In Santa Catarina!

Boa tarde!

We left off in Manaus getting ready to fly to Florianopolis on Saturday and we´ve been here all week. Floripa (as they call it) is a small island off the coast of Brazil in the far south. We are actually surprising close to Uruguay, but don´t tell anybody that. Our week has been pretty mellow, but that´s exactly what we needed. Our first two weeks were pretty insane but now we are living some island life, which generally means slowing down the pace a bit. Lots of little things happened so this post is a bit long, but hopefully gives a good view of our week.

Anyway, down to details:

• We traveled all day Saturday and arrived after midnight in Florianopolis. We were pretty exhausted and weren´t in the most optimistic spirits, so the island just looked like a blur of strip malls and ridiculous billboards. Our taxi driver (who actually was the dad of the girl working at our pousada) spoke little English and just pointed every so often at something when we asked questions.....we soon stopped asking questions. After about an hour we arrived in Santinho and things were looking a bit up. Our pousada was small but quaint and just a flew blocks from the beach. So we settled in and crashed
• Next day we started exploring and made our first big hiking mistake of the trip. There is a hill to the south of us along the beach and we thought that may make a nice morning climb, so we asked around and people agreed that this was a good hike and off we went. At first it was easy with a gentle slope and well paved, but that changed quickly! We found ourselves on a steep slope covered in mud and entering a deep fog created by the clouds. Although none of the path would be described as dangerous on its own, the sum total was definitely not something that anyone would describe as a "nice morning walk". After trudging our way to the top we found zero view as the clouds had rolled in, so we laughed a bit, peeked under a break in the clouds, confirmed that there, in fact, could be a view here, and turned back. Now, steep and muddy going up is not fun but steep and muddy going down is excruciatingly not fun. We spent a lot of time on all fours walking like Gollum from Lord of the Rings (there are very few English books here so i read what I can) and trying not to slip. We encountered a rather large tarantula that wasnt in a big hurry to get out of our way and we made it down. Survived it!
• After being a bit fatigued by the hike we took the bus into town and explored a bit. We wanted to do some grocery shopping as our room had a kitchen and we were anxious to do a few nights away from restaurants. Grocery shopping is actually fun in a foreign country and we were excited at the prices of fruit and bread (very cheap!) and dismayed at the price of mustard and pasta sauce (very expensive). We got our set of ingredients and a bottle of wine and headed back to the bus stop....and then it started raining. Not a light, quaint Denver rain, but a real rain. Downpour. Not really having an alternate plan we got soaked and looked pretty ridiculous. We decided to walk a block and wait under a cover only to watch our bus go past just as we left our post. Undettered we waddled back to our spot and waited through the rain (still looking ridiculous). Now here comes our second big mistake of the trip: We didn´t exactly know where we were supposed to get off. So, Gina and I tried to find the familiar in the fast moving landscape and decided at some point that this looked familiar enough and got off the bus....about 1km too early. Its still raining and we got off the bus early. Needless to say, we were even more soaked by the time we got back.
• The next day looked a bit gloomy again so we decided to go for another hike, which we thought was an easier hike to Mozambique beach which is a calm, deserted beach just beyond ours. This was the location of our 3rd big mistake of the trip. We headed off on what looked to be an easy hike but soon found that we had to climb over some pretty serious rocks and mud and streams to get to the beach. There was only one casualty and that was my precious BioWillie trucker cap. The cap jumped off of my head at a high point on the trail and was unreachable. We had a moment of silence and continued on and eventually landed at the beautiful Mozambique beach. This place is a postcard. Enormous boulders sitting on pristine sand and nobody else around for miles; it was perfect. We were pretty determined not to go back the way we came, so when we saw a couple appear from the sand dunes 50 yards down the beach, we asked them if there was a way through the dunes to town. "20 minutes. Straight path,"(in Portuguese) was the guidance we received that would send us to our 4th big mistake and by far our biggest. We eagerly headed towards the sand dunes, which are gigantic mounds of sand that cover a lot of the inland in the northern part of the island. We walked and compared them to the Great Sand Dunes and were pretty optimistic as the scenery was so striking. Soon we realized that we were pretty far away from the beach and there was no town or road in sight. After a while we found a high spot and saw that we were a considerable distance from any structure except a random ropes course up on a cliff (yes, it was weird). So we kept on trucking and eventually saw a Hotel sign in the faint distance. At this point we were very thirsty (ran out of water) and a bit tired from Mistake 3 today and Mistakes 1 & 2 from yesterday, but we kept on going until we got close enough to the sign to realize that this was the sign for a hotel in Ingleses. This confused us tremendously as Ingleses is a town north-west of our pousada and we started the day by heading south-east. Regardless we strolled into town and plopped on the main road just about 100 yards away from the infamous bus stop from the previous night. We laughed it off, found a great place to eat (although the town was in the midst of a blackout) and concluded the evening
• Luckily the trip went very smoothly from here on out. We visited the main city of Florianopolis, which is about a 40 minute bus ride from our hotel and found a very quaint city along the water that was bustling with activity. The main pedestrian mall had a mix of colonial and 1960´s archictecture and the main square had an enormous tree whose limbs stretched across most of the square. I think the limbs had got a bit tired over the years and they had poles to support the limbs but it seemed to work as the square now had a canopy across most of it consisting of a single tree.
• Most of Wednesday was cancelled due to rain. This was a good thing as we were pretty tired and we needed a day of hanging out, reading, and taking stock of our time here so far. Eventually the rain started to clear so we arranged for a car rental and drove to some of the northwest towns. Our first stop was a tiny little fishing village with a single church and a coast that looked across the bay to the main land. The church was bathed in white, blue, and orange, so we were compelled to take lots of pictures of doors, windows, and stairs as the colors were magnificent. After departing that village we drove to Jureré and Praia Forte farther north. Jureré appears to be where all of the wealthy either live or have second houses as it looked a lot like Cherry Creek, but with an ocean. Praia Forte, on the other hand, is a very tiny beach at the foot of an old Portuguese fort. To get there you need to drive up and over this headland on a road that is much steeper than anything we have in the mountains. Gina got to drive over it and I drove back. I can honestly say that neither of us looked too strong driving over these roads. Anyway, we explored the fort for a bit and it was remarkable. It looked just like a fort you would find in Scotland that was transplanted down to the Brazilian coast. Strange, but striking.
• We awoke on Thursday with a major task at hand: Voting! Our ballots arrived the previous night (thanks again Mom for sending them on!!) and now we braved the post office to send them. Apparently, in Brazil there is no such thing as guaranteed mail so although we needed the ballots to arrive in 4 days, the oddly cheery postal worker continued to repeat (in portuguese), "they may arrive in 3-5 days". We forked over the money (close to $25USD), sent another package with stuff we bought, forked over more money, and then left. Today we explored the east coast and first saw the Projecto Tomar in Barra du Lagoa. Projecto Tomar is a Brazilian project to support the sea turtle population along the coast and they had half a dozen different species there with a lot of background on how far they have come in protecting the turtles since the early 90´s. Apparently, the 80´s were even worse for the turtles than they were to music lovers around the world. Anyway, after the turtles, we went to lunch in a great little town on the large inner lake in the island and then to Joáquin beach for sandboarding! I was excited and imagined carving turns in the dunes, but you pretty much have to go straight on a Brazilian sandboard. They are constructructed by taking laquered plywood and screwing on two straps. Very little curves and no edges. So after a few attempts at making turns, I did like everyone else and went straight and then climbed back up. Gina got a board that you could sit on (much like a sled) and we found that we could get going pretty fast with both of us on that board, although the sand in the face leaves a lot to be desired. After conquering the sand, we turned our little car back home, went through a bit of road rage (story to be told later), and hit the showers to try and remove the sand. That is the downside of sandboarding over snowboarding. Snow melts and turns to water. Sand just sticks to you and never leaves!

That brings us to today. Today was the first really sunny day so we took a long walk on the beach in the morning and then hung out on the beach in the afternoon. The water was cold, but refreshing but the ocean was truly beautiful today.

Well, tomorrow we are off to Curitiba for a few days and then to Iguazu Falls before entering Argentina. Brazil has definitely been a treat as have the beaches, but now its time we head inland and up to the moutains for a bit.

Ajay and Gina

October 25, 2008 - Manaus and the Amazon

Hello again everyone. We miss you all. However, we are having a truly incredible time!

Ajay and I last left you in Morro de Sao Paulo, an island about a 3 hour boat ride from Salvador. After blogging, we arrived back to our pousada (guest house), and the sun was setting. So, we decided to get ready for dinner. Ajay was in the shower, and I was reading out on the balcony overlooking the ocean. When, all of a sudden, the lights went out...on the entire island! It was a black-out!!! Our pousada manager, Giovanni, always in good spirits, ran around giving everyone candles. So we sat on our balcony, by candlelight, listening to the waves, gazing at the stars, and wondering how we arrived at such a magical moment and place.

Eventually, we needed to head out to dinner and decided to try our luck. The restaurant down the way was fully serving by candlelight, and so we ate a lovely meal (they used gas to cook). On our way back to the guest house, the electric came on, and everyone cheered. Hooray!

Sunday, Ajay and I went for a long walk on the beach and then rented kayaks. It was beautiful of course kayaking around the reefs. The funniest part of the morning was when we became `beached´ on rocks in shallow water, and Ajay didn´t want to get out of the kayak b/c he was afraid of dropping our camera in the water. So, yours truly heaved and hoed until I pulled Ajay and the kayak back into deeper waters. It was a good laugh.

Sunday evening we took a very choppy boat ride back to Salvador and caught a plane Monday morning (about 5 hours of flying time-- Brazil is huge) to Manaus which is in the center of the Amazon rainforest/jungle.

Manaus was an unimpressive mid-sized city (about 1.5 million people) at first glance, but you will learn more as you read (as we did in our time spent here). We were only here for one night until we were picked up for our 4 day/3 night jungle lodge experience!

We were picked up at 8 am, took a taxi to the dock, a boat for about 20 minutes to another dock, a van for about an hour, and another speed boat for about 40 minutes. On our way, we stopped to view the meeting of the rivers. This is where the black tea-colored Rio Negro and the coffee-colored Rio Solimoes meet. It is a fascinating 6 KM line of two colors of water. Because the water composition and thus ph-balance is different in the rivers, they don´t bleed together, and they have very different eco-systems. This is also where we saw our first river dolphin. Did you know that the Pacific and Atlantic oceans used to connect in South America thousands of years ago? So, many of the animals in the river have adapted over the years from salt-water to fresh water, like dolphins, sting rays, sea otters, caimans (like crocodiles), etc.

We made it to our lodge (Juma Lodge) where the entire place was built on stilts 30 feet high. This is because in the rainy season, the water levels of the Rio Juma rise 30 feet. There are foot bridges connecting the reception area with the restaurant with the bungalows. Our bungalow was perched on the shore overlooking the river and the forest. There was a hammock on the balcony, and the wall overlooking the river was one large screen window. We went to sleep each night with the sounds of frogs, monkeys, and birds orchestrating an incredible symphony.

Our days in the Amazon were comprised of hiking, boat rides, bird watching, swimming in the river, piranha fishing (I caught 4!), and visiting a local indigenous tribe. The lodge employed all local people and owns/preserves 6,000 hectares of land around them. We felt very good about our decision to stay there. They had a very responsible business model socially and environmentally. Also, all of our tours only had 5-8 people. We made some nice friends, ate good food, learned a ton about the environment, and were in awe of the complexity of the place: the eco-system, the politics, deforestation, the thousands of plants and animals, the 1000 tributaries of the Amazon river. It was so much to absorb.

Come Friday, we eventually arrived back in Manaus, which I wasn´t looking forward to. However, we arranged to meet one of our new friends, Marcus from Germany, for dinner. It happened to be the birthday of Manaus, which once hoped to be the greatest city in the world due to the wealth derived from Amazon rubber. At the time, they built a spectacular opera house. We were fortunate to see a performance of local groups at the opera house that night. It was amazing! We also stumbled onto the city market which was amusing. Manaus had been redeemed in my mind (although they still have a very serious grafitti problem, among others, here).

Alas, we leave today. We are off to southern Brazil which will be very different. More european immigrants. We are heading to an island with 42 beaches on it, some good hiking, and restaurants.

We´ll be back next week, with more.

Love,
Gina and Ajay

In Morro de Sao Paulo

Hoi,

First big blog update and lots to add, so here goes:

• We arrived in Salvador on Tuesday a bit weary from our 22 hours of traveling and realizing that Portuguese is very, very different than Spanish and nobody really understands a word we say. So, earlier in the day we purchased a phrase book to be able to order some food and drinks and survive. Now we can say ´thank you´(obrigado), hello, and ´where is the bathroom´which is very helpful.
• After resting a bit we asked the owner of our pousada about live music and he pointed us in the right direction. We went to the Pelourinho area of Salvador and saw a 23-piece afro-latin jazz orchestra. They were phenomenal! Although the music had touches of Tito Puente and Dizzy Gillespie, the percussion was the big thing. In Brazilian bands the drums are out front, not in the back, so the african drums combined with the jazz made it truly unique for us. The group is at http://www.rumpilezz.com
• The next day we saw the sights in our neighborhood called Barra. There is the first light house in South America and you get a good view of naval history coming to the Brazilian coast. We made our way out from the light house and got hassled a bit by a lot of the street vendors but our favorite was the one who kept on calling us ´Obama´ because of the pins we had on our backpack. Farther up the road are the big city beaches and we learned that the brazilians know how to hang out in the beach. If you can get past the speedos and thongs, they are also constantly partying and having a good time. Eventually, we stopped in a small shop that served sweet and savory pastries and, although we thought we ordered something completely different, we had a great meal.
• That night we ventured out again in search of great music and went to see Choro. This is another typical brazilian style with acoustic guitars and hand drums and occasionally has a bluegrass feel. The show we saw had a bunch of rotating musicians (that seemed to just appear from within the crowd) and they played the sax, the flute, the violin, the acoustic bass, the mandolin, and many different hand drums. Apparently, the band leader described all of this in portugese, but of course, it was completely lost on us.
• The next morning we explored the major tourist sites in Pelourinho and saw 3 old churches from the 17th century. Each one had its own style. The main one, Terrioro de Jesus, was grand and featured intricate murals on the ceilings. The second one, Sainto Francisco, had gold leaf throughout the inside that made the building feel like it was glowing. Strangely enough it reminded us of large Hindu or Buddhist temples. The third church was built by black slaves and was beautiful but much more simple. It was very interesting to see some black saints on the walls. We concluded the evening listening to a Brazilian musician play outside of a bar while we sat in tables on the street sipping beer.....music was everywhere

For the past two days we have been in Morro de Sao Paulo, which is a small island that was a 3 hour catamaran ride from Salvador (although advertised as 2 hour). This place is truly a tropical island with white sand beaches, palm trees, sparkling blue and green waters, and bassanova coming from the bars. We met an English couple on the boat (who were just married as well) and made arrangements to meet them for dinner that night as Giovanni, our pousada manager, greeted us at the dock where the ´taxis´are. Now, it is important to state what a ´taxi´is on the island. It is actually a wheelbarrow in which you put your bags and then the taxi driver pushes the wheelbarrow to your pousada. As there are no cars on the island, they improvise.

Anyway, we spent yesterday afternoon on the beach, swam a bit, napped a bit, and learned that island time moves very slowly. We had a fantastic meal with our new English friends and followed it with a capeirnha (brazilian margarita) and lots of ice cold beer. This was our third night of having moquequa, which is the Bahaian speciality that is remarkably similar to a mix of jambalaya and shrimp curry. We are now moquequa conosseiurs.

This all brings us to today. After a lazy morning (Gina did manage to get up and see the sunrise, though) we walked the length of the coast to the 4th beach. The tide was out so we were able to traverse our way to a small tide pool and paddled around for well over an hour while watching some of the locals fish. Just as we were ready to go, they struck gold with a 4-foot eel and we watched the catch and the kill.....not sure we are ready to eat eel.

Until next time.

ajay and gina

The Night Before We Leave

So, in about 15 hours we will be on a plane on our way to our trip of a lifetime. I can't believe that tomorrow I'm not going to work although it will take a while to let it go. Work is still definitely on the mind tonight, but hopefully once we are cruising above the clouds I can leave more and more of it behind.

Gina did an amazing job of preparing for the trip and now we are packed and ready to go. I'm hoping I can fall asleep tonight, because right now I'm pretty giddy.

I tried to create a few things so you all can follow us at home:

• The map of our travels: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&mssort=5&msa=0&msid=112883161273706050085.0004591922c130fe519e2&ll=-12.921584,-38.454895&spn=0.329274,0.576782&z=11
• Our facebook updates
• And, now this.

Hmm...maybe I don't really want all of our travels to be tracked. We'll find out if I update this thing, huh.

Ajay