Brazil

Check out our pics: Brazil

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After taking a look at the Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side, we flew to Sao Paulo to meet Neuza. We first met Neuza about 13 years ago in a post office line in Bali and she was so animated we ended up having dinner together that night. We bumped into her a week later in Sumba, another Indonesian island, and then we couldn´t shake her! :) She visited us in Japan and also Seattle about eight years ago. It was so great to see her after all this time. She is 63 years going on 24! We could barely keep up. And she and Ana, a friend who´s living with her at the moment, were fabulous hosts. Her maid Mira, cooked us wonderful traditional Brazilian meals everyday. The fruit in Brazil is incredible. We went out to markets, heard traditional music, went to a nightclub where they were dancing forró (pronounced "fawhaw")... the works. We also spent many evenings in her top floor appartment looking at the view and drinking various tropical fruit caipirinhas. Tracy took the liberty of writing down some of Neuza´s choicest comments, which I will reproduce here to give you a flavor of our conversations.

¨Wherever one goes remember you´re bringing yourself¨

¨I'm proud to shit at least 600 grams each time.¨

¨I wake up new every morning¨

¨A: I love you
B: I got the information¨

In response to Tracy's 'What was it like being the sixteenth child?':
¨Like an egg for a chicken¨

And here's one of Tracy's:
"The key to health is bending over" (though much more fun out of context, this was in reference to the benefits of yoga)

After about a week with Neuza we headed to Rio de Janeiro. OMG, I have always wanted to go there, "Sugarloaf, Christ, Ipanema, Copacabana" poetry to the ears! And there we were! In it! And I was surprised how it lived up to my expectations. It really is a beautiful city, the beaches were pristine, great waves and the people watching supreme! We did the tour of the city and the tourist sites, deciding against the tour of a favela (the shanty town), seemed a little like the Victorians touring the lunatic asylums. Happily avoided dengue fever (there was an outbreak in the north of Rio). Stayed in a hostel ghetto in Ipanema where it was all happening, had great healthy food and purchased the requisite Havaianas flip flops that ALL of Brazil is wearing. Would like to have spent a bit longer there, but we had plans...

Overnight bus to Sao Paulo for flight to Fernando de Noronha, a world heritage eco island off the north coast of Brazil, 4 degrees south of the equator. Warm water and lots of marine life. We swam with turtles, scuba dived, snorkeled, body boarded, saw octopus, stingray, sharks, dolphins etc. We took several boat trips round the island and hiked to beautiful beaches. We also tried aqua scubi, where you hold on to a perspex board being towed by a boat and are able to use it to glide underwater. Fun! We were there during rainy season, and we had a storm, but it was always warm and given the sun-sensitive nature of our pale skin we were always thankful for a few clouds.

The island, and getting to it, is very expensive and when Tracy calculated that we were spending $25 an hour for the 6 days there, it made sleeping in a little too expensive! So we made the most of our time there. We met a lot of interesting people. Jean Luc and Jose from France who worked for UNESCO and their Brazilian photographer friend Thereza Eugenia. Then we met a Scottish guy who sailed into Noronha 20 years ago and decided to stay. We met a South African guy who was captaining a ship for a couple who were sailing round the world. Then we met 2 young Finnish guys, Teemu, an economic analyst, and Ossie who lives in Rio doing a PhD in alternative energy sources. The beers-on-the-porch conversation became very interesting when Ossie asked Kelda from the States how she felt working for Shell in Brazil! We had a great time solving all the world´s problems. If only we remembered what the solution was!

Woops, forgot, Tracy ripped open the space between her little toe while attempting to get on the boat after a scuba dive in rough water. Her toe was slammed into a metal ladder and required 2 stitches in an interesting trip to the hospital. Fortunately, I was there to have my hand crushed as she squirmed when her toes were pried apart to do the stitches. Though I would have avoided all forms of water and fashioned a protective bucket for my foot, Tracy was in the sea that very evening. Such a trooper!

After Fernando de Noronha, we flew back home to Sao Paulo just for 2 nights. Though we got in late, Neuza and Ana were waiting for us and had chilled caipirinhas at the ready to start off another great evening. We were lucky the next day to catch the end of a 24 hour city wide music and arts festival. The music we heard was samba from the old days with famous artists going back to the 60s. Most of the crowd knew the lyrics and sang along with the chorus. We felt lucky to be a part of this very Brazilian experience. I attempted to bend my knees and casually adopt the samba rhythm with my feet, pretending like I'd been doing it all my life. I think however, I am to Samba what Arnold Schwarzenegger is to Ballet. However, later that evening I relaxed enough to not give a damn and I'm pretty sure I came up with a few genius moves that will soon be incorporated into a new innovative dance form that I'd like to call 'SambInga'. After heartfelt thanks and goodbyes to Neuza and Ana, it was time to move on.

Overnight bus to Florianopolis. Weather rainy and overcast. Did a quick tour of the city by the sea and then another bus to Montevideo, Uruguay. Which is where we are now, spending a week here catching up on business before going back to Buenos Aires for our flight on May 14th to AFRICA!!!