Travelin Monkey

The flight back was ok. I bought the only book in English in the entire airport; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I saw the first movie, but didn’t care much for it, and I was so bored, I needed something to do! I couldn’t put the darn thing down, read the ENTIRE book on my way to Los Angeles, and the first thing I did when I got home was run off to buy Book V.

I need to quickly clean everything up, run some fast ass errands, make sure I pack the rings, and make my suitcase for my adventures in Europe! This is the third time I am going to Europe. We spent New Years in Madrid in 1998 as a family, then returned to backpack through Italia earlier in the year.

I am to land in Athens on the 19th, spend a couple of days there, then we booked a 7 day cruise around the Greek Islands, the cyclades. We are going to get engaged on the 22nd of July off of Mykonos, then head off to Istanbul for 5 days, and then tour Armenia for 3 days, go back to Istanbul for another 2 days, her family leaves, and mine returns to Athens for another 3 days.

I doubt I will log much of it.

Well well well! We went off to the holy Tuesday festivities. It was pretty amazing. They have a ridiculous church with carvings that stick out of the wall, really neat. The music was cool and the partying awesome. Drums being played everywhere, people dancing without a care in the world. And it is only TUESDAY!

The kids are annoying though. They come up to you and start patting you down to feel for money. The girls triple knot tie bracelts on you to force you to buy them. And if you stare at the guys doing Capoiera for more than a split second, they ask for money!!

It started to rain at one point, so everyone went against the walls! A 10 year old boy pinned another 6 year old boy against a railing, climbed up the railing, and started humping the 6 year old’s face! I started to laugh my ASS off and Matt felt really uncomfortable!

Matt’s bro had come to town and we all made our way to the ‘after party’ at some place where the locals were playing liva samba. It was REALLY awesome, except for what ended up happening when Matt’s bro & Flo went back to the youth hostel. This guy from Denmark was being led out of the club to a dark alley, which is what Beatu told us to look out for. We told him in English to not go because they were going to rob him and probably stab him. Then one guy goes up to Matt and says “You are white and I am black, I hate white guys” I looked at Matt and said “dude, walk away.” We were both really frustrated at this point with this city and ready to explode.

We took the british & astonian girl back to their hotel. On our way there, a cop pulled a gun out at a woman and Matt looked like deer in headlights. I told him “if you look any longer, you might be starring at the barrel of the gun.” We left the girls and made it back to our place to tell Matt’s bro and Flo not to leave.

5 minutes after we walk in, a group of guys from some part of Europe got jumped, one guy had his teeth knocked out for his watch. We spent the rest of the night hanging out at the hostel, talking, laughing, and filming stuff.

I leave tomorrow to Sao Paolo then Los Angeles. I spend less than 24 hours in LA, then on the 18th I fly off to Athens, Greece to meet my girlfriend’s family and get ENGAGED ON THE GREEK ISLANDS! WOO WOO…

I just hope the guy at the hostel wakes me up on time

The island is know for cheap lobster and cheap jumbo shrimp because they have a ton of it around the island. We met up with Flo, her room mate, this british girl, and a girl from Astonia. We spent the day screwing around and had dinner together, then bummed around the island.

The next day we decided to try the fantastic sea food. EVERYONE got jumbo shrimp except my smart ass that decided to get the lobster tail. About 4 hours later, we decided to go out clubbing, when the rumbling began. At one point, on the third beach, I started to sweat, looked at Matt, and said “I need to keys!”

I don’t think I have ever sprinted so fast in my LIFE. I made it to the hotel on time, BUT, the keys are angled here. I couldn’t for the love of GOD figure it out, and BAM, food poisioning, stomach clenched, I had soiled myself I spent the next 2 days royally screwed up.

We headed off with Flo to Salvador de Bahia on the 14th of July on a catamaran. This was the first major city we were going to. We are staying in the Pelourinhio district. This is the first city established in Brasil through the trafficking of slaves from Africa. There is a huge African culture here. Our first night, we are staying in a youth hostel by the way, we got there and a lady was turning 50. Ther family brought out the congo drums and people were walking around the streets, signing and dancing, playing the drums! It was amazingly fun!

Beatu warned us to be careful here because it can get dangerous. Matt’s brother gets here in a couple of days and I am going to take off to go back to the states! I decided not to take a 34 hour bus ride back down to Sao Paolo, and I bought airfare to fly to Sao Paolo and wait for 10 hours at the airport to connect to my flight to the states.

Tomorrow we go exploring the city once more. Tuesdays are holy here, so everyone prays from 6-8 pm then parties until 2 am in the morning!!

We spent the next 2 days in Balsa with the people, exploring the city and getting REALLY drunk with the owners. We went for a swim and saw the biggest sting ray EVER and ate some cheese-on-a-stick at the beach.

Eventually we decided to head out and Beatu hooked us up with a pousada further north in an island called Morro Di Sao Paolo. We took off on another 5 hour bus ride to Valencia, and took a ferry from there to the island. The island is composed of 4 beaches. The first one is where the village is, the second one has a bunch of resteraunts and stuff, the third is where all the hotels are, and the last one is empty, for the couples I guess!

We got a good deal, R$25 a night for a pretty decent place. We spent the day exploring, hiking around the island, and enjoying the sun! We hiked up a mountain to the lighthouse to check out the amazing sunsets here in Brasil. The trek was really interesting, we had to use huge leaves to step on because everything was wet and the mud was too slippery to just walk on. We took some crazy pictures and headed to a bakery to get something to eat.

We went off exploring some more, then hit home to crash!! Flo is supposed to meet up with us later today. She didn’t like where she was and decided to party with Matt and myself!!

Yesterday we headed out to the beach to go swim. The water was beautiful; not as clear as I would hope for, but nice and warm. We swam for a while. Yesterday I found a Sea Urchin while walking on the beach (almost stepped on it too), today I thought I had stepped on a rock, but nope, it was a starfish!

We walked for a while, talked nonesense, looking for more topless women, when we decided to stop and enjoy the day. At around 2:30, we decided to head back to a water park we found because at 3 pm there was going to be a famous Brasilian, Edson Gomez, playing. After hanging out there for a while, we decided to come back, nap, wake up, eat, and head out to the center to check out the night life.

30 minutes into this plan, everything failed. Matt didn’t nap and I was eaten alive by the mosquitos. We ended up talking to the family that works there, asking them some questions and just conversing. We aslo played with one of the youngest daughters on the hammock. Turns out that the owner is a fat (very fat) French guy who is married to this woman. He used to play rugby in France and went to Brasil for a vacation, met her, Tuna, got married, and moved back to France. He hated it so much, he came back and put up this pousada, but gained like 80 kg in 6 months!!

The guy that we met on the ferry that got us this place, Beatu, turns out to be a really awesome kid. After hanging out there for a while, Beatu came over and we started to talk about the exchange rates. We ended up going to look around, but to no avail. When we got back, the family had started their nightly BBQ with heavy drinking (25 liters of beer a night), and our French neighbors, Florence & Camaron (that is what we called him), had brought 2 bottles of cana to make caipirinhias.

We joined them, talking, laughing, eating picania, and drinking caipirinhias. At around midnight, we headed out on the ferry? to cross to go to Porto Seguro and dance at a club called Alcatraz. The taxi ride was amazingly funny, making me feel like I was in Uruguay back in the good old days of Piriapolis, when we used to go out to the Country Pub.

We get to the club and Beatu hooks us up with cheap tickets to get in and drinks. He spent the ferry ring making up songs about all of us and they think Camaron is gay. He got us a drink called Capeta; milk, chocolate, coconut, vodka, and guarana powder. I thought it was good and kept us up ALL NIGHT LONG. We walk in and the place is packed and awesome. There were 4 areas, one where dancers teach you Samba, one is a bar/food area, another was a trance dance floor, and the last a kareoke bar.

There were people EVERYWHERE, it could have been a really awesome night, if it weren’t for one fact that they were ALL kids aged 12-16 old. The funny thing was being pushed around by the youngens who thought we were picking up on them! Some were very noticably young, they looked like they hadn’t even hit puberty yet! The guys still had the peach fuzz leg hairs and you could tell most had just started puberty. It was interesting looking at all the drunken hookups going around and the idiots trying to pick up. It was also interesting watching the women, all dressed like they were untouchable Britney Spears, but 10 years younger.

It was an experience I hope never to repeat. It made us feel like dirty perverts. The French guy tried to pick up on all the girls. We got on a bus to go back home with all the youngens and he harrassed every single one of em, boys and girls alike! The women looked at us like dogs, but were somewhat curious. The boys looked at us in envy of our attitudes and mannerisms. We get off the bus and started walking, thinking that we were going to go home. But, we ended up going to a kareoke bar where the locals women (25+) were dancing, singing, and drinking. Between then and when we actually got home, they must have drunk at least 10 liters of beer!

The women were fat, ugly whores. Everyone was having a random hookup, drinking and then having another hookup with someone else! People who were married, had rings, and even talked about their significant other where still hooking up with all the tourists. No matter WHAT happened, they couldn’t stop drinking. This one woman, fat and ugly, with frizzy hair came to talk to us because Beatu asked her to. I was communicating with hand gestures and mixed Spanish.

At some point, this ugly HUGE whore came in a white dress with a huge pot belly sticking out and an even bigger ass. She tried to seduce us and kept on asking for money, for us to buy her drinks, etc etc. That became the theme of the night. I don’t think there was a single person that didn’t ask us for something. I was very tired, very fed up with them, and mad that I had blown R$20 on a night club for youngens. These whores kept on kissing our cheeks, slow dancing with us, and rubbing up against us. We went with the flow because in a place where you don’t know jack, with people you’ve met for the first time that might have guns, you can only be freindly and hope for the best Especially if you don’t know how to get back home.

So, this continued on with Camaron jumping and climbing all over the place. He hooked up with on firl and ended up bringing her home for some dirty lovin. Beatu ended up with Flo. At one point in the night, it started to pour like crazy and I thought “great, finally the party ended.” Little did I know I was in the BAHIA LLENO DE ALEGRIA!! They just moved the kareoke machine indoors, continued the debauchery in a smaller area until around 6 am when that bar closed. So what did we do? Did we go home? NOPE!! Crossed the street, bought another liter of beer, and kept on drinking!

Camaron ended up getting us a cab, we fit 7 people in it! We got to the port and had to wait about 45 minutes for the ferry to leave. Camaron and some other guy started doing Capoiera while we clapped and sang the song. It was the funniest thing ever. We laughed so much! At one point Camaron tried to do a move, ended up doing hte splits and getting his ass all wet with the grease!!

I feel that if I had known the language better, I woudl feel more comfortable doing crazy stupid fun things, but the lack of communication hinders. We came home, showered twice, and slept for 6 hours.

We woke up today for breakfast, went to the centro, ate lunch, and slept until now.? Matt is still asleep, everyone is going the nightly eating, drinking, and talking with the owners!!

We left Parati and headed North. We decided not to stay in Rio and took off to Porto Seguro. The bus from Parati to Rio took 4 hours, then we needed to wait about 3 hours in the bus station to take a 20 hour busride to get to Porto Seguro. We’ve been making friends all the way up, especially French people. We got in and took a ferry over to Balsa and got a real nice pousada for dirt cheap US$7 a night. We went down to the centro and hung out all night until we got tired.

We met a Uruguayan who moved here 2 years ago and gave us some tips on places to go. I have to go visit Playa De Pipa at some point, they say there are dolphins everywhere there! We came back and slept, woke up to a table for two for breakfast (cafe de mana) right in front of our door!! Fresh papaya juice, coffeee, bread, cheese, papaya, and home made torta frita .. all included in the US$7 a night!!

Now we head off to the beach. The pousada is called Chagal Da Tuna and we are on the outskirts of Araialla D’Ajuda

Today I bathed for the first time in Brasil. I am estimating the next shower in 4-5 days, and Matt laughs at me. Hell, if we spend all day at the beach, what is the point? What an amazing couple of days it has been. The boat for the cruise was waiting around for us for 15 minutes because we barely made it up for it!

When we got there, we took off on an amazing voyage with some spectacular views. Our first stop was an island with MONKEYS!! I LOVE MONKEYS!! We fed them bread and jumped off the boat to swim a little. The next stop was a private beach called Lala where we hung out for about an hour, nothing major, except for spectacular views, soft sand, and green-blue crystal clear waters!

We had lunch in an area with schools of colorful fish, prime for snorkelling. Our last stop was a huge island, where we met Mike from Englang. The 3 of us found an off trail and went exploring around the island, getting creeped out because a chicked was running in the bushes and we had no idea what it was.

We met a guy from Belgium and two families from France that told us to check out Belem and Marajou, an island off Belem. We got back and started to take pictures and explore the Old City. At night, we went to Ateresa, Enrique’s resteraunt. We spent 7 hours there. The first couple of hours, Enrique showed us pictures of places he travelled to in Brasil with his wife and kids and helped us get a better idea of where we wanted to go and what we should see! We also saw naked pics of him and his wife

So, after that, we ate there, thent he couple closed up shop and joined us at the table. We were speaking in English, Spanigh, and Portuguese about politics, life, dentistry, and South American history. They have a daughter that is studying dentistry in Bs As. We get back at 2 am and decided to go at 10 am to a beach called Trinidad, they had recommended it. They offered to pick us up and drive us down there.

The drive was through a mini-jungle to a very remote part of Brasil with amazing small beaches. We immediately went exploring, waslking up and down small jungle mountain sides to get to teh different beaches. One beach was a nude beach, but Matt didn’t want to go there (I wonder why 8–D). We got to a bigger remote beach and found another trail that led to a natural pool, ocean water surrounded by rocks where you could snorkel. There was also a guy selling Cairpirinhias there (fresh lime juice, slushed with sugar, and mixed with sugar cane liquor, Cachaca).

I slept under the sun for a couple of hours while Matt read. When we woke up, we headed back to the first beach and spent some more time under the sun. At about 3 pm, we left and met up with a guy from a local shop that was going to take a capoiera class and invited us to go! It was incredible!! The way they danced and the way the trainer sung was ridiculous.. AND THE BEATS OF THE DRUMS!!

We just got back from giving Enrique his books and exchanging emails. Matt was picking up on a 12 year old girl was was making us some photocopies (not really, but I made him feel like a pedophil anyhow).

Tomorrow we head to Rio, then further North!!

Wow, after all these years flying down to South America, I finally get to experience BRASIL BRASIL BRASIL!!

I found Matt at the airport in Soa Paolo just fine. The ride was OK, I slept through all of it. I paid US$480 roundtrip on hotwire for this ticket! We immediately left in a taxi to the bus station, thinking that there was a bus that left at 10 am, like the internet said. When we got there, we found out that there was a bus leaving at 12:15 pm and that it took about 7 hours to get to where we wanted to go. We spent some time looking for places to stay, but everything was EXPENSIVE!! So, after killing some time, we finally got on the bus!

I slept about 4 hours and spent the next 2 hours enjoying the amazing scenery and SUN! The weather is awesome, nice and warm, but it gets a tad chilly at night. Not too bad for it being the dead of winter in South America! Matt became friends with a guy named Enrique on the bus, who told us it was in our best interest to stop in a city called Parati, 90km south of Angra, where we wanted to go.

He turned out to be Argentinean, that moved out there 1.5 years ago after the government collapsed in Argentina (yeah, I was there for that too! Left the same day the country went down the toilet too!) I had some very good conversations with him and his wife, in Spanish, of course! They brought us to a Pousada that they stayed at after they left Argentina, and got us a great rate. The lady that owns the place is called Lourita and the place is called Bananeiras.

They invited us to dinner at their resteraunt tomorrow night. There is a district here that is 300 years old and the only thing they are allowed to do is paint the buildings, so everything gets preserved. We went exploring and found an all-you-can eat pizza place for R$3 per person, beer for R$0.60 a can. We sat down and met a French guy, Cristof, who had been travelling the world for 8 months and has 4 left to go around South America.

We lef to find a bar, but nothing was lively in the town, so we decided to crash at around 9 pm, dead tired. It is 3:30 am and in about 7 hours we leave on a cruise ride that we paid US$5 each for. Did I mention that all the women are amazingly HOT?!?