The Fish Spa

On a hike in Rio de Janeiro last February, we happened upon a pond with these tiny fish that nibbled at our feet. It tickled and was an odd sight. Later that day, we researched the fish online and discovered that they were feasting on our dead skin. Yummy.

The Two Points

The first half of our trip through Uruguay showed us two very different sides of the country's beach culture.

Before we got there, however, we had to leave Brazil. Our bus from Florianopolis turned from 6 into 8 hours, leaving us just enough time to buy food for our overnight ride from Porto Allegro to Punta del Diable.  Sometime in the middle of the night we passed through customs, the easiest we've ever encountered. We gave our bus stewardess our passports and customs form, slept through the night, and woke up to the sun rising and our passports in hand. If only it could always be that easy!

Resting in a quiet corner of the Porto Allegre bus terminal. Note the power cord coming from Kristin's backpack - we're recharging our computer without while trying to hide the fact that we have one.

Punta del Diablo (Devil's Point)
We arrived at our "bus stop" at 6am. This means that our bus dropped us off on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere. We hiked a kilometer or two before we found our campground. Closed for the season? Yep. The beaches are packed from Christmas through the end of February. Then these beach destinations become ghost towns for the next nine months. We arrived in Deadville, population 700.

We walked another two kilometers to "town," which consisted of a smattering of tiny cabanas and a lot of stray dogs, who, true to tradition, like to follow us around. All the stores were still asleep. Passing motorcycles and cars kicked up dust at us. The sun was becoming oppressive. All other campgrounds were closed for whatever reasons. We were considering leaving within our first few hours of walking aimlessly.

The turning point came when the first "bakery" opened and we found homemade raisin granola bars that were the size of my head. For a dollar. We sat in the shade, ate, and weighed our remaining options. We decided to check one more hostel that we passed on the way into town. It was advertised as an HI (Hostelling International), which we generally avoid as they are generally more expensive and have a more sterile culture. Anyways, this place was obviously not HI related. The owners probably stole the logo of the internet and put it on their sign out front, hoping it would help attract backpackers. We rented a two-story suite with bathroom, kitchen, living room, deck and ocean view for $30. This was one of the more expensive places we stayed in, but it was totally worth it.

The next two days we hiked on the beach, read, and relaxed. Oh, and we ate several more of those delicious (and healthy) granola bars.

Punta del Este (East Point)
A few hours, and a world, away from Punta del Diablo and we found ourselves in one of the premier beach towns on the whole continent. I'm not sure why Punta del Este became the place to be, because the beaches aren't that great, but it is every bit chic that people say it is. Crowded with rediculously expensive high-rise apartment, bordered by expansive estates, and filled with chic boutique shops; this is not a place Kristin and I thought we would like. However, we came here for three reasons: we had someone with whom we could stay, it made a good stop before Montevideo, and it's part of our continuing education - to experience the full spectrum of South America.

Lo and behold, we actually liked Punta del Este. Without the celebrities and their entourages, the streets were empty. We borrowed bikes and explored the town, riding on a mixture of roads, bike paths, boardwalks and the beach! More importantly, though, was that we had such great hosts. We have a good friend from Davis, Janie, whose mom relocated to Punta del Este. Karen and Kenny live in a 100 year old house that Kenny is rebuilding himself. Karen is, amongst other things, starting a bike-taxi business. They taught us so much about Uruguay and updated us about world news. They treated us so well, fed us local organic food, and inspired us with their own world-travel stories.

So, two different sides of Uruguay and both were quite enjoyable.


Typical thatched-roof white houses that dot the coast of Punta del Diablo.


Getting up close and personal with the strong waves. I did not escape this walk in the least bit dry.


Um . . . that sucks.


Hippie dream come true: a funny shaped house, a tent, and a VW van with a bike rack.


Biking on the hard-packed beach in Punta del Este. Sweeeeeet!!!


Kristin's favorite church interior.


Houses in Punta del Este don't have street numbers. Rather, they have house names. Apparently, Obama has a secret getaway.


Apartments sell for up to $7 million USD. And houses? Who knows. There are people who buy houses here but have never even visited them. Uruguay is known as the Switzerland of South America. Not for the mountains as it's as flat a Davis. But because it is well known for privacy. Wealthy people use this as a shelter for their money. Additionally, because the countries and currencies can be so volatile, real estate is looked at as a commodity and Uruguay is thought to be quite stable. There is even a neighborhood here called Beverly Hills.


Thanks again Karen and Kenny!

An Island Surprise

Again and again we are reminded that our happiness is heavily influenced by our expectations. We were  disappointed at the lack of environmental responsibility and camping possibilities at Ilha Grande, even though the island is advertised as eco-tourism. In Sao Paulo, we were pleased with the lively culture, friendly people and cleanliness of a city bigger than anything I had been to previously. And now, we have been pleasantly surprised by Florianopolis, which we thought would be a generic beach town.

Throughout Argentina, we saw advertisements enticing people to relax on the gentle beaches of Florianopolis. Thus, I thought it'd be an elitist resort town with nothing more than sand and palm trees. What we found, however, is a peaceful island with normal working-class people and lots of great hiking. The old part of Florianopolis had a few gems, as seen in the photos below. The northern part of the island is chock full of resorts, but the excellent public bus system makes it easy to explore the rest of the island. Vibrant towns dot the coast. The hiking was fantastic and we didn't see any other travelers.  It helped that the summer tourist season was over and we went to the least visited part of the island. We could have easily spent two weeks hiking around, but unfortunately were limited to less than two days.


A giant fig tree that spanned the entire block of the central plaza.


The fancy interior of a 19th Century building-turned-history museum. Well worth the $1 entry fee.


We are good at making animal friends. Anybody know why the left claw is so much bigger than the right? We noticed this on every crab we saw.


Dense vegetation along the trail.


Yes, another dog that followed us for HOURS while we hiked. As Kristin said, at least we don't attract homeless people like we attract dogs.


After the rain . . .

Sao Paulo

I can safely say that I knew nothing about Sao Paulo before going there. I've never seen a picture of it, I don't anybody who has traveled there, and I didn't know what it had to offer. Due to our excellent hosts, I was incredibly impressed with this mega-opolis.

First, you must understand how BIG Sao Paulo is. It is the third, or seventh, largest city in the world, depending on how you count. Seventeen million people call "Sampa" home, with over 250 movie theaters, 100 performance theaters, and 90 museums. Sao Paulo is the leader in South America in almost any aspect: largest hospital complex, largest shopping mall, most air passengers, most billionaires and so on. It is the 10th richest city, has the 3rd most buildings and has the most helicopters of any city in the world. Yes, it's about as big as they come.

Honestly, nothing made me think that we would like Sao Paulo, but we felt that we should see it anyways as part of our education.

Luckily, out of the 17 million people, we stayed with the two guys who were the most amazing hosts. Paulo and Thiago, kids of my mom's colleague, introduced us to everything great about Sao Paulo. Through their eyes, we gained a greater appreciation of this gigantic city. Paulo took us on a running tour, Thiago took us to a free concert. They both took us out for beers and a traditional dish of the poor people. Together we explored a bazaar/fair/flea market, listened to records, watched the Hurt Locker, went to a birthday party, and walked half way across the city in search of toilet paper at three in the morning.

Thank you Paulo and Thiago and all of your friends for showing us the city that you love.


Soooo many skyscrapers and it seems like they are all adorned with massive towers on top. This is a few blocks from where we stayed.


Down the road is this monstrosity. The architecture reminds me of the horrors of Soviet buildings. This is an art museum and is free on Tuesdays. Guess when we went?


A few blocks in the other direction leads us to the 9th richest street in the world. This is where wealthy people shop for shoes.


Thiago is a musician and knows where all of the free concerts are. Every Tuesday there is a free performance at this culture house. The night we attended, we were amazed by an instrumental acoustic band playing a combination of modern jazz and Brazilian music.


Paulo traveled to Russia earlier this year and brought back several souvenirs. On our last night there, I taught them the proper way to take vodka shots and we finished off the bottles.


I still regret the yellowness.


Thiago took us to a $8 vegetarian buffet. We went two days in a row. Then he told us about this vegan buffet, also only $8, and we asked why he was holding out.

Paraty

Paraty is a colonial town dating back to the mid 17th Century. The old part of town is about 5 blocks big and borders the water. There are many well-worn churches, which were interestingly segregated between rich women, blacks, landowners, and workers.

Colonial towns are a big tourist attraction throughout South America. They were built in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Spanish and Portugeuse colonizers. We've seen a few, starting with our very first city of Antigua, Guatemala. The difference there was that the colonial part of town is still used. Normal business like bakeries, laundry mats and banks occupy buildings that are hundreds of years old. Rules are in place to keep up the historic buildings and limit traffic. In Paraty, however, the buildings are only used for restaurants and tourism offices. This gives the town a generic, touristy feel, even though the churches have a much more fascinating history. It was well worth the two day visit, but lacked anything beyond standard site-seeing to entice us to stay longer.

We also noticed that the Brazilian coast attracts a lot of British and Australian travelers. They aren't quite as budget-minded as we've seen elsewhere in South America. Furthermore, they tend to smoke, drink and party a lot. We didn't enjoy our stay at the hostel in Paraty due to this. Even the hostel workers were smoking inside and nonstop. It's hit or miss with hostels. That's one of the things we get to put up with while traveling.

One of the five main churches. This one was right on the waterfront and it's entrance is completely flooded. It rained both days we were in Paraty.

A typical building in the old part of town. No buildings are more than two-stories tall.

This building has obviously been well maintained. It now functions as a very pricey hotel.

Ilha Grande

We left Rio on Sunday, amidst confusion of clocks and buses. You see, every single worker at our hostel neglected to tell us that daylight savings time changed. Additionally, when asking for directions to the bus station, they failed to tell us that there were multiple bus terminals in Rio. Our first surprise was arriving at super sketchy bus station with only local buses. Nobody spoke Spanish, let alone English, German or Russian. Somehow, we found a caring bus driver who put us on his bus and then took us straight-away to the central station, even though I don't think it was on his route. A little travel magic, if you please.

Upon arrival at the correct bus station (also super sketchy) we met our second surprise: our watches were an hour off. Somehow we still made our bus. Hours later and with a few minutes to spare, we barely made our ferry to Ilha Grande. Each day brings its own surprises.

Ilha Grande (pronounced Eelya Granje) is an island that is world-renown for it's beaches and wilderness. Two thoughts went through my head as we started the long boat ride. First, my brother Chris advised us to visit this island, but also warned of trouble with bus and ferry connections. I laughed inside that we too scrambled to make that connection, despite having heard his tale of woe.

Second, I felt an odd connection on the ferry, knowing that that my brother had taken that exact ferry many years before. While it isn't the most remote place in the world, I still found it deeply special that I was sharing this same experience. Here I am, years later and in a much different life and under different conditions, but doing the same thing he did.

Our first camping experience in the main port-town was rather horrible in the sense that we had hoped to camp in the park, which is not allowed. Then we hoped at least for some natural foliage. I don't know why, but all the camping in town was on hard dirt with few trees around and lots of concrete walls. Through exhaustive research, I found one campground that was an hour's hike away and was supposed to be more natural. Our information was not certain though, as we had also been told it was a two-hour hike, it didn't have lights, and it was twice as expensive. We went for it anyways.

Not only was it right on the beach and covered by trees, but we were the only ones camped there!! I guess the hour-hike put people off? It was one of the best "organized" campsite experiences I've had. So serene, peaceful, beautiful and quiet.

Now, about the island itself. Most of it is protected as national park. Sometime in the mid-90's, it was decided that no new buildings would be constructed. So, while there are buildings and houses and small towns on most of the beaches, it's still relatively untrammeled. We camped, hiked, swam, read and watched monkeys playing in the trees. Overall, we had an excellent time.

Though this island is touted as a pristine paradise, I do have some beef about accuracy of tourism advertisements. The tourist bureau likes to brag that there are few buildings, no roads and it's a pristine natural environment. This is a flat-out lie. There are numerous roads in the port town. There is a 9km road leading across the island to another town, which is home to a partially-destroyed prison. Along the road there is a trash dump. There are houses at every beach. There are dozens of cars, motorbikes, ATVs and decrepit old trucks and they are ALL used regularly. Additionally, while hiking trails cover most of the island, most travelers prefer to hire out a motor boat to whisk them away to these "pristine" beaches rather than exert oneself on the trails. Instead of roads, the waterways are directly polluted. Perhaps worst of all is that guide books and travel writes relay this myth of a perfect, roadless paradise. They should have more integrity than that. The island is protected and still worth visiting, but don't lie to tourists. Most of us are smart enough to see through it. Still, you can see from the photos that the trip was well worth-it.


The island's main town, Abraoa. The peak in the background is a hair under 1000 meters.


Coming back from a swim, we found this "guard" dog protecting our stuff. We overheard another traveler proclaim that this beach is one of the ten best beaches in the world. How do you prove that? I didn't know that there is a rating system for beaches!


The decaying facade of the century-old prison that was decommissioned in 1994. The prison might not have been dreamy, but the location couldn't be any better.


Another lovely beach, another great day.

No Earthquake Here

Hey Everybody - we are in Sao Paulo, safely on the other side of the continent from Chile. Thank you for your concern voiced via Facebook and emails. We do have several friends from Chile though, so please keep them in your thoughts. We are still waiting to hear from them all. It seems that Facebook has become the best way to communicate en masse.

I still owe you a post about Ilha Grande and another about Paraty, both to be accompanied by more envy-invoking photos. I apologize in advance.

Rio Time

As soon as we got to Rio, our internal clocks adjusted to the, well, lack of clock. We didn't have a plan or a schedule and yet things worked out for the week. We hung out at the beach quite a lot. We partied at Carnaval and then again at a post-carnaval party. We hiked through Tijuca forest, "climbed" Sugarloaf, rode the train to Santa Teresa, and saw the many diverse churches of Rio. Despite having done so much, it all seemed very relaxed and easy. And then when we tried to leave, Rio's clocks didn't align with ours but we couldn't figure out why.

It turns out that Saturday night was the end of day-light savings time and nobody told us. Luckily we arrived at the bus station in time to catch our ride to our next destination - Ilha Grande. More about that later.

We were sad to say goodbye to Rio as we really enjoyed our time here, particularly when staying with my friend Gabe in Ipanema. Rio is a huge city and really is quite different depending on the barrio (neighborhood) that you are in. Ipa, as the locals call it, is relaxed. The streets are full of trees, a 8km lagoon lies behind it, the botanical gardens are within biking distance, and their are smoothie stands everywhere. It truly is a beach culture full of young, healthy, active people.

Staying with Gabe gave us a good inside into the local culture. Moreover, it was good to see this dear friend again. The last time we hung out was his surprise visit to Davis in March of 2008. During our time in Rio, we were also joined by another Davisite, our friend Nihan. This was quite a reunion, which seems to be an often reoccurring theme of our travels: friends, mountains and food. Thank you Gabe, Philipe and Mickael for hosting us and being so wonderful!


Getting swamped by the waves at Copacabana beach.


Friends united from all over the world.

From Rio de Janeiro

Wherever we travel, we try to find the local farmers markets. One morning, after a run, we came upon this on in Ipanema. We splurged on some exotic fruits from the Amazon. They were strange but delicious and fun to eat!


A unusually bright interior to one of the many, many churches in Rio.


An even more unusual (read: bizarre) church in Rio's center. This open-aired concrete behemoth was unique in every aspect. The stained-glass windows are 70meters tall.


A splurge on our last day in Rio - taking the tram up Sugarloaf Mountain.


View from Sugarloaf as sun sets behind the clouds, yet Christ the Redeemer stands tall over the city.

Oi

We have been in Rio for the last 9 days and have mostly loved our stay here. However, it is time to move on. A few hours west of here is the island "Ilha Grande" which is supposed to have great camping and hiking and not much infrastructure. I have heard about this place for years and am excited to finally see it. After that, we'll stop for a day in Paraty, an old colonial town. Then on to Sao Paulo for a few days in one of the top-five biggest cities in the world. That'll be interesting :)

Sorry for the lack of blogs this last week. What can I say? We were having too much fun.

Carnaval Video

Imagine this elaborate parade and intense energy lasts until 7am, only to start up again the next day. There are over 50,000 performers, 90,000 people in the stands and millions in the streets.

Carnaval in Rio

I have to admit that my prior knowledge of Carnaval was extremely limited and, for the most part, incorrect. I thought it would be a wilder, crazier Mardi Gras. To be blunt, I thought there would be a lot more nudity and drunkenness...

 It seems that any US story about Carnaval is accompanied by photos of a scantily-clad female with elaborate jewelry, head dress and shoes, but not much more clothing. This type of dancer does exist and they know how to grab your attention. However, for every one of these dancers, there are probably 300 fully-dressed  dancers. Additionally, if you saw what people wear at the beach here, you'd actually think that the flashy dancing girls were actually more modest than the beach goers. (As a side note, while most girls where thongs to the beach here, it is actually against the law to go topless on the beach.)

At it's heart, Carnaval is about celebrating life through dance and music. Communities bond through their schools, which work for an entire year to prepare for their performances. The entire nation is on official holiday for the week, yet half of the population is working hard to make Carnaval the most glorious party in the world. Samba is not just a party, but it's a serious year-round industry.

Payam summed it up nicely when he was here a few years ago and told me that there are three ways to enjoy Carnaval: Going to the official samba competition,  watching it on TV, or enjoying the street parades that happen throughout the week. In addition to the official competitions (see shocking facts below), there are over 200 street parades/block parties in Rio alone. The parades are led by a community band and are very informal but tons of fun (if you don't mind getting squished). It would be like having a Dixie band on acid leading San Francisco's Bay to Breakers.

We've been able to take advantage of all three. Gabe's friend was able to get us tickets to the Samadrome to see the official all-night competitions. This was the most amazing spectacle that we've ever witnessed. Thank you Mickael! We've experienced the block parties every day, just by chance. It's hard to just watch, in the sense that you eventually get engulfed by the mass of people and become part of the parade itself. And tonight we're taking it easy at home with the TV programmed for the only show that's on.

To be sure, Carnaval is a week-long, nation-wide party that attracts millions of tourists. There is a lot of drinking and partying to go around. A good number of people are inebriated at the block parties and even more party hardy through the night. There are not a lot of clothes, for males or females. It's fairly common to kiss people you just met. But in the end,  Brazilians view our Mardi Gras as drunken binge-fest.

In a country with widely disparate income levels, Carnaval is a time for all classes to come together and celebrate their commonness. You can't imagine how much energy is packed into one stadium, one city, one country. At the Sambadrome, people stand all night and sing and dance. Carnavla surprised me and yet far surpassed any of my expectations. I can think of nothing in the US that comes within 1/10 of Carnaval.

Fun Facts About the Craziest Festival in the World:

• It takes places in the Sambadrome - specifically built for Carnaval. It is one mile long and (officially) holds 90,000 people.
• Each Samba school has 5,000 performers.
• There are different leagues. The B League performs in Sao Paulo on Saturday and Sunday, while the A League competes in Rio on Sunday and Monday. The finalists compete for the championship on the following Saturday. Each night, the competition starts at 9pm and ends at 6am, with 5-6 schools performing for about 90 minutes each. I think they do have it at night because it would be deathly hot during the day.
• Each school chooses a theme for their parade. Examples that we saw were: Don Quixote, Religions of Brazil, Mysteries of the World.
• Performances are judged on timing, theme, costume, participation, and more. It is through this rating system that schools can move between leagues.
• A new song is written for each samba school's parade. The songs are released before Christmas, so everybody knows the lyrics by the time Carnaval arrives.
• Performances last about 90 minutes, during which time the song is repeated ad nasium. All performers must dance and sing during this entire time.
• Schools get multi-million dollar sponsorships.
• Other Brazilian cities have their own spin on how they celebrate Carnaval. Several cities in other South American countries are known for their own Carnaval traditions.
• The Brazilian government distributed 55 MILLION free condoms this week.

Now, for a few photos of the floats at the Sambadrome. Realize that each samba school had at least a dozen of these floats.


For reference sake, the floats are about 15 meters high. The crowd is not on the ground, they are in the stands.


From Don Quixote.


Amazonian spiritual leaders.




The Lost City of Atlantis


The floats were so tall that cranes were used to offload the performers.