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A popular tag I have been seeing around South America.
This one is on a wall of a business in Montevideo |
So, where am I? I haven't written since Mendoza, two weeks ago. I don't even think my mom knew where I was until I called her last week to say, "Happy Thanksgiving", when she advised me I was a week early. Horseback riding in the Andes has already become a distant memory, as has the old crumbling architecture of Montevideo and long-stretching miles of beaches of Rio de Janeiro have already replaced the "used-to-be-dream-turned-memory." After three months of transplanting myself in foreign cultures and absorbing enormous amounts of information on my own country and others, I am soaked with a new understanding of travel, the world and I am soaked in foreign culture. I am beginning to have a cultural identity crisis as I battle where I have come from with where the hell I am all the time.
With this crisis is also the excitement of building new understanding of places I only imagined before coming on this trip. Mendoza used to be the dirt in the bottom of my glass of Malbec that I would taste with Brian, my manager and friend from The Vine. Noting chocolate notes, creamy french oak and supple tannins, Mendoza was just a far away new world wine destination for old world wine growing. Now its a new sensation in my mind, joining with the sense of taste a new addition of familiar sights and emotions. When I taste Malbec now, I will feel the heat from the blazing sun over cacti; I will visualize the snow capped Andes behind sprawled out vines; and I will remember the poverty of the Argentine people that surround the million dollar vineyards owned by their rich Europeans neighbors.
Back to Buenos Aires
This has been the theme of the past few weeks: perception transformations. After Mendoza, my friends and I went separate way and I was now traveling on my own. My perceptions have been heightened as I changed environments alone. After Mendoza, my plans to head to southern Argentina fell through as the crunch of time was already closing in. I decided to head to the Brazilian portion of my trip and headed back east. I had to stop in Buenos Aires first to break the trip up a little bit. I stayed with a friend I had met earlier on from the Dominican Republic. His name is Leo, and I am very lucky to have kept in touch with him as allowed me to stay for free at his place for a couple days. Leo is one example of my joy for traveling: meeting good people far away and making a new friendship. I was happy to meet an interesting person and learned a few things about economics and Latin America politics. Buenos Aires was, of course, a completely different place to me now. I had already left and said goodbye, driving down Santa Fe Avenue with my friend Kari Keach, past the big signs and billboards, millions of cafes, racing with a cab through red lights, past the gleaming orange of the setting sun behind the Obelisque, through the thousands of people in the streets, the busy intersections that almost killed me and the hundreds of memories I had made; I was ready to leave. Now I was back, and enjoyed the time there as a foreigner again, not living there, no school, no 30 other American friends scattered around the city. My perception of Buenos Aires was so different as I just roamed the streets and discovered new places I hadn't seen before.
An Unexpected Stay in Montevideo
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| Las Acuñas, Ismael y su mama |
I decided to go through Uruguay and stop in Montevideo for a day after I left Buenos Aires. Before arriving, I didn't know anything about Montevideo, only the name. This was also going to be my first couchsurfing experience. Couchsurfing is unbelievable. I signed up for it a few years ago and have been hesitant to use it until now.
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| Tango on the Streets |
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| Sebastián Acuña |
Once I met the person I was going to be staying with, I knew everything was alright. His name was Sebastián and he has lived in Montevideo all 33 years of his life. He brought me to his huge 83 year old house where he lived with his partner, their child and sister of his partner. The next few days were incredible, as they completely opened up their doors to me and showed me life in Uruguay. My impression of the culture and country was very positive. Seba took time out of his day between work and spending time with his son, Ismael, to show me around the entire city by foot. They cooked me dinner, breakfast and we communicated about our ideas on globalization, music, life philosophy, Barack Obama and our knowled
ge on each others countries. They only knew Spanish (so Seba told me, but I later found out he knew a good amount of English), so this was a good way to get back into just speaking Spanish. My idea of Uruguay now has changed. It is a very rich culture with very good people, and with so much old architecture drenched in history. Unfortunately it does not have a very strong place in the world economy. Its lack of industry makes it very dependent on neighboring and larger powers and is stunting the growth of the capital city. (Uruguay is already very small, but the future of the country may see its borders eaten away and taken over by larger neighboring powers.) All of this was an experience given by just the kindness of others, for free. Couchsurfing is a revolutionary mode of experiencing foreign places through the people. I can't thank Sebastián and his family enough (couchsurfin.com).
I finally caught a bus to Porto Alegre, in the south of Brazil. I found out my friends Ryan and Jessie were traveling from Punta del Este in Uruguay on the same bus. So I surprised them! It was an awesome reunion. From here, we wanted to go to Sao Paulo, but instead somehow stayed on the bus to Campinas, 2 hours outside of Sao Paulo. I did not know this until they were already gone. I was alone, and back to not knowing any Portuguese. I kept trying to use my Spanish, but did not get any response. You just can't win: I learn one language and feel confident in speaking it, then your lost in another country without knowing the language. After a five hour delay, I was leaving Sao Paulo for Rio.
Discovering Rio de Janeiro
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| Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden |
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Sunrise on Praia do Botafogo after an
amazing all night Samba experience |
View from atop the Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer Statue)
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| The masses atop the Corcovado |
I've got friends in low places, really low places. Like 4,000 miles below the equator in Rio de Janeiro. A few years ago I worked at World Famous Dog Wash in Ocean Beach. Yep, a dog wash; at the same time while working at a wine bar, weird enough. It was here that I met Gustavo Vaz Mariano from Rio de Janeiro. I only knew him briefly until he suddenly had to return to Rio. Before he left he was looking for a cheap pair of Diesel Jeans, so I took him to a local thrift store in OB, where they sat, near brand new, for $13. They cost about US$500 in Brazil, and about US$100 in the States. He was so happy and told me whenever I wanted to come to Brazil I had a place to stay.
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My first night as a Carioca with
my new family for the next 2 weeks |
Now, fast-forward to this month. I arrived at Rio's bus station at 9pm last Sunday after 48 hours of traveling. I was dirty, I found some mold in my shoe, and I was starving. I called Gustavo in Porto Alegre and he was all ready for my arrival. He picked me up from the station, and right away we went to dinner with his family at a Brazilian restaurant. It was all you can eat and also all you can drink-including shots of Cashaça, a Brasilian liquor, straight from the barrel. I couldn't believe it: I was in Rio!! His house is located in Botafogo, right in the center. When we were pulling into his house, I looked to the left and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue ("Corcovado") at the end of his street and the bay with the famous panoramic stretch of Rio mountains on the water, including the most famous "Pao do Açucar."
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| My Brazilian Mae, making home made feijoada |
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Suco bar on the corner of my street,
Rua Visconde Ouro de Preto, and Praia do Botafogo |
The next week was incredible. Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches, waterfalls and jungle trails in the city, Samba clubs and drinking Cashaça in the streets. I love this place. On every corner there is a "Suco" bar with fresh juices and smoothies from the most delicious fruits imaginable. My favorite has been maracujá (passion fruit). Brazil grows so much of its own produce that they have their own crazy unique names for fruit, including the famous Açai. The açai here is from a different planet compared to that in California. They serve thick açai sucos that taste like a chocolate fruit. And all the fruit here is grown organically. The idea of soaking produce in chemicals is absurd to Brazilians, one of many reason why they are probably so in shape here. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot in Rio, so the natural beauty has been disguised under clouds and water, but I got a couple of beautiful days in to experience the real reason Rio rocks.
It has been such an interesting trip all together, as I am not in another city, in another country, staying with another completely different family. Gustavo and his family have been amazing. They keep referring to me as the guest, and the guest is not allowed to do any work, must be fed and must enjoy himself in their eyes. I did not expect more than a friend in the city and maybe a place to sleep if they had it. But they keep giving and giving! This trip has been filled with unexpected delays, awful encounters with trouble, and plain bad luck, but I have also been fortunate enough to find such guardian angels to help me like his family. Staying with another family is also making me understand the family structure a lot, and I am beginning to understand my own more and more through these others.
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| Irmãos Brasileros, Gustavo and Andrea |
Rio has an amazing night life. Samba on the streets, packed clubs with almost every beautiful person in Rio (which are ALOT!), guys walking around selling beers in coolers, and the non stop rhythm of the "Carioca" night that lasts until dawn. Last weekend we went to Lapa, a famous district with run down buildings and the famous colonial Lapa Arcs where people step to Samba underneath. This is the club and bar district for only traditional Brazilian music and dance, like Samba, Forro, Chorinho, and there is even a couple of Salsa bars. On Saturday we checked out a Samba show at "Manguera" a famous school of Samba in the North Zone of Rio. It was one of the best experiences I have had yet, with so much energy and smiles. The dance is the most different style I have learned yet, and its hard for a gringo to jump into. When they start moving fast though, its unreal. These schools practice and put on shows all year round, until the biggest show in February: Carnival. Rio is famous for it. All of the school take part in a huge parade that last three days and each put on hours long performances. There are cement stadium-style stands set up throughout the city that only get use during the week of carnival, and just sit there the other 51 weeks of the year. There is so much diversity in this city, with so many colors of people. It seems that mixed and black are the majority here, but when you are dancing Samba, there is no matter what color you are, all Brazilians get together and swing their hips and move their bodies with a rhythm that is woven through their culture.
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| Brazilians dancing to "Funky" downtown in Centro |
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| Samba band at a bar in Lapa |
I ended up staying here a lot longer than expected! I got stuck as I was denied a visa to enter Bolivia (like Brazil, Bolivia also requires only US citizens to have a visa to enter, "a matter of reciprocity" President Evo Morales said as the US makes Bolivian citizen go through the same process that is quite expensive for its citizens). I was mad the US, irritated at Bolivia and pissed off at the globalized world when I found out. So, with little time left, I will have to fly to Lima Peru. This weekend should be awesome in Rio, with my first Brazilian "futebol" game and possibly a capoeira lesson! Até logo amigos, biejos e abraços.
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Drinking Brazilian beer Itaipavia on the
streets of Ipanema - its legal here! |
ge on each others countries. They only knew Spanish (so Seba told me, but I later found out he knew a good amount of English), so this was a good way to get back into just speaking Spanish. My idea of Uruguay now has changed. It is a very rich culture with very good people, and with so much old architecture drenched in history. Unfortunately it does not have a very strong place in the world economy. Its lack of industry makes it very dependent on neighboring and larger powers and is stunting the growth of the capital city. (Uruguay is already very small, but the future of the country may see its borders eaten away and taken over by larger neighboring powers.) All of this was an experience given by just the kindness of others, for free. Couchsurfing is a revolutionary mode of experiencing foreign places through the people. I can't thank Sebastián and his family enough (couchsurfin.com).
I've got friends in low places, really low places. Like 4,000 miles below the equator in Rio de Janeiro. A few years ago I worked at World Famous Dog Wash in Ocean Beach. Yep, a dog wash; at the same time while working at a wine bar, weird enough. It was here that I met Gustavo Vaz Mariano from Rio de Janeiro. I only knew him briefly until he suddenly had to return to Rio. Before he left he was looking for a cheap pair of Diesel Jeans, so I took him to a local thrift store in OB, where they sat, near brand new, for $13. They cost about US$500 in Brazil, and about US$100 in the States. He was so happy and told me whenever I wanted to come to Brazil I had a place to stay.
The next week was incredible. Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches, waterfalls and jungle trails in the city, Samba clubs and drinking Cashaça in the streets. I love this place. On every corner there is a "Suco" bar with fresh juices and smoothies from the most delicious fruits imaginable. My favorite has been maracujá (passion fruit). Brazil grows so much of its own produce that they have their own crazy unique names for fruit, including the famous Açai. The açai here is from a different planet compared to that in California. They serve thick açai sucos that taste like a chocolate fruit. And all the fruit here is grown organically. The idea of soaking produce in chemicals is absurd to Brazilians, one of many reason why they are probably so in shape here. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot in Rio, so the natural beauty has been disguised under clouds and water, but I got a couple of beautiful days in to experience the real reason Rio rocks.
I ended up staying here a lot longer than expected! I got stuck as I was denied a visa to enter Bolivia (like Brazil, Bolivia also requires only US citizens to have a visa to enter, "a matter of reciprocity" President Evo Morales said as the US makes Bolivian citizen go through the same process that is quite expensive for its citizens). I was mad the US, irritated at Bolivia and pissed off at the globalized world when I found out. So, with little time left, I will have to fly to Lima Peru. This weekend should be awesome in Rio, with my first Brazilian "futebol" game and possibly a capoeira lesson! Até logo amigos, biejos e abraços.
**I am having some difficulties with my camera unfortunately. When I work it out, there will be more photos up on my next blog of Rio. I have a lot of beautiful shots here from "A Cidade Maravilhosa" (The Marvelous City)
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