. If you have never seen tropical bugs, its scary. The Brazilian airforce. They have flying cockroaches here that spit acid into your eyes that can case blindness. An endless population of mosquitos, and other flying bugs that look like 747´s. I saw a spider the size of a bar coaster that was camofluged with a rock except for its large orange fangs, and orange under belly. I'm guessing it was posinous but I did not want it to bite me and find out. Other than that they have cockroaches, ants, and a bunch of other fun creatures. we were also told that at some point during our stay here we will be walking around barefoot, and something will inject itself into our skin and lay its eggs. These eggs will evntually hatch. I do not want this to happen to me, not one bit. The cure for this ailment having someone stick a hot sterilized needle at the spot of infection. Awesome, I can´t wait. At least it would be a reason to get drunk. I don´t like needles or bugs, if this happens to me, both will be underneath my skin simeltaneously. I will need something to drink. Probably a bottle of Cachaça, the cane rum that is everywhere in Brazil. It´s potent and goes well with sugar, limes, and ice. I will need to drink it straight. Anyway, we are getting kicked out of the internet cafe, its time for people to go home. I still owe you the story of my first time on a surf board. Its not all that cool, but it was terrifying so you can hear about it. By the way, a Hammerhead shark was recently caught of the coast of one of the beaches around here. Those eat people. So all is well as you can tell. Everyone behave.

The Sandlot and Others

Everyone has seen the movie Sandlot. If you haven´t, I don´t want you reading this blog again until you do. Well, the sandlot is not only just a yard housig the meanest dog known to man "the beast" created by holywood. The sandlot is real. We live a few houses down from it. There is a house down the street from us, painted a pale pink it hideous lookinhg. The yard looks no better than the house, barren would be an appropriate description. In the yard however, lives the beast, a terrifying mix of boxer and something else that has yet to not scare the hell out of john and I everytime we walk by. The problem is we shouldnt be scared. There is a giant metal fence between us and him, and everytime we jump away from the fence as we see him charging toward us all the old Brazilian men hanging around laugh at us which leads me to think this animal is basically harmless. But for all of you that come to visit, we´ll take you to the Sandlot and see if you get scared. Please fake it if you dont just to make john and I feel better. We´ve come to learn that A brazilian security system doesn´t consist of an alarm or a phone call to the police. The security here comes in the form of giant, loud, menacing looking dogs. This is a fact that we are going to have to get used to. The funy thing is there are about 11 thousand starys on the island which is a lot. But they are all much friendlier as far as we can tell then the house dogs. We actually know a guy who owns a pitbull that looks more like a tiger than a dog if you ask us. We think he has it for protection, and based on how it looks alone I would never think of messing with its owner. The first time John and I talked to this guy while his dog was around I was lucky enough to be holding a hamburger. Not the best of ideas. The dog turned out to be reasonably friendly though, aside from its razor sharp teeth, orange striped coat, and a body full of muscle. Ill post a picture of him later if I can and you´ll see why you could probably call this dog Sher Kahn (read the Jungle book). I´m on my way out tho, probably going to the beach. The next bog will probably have something to do with my first time surfing, and finally understanding why surfers say its like being in a washer machine when you fall or your board.

Two way streets

I don´t have much time cause I am at an internet cafe and John is dying of hunger at the momment, but I would like to inform everyone that John and I made it down here, alive. granted, it was a total of a 30 hour trip from when we left my house to when we set foot in the hostel, but what can you do? the island is awesome there are tons of beaches, tons of people, and all sorts of things to do. We drank the water, and we aren´t dying of dysentery, so that is one obstacle overcome. There are sure to be many more.
Now on to an interesting portion of our trip, and hopefully a set of guidelines you can all follow if you ever rent a car in Brazil, or, im guessing, any other south american country. John and I rented a car to explore the island for two days. The island is about 50 miles long and 15 wide. We searched the whole island, thus completing our goal, but let me tell you it was one of the scariest experiences of my life. John deserves a medal. He got in no accidents, didnt kill anyone, and didnt have a complete mental breakdown. He did get mad at one or two people from time to time though. I can´t say i blame him. He did all the driving cause I can´t drive stick and this is not the place to learn. First of all, the roads vary from highway to dirt path, from wide enough for three cars to pull in the side view mirrors, and from a speed limit of 20mph to ¨none posted.¨ Second i would like to tell you, if there is someone in front of you going to slow, you can pass them, regardless of the kind of road you are on or if there is a double yellow line painted on said road. You can pass on hills, around blind corners, on one lane roads, even if there is oncoming traffic. The last on is my personal favorite. you are also allowed to pass more than one vehicle at a time in any of these situations. My personal favorite was the VW golf we saw pass us, and two tour buses, on a two lane road with dense forest on one side and a lake on the other. There is little room for fear or error on the Brazilian road. You can´t think, if you think you´re dead, thats would be an accurate driving philosophy around here. About a week ago, a beer truck crashed into a tree coming down a hill trying to pass a passanger car. Instead of seeing if the passangers of the truck were ok, the onlookers took to stealing the precious cargo that was spilling out onto the streets. Once the truck had been sufficiently looted, the driver and passanger were tended to. There was another instance just two days ago, of a truck trying to pass a bus on a two lane road only to realize to late that there was an oncoming bus in his newly created passing lane. It seems funny at times to us, but its actually quite crazy when you think about it. Most of the truckers around here work more than 16 hours a day, and most of them seem to be using various narcotics to stay awake. Thank the government for strict trucking regulations in the US. Another constant worry on the brazilian road is the motorcylce. These guys are like fearless gants. They are tiny so you never see them in your mirrors, and they never slow down. They will pass anyone, at anytime, in either lane, in any situation. they fly by with little warning, and then they beep at you if you fail to notice them like they aret doing anything wrong. Its nothing short of a miracle that anyone who drives a motorcycle in this country isnt dead shortly after their first ride. I´ve got to go but there is mroe to add to this sotry.

take it easy all

Sitting on my couch in the USA

I guess I just start typing, and then anyone on the Internet who stumbles across this can read. It's a strange concept when I actually step back and think about it, but here it goes.
Well, today is September 11th, 2007, and I'm sitting at home typing the first of what should be a fairly large number of blogs. I should be preparing a personal statement for law school, or studying for the LSATs, but I can't seem to get Brazil out of my head. And let's be honest, I don't work that well when the pressure is not absolute. In 27 days, I will be getting on a plane with my friend John, who will also be adding to this creation, and we'll be on our way to Sao Paolo, Brazil. A city which has a population of over 10 million, making it one of the largest in the world, and arguably, one of the more dangerous. We'll be getting off the plane in a country neither one of us has ever visited, whose language I can't speak, and searching for a bus station, whose whereabouts, to me at least, is unknown. Lucky for me, John knows some Portuguese. Hopefully he knows how to ask for directions to a bus station, but in a city of 10 million it would be a safe assumption that there is probably more than one. If you don't hear from John or I again after we land in South America, it would be a safe assumption that we are very lost...or dead. But nobody is worrying.
Our ultimate goal for the first leg of our journey is Florianópolis Brazil. Now, Florianópolis is on an island off the south western coast of the country, and this is where we plan to base our adventures and, surely, misadventures out of. As of now, we have no home, no jobs, and no idea exactly what we will be doing down there. But, like I said we are young, naive, and we have a dream, as cheesy as that may sound. The plan for the first week or two that we're there is to find a hostel to stay in, and then, drink, fish, surf, skim board, eat, explore, and mingle with that locals until we run out of money or find a place to live. The former is just as likely a possibility as the latter since neither one of us is very well financed for this endeavor. After finding a home, or at least some kind of shelter to avoid heat stroke, and the slim chance of rain, we'll probably go out searching for jobs, or just go out searching. For what do you ask? your guess is as good as mine. There are sure to be more blogs about all that though.
As of right now that's all I got for you. I should manage to type up a couple more of these before I leave, and if I don't, assume I am hard at work preparing for law school, ha. And by the way, there is a purpose to this whole thing. We want people to know what we're doing, and depending on our state of mind, while there, we don't want to forget what we've done. To everyone we know who will be in the states reading this while we are bumming around in unknown territory, feel free to be jealous and wishing you were here. Post comments: tell us what you think or what you're doing. Yell at us for doing something stupid; post suggestions on things that you've read or heard about Brazil that you think we should see or do. Hell, post the information on the flight you just bought down to see us and demand that we come to the airport and pick you up so you don't get lost. The gist of all this, keep in touch, cause we are going to be a long way away.
Alex