2nd half... still more to come

i have quite a bit to reflect upon but i want to first give the shortened run down version of our 2nd half of carnival.

we arrived on sunday feb 22nd. carnival is one week long. our flight was a little shaky at first cause erin and i were a smidgey bit hung over from the night before. i now remember why i dont like lagers or shitty beer not only is the taste not appealing but its a headache for sure the next day. ick. i may be a beer snob but thr truth is the truth.

our hotel in salvador was in the pelurhino the upper city. the main carnival party that can be seen from outerspace is in the lower city of barra. its not very far from one another. the pelurhino has colonial architecture and is very centered around the afro brazillian culture that inhabits bahia. there are 3 parts of carnival and the pelurhino has their own. our hotel was smack in the middle of it all. groups of individuals doing capueda which is a form of brazillian dance. it originated among the slaves as a way to learn how to fight. during this improvization however there is no fighting nobody gets hurt, it is not about competition as much as it is about movement. it really is a beautiful thing to watch. there were street vendors everywhere every corner was filled with someone selling beer, water, snacks you name it. there were people playing all kinds of instruments and every kind of drum marching through every inch of the pelurhino it was fueling the city with this vibrant energy.

the girls and i were exhausted and we knew if we were going to make it the next two days we had to make it an early night. it started pouring everyone cleared out of the streets under the onnings and in the small stores that lined the streets. candi was the first to run out in the rain i followed and erin hesitated. it was pouring and she was sick. but like a trooper she trudged in it! we ended up at this reggae club. i guess i am not sure if you would call it a club more like a stage set up with white sheeting over in case of rain. none of the area for dancing was covered so everyone was huddled under the covered spots! after that we all kinda roamed around for a bit tried to check out as much as we could then had to head back and crash. we were drained and exhausted.

the next two days were insane. barra was packed with more people then you can imagine. there are these huge 18wheeler trucks that blare music so loud you can hear it from blocks away. each bloco has a different artist that sings on it and surrounding these trucks are local people holding this rope around the the truck which moves very very slowly. i cant even estimate how many people are in the roped area. the ticket to get under these ropes and follow these blocos are shirts so all of you have the same shirt on and go dancing through the streets to the ending point! i was lucky enough to have a friend who managed to room it up with all these israleis and get an apt right on the main stretch where all the blocos pass so when we wanted to rest and get out of the madness but still watch it we rolled up to the apt and hung out the windows.

for fat tuesday which is the last night of carnival we decided to buy a shirt and follow a bloco. one of the isralies was obsessed so every night he followed a new bloco he reccomended which one to go to. we had so much fun dancing and sweating thru the madness. we were all so tired and headed back but then during our rest the electronic bloco came. we heard it and watched it from above and were so moved by the music we decided to follow on the sides of the float. its possible but isnt very easy.

i have to pee. i will finish up tomorrow sorry i have slacked on my writing skills and have just brushed over the details.

i will get back into the swqing of it soon!!

xoxo

read post below first....!

i had to save the post just below this one cause i had to get out of the internet cafe and go to the travel agents office to try and book a flight to manaus. anyway i will get to that later point is i saved it in drafts and it wouldnt let me edit it. so instead of being one long post its broken up and backwards... suiting i suppose. hahahaha

where was i??

describing Lapa....or at least trying to. All of rio has something about it. something special something that surges but lapa has an intensity unlike any other. i was there one night before carnival and then a few nights during carnival. we took a cab in and the entrance to lapa are these huge concrete arches that basically is the trademark of lapa or so it seemed. there was a band playing in the center 3 different drum sets and a few other instruments.... i couldnt see very well cause i am short but it was so loud and exuberating. moments after we were all swarming the streets kinda like a conga line and they were singing so loud everyone was singing....these moments i regret not being able to understand everything...

the next night somehow the girls and i ended up on the one gay street in ipanema the ´gay carnival´of course i ended up there. i love all my gay boyfriends!!! it was crazy but aweosme cause we didnt get acosted like we had the night before. the men can be very very grabby once you swat them away they are respectful but they do not hesitate to ask for beshe aka kisses. ummm no thanks. you see people making out everywhere and it all just looked like a sloppy mess. even the hot gay boys. ah well. we ended up with this really loud fun group and took the bus to lapa from ipanema. the bus was crowded and took quite a long time to get to where we needed to go but that was the best bus ride ever!!! they were all singing and it seemed that every brazillian knew the words to every song they sang. there was feet stamping and people pounding the ceiling of the bus like it was a bass drum. even the snotty people who didnt join in will always remember that bus ride. the loud drunk group who would not shut up. the girls and i tried to think of a song we all knew but we failed miserably and couldnt think then all of the sudden the brazillians there was one who spoke very good english and a few others who were mas o menos. annnnyway they started singing calllifoniaa lovvvve....by tupac. it was hysterical.

moving on. we had a few really late fun nights and a rough travel day to the airport on sunday to gear up for that last part of carnival including FAT tuesday in salvador. we were only half way through the partying madness and it felt like we had run through the spin cycle twice. at least.

our hotel was in the pelurhino. the upper part of the city with colonial buildings none of which are more then 2 stories. cobblestone streets some of which were very hilly similar to san francisco.

i have to go they are shutting down the cafe....

more on salvador in a bit!

this is an overdue post... there is so much that i want to write about, so many things i want to share... i wish i could upload my pictures and be able to at least give some of my words an accurate illustration. i am not sure that i will be able to do some of the things i have seen justice by the words i will spash across this screen.

lets start with rio. i know i slightly touched upon what rio might be like but let me go into more detail here. i arrived a few days before canival started. i got in a day before my two best friends. my long time partner in crime candice without her i dont think i would have survived some of the circumstances life has handed me, and erin my kindred spirt her soul lifts me up in a way that is hard to express. we have a very close and special relationship and i cannot begin to say how fortunate i am for these two women in my life. their beauty touches so many and i am just one of these lucky individuals who has been blessed to have crossed paths with them when i did.

rio.... a magnificent city. it has an energy that surges almost like new york city but with a more relaxed undertone. there are sucos on almost every corner of the busy streets which are these juice places that have acai and at least 100 other different kinds of juice and fruit. there are mangos, pineapples, kiwis, melons of everykind all over the place on display i suppose showing just how fresh the juice really is. we stayed in copacabana beach but headed to ipanema to go to the beach. when i was there alone i stayed at a hostel in ipanema and fell in love with the beach there. the water was warm but not too warm where it feels like bathwater it was perfect cool and refreshing. the beaches were crowded with tons of people. women of all sizes sporting their itty bitty bikinis. i decided to sport the one i brough one day but then went back to the ´coffee filter bottoms` as one brazillian told me they call them! hahahahaha between the buildings in the distance you could see the huge christo statue on the hill. (we went to visit it and i will describe this in a bit) to the right of the beach was the most beautiful hill called something like los dois manos or something like that.... i cant rememeber exactly especially how is is pronounced... one day we did decide to go to the beach in copacabana and you would not believe the difference... the water was green there was a slight stentch of fish in the air and we decided to stick with the OG plan and take the bus to ipanema the next day.

in copacabana the boardwalk which is across the street from the beach is filled with hotels big large fancy pants hotels. if you walk away from the beach two streets in its lined with shops and food places. the food. so brazillians love their bread in many of the juice places are these cases that look like bakery cases filled with all these bready items. many of them filled with cheese and ham....it seems as if the brazillians are really super keen on their pigglets. many of the individuals that we had met along the way were locals. for some reason we kept meeting locals most of whom did not speak enligh but with our spanish and hand gestures we seemed to have communicated wonderfully!

lapa... was insane. i dont even know how to descibe it.... when we were in salvador it was a different kind of insane cause you have blocos

limited time

rio is pretty amazing we leave tomorrow to head to the north. i have been getting by with my portunol (pourtugese/espanol) its pretty fun to have to express yourself in 200 different ways before you can get your point across. i tell you what i am going to be pretty amazing at charades by the time i return!

rio is a very lively city people walking everywhere taxis whipping around corners you have to be careful not to get run over.

i dont have much time to write but will do so in a few days.

airlines....

i havent written in a few days. its been quite hectic to tell you the truth. i was in a bus for who knows how many hours arrived in costa rica for one night headed to the airport to fly to peru to catch my connecting flight to brazil... i am not sure what it is about me and the airlines but i seem to always have some issue. usually not due to anything on my part simply because i know i have issues so i am never tardy to the airport. NEVER..... anyway to make the long story short i got bumped off my connecting flight to rio cause they over booked it and i had to stay one night in lima. and pay the 30 bucks airport tax for one night. ugh soooo lima isnt exactly a place you want to be stuck at bu8t i made the best of it. it was valentines day and i am not a subscriber to this capitalistic notion for a holiday but i will say that sometimes its not the getting flowers and chocolate but just knowing you are loved and in a familiar place is nice. anyway i went and saw valkerie (sp?) the tom cruise film about the soldier who tried to assinate hitler. nice valentines film ey?? hahahaha i thought it was all warm and fuzzy even bought myself some popcorn and ate it all american style before the movie even begins! okay okay so i didnt but it was 1/2 gone.

moving on. i take a red eye to peru. i dont sleep i get to the hostel and they put me in a dorm that has 12 beds and 9 of them are occupied with boys. not just regular boys but 9 stinky traveling maybe havent showered in a few weeks perhaps ran out of soap and havent purchaced any since boys. i could hardly stand the smell actually i couldnt. there wasnt a single girl in there and i am not the type to request to move but the stentch was so unbareable i had to switch. i ended up rooming with some really cool people and spent some time with them. we all went to dinner 7 girls and 1 boy. this girl barbaras boyfriend what a trooper he was.

my two best friends came in yesterday! i cannot tell you how absolutely elated i was to see both of their faces. its like snow on christmas morning with a cup of hot coco waiting fot you on the table. :)

we are in rio now and will embark on a few wonderful adventures.

the air posseses this warmth. its hard to explain its warm in tempurture yes but there is something greater some energy that travels thru this place. i really love it so far.

i wish i had more time for descriptions but i am in an internet cafe that charges $1 real for 10 mins!

i promise to send some of my thoughts soon.

warmest smiles from across the equator.

packing patience.

its sweltering here. I am back in granada I had to come back here to catch the tica bus into san jose costa rica so i can make my flight to rio on the 14th. I am trying to mentally prepare myself for the heat and humidity that is going to grace my presence once i get into the north of brazil.

i havent really been practicing my portuguese. actually to be quite honest i have neglected wuite a few things i should be doing like writing in my journal. i do however have an excuse or a sound justification as to why i havent updated my blog in a bit.

here´s the story. here´s whats been happening. here is how i spent my birthday. interested.... okay then keep your eyes in motion and your axons firing receptors!

i left granada i want to say on the 7th. i traveled to rivas which is technically not too far but the day of traveling on the busses down here is always an adventure that you should prepare for. i took one bus into rivas that left at about noon. the busses are old schoolbusses although they cram them so tight with people usually that you have three people sitting in one seat and a bunch of others standing in the middle. most of the windows usually work but every once in a while you get a few that wont open very far.... now i knew i was car sick but i was unaware of just how sensitive my good ol belly was... im not even talking about the food sickness i have gotten already. annnnyway let me continue on my rant. i have come to realize i get quite car sick but have found a few things to help ie....those wrist things with the pressure point thing that you wear are completely useful i reccoment them. moving on. so i get into rivas but the bus im on wont take be to the dock where i can catch the ferry to ometepe. so i hop on this shuttle which is more like a beat up old hoopty van. i have quite a squishy spot in my heart for vans that look like this cause growing up my best friend carito´s parents had one of these and always played spanish music really loud and us kids danced in the back.... yes ladies and gentlemen ive been ethnic since the beginging! okay okay i get sidetracked you all know that. so lake managua is an extremely large lake but i wouldnt comment on it´s beauty. it´s murky and very very choppy. it is severly polluted because locals were dumping chemicals in the lake to kill the sharks. and supposedly kodak was dumping massive amounts of mercury in the water. yes i said sharks in a lake. apparently there are bull sharks that have adapted to fresh water and live in the lake but i have yet to cross referance that information just yet. one local told me that most of them are known to have died off because of all the toxic waste that was dumped into the lake. this lake is very large 60 km long and 25 km wide. because of the large surface and where it sits there is a constant wind that is prevalent. taking the ferry over was more of a white water rafting sign up then it was a ferry ride over so omit any images of ferrys you have in your head.

the ferry ride...

the wind was bustling i´m talking wind slaaping, hat stealing, water aggervating, loud whisting kind of wind. this launcha that i took we can call it a ferry if you want was fighting against the wind the boat was dropping in when swells came up. mustve been drops at least 5 feet. no kidding. the water came and slapped me in the face and i thought well that was a nice awakening. im sure i just swallowed a liter of mercury. awesome so awesome. so i finally arrive after what must have been almost two hours the driver or captian of the boat was having some difficulties steering that thing and i was told later that night that a boat had flipped that day cause of the winds...

after finally embarking upon shore i hop on a bus. where i need to get to is on the other side of the island. now what one needs to remember is that most roads not in the main cities in nicaragua are not paved and the dirt roads are in the most wretched condition ever... okay okay to cut the long story short i finally get to where i have to go but i still have to walk 2km uphill. at this point it´s like 8 pm i havent eaten since breakfast and you all who know me know that food sort of kind of usually governs my life. so i walk up and i´m talking all uphill with all pack that must weigh 20 kilos. i am hot. i chose to wear flip flops. ummmm wrong choice when lugging a pack up a dirt road. and i have to pee. but i cant pop a squat cause it´s so windy and dark and my head lamp is in my pack and i dont want to dig it out and i dont want to get pee all over my foot so i keep trudging up...up....up.....up.... finally.

the next morning is my birthday. i was told that the hike up the volcano was really muddy and not really worth it cause its so cloudy up at the top. so instead i decide to trek to the petrogliffs. on my way i heard some howler monkeys in the close distance so i went off path and ventured into the wilderness. i came to a famly of howler monkeys. an extended family. a group of non caged animals living happily in the trees. there were about 11 or so including 2 very small infants. as soon as the wind would kick up the howling started. you would be so surprised to hear the sound that comes from these little creatures. it was amazing. the best birthday present ever!

i went and continued my walk and came upon this spot that was the most serene reverant place ever. the trees were so expressive, so massive and so beautiful. the energy here was unlike anything i have experienced yet. i sat on this rock and just gazed into the sky up through the branching out of this tree. the blue that came streaming down was like something out of a painting. streams of light were beckoning down to the ground and when the wind blew the branches just let the wind sway him. he stayed grounded but adaptable. i loved that tree. i kissed him goodbye and went on my way.

the next day i headed for the beach. i went to guacacate area to the beach of popoyo. its the windy season so there isn´t really anyone around. actually there are mostly only locals. i walked on the beach to the tidepools and the entire walk which took me about 3 hours there was not a single person i passed. most people come here to surf and the break is on the opposite side so i suppose most of the poeple were over there. this town had two places to eat one ding repair shop for surfers to repair their boards and a few hostles. i stayed at one right on the beach and it was magnificent. there are no paved roads in this town so getting to this town was also quite a trek. it´s an interesting thing to be surrounded only by ocean and sand with no other being around. humbling. i throughly enjoyed myself.

i headed back into granada today. i am taking the bus at 6 am into costa rica and then catching a flight to brazil on the 14th. happy velentines to me. actually i have never subscribed to valentines day. i think it is a marketing ploy and quite ridicilous. shouldnt you do nice things for those you love any time not cause it´s marked on the calandar? well whatever.

im headed to go find a pandaria and some fruit for the bus ride tomorrow.

i think i will write more later about some thought provoking reactions i havce had but i am getting the stink eye from this guy who wants to use the compuer....

i send abrazos y luz.

wrapped in possibility

i dont even know where to start or where i will finish with this post it's been an interesting few days and i havent had coffee or breakfast yet. and well for those of you who know me i dont function well without both...

i couldnt sleep lat night but i'll get to that later. i left guatamala two days ago. the night before last i stayed in el salvador. they use united states currency which i suppose i havent been up on my current events which i like to pride myself on at least being pretty inclined and aware of what the hell is going on..... anyway that stuck me as i dont know strange and all i could think about is what deal was struck to switch the currency over. i mean over the past 8 years so many volitile, destructive and shady (for lack of a better word) have been done that all i can think about is what else that we dont know about. despite the fact that our favorite bush was best pals with the colombiano. ugh.. yah we have a drug war on our hand ladies and gentlemen can i please get another line???

anyway i have more on that topic but im not really sure this is the right arena to get into it. besides i always like another opinion thrown into the mix... although there arent many that you can get into that kind of conversation with. i am however lucky to have a few.

moving on....

i got into granada nicaragua yesterday. i took an 11 hour bus ride from san salvador to managua then hopped on a bus to granada cause well managua isnt really a place you want to stay. nicaragua is the poorest of all the south american countries but it's goverment makes the most money out of all of them. furthermore there are billbords splashed with pink advocating the "wonderful" man ortega. his billboards scream of advocating god and the church yet he lets his people suffer in poverty as he graces god at his dinner table full of food he probably doesnt even finish. he outlawed abortion 2 yesrs or so ago and although i myself would never subcribe to abortion i do believe that there are some circumstances are justified. the choice needs to made soley by the woman and taking away this right is fueling the suffarage for many women to come. .....sigh.... anyway once i got here i went looking for a hostle. it was quite a treck as the two i knew about and were refferred to were full. great. i am hungry and havent eaten since 9 am and that was in a gas station so you can imagine that it wasnt very full of nutrients. anyway i decided to take a bed at this hostle. ummmmm i couldnt sleep last night all i could think about is there are fucking bed bugs i bet.... now generally speaking i can adapt but dooood this was pushing it a bit. before that i went to eat dinner and as i am sitting waiting for my meal this boy he had to be no more then 9 years old is stumbling through the streets. the most wasted i think i have ever seen anyone in a long time. i gre up with an alcoholic so i am somewhat accostumed to it but thisssss was so disturbing. i wanted to grab him scoop him up take care of him. i wanted to be a millionare to be able to create some kind of foundation for these children. i felt defeated, heavy hearted and worthless. his stumbles, him trying to catch himself when he fell over a table, his head nodding constantly, his mouth hung open and eyes rolled back in his head. that image is etched into the inside of my eyelids and there seems nothing i can do to retrieve or try to ease the feeling that this created. i tired to give him water to have him sit but then a local guy came and called him a drunk and pulled him in his establishment. my food arrived. i was no longer starving but had the gnawing feeling at my heart instead. a little boy maybe 5 came up and sat next to me. asking for food... i cut up some of the meat on my plate and gave it to him. the owner then came outside and told the boy to leave but a few min later a plate of food came out and they fed the boy.... there is good wrapped up in moments where a new hope springs from the depths thinking sometimes sour moments are just the casing and underneath the wrapping of possibility will be shed..... perhaps thats my optomistic side. although i tend to be a realist.

anyway i am going to stay here another day i think i havent decided then i am going to head out to the beach in popoyo. super small town. i need a few days with the sound of the ocean. will help i think.

i have a lot more to say but i am starving!

miss you all and will update later.