Room 213 Soda Estereo

A statue of El Quijote welcomed me to Buenos Aires. The room in the hostel I stayed in was named after my favorite Argentinian band (Soda Estereo) and this was a good omen for my roommates and the time I was to have in this city...









The city's museums where impressive. This painting by Benito Quinquela Martin really struck me as beautiful.  The color and social justice subject matter were aspects that I really loved.














Then there was the Modigliani. There is something beautiful about the mask-like faces he paints which draw me to his paintings.  Since he died young, his painting are rare.  I came to Buenos Aires for tango and Borges but it held fun surprises!













As I mentioned earlier, hostels can go either way but the inhabitants of Room 213 Soda Estereo were an awesome crew.










Even as the crew changed over my 11 days in Buenos Aires, the vibe was cool. Here we were in Cafe Tortoni where Borges used to write!









Traveling love... here is a couple made up of a French woman who loved to Tango who moved to Buenos Aires to dance and an Argentinian man who didn't like tango! Love? Who knows what path it will take...











You can't spend a week in Buenos Aires without coming across a worker's protest.









And of course, there is Evita's grave. Argentina does cry for her :-)

I believe in fairies, I do, I do!

To say that Iguazu is just water and gravity is like saying that the Grand Canyon is just a hole in the ground. The volume of water is staggering.









The Brazilian side of the falls has less ways to play with the water but offers a fantastic panoramic view.











This is the famed "Devil`s Throat". That makes it the second natural wonder of my trip associated with the lord of darkness. The other being the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua thought to be entrance to hell. In my humble opinion, the Argentinian side of the falls is far more divine (and wet) than diabolical.






All that water does lead to beautiful rainbows...












While watching the falls for a long time I made a friend. It turns out he is a photographer for national geographic! He said that his favorite place in the world is Torres del Paine in Chile... a see a possible future travel destination :-)












When choosing a hotel, I could not resist one named "Peter Pan". As it happens I was reading that book during my trip! ... and let's face it, it was too appropriate to pass up.














Waiting for the bus... now heading to Buenos Aires!

Cachaca Infused Fruit

Morro de Sao Paolo is on an island near Salvador that feels like the Caribbean. In between the easy going people, the beautiful beaches and the warm water, it is paradise. The palm trees are the gate :-)









It used to be a quiet fishing village...










But it´s proximity to Salvador and the beautiful beach have made it into a party place. Every night one of the beaches turns into a club with many sellers for alcohol (cachaca or vodka) infused fruit. It rained when I was there so there were few people on the party beach but the alcohol can´t be tasted in the fruity goodness, something that I am sure is intentional :-)








I went on a hike around the island (it is not very big) which included a small waterfall. The owner of the hostel who took us on the hike said that it was a waterfall of youth, so that it would reduce 5 years off your age but you also had to loose all you learned during those years. There goes my postdoc and last couple of years of grad school...









Mud baths are always more fun with cute and fun girls. Here are my travel companions in the island making a Charlie's angels pose. If you notice, the girl to the right wasn't familiar with the TV show! She is a doctor from Slovakia... The backpacker world is very small and she was also one of my companions dancing in Rio, what luck!









Mud baths with supposedly beautifying, but certain stinkifying effects, lead one to do all kinds of crazy things, like hand stands. With that I am off to one of the wonders of the world at Iguazu falls.

Candomble´s 3 wishes

Salvador is a city that knows how to have a good time. During the day, it is a beautiful colonial city with a strong African influence. At night, in particular on Tuesday nights, the historic district, Pelourinho, has a giant street party. You can hear everything from punta (from Honduras!) to forro and axe which are typical of Salvador and the state of Bahia. There is lots of dancing in the streets and it is not just the tourists. If a Tuesday night is like this, I can´t imagine how Carnaval would be!








This wooden carving in the Afro-Brazilian museum is of some of the Orixas. Orixas are deities of the Afro-Brazilian religion of candomble which combined catholic beliefs with African religions. Of particular interest to me is the Orixa Oxala which is associated with the Christ at the Church at Bonfim.





This is the Igreja do Bonfim, where the Christ and its Candomble counterpart Oxala are believed to be miraculous.














The believers who have had miracles after praying to our lord at Bonfim, leave many offerings in thanks. In particular, replicas of body parts which have been healed. There is a room full of thanks.














In the candomble faith, one can put a fita (ribbon) and with each of three knots make a wish. If the fita is left to come off on its own, then the wishes will come true. 9 months ago, Natascha gave me such a fita. As you can see from the picture, they are practically indestructible. The first month I had it, I loved to have received such a thoughtful present but 3 months after, I was tired of wearing a raggedy ribbon around my wrist. Now 9 months later, I don´t even notice it except when it reminds me of the three wishes I made. In that way, it was a fantastic gift which I will make sure to return to Natascha in January :-)


It is hard to talk about Salvador without mentioning capoeira. Capoeira is a martial art that was disguised by the slaves as a dance. It is very rhythmic and extremely hard! I took a capoeira class at Mestre Bimba´s and my quads hurt for 5 days afterwards and my feet had blisters. So much for me being a tough guy...











Being a vegetarian in Latin America as a cheap traveler is a challenge. I have been on a diet of sorts (I´ve had to make an extra hole in my belt) but Brazil has food by weight places that are fantastic. Since fruit and veggies are cheap, most of the choices are vegetarian. They also eat lots of fruit because it is hot and that´s what you feel like eating. After seeing the average Brazilian body, I think I might adopt the Brazilian vegetarian diet.


When traveling on your own, whether you meet people or not is variable. For most of the trip, I've met cool people to share the place with but in Salvador I chose a hostel that is not in Lonely Planet (the backpacker´s bible). Since it was off-season, it was quiet. In a way, it was nice since it gave me time to think. This self portrait comes from a cool cafe in front of the hostel.





After a great time in Salvador, I am off to the beaches of Morro de Sao Paolo...

The here and now.

It was only on my return to Rio that I really felt that I understood a little of the pulse of the city. Rio is a city about the here and now. People live very much in the present and have a well developed sense on fun. In an amazing turn of events I met another two Paulista doctors traveling Rio while doing dishes at the hostel. They were friends with the punk Paulistas! This photo was taken a practice for the samba school which won the carnaval competition last year. There are several kinds of samba and carnaval samba is danced individually and involves hip and foot motions impossible for anyone merely human.


I loved Rio at night. This photo was taken in Lapa, the samba dancing area. This kind of samba is danced with a partner. I like that better...










We went to Democraticos, a fantastic samba club with much Brazilian sensuality. We danced until 4 am when the club closed. I do not know how to samba but luckily playful salsa moves with some free-styling was enough to make that night one of my favorite nights out dancing.






As it turned out, we took the wrong bus home and we ended at the beach! Well, we decided to wait until sunrise before heading back to the hostel. It was a night I will not soon forget.










The final day of my stay in Rio included a soccer game at Maracana where Botafogo played. The soccer was mediocre actually but the crowd was fantastic. There was lots of singing, dancing, shouting... Clearly the excitement of the cariocas extended to the temple of soccer. The atmosphere was electrifying.





Botafogo won. I had never seen that kind of excitement in a soccer game. It felt characteristic of the intensity of life that I saw in Rio and in Brazil in general. People lived in the moment and enjoyed it more than any place I can think of. As I continue my travels and life in general, I will hope to take some of Rio with me...

Never mind, I'll do it myself

The British docs and I headed to the island paradise of Ilha Grande. On the way there, we had lots of fun with my Brazilian Portuguese phrase book. We started translating some of the phrases from the romance section to the Brazilians on the boat. Sure enough, it started with the expected "Would you like to dance?" and then progressively increased the level of intimacy of the conversation but the final phrase caused roaring laughs on the boat since it was the very useful "Never mind, I'll do it myself."



The purpose for going to Ilha Grande was relaxation at the beach. It certainly was that. The hostel was on the water and had a beach right next to it.










We took a boat to the beach Lopes Mendes, reputed by some as the best beach in Brazil. On the way there, I saw this boat floating by itself. I thought the water was beautiful. On the way there, we also had dolphins swimming next to our boat but I didn't get a photo :-(







Lopes Mendes was beautiful, warm and had good surfing.








Ilha Grande brought good times at the beach and very interesting conversations with my traveling companions, but the energy of Rio was calling me back. I was sad to part way with the Brits who were keen on more beach. A backpacker's world in South America is small, it would be great if our paths crossed again...

Punk Paulistas in Rio

Cristo Redentor overlooks a city that is truly marvelous. I finally arrived at a city that I have dreamed of visiting for many years. Perhaps it seems appropriate the Christ is a redeemer, since the cariocas might need more than their share :-)








From the Christ, the view is spectacular. It is enough to make you start looking for ways to move here!










In my first day in Rio, I had the luck to meet three fun Paulistas who were visiting the city for a Patty Smith concert. What luck, eh? They adopted me for the weekend. We started out at the beach drinking coconut milk and working on our tans. I bet you if you wouldn't know me, you wouldn't pick me as the tourist... In southern Brazil, people are very white. In some towns, they speak German instead of Portuguese!




Being that I love books and cheesy photos, here is one with and Carlos Drumond (a famous Brazilian poet). I learned that Paolo Coelho is too commercial for the Brazilians I met. I now have a new book in my "list of books to read", Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis. It is about seemingly simple memories from beyond the grave which have a philosophical insight. Written by the son a of freed slave from late last 19th century, it is just my kind of book.




I was very glad to let my new Paulista friends navigate the Rio bus system on my first weekend there. It turns out they don´t speak Spanish in Brazil :-)










During the day, I was indoctrinated into the greatness of Patty Smith´s music and the required black shirt for anybody attending one of her concerts. I bought a ticket last minute mostly to spend more time with my new Paulista friends. They were a joy to be around. I also felt like a local, since there were not that many people wearing Havaiianas (ubiquitous Brazilian flip flops used by backpackers) at the Patty Smith concert. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the headliners but we were there to see the legend not the new kids. Just in case you were wondering, even though Patty Smith is like a hundred years old, she still rocks, spits and breaks guitar strings! After the concert we spent the day together at the botanical garden and then my new friends went back to their regular lives as medical and journalism students.

One of the reasons why I have wanted to visit Rio for many years is the song "The Girl From Ipanema". It is just one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. There is an actual girl that inspired the song and a restaurant and entire industry based on it at Ipanema beach. This is a photo of the girl that inspired the beautiful song of heartbreak. In reality, as in the song, the girl never looked back at the love smitten poet.










I had the luck to meet two British backpacking doctors who accompanied me to the restaurant and heard me tell them all about the song. They were silly and fun and great travel companions. We were possibly the most over-educated threesome of backpackers but you wouldn't know it if you saw us. After hiking up to the Christ and sharing the Ipanema legend, we decided that we needed even more beach time and that it would be fun to travel together. We headed off together to a island near Rio...

I wont ask you for money.

As you can probably tell by the date of the blog entries, I am in a catch up mode (from Brazil). I did spend 5 days in Costa Rica. It was just enough to go to the San Jose and then to my third Central American volcano, Arenal. Costa Rica has more of a European feel than any other Central American country. The closer we are to Guatemala, the stronger the Mayan influence. The closer we are to Costa Rica, the stronger the Spanish influence. San Jose has a charming downtown with old buildings and an art museum with a Rembrandt exhibit. As a tourist, I can see why it is not so appealing to travelers, but as a city to live, I quite liked it. The best way to sum of what makes Costa Rica different was that it was the only country I have been in Central America where an American (from California) came up to us to ask for money! As it usually happens, when somebody comes up to you and says "I wont ask you for money", sure enough, they ask you for money.



Volcan Arenal was striking. It is very active and you can expect to hear and see eruptions every night. Things are well done and organized. We had a English speaking naturalist guide who was very knowledgeable. I took the "adventure" hike route but it was not very adventurous when compared to Nicaragua. That being said, it was a lot safer.




The Arenal tour came with an optional stop at the hot springs. Wow, there were more than ten pools with temperatures that would cook you to outright freezing. It was decadent, with multiple swim up bars, different types of music and its very own Mayan pyramid. I was not expecting the Disneyland version of a Roman bath. That being said, I enjoyed them including lying on top of the Mayan pyramid looking for some sort of enlightenment. I feel asleep.


Costa Rica does deliver on the natural beauty and Latin culture. I had originally come with a negative bias, thinking it was not really Central America but am leaving with a different view. Central America is many things, and Costa Rica is a great place to explore Latin culture and natural beauty with good infrastructure. If you think that Lonely Planet guides are too touristy and that your chicken bus breaking down is part of the adventure, then maybe it won't be a place for you, but I now see Costa Rica as a great entry point to Central America, hopefully followed by an overland trip to Guatemala...







And now, off to Brazil!