11th February 2012 I crossed the border of Venezuela into Brazil.
11th March 2012 I crossed the border of Brazil into Argentina.
The geologically well informed should notice that we have crossed immense distances, in quite short period of time. The reasons are simple:
A) We have to be at the music festival Lollapalooza in Santiago Chile in a few days (where, btw, I understand a lot of Icelandic people will be - what a random place for an Icelandic people assembly), and:
B) Brazil is EXPENSIVE! Or well, the prices are normal for Europe, but being a backpacker and being on a short-budget, you tend to try and avoid spending money. So we RAN out of Brazil as fast as we could. Or drove. Running would be a bit extreme.
Being a huge country, Brazil is bound to having a lot of different cultures. We experienced the laid back atmosphere in the Amazonas, the deserted streets of Belem (everybody fled to bigger cities to enjoy carnival), Carnival in the reggae capital of Brazil (Sao Luis), the artie culture of Olinda, the Bahian (Afro-Portuguese) culture of Salvador, and then finally, the Carioca culture of Rio de Janeiro.
Having spent a month in Venezuela, and barely meeting any other tourists in the north of Brazil, I was surrounded by dark skinned and brown-eyed people for about 6 weeks (and that includes Una). I can promise you that there are few things stranger than getting surprised by the reflection of you own blue eyes in the mirror..
When I last wrote, we were in Belem heading to Sao Luis. Sao Luis was nice, and we got our share of Carnival, but the hostel experience we had there, was faaar from pleasant. Being extremely exhausted after a 12 hour night bus between Belem and Sao Luis, we didn´t double check the state of the hostel we arrived at, before paying and checking in. We really should have double checked it.
I can forgive the untidiness, the dirty showers and even the fact that you could enter our room through the window (by now, we are used to almost everything). But this I can not forgive: After having put our things away and showered (with the house almost falling apart meanwhile) we headed out to get to know the city and to GET SOME FOOD! To our unpleasant surprise, they had locked the front door - which was quite strange, for it being midday and such. So we quickly made our way to the reception, only to find it.. completely empty.
After some knocking, searching and calling out loud, we gave up and simply waited. And waited.. In total, we waited one and a half an hour before finding a person that could let us out of this god forsaken hostel. And that person was some random French guy, who for some reason had access to the front door. Although having been furious at the moment, I can not but laugh now.
After Sao Luis, we went to Olinda, which is the sister city of Recife. Olinda is a beautiful city with a historic center where all the houses are painted in lively colours, where there is art all over the streets and everywhere you look! In Olinda we get got some taste of Carnival as well, and went for the first time (but not the last!) to the BEAAAAACH!
Carnaval in Olinda
Brazilian beaches are B E A U T I F U L - and knowing that, we were a incy bit disappointed with the beach in Olinda (after our receptionist praising it far more than it deserves), with seaweed spread all over it, and surrounded with bars that were, just about to fall apart. I´m sure some of them must have by now. But the water was maaaaaarvellous and oh so refreshing!
Streets of Olinda
After Olinda, we were off to Salvador. Salvador is a nice city but reeeally touristy.
Who would have thought Brazil has such a strong tourism? I have to say I'm really surprised how safe Brazil is for tourists - it really is super safe! But, that is, again, for the tourists. I'm quite sure as soon as you step out of the tourist zone, things are far from being as safe. Sometimes I even got the feeling of being a kind of a fake world - a fake world that was made for the tourist, to improve the international opinion on Brazil.
I sometimes felt like a sheep - like a tourist sheep, and all the people working related to the tourist industry in Brazil being the shepherds. We were given the ways we could go and then directed to where we could eat, sleep and play.
Meeeeeeeeee..
Any who, talking about tourism, you know these street vendors in tourist places who keep on harassing you, even though you've made it very much clear you won't buy anything? Well, the street vendors in Salvador take it to a whole other level.
First they offer you their product. Once you have denied, they ask where you are from, and ask you all sorts of questions, and somehow, slowly manage to befriend you (and this all happens in OK English, which, for street vendors, is really not common). Once they have, they give you one of their products, as a token of your friendship. And then they ask you for your money.
But well, although Salvador is a super touristy city, we really had a nice time. The hostel we stayed at was awesome (really, if heading to Salvador, stay at Galeria 13, it really is awesome), we went to a SUPER dance show where we saw a mix of all the dances of Bahia the state, took a Samba class, stumbled upon a group of 16 men playing Samba for hooours on the street, BEACH, went to some awesome jazz concerts, etc etc. So, all in all, Salvador is quite awesome. But what really is awesome, more awesome than Salvador, is RIO DE JANEIRO, which was our next destination.
Rio de Janeiro.
I think I have never fallen for one city like I fell for Rio de Janeiro. It was such a pleasant surprise, especially since I´m not that much of a fan of big cities. Rio just really had everything. Rio is huge, but still maintains its tranquillity and relaxed atmosphere. Into the skyscrapers jungle flows nature and mountains, and you really don´t mind all the buildings and people since you can always see mountains, beaches, trees or the sea on some side. The people are extremely helpful (I can't count the times we stood hooked over a map with "LOST TOURISTS" written all over our forehead and people volunteering to help us), the city is easy to navigate (yeah I know we still got lost a few times), the Portuguese is extremely seducing, lots of Samba and Bossa Nova, it's actually common to bicycle, and not to mention the security! I was really surprised about the security in Rio, after hearing all my life how dangerous Rio de Janeiro is.. but no! It is actually quite safe. Well the only other South American cities I could compare to were the Venezuelan ones, and in comparison to them, almost everything looks safe.
In Rio we, of course, did our share of touristy and typical things. Went up Corcovado (where I tempted to sing Corcovado) to the statue of Christ, went up Pao de Acucar, Pub crawl, Copacabana and Ipanema (where I was tempted to sing The Girl From Ipanema, but this time I resisted!).
One day we rented bicycles and bicycled our way through and around Rio. That was a w e s o m e. But that was not the only time we went on a bike in Rio, oh no. Because one day we went with motorbikes to the top of favela Rocinha, the biggest shanty town in Brazil. But hold your horses, we're not THAT crazy to just jump upon a motorcycle and run into the next favela. It was an organized tour to take a look into the safest slum in Rio, and the motorbike was actually a motor-taxi assigned by the tour company. But it was really really interesting. You must have seen any movies like Cidade de deus or Tropa de Elite, or just any movie that happens inside a favela? Well, that was how it looked. Except for we didn't see any criminals. Well that is, except for one: There I was, innocently strolling around, a bit behind the group, when suddenly he grabs my bottle of water and pulls it from me with all his almighty forces! Looking at the face of the 4 years old toddler with a pacifier, looking back to the bottle, and then back to the toddler - I couldn't do anything but crack up laughing and walk away.
Rocinha.
Sadly, we didn't spend more than 5 nights in Rio. I would definitely have liked to spend more time there, and I will undoubtedly go there again. I wouldn't even mind spending 3-6 months there, learn Portuguese, Samba, to surf and etc. We'll see :)
Our last stop in Brazil was Foz do Iguacu. In the 24 hour bus ride from Rio to Iguacu we got to know this really nice Hawaiian guy. Finally, someone else from a small community. I, literally, can not count the times I have heard "Wow, you are the first persons I meet from Iceland!". My answer is usually that there aren´t so many people to meet, since we are only 300.000.
The Brazilian side of Iguacu the waterfall was fascinating. There you got a whole view over all the falls. Quite amazing.
So, well, before we knew, a whole month in Brazil had passed, and we were off to cross the border over to Argentina.
This way to Argen(tina)!
Stay tuned.
-Svandís
