Mike and Leanna's Adventure

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-04T22:29:00.000-06:00

We've made it home! Safe and sound, and only a little worse for the wear. The ride home was alright, nothing compared to the long bus rides we have taken lately. Anyway, we are thrilled to be back at home and ready to jump right into real life. We've missed everyone, friends and family and really hope to have the chance to catch up soon. Thanks again for reading the blog and stay in touch!

Love,

Leanna and Mike

PS: If you have google maps (and if you don't, you should...download it for free at http://earth.google.com) email me or Mike and we will send you a really cool file which follows our trip on the map of South America. It is super cool because you can zoom in and change angles and see pictures of places like porto do galinhas, bahia, el calafate, cuzco, etc.

Our welcome home party at the airport

Back in Calgary at long last!

Can you believe the distance we covered?

The red lines are our treks around Easter Island, as recorded by Ted's GPS and pasted by the same into Google maps

Our four day day trek on the Inca Trail. Crazy eh?

Lima!

2007-04-30T11:04:00.000-06:00

We are in Lima now...and almost home. We will home dinner time May 1st! Although we heard lots of bad things about Lima, we have enjoyed our time here. By chance we were in the main square when we caught what we thought was a changing of the guard at the presidential palace. However, it turned out to be a giant military parade and traditional dance show because the president of Peru himself showed up to give out prizes to race car drivers. We were 20 feet away! How bizarre and unexpected.

The soldiers did a super cool marching sequence/dance show. Lots of rifle throws and spins and fancy footwork. I was impressed. They were pros, completely in sync at all times. The traditional dance was pretty strange though. The dancers like to beat on each other dance style (this is the second time we have seen this now too). We joke they are doing the domestic abuse dance. One of the dancers accidentally got his pant pulled down too by one of the female dancers beating on him. It was a good laugh for the hundreds of people. Poor guy.

The main square with one of the race cars that raced around it after "el Presidente" waved the checkered flag.

Alan García Pérez.

Marching band and riot policeman who we grew quite fond of since he stood looking bored or chatting on his cellphone throughout the whole show. Felt bad for him too though because no one listened to him. Much to our amazement (since riot police, assault vehicles and water canons are just a little threatening to us as Canadians), a little old lady who kept wanting to get closer to the president gave him quite a stern talking to and then promptly ignored him completely and walked right past him.

I am not sure if you can see much in the above pictures...but I will explain them anyway. We went to a Franciscan monastery with a very cool crypt. There were piles of bones, 10 meters deep. Seems to me though, for some reason, there were 10 times as many femurs as pelvic bones, skulls or anything else. As Lima's first cemetery, the crypt holds the bones of 25000 bodies. Strange how monks like to organize and even "decorate" with the bones.

So, I think this will the entry in our blog. Thanks to everyone who read it and we hope to see you all soon!

2007-04-30T10:53:00.000-06:00

Another flora picture from the Inca Trail...I can't help myself.

Our last day in Cuzco we hired a guide for some of the near by Inca Ruins. These massive blocks are from Sachsayhuaman, some of them weigh as much as 300 tonnes. Cuzco was designed in the shape of a puma, and these ruins make up the head of the puma. In this picture you can see a puma paw in the stone work.

Mike and I at Machaytambo, a sacred space once dedicated to the water cult in Inca religion.

From Cuzco we headed to Arequipa. I expected Arequipa to be less touristy than Cuzco but it was worse! People bugging us everywhere. That is the worst part about Peru in general, everyone seems to want to take advantage of tourists. Despite this, we really enjoyed Arequipa. We went to a really interesting museum about Inca sacrifices, such as the famous mummy "Juanita" found nearby in the mid 90s, Her discovery was made possible by an erupting volcanoe that melted the glacier on the mountain where she was sacrificed. She was only a child, 12 maybe, when she made the trek from Cuzco, fasted, was drugged and given a death blow on the side of the head in hopes of appeasing the gods and preventing natural disasters. Other child mummies met the same fate, although some were strangled rather than beaten to death. Juanita wasn't on display when we were there, but another mummy, known as "Sarita" was instead. She is less well preserved than Juanita (whose knuckle creases and fingernails can still be seen and whose organs are just frozen, but fully preserved) but is interesting because she is the only mummy who wasn't found in the fetal position (preparation for birth in the next life), she has crossed legs instead. Experts aren't sure what to make of that exactly

Juanita

Also in Arequipa, we went to a convent which was absolutely fascinating. The Santa Catalina convent was sealed for almost 400 years until 1970 when the city demanded that all buildings have running water and electricity. The convent then opened it's doors to tourism to fund the upgrades. Prior to that, the only contact nuns had with the outside world was through double wooden grates which allowed them to see out but their visitors only to see their silhouettes. We toured the nuns' chambers, which varied from richly decorated to spartan depending on the era in history the chamber was from. In fact, we visited the cell of one nun from the 17th century who has since been beatified. They are awaiting two more miracles before she can be sanctified. A city within the city, the convent has kitchens (some for making the host to be sold to local churches), a garden, a laundry area, a cemetery, three separate cloisters...the place was once completely self sufficient. Upon first glance, the idea of isolating oneself from the world seems antiquated and even repulsive, but after seeing the convent I can understand why a woman might have preferred that option to marriage given only those two options in life.

From inside the convent.

After Arequipa, we headed to Nazca and immediately upon arriving headed to the airport to see the famous, mysterious, Nazca lines. The flight itself was horribly nauseating. The power of positive thinking alone kept me from woofing my cookies. The lines themselves are quite faint and sometimes hard to distinguish because there are lines everywhere. Barely any of the desert is free of shapes and tracks of some kind. Although the animal shapes are most interesting, there are trapezoids and just plain lines all over. Although experts aren't sure exactly why, the Nazcans created these shapes and lines using overturned stones whose undersides contrast with the sunscorched stones next to them. The most bizarre aspect of the lines is that their size on the flat desert floor makes it possible only to fully appreciate them from above. So why then, in a time before flying, did the Nazcans make the lines? A film we saw while we were recovering from the 30 minute flight suggeted that shamans used hallcinogenic drugs that made them think they could fly and therefore see the designs. It also suggested that the lines were walkways for ritual processions, a form of prayer. What is most interesting of all is that all the lines lead to sources to water or to mountains (representations of water sources). It seems that the lines were pleas to the gods for water, crucial in this area where there hasn't been significant rainfall since the last ice age.

We didn't look quite this spry after the flight...

The figure refered to as the "astronaut" (extra terrestrial theories about the lines abound by the way)

The monkey...can you see it? It is very faint. Strange, since monkeys aren't found anywhere near here. The Nazcans must have had contact with jungle peoples.

The hummingbird.

Machu Picchu

2007-04-29T18:52:00.000-06:00

We made it to Machu Picchu after our 3 days of hiking. It is quite dramatic, as on the fourth day we all got up at four in the morning, in the pitch black to hike the last couple hours to arrive at the sun gate for sun rise.

Our guide was a keener, so we were among the first to make it to the sun gate, which was good, as it filled up with tourists rather quickly. We got our picture and moved on. The ruins appeared and disapeared through a dense fog bank throughout the morning.

Leanna had to push 8 tourists off this rock in order to get this picture. They fell several meters to their deaths.

On the other side of Machu Picchu, which means old mountain (I think) is Huayna Picchu, which means young mountain. There are more Inca stairs which climb 300 meters to the peak for another view of Machu Picchu. After the Inca Trail, most people give it a pass, but I figured what the heck, and climbed it with Gita, a woman we met on the trail. Meanwhile Leanna got lost in the ruins, sat on an altar and watched the lizards.

Look at all the pretty flowers!

2007-04-26T17:05:00.000-06:00

The best part of the Inca Trail:

Inca Trail

2007-04-23T17:43:00.000-06:00

We're in Cusco, just having finished the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It was an exciting four day trek over Inca roads, through dense forest and over high passes. The trail is approximately 45 kms, and is somewhere around 20 hours of walking spread over the four days. The scenery is amazing; high mountain forest.

Every so often along the trail we hit Inca Ruins. They are mostly tambos (resting places and food warehouses for pilgrims, messengers and other travelers along the trail) some with terracing for growing potatos and cereals.

At the end of each day we arrived to a camp sight, to find our tents already setup, and preparations being made for dinner.

As there are no roads in or out of the area, or pack animals allowed, all our provisions had to be brought in by porters, and all of our garbage hauled out. Our group of 14 tourists had 21 porters and two guides. The porters were amazing! Each morning, we were cooked and served breakfast (including tea in our tents), then the porters would take down the campsite, overtake us on the trail and have the next site setup for us by the time we get there. And they did it carrying up to 20 kgs (seems more to me). Our favorite porter, Miguel, with a mouthful of gold teeth, is a part time porter and full time local farmer. Incredibly he is 58 years old and still races past all the tourists on the trail! We were told actually, that in a race, one of the porters did the whole 4 day trail in 3 hours, 45 minutes. Wow!

The trek in itself is not overly difficult, but the altitude makes it a rough go for a lot of people when you are climbing the irregular, rocky stairs. On the second day the climb to the summit of dead woman's pass at 4200m was about as difficult as it gets, with the down hill part of day three called the gringo killer being a close second.

Me at Dead Woman's pass

A temple we visited along the trail

I have to say that the terraces, which really contrasted with the surrounding forest were my favorite sight.

We did the tour with Peru Treks, and we really enjoyed it. The food was always good, and there was always tons of it. They even applauded when each tourist made it into camp, which was a little embarassing, since they all did the trek in much less time than us, and with way more weight on their backs.Machu Picchu is going to have to have it's own entry. Coming up.

Copa-Copacabana!

2007-04-13T18:21:00.000-06:00

Hi Guys,
I am writing from Puno, Peru where internet is cheap and traveling easy. We are definitely on the "Gringo Trail" now. To get anywhere you just have to follow the whities with fanny packs and giant backpacks.

So, after Potosí, Mike and I headed to La Paz. La Paz is a bustling big city (we felt remarkably safe however) filled with people going about their business and open air markets everywhere you look. In the shadow of Illimani mountain, La Paz fills a valley, and homes crawl up each of the walls. The most interesting market we saw was the "witches market" where amongst others things, they sell llama fetuses at almost every stall, ranging in scope from keychain sized (with unformed shrimp like tails) to about a foot long. Our guide book said not to take pictures there unfortunately but it was quite a site to see.

We also went to extremely biased, anti-American Coca Museum dedicated to the revered coca leaf. As unbalanced as it was (I guess it is to be expected when it is a museum dealing with a plant that when in drug form is a scourge on (American/western) society) it was very interesting. Did you know for example, that coca paste, the first stage in making cocaine, is made by stomping on the leaves, just like with grapes being made into wine? The coca leaf is also apparently quite nutritious and used, even now, in Coca Cola's secret recipe.

La Paz was a day to relax for us however, so we went and saw the movie 300 (brand new here but I bet it has been out in Canada for quite some time), which Mike has since become obsessed with. I think he knows everything these is to know about it now, from details about the battle of Thermopoli to the actors work out regime. Anyway, as much as we enjoyed our day in La Paz, we raced on to Copacabana...we really have to move now, we only have 2 weeks before we come home!

The hillsides of La Paz

Copacabana is nothing like it's namesake in Brasil. It is a small city on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is touristy, but has a nice vibe. I was particulary impressed by the kindness of one local woman I was talking to who insisted on running to her apartment and making Mike apio tea (parsley I think) when she could see that he wasn't feeling well.

Overlooking Copacabana from a pilgrim's lookout on the top of a cerro

We took a boat from Copacabana to Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, a long hour and half away from the city. Most tourists do a quick jaunt out to the island, leaving them not even enough time to even climb the many stairs (no small feat in this altitude...it took us almost an hour) into the town of Yumani proper on the Southern tip of the island. Luckily, we decided to stay the night. Actually, we stayed in the cheapest place we have stayed in yet, 15 Bolivianos each, just less than $2US, although we probably should have spent a little more for the luxury of a real flushing toilet. The first day we hiked to Pilco Kaina, ruins of an Inca temple. Unfortunately, this part of the island has been inundated by tourists and little kids run around commanding you to buy their wares, take their picture for payment or give them candy. It is quite sad actually, although we found that the children become quite friendly and like to teach you words in Aymara once you insist that you will not pay them for their picture and do not have candy.

Yumani was a neat place though, despite all the tourists. The whole town is built on a steep slope with stairs which made walking back to the hotel in the dark (no street lights) a little precarious, especially considering the amount of llama and donkey poop all over that we had seen but could only smell in the darkness.

Inca temple of Pilco Kaina on the island

The next day we headed out for the northern part of the island, a three hour hike along a sometimes non-existent trail--we ended up in the middle of farmers fields and having to jump a fence to get out of someone's back yard at one point. It was an absolutely beautiful hike and we didn't see another tourist the whole way. Locals were completely different than in the south as well. Everyone we encountered gave us a hearty, friendly hello as they passed, often with a caravan of donkeys or a small herd of cows. The best part of the trek though, was the puppy who followed us the whole journey. Young, still a little clutzy and afraid of the livestock we passed, "Gringo" as we named him was the cutest, sweetest little guy.

Gringo leading the way past a maize field and a traditionally dressed woman

Still a puppy!

When we made it to the North of the island, we found out there was only one boat leaving for the south that day and we didn't have enough time to see the ruins, the reason we had made the trek. The ruins we didn't get to see are where the Inca's claimed the sun was born. It is too bad but Mike pacified me with the promise of many more ruins to come in Peru. It broke my heart to leave our new found travel companion so I asked if we could take Gringo back to Yumani where I assume his home is. Although the boatman was willing, poor Gringo was too scared of the spaces between the boards on the pier and wouldn't even be bribed by food. However, when the boat finally left, he forgot his fear, and ran out on the pier after us. Poor guy wanted to come. We can only hope that he follows some other tourists back the other direction or makes it back on his own.

From Copacabana we headed to Puno where we have been taking it easy so that Mike recovers from whatever bug he's got. We relaxed all this morning and then went to the floating reed islands, made out Tortora reeds that grow in abundance here. Although extremely comercialized now, the 40 or so man-made floating islands were quite a peculiarity. Each island of up to about 10 families has its own president and the ancestors of the Aymara speaking people who live there now built the islands to flee the conquering Incas. It also worked out rather conveniently when the Spaniards arrived since they managed to avoid working in the mines of Potosí. Now however, they seem to make a living pushing souvenirs on tourists. The islands are anchored but can be moved, joined and separated as need be. They are soft and springy to walk on and apparently have to be constantly maintained as the reeds on the bottom rot away.

Boat made out of Tortora reeds

A view of a few of the islands

The local version of coke. The colour is a little off-putting (any one take multi-vitamins?), but tastes like the fizzy valentines hearts. Not bad actually.

Potosí

2007-04-05T16:43:00.000-06:00

We almost didn't stop in Potosí, but I am so glad we did. Just like Bolivia on a whole, it unexpectedly ended up being an incredible experience. Potosí was once, along with Lima and Mexico City, one of the most important cities in colonial South America because of its fabulous wealth. Overlooking the city is the Cerro Potosí, more commonly known as Cerro Rico, or "Rich Mountain." The local Quechua people mined the silver on the surface of the cerro prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. Starting in 1546 however, the Spaniards began large-scale mining. The cerro has been mined continuously ever since and it shows. Not a single inch of the cerro is untouched and the battered and beaten mountain and the miners it swallows (hundreds every year even now and millions during the colonial era) stand testament to the greed that fueled colonialism...and fuels society today.

At one time, the silver that was mined from Potosí was 99% pure right out of the rock which resulted in the saying "valer un potosí", "to be worth a potosí" meaning to be worth a fortune. Most of the veins of mixed silver that are visible today were ignored in colonial times simply because much purer silver was abundant. However, today, the productivity of the mine has diminished significiantly and the miners mine the mixed silver as well as zinc and lead.

Our experience going into the mines began in the miner's market where we bought gifts for the miners we were about to encounter. The miner's market is a street when the miners buy (or the tourists buy for the miners) bags of coca leaves, rough, filterless hand rolled cigarettes, 96% pure sugar cane alcohol and dynamite--all the "necessities" of mining. I felt conflicted buying supplies for such an unhealthy, chemical dependent lifestyle, but it was explained to us that miners simply won't mine without the coca leaves (they numb the cold and prevent the miners from feeling thirst or hunger since they anesthetize their stomachs) and the cigarettes and alcohol are used not only for celebration and relaxation but for offering to the gods that govern the mines. And, of course, the playdough-like mixture of nitroglycerine and wood pulp that is dynamite is a necessary part of the business (there are hundreds of explosions each day on the cerro) that the miners have to pay for themselves since although they are technically part of a cooperative, they each work for themselves and are paid for the minerals that they mine individually and every gift of dynamite lowers their expenses. So, after we bought the supplies and got suited up we headed up the cerro for a demonstration explosion (all the tourists who wanted could have their pictures taken with the lit dynamite...not me however!) before we entered the mines.

Cerro Rico, not a single inch unscathed

Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to the mines we go!

Inside the mine was not a very pleasant experience. A few times I had to conciously remind myself not to panic when I realized my pulse was starting to race. It was the sound of an explosion from the inside and floating dust I was breathing in that bothered me the most (particularly the thought that it is the same toxic dust that I was breathing that causes silicosis in the miners lungs) but the climbing down rickety ladders, hunching through low passages and and scooting around black holes leading into the unknown deep wasn't exactly my cup of tea either.

We talked to some of the miners at work, one of whom was only 16 years old. They told us that they enjoyed their work in the mines. It seemed to be a source of pride. They also informed us that they mine about 9 bags of minerals a week worth on average 80 Bolivianos each, which translates to about $100us a week which I think is relatively good money for Bolivia. Apparently though, the miners are known for being hedonistic with the money they earn since it isn't all that likely they will live past 50.

El Tío watching the miners' every move

In colonial times, the local native population provided the labour needed to mine the silver which was needed to finance the Spanish monarchy and their costly European wars through a system known as mita, which in reality was virtual slavery. As the local population diminished as a result of hard work, disease and general demoralization, African slaves were brought in to make up the labour shortfall, however it was found that the African slaves were even more susceptible to the horrid underground conditions (workers lived underground for months at a time) and died at a disgustingly high rate. The Europeans themselves could not stand the conditions either and only monitored the output of silver from above ground. Eventually, without any direct supervision, the labourers stopped working very hard. To motivate the workers, the Spaniards tried to instill the fear of god into them and set up life size figures underground representing Satan, who was always watching them. The workers decided that if Satan was a punisher and enemy of the Catholic Spaniards he must be a friend of theirs and began offering him gifts, like the cigarettes and alcohol that tourist now bring, in hopes that he will fertilize Pachamama (mother earth) resulting in the minerals that are their livlihood. Syncretic religion and superstition is major part of life in the mines. Every year a llama is sacrificed at the entrance of the mine and it's blood smeared on the rocks to pacify the hungry Pachamama in hopes that she will be satiated and not hungry for miners.

After all was said and done, going into the mines was a fascinating experience even though at various times througout the tour I had to wonder if it was a good idea. The city of Potosí itself is studded with grand churches and we were lucky enough to be there over the Easter weekend. We witnessed a procession where Jesus (in several different forms) was paraded through town although oddly enough, the procession was military in character as much as religious.

Creepy looking Jesus statue on the Easter parade through Potosí

We also went to a museum here where Potosí's silver was made into coins, although the most interesting part was the anthropology section displaying remnants of life, including these dead Spanish babies found in the cemetery here. They are remarkably well preserved down to the baby fuzz on their heads.

Mike with the machinery once used to make coins

Southwestern Bolivia

2007-04-05T16:35:00.000-06:00

Hi Everybody,

Sorry we haven't written for awhile. We are currently in Potosi, the world's highest city, in Bolivia. Getting here today was quite the experience. Unfortunately, they pack the buses so that people are standing in the aisles (and falling asleep on top Mike), but that wasn't the biggest problem. The roads through the mountains are narrow and winding and there is not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other comfortably. So, at one point our bus pulled over as far as possible to let a car by and then accidently slid into the ditch (thank goodness we weren't on the side of a cliff at the time!). The bus was leaning on about a 45 degree angle and we all had to file out carefully so that it didn't tip over all the way. It then took about an hour of digging under the wheels on one side and putting rocks under the wheels on the other side before finally, with the help of some tourists hanging off the windows on the high side before we finally got the bus out of the ditch. But now we are here safely and I have a bit of time to tell you about the amazing 4 day adventure we had from Tupiza to Uyuni. We crossed the border from Argentina into Bolivia in La Quiaca/Villazon (as it is called in Argentina/Bolivia respectively) and jumped on the train to Tupiza the next day. We had initially wanted to go straight to Uyuni and do an excursion from there but starting at Tupiza cut at least a days worth of travel out of the equation (a welcome deletion since the bus to La Quiaca from Buenos Aires was a long 26 hours or so--at least we splurged for a super cama, the highest quality of bus you can get for the majority of the trip). We started our four day tour through the desert and the salt flats the next day from Tupiza. Mike and I have seen and done so many incredible things on our trip so far, but if I had to rank them, then this last excursion would definitely be one of, if not the top adventure we have had.

Day one near Tupiza

Bolivia is geologically spectacular and we got to see everything from Patagonia like desert to red volcanoes to roaring geysers. On the first day, we drove through the mountains, on a couple perilous passes where I had to hold my breath, close my eyes and hope we wouldn't careen over the edge. Incidentally, we were right by where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid met their maker. We also got to see llamas galore!

Aren't they cute?

Days 2 and three we travelled through the desert, which at times was almost unbearably dry and dusty. I resorted to breathing through my shirt to avoid inhaling all of the dust. We visited some really awesome colonial ruins (which interestingly enough looked exactly like alot of the modern habitation we saw), where apparently the people of the city all died from a plague sent to them by god for their corrupt and sinful ways. Now the ruins are home to a group of wild relatives of the chinchilla.

Mike in amongst the ruins

Mike and I playing with some Bolivian children in one of the towns we stayed in. We played frisbee until it went brittle and broke from the cold and then entertained them by taking their picture--they loved to see themselves on camera.

Picture of daily life in the Andes

These are our friends from France that we met on our tour: Jonathan, Dona, Henry and Marie. We've been traveling with them since. They are each exceptionally musically talented in their various ways and have been putting on awesome performances for us each night. Also, I should add, we play the card game "uno" just about every night and Henry is the undefeated world uno champion.

The Landcruiser

A flamengo (who knew they live at such cold temperatures?) walking in the borax that covered part of one of the lakes. Strange to see borax on the lake too...but not as strange as the one lake of arsenic (no flamengos there!).

Another lake. Those little dots are flamengos. There were hundreds of them.

There were also lots of different geological sights, including this rock tree, a volcanic rock shaped by thousands of years of rain and wind erosion.

The coolest part of the tour were the salt flats themselves. They are the remnants of an ancient, now evaporated sea. The salt, some of which has rivers running under it, can be as thick as 3-4 meters. The salt is mined and processed by hand (only for use in Bolivia however...the Bolivian government opposes exporting their resources or letting foreign companies in to mine it themselves) at a near by town. The salt is actually a mixture of a number of chemicals, including lithium, used in rechargable batteries. In fact, the salt flat at Uyuni has 60% of the world's lithium, but just like the salt itself, it can't be exported. We also got to see an entire hotel made of salt and slept in bed made of salt ourselves. Check out the wickipedia article for some more info if you are interested because I am just about out of time!

Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats, first thing in the morning. Check out the full moon.

The salt was covered with about 2 inches of water which made for cold, wet feet but great pics

It was worth getting up at five for the sunrise

Quite the perspective, isn't it?

A bit of capoeira on the salt.

Although the trip itself was uncomfortable (mostly because there were 8 of us all together, crammed into an ancient--it had an 8 track player--Toyota Landcruiser) the sights we got to see were absolutely stunning. The rough accomodation that was mentioned in the pamphlet was exactly as advertized. I have no doubt that the sheets weren't clean, there was no heat, and there was only the most basic of basic bathroom facilities (you could pay extra for a hot shower however). It was also damn cold. Being that we were up as high as 5000m I guess it is to be expected, but it was below freezing every morning and evening. The open air toilets (meaning where ever you could find a rock or bush...difficult and at times impossible in the desert) were also a little tough to get used to.

However, the sights, the cook and the guide more than made up for it. Seemingly out of nothing, the cook, Christina, made us three gourmet meals plus snacks everyday, even going to great lengths to present it beautifully. She even made us coca tea one day when we were particulary cold and headachey from the altitude. The guide, Samuel was super knowledgable and professional as well. It couldn't have been better.

(Just in case other travelers are reading this blog, since reading blogs is how I got all of my information, choosing a company for the Salar de Uyuni tour is somewhat of a crapshoot because you may buy at one agency but be put on a tour with another agency so that they can fill the jeeps completely. However, I can highly recommend booking with Tupiza Tours. Our guide was Samuel, who had been recommended to the people we went on the tour with, and requested by them. He was absolutely excellent, and the vehicle was in good working order. We paid $110us because we booked from Villazon, but the people we went with paid $105 by booking from Tupiza. It was worth every penny.)

Madres de Plaza de Mayo

2007-03-19T18:52:00.000-06:00

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo are a group of women who began protesting in Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada (seat of government) after the military dictatorship began making people "disappear" in what is sometimes called the dirty war in Argentina. Anyone who was involved with the left was a potential victim, and people went missing from their homes, work, off the street, at any time of day. Initially the organization was a group of mothers of these "desaparecidos" who demanded they be returned. Later they they demanded to know the truth about these disapearances, and to know who was responsable. The estimate is that about 30,000 people disappeared, which is a eupahmism for kidnapped, tortured and killed. The Madres wear white head scarves to represent their children`s diapers. In the beginning they were told they could not loiter in Plaza de Mayo, so they began to circle around making their protest. They have continued ever since then, although now they protest once a week, every thursday at 3:30 pm, and we finally went down to see them.

As you can see in the picture, their reason for protest has changed, or at least diversified. Here they are demanding a fairer distribution of wealth. In the next picture you can see the Casa Rosada behind them. Their website is www.madres.org

Cumpleaños!

2007-02-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Just thought I would post a pic from Mike's B-day which was on the 12th. He turned 47. I mean, 27. We went for Sushi, opened presents (even our gym where we work out gave Mike a present) and had smartie cake, as is the tradition.

A couple assorted pics for your viewing pleasure...

2007-02-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Darling family and me at Iguazu.

The newest love of my life?? Nope.

Thanks for sending me the pics Donna.

Jesus land! I mean.."Tierra Santa"

2007-02-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hasn't everyone always fantasized about combining Sunday school with Disneyland? I know I have! Well, such a thing actually exists! Really! "Tierra Santa" is a religious theme park here in Buenos Aires. It is a replica of 1st century CE Jerusalem complete with a mini-Mosque and Synagogue, a Wailing wall, and a Via Dolorosa with all the stations of the cross! There is also a replica Golgotha, a light, lazer and sound show about Creation (which the brochure is sure to point out neither argues for or against evolution), and the Ark of the covenant (if only Indie thought to look in Argentina!) and more, replete with camel and donkey statues and manequin slaves being whipped by their Roman oppressors as well as "authentic" Middle Eastern food (inluding pasta, pizza and hot dogs).

Kitsch, kitsch and more kitsch! It was awesome! Really, in all honesty, it was pretty neat and I am glad we went even if the robotic Jesus at the Last Supper table didn't inspire me to be be reborn as a Christian.

Looking out over "ancient Jerusalem."

Me and Jesus the big friendly giant.

Don't you hate when people read the Torah over your shoulder? Mike with his Kipa inside the synagogue.

Me with my buddy Martin Luther. Who knew he lived in first century Jerusalem?

Mike running into Ghandi. Yes, Ghandi. Uh huh.

The Wailing Wall. The sign says that all the notes that are stuffed into the cracks will be desposited into the cracks at the real Wailing Wall.

A mixture of the sacred and profane...well maybe the belly dancers were a little more profane than sacred.

Adam--I mean a gorilla. The most beloved figure in the Creation light, laser and sound show.

Back to Uruguay

2007-02-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Thanks to everybody who still reads the blog, and especially for the comments. Sorry we don't update it more often...honestly though, since we are living quite a settled existence these days and are in the swing of a very regular routine, it would be boring as heck to write about what we do everyday. (Pretty much just school, homework, grocery shopping, capoeira/workout for anybody who is actually curious...Mom and Dad that is).

We did have quite an exciting week last week though, while we were on vacation from our holiday. For one, we went to Uruguay in order to renew our visas. We hopped on Buquebus (the ferry here) and made it across the Rio de la Plata to a place called Colonia four hours later (it is a sloooow ferry). We came home 8 hours later, only 98 pesos poorer, able to stay another 3 months here legally. Actually, it was meant to be I think, since Mike found a handful of Uruguayan pesos in the pocket in his trunks from when we there months ago, just enough to have a chivito for lunch (THE national food in Uruguay--basically a steak sandwich) without changing any money.

Here is Mike at the gate of the old walled city.

Uruguay is supposed to be a little like cuba, with tons of old cars everywhere...a collectors dream. I guess that is why I didn't see all that many--they have all been collected.

With the remnants of the fortress.

Street scene in Colonia.

Mike with the ferry.

Catedral

2007-02-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last week we finished up our first Spanish class at the University of Buenos Aires, and we have a week off before the next level starts. So since we have some extra time we went and took a peak at the Municipal Cathedral in Plaza de Mayo, across from the Casa Rosada. From the exterior, it doesn`t look too much like a church. It`s got Corinthian columns (with the curly-cues), and looks more like a government institution.

The main sight inside the church is the mausoleum of San Martín, who was involved in the liberation of Argentina, Chile and Peru... possible others, not sure.

They seem to like their mausoleums in Latin America, and I suppose that all their liberations came at a simlar time, after Napolean took over Spain and brought the legitimacy of Spanish rule into question. We also had a look at a very interesting mausoleum in Montevideo with an honour guard. There was also something similar in Santiago de Chile, but we weren`t able to figure out if we could go in or not.

Anyways, the mausoleum is quite interesting; the sarcophagus is guarded by sculptures on all sides, and if that`s not enough there is a 24 hour honour guard outside the chapel. We were lucky to be there to see a changing of the guard. All the tourists in the church (of which the majority was comprised) rushed over to watch, and had to run out of the way of the guards, who were not about to stop for them. They`ve got pointy swords, as can be seen by the marks they leave in the floor where they rest them while on dury, and I wonder if they`ve ever been tempted to give a poking to tourists who were slow to move out of the way...

mike

More Buenos Aires!

2007-01-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

In Buenos Aires, everyone has at least one dog, and they are all walked by one guy... ok, there are a few dog walkers, but they seem to walk at least a dozen at a time. Unfortunately they don`t pick-up the poop, which turns the sidewalks into minefields.

One of the more famous sites in Buenos Aires is the Recoleta cemetery, where everyone who was anyone is buried.

Some of the mausoleums are quite ornate, including this one, belonging to Bartolomé Mitré, who we believe was a former Argentine President. Pat hasn`t got the pose down quite as well as me, but I`ve had much more practice. I have to work on the muscles a bit, though.

Here is a picture of the cemetery skyline. The most visited site is the Duarte family mausolem, which after some controversy, houses Evita`s remains.

We went on a sunset walking tour of Puerto Madero, which is a growing tourist area before our fantastic steak dinner detailed on the previous blog.

La Boca is a colourful neighbourhood, next to San Telmo. It is home of the famous Boca Juniors fútbol team, which is often the focus of Argentina`s obsession with fútbol. Famous fútbol badboy Diego Maradona played here.

We went to a San Telmo Tango bar for a lesson in the national dance. It is more difficult than it looks, and we are saving the fancy kicks and flicks until at least our second lesson.

Leanna`s mom`s visit!

2007-01-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

We`ve been getting into a routine here in Buenos Aires; we`ve got an apartment, we`re taking spanish lessons at the University of Buenos Aires, and now Leanna`s mom has come to visit us for a while! She`s been spoiling us rotten! Last night we went to a restaurant called Cabañas de lilas, which is a well known steak house. Look at the size of my steak... I could hit a home run with that thing!

We`ve been enjoying the Parrilla or BBQ quite alot, and I think I`ve ingested as much beef this week as in all of last year! I even had to try the tripe (don`t recommend it)

We`ve also been to a tango show, which was entertaining, but had much more singing than dancing, which was what the girls were looking for. I think we`ll hit another one pretty soon here.

More pictures and blogs to come! Sorry I`ve been lazy... it`s the holidays!

mike

Perito Moreno Glacier

2006-12-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Perito Moreno Glacier in Parque Nacional de los Glaciares in Southern Argentina, was one of the reasons we decided to make the trip to Patagonia. It was as awe inspiring as expected. Just its sheer size is enough to impress. It is 5 km wide and 60 metres tall at its face.

The best part, however is listening to the glacier moan from pressure, and watch as it calves large chunks of ice from its face. The moreno glacier exhibits these traits because it is growing; one of the only glaciers in the world which is. Actually, on the way to Easter Island Leanna and I watched the Al Gore documentary about global warming which featured the glacier. It was very well done, but unfortunately used a video of the glacier calving to illustrate how glaciers are receding all over the world. Calving glacier means expansion Al!

The colors of the ice are spectacular, changing from a deep blue to brilliant white depending on the weather conditions and the density of ice. I had to include this picture, which looks like we`ve taken a picture in the dark with the glacier lit up, but is actually just the brilliance of the glacier causing a whiteout in the camera.

Patagonia

2006-12-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,
We are currently in Puerto Natales, Chile, but leaving today for El Calafate in Argentina. Patgonia is beautiful. Cold, and windy but beautiful. The pictures I have here really don't do justice to the variety in the landscape, the colors of the tough, ground hugging plants that survive in these harsh conditions, and the commanding presence of the rock formations that interrupt the long strethes of flat prairie.

We took a tour yesterday to a national park, Torres del Paine. Along the sheep studded hillsides we saw rheas, condors and guanacos, passed through glacier carved valleys, and marvelled at the sheer expanse of the wind-whipped Patagonian steppe.
Unfortunately, our ride out to the park was a little too exciting for our taste. We got into an accident. It wasn't serious, but it could have been. The driver was going too fast along a road under construction and hit the cement base of a pylon which burst one of the front tires. The van then pulled sharply to the right, off the road and bounced off of a steep bank of a hillside which sent us the other way, over the foot high lip of the road under construction, bursting the other front tire. We swerved back and forth until the driver managed to stop. I thought for sure we were going to roll, which would have been very bad since the other side of the road went right into a lake. The van also didn't have any seatbelts so we went for a wild ride inside the van. Besides the shock of it all everyone was fine and we hitched as a group onto a passing bus which took us to the nearest town where the tourism company sent another van so we could continue the trip, only about 2 1/2 hours behind schedule. We really are so lucky.

The mountains at the tip of the Andes in Torres del Paine, shrouded in clouds.

Bits of neon blue ice floating away from the Lake Grey glacier.

Guanaco

Rhea

Mike hugging a big friendly Milodon, aka a giant sloth whose remains were found in the that cave.

Punta Arenas and the End of the World

2006-12-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Not in the apocalyptic sense, mind you. In the we`re a really, really long way south sense. We decided to head to the Strait of Magellan to see some penguins, and some beautiful scenery. The first step came in the form of Sono Otway Penguin colony, an hour`s trip away from Punta Arenas.

When I think of penguins, I think of the Antarctic ones, which live on the ice, and have sweet ice slides into the water. It was a bit strange to see them in this environment, with no snow to be seen. Cold to be sure, but no snow. Also very interesting to know that they burrow... penguins have burrows? Yes, penguins have burrows.. who knew? They are just as cute and clumsy out of the water as I expected, however.

There were several hundred of them in this colony, which is made up of penguins from the falkland Islands and the southern coast of Brazil. So that means that the little guys come a heck of a long way to get here. They are out in the water hunting for up to 15 hours a day. They`ve got to feed their offspring, who are quickly the same size as their parents.

Easter Island

2006-12-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

Couldn`t resist... really now, Easter Island was never going to get any closer than Santiago, so away we went. I regret nothing. Even the expensive flight on LAN Chile (the only airline that flies to Easter Island) was fun. It was on a Boeing 767, loaded with on demand media... screens for every seat, with remote controls where we could choose from several movies, tv shows, CDs and video games. I was impressed.

We could see some of the statues from the plane upon arrival, which was pretty cool. I was a little worried about how much hotels would cost, but they ended up being about the same as in Santiago, and included transportation to and from the airport. The statue I am emulating here is about 3 minutes walk from the hotel.

There were a few showers the first night, but the sunset was nice, and lots of tourists collected in front of the moais (statues) trying to get the perfect silhouette.

The next day we took a stroll 20 kms up to the top of Rano Kau, which is a volcanic crater where the Rapa Nui cult of the birdman would hold it`s yearly competition to see who could swim out to some little islands and retrieve an egg and become the birdman for the year. Spectacular views.

The day after that was a complete write off. Easily more rain in one day than the prairies see in a year. We would see rain like that in Brazil, but only for a short period, not all day. Luckily we planned enough time to let that day go. The following day we took a rather expensive, but worthwile tour with an Aussie named Bill Howe. He made a good tour guide, and in good aussie fashion pulled no punches. The tour went to some noteworthy Ahu (where the moais are erected), then to Rano Raraku, the volcano where the moai are sculpted, and easily the highlight of the trip. The slopes are littered with completed, partially completed, and broken moai from 2 to 12 metres in height.

The moais at Rano Raraku are not quite finished as they have no eye sockets. These were left until the end when they were erected on the Ahu. Each moai represents a tribal chief, and when the cheif dies his spirit is transfered into the moai through the eye sockets. Eyes made of white coral were used, and the spirit could not enter, or once inside, exit without the eyes in place. A few years ago some moai were restored with eyes and all, but the islanders made them take the eyes out, as they were scared of exiting spirits. The islanders are all descendants of the short ears, who wiped out the ruling class long ears, who erected the moai.... so they figure any long ear spirits exiting the moai might be mad...

The moai were also erected with large red topknots called pukao, which could weigh several tons by themselves and were carved on the other side of the island. There are many theories about how they moved these statues, but no one knows for sure. What can be seen is that it wasn`t a foolproof system, and many moai broke in transit to their ahu.

We had a really sweet 5 days, and now are in Santiago, preparing to head to Punta Arenas and the end of the world tomorrow at 10am!

mike and Leanna

From Buenos Aires to Bariloche

2006-11-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
We are currently in a place called Osorno wasting time on a stop-over en route to Santiago, Chile. Since I wrote last, we travelled from Uruguay back across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires was awesome! I just loved it. It is an extremely sophisticated and bustling city with a European feel to it. The food was incredible...and incredibly cheap too. Mom, you would love it! The Darlings rented an apartment downtown for the 5 of us as a base for our exploring before Becky left from BA after 3 hectic days of mostly shopping.

The first sight we went to see was Rodin´s "Thinker" (a real one this time, unlike the one in Recife) where we met up with Trish and Dave, Mike´s aunt and uncle from Edmonton.

Mike thinking

Buenos Aires is the home of Tango and one of the highlights was going to a Tango dinner show with Ted, Donna, Trish and Dave. Ted and I even got some unexpected lessons as the show was going on with the dancers in the show. I guess I should have known it was coming when the singer winked at me. Next time that will be my cue to head for the bathroom I think...

Ted getting an impromptu lesson.

You have to learn fast when your first lesson is on stage.

Real tango dancers with all the drama and passion you could ask for in a free show on the street.

We also went to Recoleta cemetery, the place where the who's who of Argentine society rests in peace (people like Evita for example). The mausoleums there range from elaborate and imposing to ornate and obstentatious, although some are beter kept than others. Many have subterranean labrynths underneath to hold the urns or coffins of all of the family members entombed there. There was one dishevelled mausoleum containing a coffin that must have been jostled somehow explosing the occupant´s broken bones and skull. Some of them didn´t smell very nice either. Perhaps they were freshly used.

Recoleta

After a week in BA, we spent 24 hours on a bus headed across the Pampas (flatter than the trip to Winnipeg!). This bus ride was no ordinary bus ride though...we had a "super cama" meaning a big comfy chair that reclined all the way. Really and truly, Mike´s parents are spoiling us. We ended up in beautiful Bariloche in the Andes which reminded me a lot of Banff.

Mike being a fruit on Victoria Island

Lake Nahuel Huapi at Bariloche

That is all for now. Will write more soon.

Picture from the 4x4

2006-11-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

For some reason the blog wouldnt let me put this one up with the others from Cabo Polonia. This is on the kidney bursting 4x4 ride, before our butts started hurting so much from the bumps that we stopped smiling...(Mikes sister, the infinitely-trendier-than-me Becky, assures me that the sun glasses she lent me are stylish...but I am not convinced they are quite the thing for me. Opinions?)

Also, if anyone is interested, I finally finished the blog entry about the favela tour we took. Go have a look.

Cabo Polonia

2006-11-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,
Since we have found the cheapest internet as of yet here in Uruguay, we have no excuse not to keep the blog up date while we are here (probably only for 1 more day before we head back to Buenos Aires). Today we chartered a taxi and headed out for Cabo Polonia. After emptying out of the taxi like clowns out of a clown car (a continual problem travelling with 5), we hopped onto a 4x4 to take us out to the dunes and the ocean. The highlight was the sea lions. We spotted some pups out in the ocean and got to see them jump like dolphins. Then we ran into a whole...colony? Is that what you call a whole lot of them? They lugged their giant, hairy, flabby selves from the ocean onto the rocks where they barked and fought...and stunk. Fish breath I guess. We had a great day climbing the lighthosue and playing frisbee on the dunes, capped off by a harrowing ride in the 4x4 on the way back where we chose to sit on some benches way up above the truck itself not realizing that being up their put us at risk for bursting kidneys from all the sliding around and slamming into the bars holding us in.

The Darlings at lunch...best yet in Uruguay (sorry it is the wrong way).

Sea Lions!

Curious creatures these are...one appears to be basking in the sun, the others defending their territory and looking out for predators...

Splash!

Nope, theyre not ants...just more sealions as seen from the near by light house.

Moi.

Purty wild flowers.

Looks like an orchid.

Meeting of the Mighty Rivers

2006-11-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Again,
These pics (along with the animal ones below) are from our day in Iguazu. We rented a van for a day and drove across the border to Argentina where we walked the metal walkways out to see the worlds biggest waterfalls. A sacred Indian burial place, they were incredible! We got drenched from the mist standing above them. We couldnt even see all the way to the bottom there was so much mist. Unfortunately I wasnt able to get any pictures of the largest and most impressive part of the falls (known as the Devils throat), it was just too wet to take out a camera. We also got to see a whole bunch of wildlife up close...surprising considering the number of tourists they have there. We also went out on a maid of the mist style boat to get a closer look. Closer doesnt quite describe it. We got UNDER a part of the falls...and soaked. Boat ride was fun though.

As I mentioned in the last entry, we are now in Uruguay and hoping to see some penguins and sea lions purported to be around here. Well let you know how it goes.

One small piece of the massive Iguazu falls.

Same small piece, different angle.

Orchids.

Coati doing his thing digging through the trash.

Downtown Montevideo.

Statue of Artiga, the national hero here in Uruguay.

Mike and Donna in Montevideo.

Mike in La Paloma.

The Darlings!

2006-11-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Meet Becky, Donna and Ted (Mikes family). They arrived about a week ago in Rio to share a part of our adventure and we are having an great time. Actually, right now we are in La Paloma in Uruguay. After Rio, we intended to go to Argentina, but in hopes of catching some sunshine we decided to head here instead. No luck yet though. Nonetheless, Becky has somehow managed to equal our tans and did so after only a couple days as compared to our 6 months.

Before I get too far, let me apologize for not using apostrophes in this blog...I cant find them on this keyboard...

Anwyay, during the Darlings few days in Rio, we got to see a beach soccer game in the FIFA World Cup beach soccer tournament (Canada vs. Iran...Canada won!). Who knew we had beach soccer in Canada? As every tourist must, we went up to Christo Redentor, the 30m high giant Jesus statue on Corcovado (meaning Hunchback). We also spent a morning in the botanical gardens, looked at the Museum on the Republic (Mikes and my second time, see the earlier blog for info) and did lots of shopping...well at least Becky and Donna did. Unfortunately, for Mike and I, things dont seem so cheap anymore (even though they are compared to home...but not compared to Recife), so there wasnt too much buying going on for us. We are definitely in scrimp mode. Which means that we are living in comparative luxury while the Darlings are here. They have been spoiling us! Its been awesome!!!

Jesus loves you this much! The archetypal tourist picture on Corcovado...

Save me Jebus!

Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ!

Mike and I with a bit of Sugar Loaf behind us.

Sweet picture looking into Guanabara bay.

This is a picture of the shirt that Getulio Vargas shot himself in from the Museum of the Republic. Very creepy. See the blog entitled Her name was lola, she was a showgirl... for a brief explanation.

The blog seems to have a limit of pictures I can put up and stopped me after I put up these next couple so the pictures that belong with them will have to wait until next time. They are from our few days in Iguazu and were all taken on the Argentine side of the falls.

Cute little guy who was just about to get into the garbage. I think it is called a Coati.

Not so cute, not so little guy. Dont know what he is.

One of hundred of butterflies we saw at Iguazu. It is almost like being at the conservatory at the zoo there were so many. Just awesome!

Favela...finally updated!

2006-10-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Rio is one of those rare cities you could spend a long time in and not get sick of because it is so lively and has so much depth to it. Nonetheless, many of Rios own inhabitants have never seen one major aspect of life in Rio--the favelas. Most middle class Cariocas (as inhabitants of Rio are called) fear the favelas and refuse to enter...except to buy drugs. Unsure if we could go into a favela alone, Mike and I decided to take a tour, which unexpectedly was much better and less voyeuristic than expected. We went to two favelas, Rocinha (one of Latin Americas largest and most well know slums) and Vila Canoas. About 20% of Rios population live in the more than 700 favelas. Unofficially, in Rocinha alone, there are 60 000 people, although the electric company claims that based on electricity consumption, there must be as many as 120 000.

Favelas came into being when former slaves were given the supposedly unproductive rainforested land on the steep hillsides for helping fight a Brazilian war. Piecemeal, these isolated bits of land grew together into communities, but were ignored by the governing authorities and thus lacked any sort of real infrastructure like water, power and sewage. However, today, as a result of a government initiative to turn the slums into real neighbourhoods, both the favelas I visited had all the necessary amenties (more or less anyway...we did see open sewer drains and were told that the poorest of the poor in the favelas still need to haul water long distances from common taps), even street signs (and therefore addresses and mail delivery), a bank branch, restaurants, shops, and also many satellite dishes (on account of the huge importance of telenovellas or soap operas in Brazilian society).

Favelas and people of the favelas are seen as dangerous by the majority of Brazilian society, despite the fact that the favelas are often right beside the wealthiest neighbourhoods and many favela dwellers work in the homes, restaurants and hotels of the wealthy and middle class. Our guide assured us that we were perfectly safe there, although there were several places we were not allowed to take pictures because of the high concentration of people in the drug trade around. Drug lords are the ultimate authority in the favelas and they keep the favelas safe enough for their clients who are mostly from outside the favelas. Basiaclly, they donºt let anyone make a mess in their backyard because it isnt good for business (same reason they dont sell crack actually...it is not good for business because it kills the clients too quickly). The guide also told us that generally, the only time the favelas become violent places is when the police enter and interfere with the business of the drug lords. The ¨security¨ system they use to alert the drug lords when police enter consists of young boys who wait at all the entrances of the favela and set off fireworks at the first sign of intruders. At that point, the drug sellers and drug lords fade away without a trace and inhabitants claim not to have seen or heard anything. What is interesting is that these alert boys make about $200 rais a week ($100 CDN) where the minimum wage is $350 rais a month ($175 CDN, only $2 rais or $1CDN an hour), making the drug trade very appealing to those with few legal opportunities to create a decent life.

As interesting as it was to see the winding alley ways and mish-mash construction of Rios favelas, we realized that we had already seen and been in favelas in Recife without realizing it (they have a different look in Recife because there is more space to spread out) and that some of the capoeiristas we know live in more difficult situations than what we saw on our tour.

We also got to learn a little about the school system in Brazil which was off major interest to me in particular, especially after going to school with Rivane in Recife, and also about the perversion of law and order that occurs in the favelas...but Im pretty sure no one but my grandmother is reading the blog anyway, so Ill hold off.

Ciao for now.

Mass of apartments.

Parrot

Rocinha

Vila Canoas

Toma na cu Vasco!

2006-10-31T16:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Mike and I went to a soccer game between Vasco de Gama and Flamengo (both home teams) at Maracanã stadium the other night. Being that soccer is the national passion, we thought it might be mighty entertaining to watch the fans...the game too, but mostly the fans.

When we got there, we sat down thinking that we were in the Vasco section since everyone was singing this song that we couldn't quite understand but ended in the word "Vasco" each time. However, Vasco got the first goal and the section went nuts so we realized we must be in the Flamengo section...so we listened closer. They were actually singing "Toma na cu Vasco!" which means literally...well, I don't want to translate it...telling the other team to drink from some part of the body you are definitely not supposed to drink from. Anyway...

Although there were fireworks, a drumband, giant flags and banner and no shortage of alcohol, the fans were suprisingly subdued. There was no one rolling down the aisles with their pants around their ankles such as I witnessed in Germany and no one was throwing big glass beer bottles at the field as Mike experienced in Ecuador. Not to say we were disappointed, just a little suprised since soccer seems to be such an emotional thing here, or at least World Cup was.

We decided to miss the rush at the end so we left so we left during the second half, which turned out to be the right decision. Later that night on the news, we saw a policeman beating a fan with a nightstick for being unruly and lots of shots of bloody people lying on the concrete. Police brutality...a part of Brazilian soccer culture I am glad I missed.

Fans and flags.

Fans and fireworks.

Florianopolis to Rio with a few stops in between

2006-10-27T16:48:00.000-06:00

Can you see Christ the Redeemer?? He may be 30m high, but he looks tiny from Sugarloaf.

View of Copacabana from Pão de Açucar.

It's rabbit...no, it's rat...no, it's the world's largest rodent, the capibara, running free in a downtown park in Rio. Apparently this is just a little guy, they grow up to the size of a small dog.

Super sweet library we happened to encounter.

Where am I? Blumenau! (Brazil, not Germany)

Oktoberfest!

Practicing capoeira at Barra Funda near Florianopolis.

Mike with a Jaca tree, tasty, but bizarre giant fruits.

Her name was lola, she was a showgirl...

2006-10-22T10:17:00.000-06:00

Hi All,
Mike and I are in Rio de Janeiro. We left Florianopolis with the intention of spending a few more days in São Paulo before heading up here, but when we arrived in SP (after 10 nauseous hours on a night bus) all the hotels were booked up due to a Formula 1 race going on...so much to my chagrin we jumped on another bus for 6 more hours before finally arriving in Rio.

Our first night we spent in the biggest dump we've stayed in yet, definitely a "sandals-place." That is, the second lowest rung on my hotel classification scale, a place where you need to make every effort not to touch the ground with you barefeet. It has since been downgraded even further, based on all the bugbites I woke up with. The only cool part about it was the fact that it was right across from the mansion where the presidents of Brazil lived from 1897-1954. It was also where dictator and later legitimately elected leader, Getulio Vargas, (who also, incidently, was the guy who legalized capoeira in Brazil as a way to promote Brazilian nationalism...I wrote a history paper about it once...) shot himself in the heart after the military forced him to resign from his post.

Anyway, the next day we found ourselves an apartment to live in for the next ten days until Mike's family arrives. It is a step-up from a "sandals place" for sure...but not by a whole lot. But, on the upside, it is a block away from Copacabana, which you can see out our window.

That is about all for now. Will write more after we have done some exploring here.

Leanna and mike

The view of Copacabana from our window.

Cool little rhinocerus beetle we found at a bus station on the way to Rio

Curitiba and Paranaguá

2006-10-17T08:44:00.000-06:00

We´re currently in Florianópolis, in Santa Catarina. Arrived Yesterday, and so far have just been chilling out watching english news on cable... we´ve got HBO! But anyways, this blog is about Curitiba and Paranaguá. Curitiba is the first southern town we´ve hit, and as expected, it is different from the other cities we´ve been to in Brazil. The south was largely populated by European immigrants, and doesn´t have the same slave history as the north, so the people are mostly white Europeans, giving it a North American feel to it. The down side of this is that it is somewhat boring. However, the main attraction was always to be the train ride into Paranaguá.

This first pic is of me in São Paulo on the "Bandeirantes" Monument.

And this one is from the Botanical Gardens in Curitiba. Not much there though really...It is strange in Curitiba because they have this awesome tourist infrastructure that takes you places like this...but once you get there, there is not much to see...

This picture was taken out of the train window on the way to Paranaguá...this part of the scenery is known as the Devil's throat

Another train pic

Finally, this is a picture for Pat, Leanna's mom, since most of the time it is Leanna taking the pictures. This was in Paranaguá. We decided to go there because there was supposed to be a really sweet museum there...unfortunately, we went all that way (past 30 mins worth of fertilizer storage wearhouses to boot...) only to find it closed indefinitely because the building was falling apart. Oh well...it's the journey not the destination.

Pleasantly suprised in the City of Stinky Fish

2006-10-09T07:11:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone,
I have never in my life heard anything nice about São Paulo. I heard it was ugly and dirty...and dangerous. In fact, when we landed here in May we hightailed right to Recife to avoid spending any time here. But, because we have been spending so much time on a bus lately traveling across this massive country, Mike talked me into staying overnight here for a stop-over to break up the trip to Curitiba. However, oddly enough, I/we like it here. It is isn't half as ugly as I expected...there are lots of interesting buildings and it isn't even close to being as dirty as Belo Horizonte. It is nice too because there is good infrastructure that makes it easy for us as tourists. The metro is simple and fast, they have free city tours on weekends and information booths scattered around the city. Not to mention we are in a super nice hotel...with hot running water (are you jealous Nicole?)

So we took one of the free tours yesterday where I learned that the original name for São Paulo was "São Paulo de Piratininga"...the local Indian name for stinky fish, because apparently, there was quite a stench from the rotting dead fish left in the mud when the river here ebbed.

We also got to see where the city was founded in 16th Century by Padre Anchieta, a Jesuit, now beatified. We also got to see his femur...and the cloak taken off his dead body, when they dug up the femur I guess. We also went to Museum of Art yesterday which had an impressive collection with lots and lots of big names...Picasso's, Reubens', Renior's, Monet's, Botticelli's, a Raphael, etc. etc.

There are 25 million people here...and there is a lot more variation in how they look compared to in the Northeast especially, from years of immigration. Food here is awesome, in part because there is so much variation from all those immigrants. We had some awesome Yakisoba that we watched get made in a giant wok on the street for lunch yesterday. Today, we are headed to the Liberdade district, where there is a high concentration of Japanese immigrants for some Sushi! Finally a break from rice and beans!!!!

Anyway, we are out of time for now...

Leanna and mike

Flags of Brasil and São Paulo State

São Paulo isn't ugly...

Check out the huge imperial palms leading up to the awesome neo-gothic cathedral.

The pride and joy of São Paulo, the Municipal Theatre.

Hulk holding up a balcony at the Municipal Theater.

Minas Gerais

2006-10-05T11:52:00.000-06:00

Hi All,
We are in the mountains of Minas Gerais ("General Mines" in English) in a place called Ouro Preto right now, using some time at an internet cafe while we digest our last meal of pork, with pork on the side, fried in pork fat with deep fried pork fat (with little piggy hairs still on it) used as garnish. Since the last blog update we took an 18 hour bus ride from Porto Seguro to Belo Horizonte where we spent three days indulging in the incredibly cheap (and delicious food). Mike was impressed to find places where you can get 5 pasteis (pastries with cheese or meat in them) for 1 real...$0.50CDN....only to be blown out of the water to find places where you can 6 for that price!

Belo is not like any of the other Brazilian cities we have seen as of yet. Firstly, we have run into more English speakers in the last couple of days than on the whole trip up until now. It is also more big-city-like than most places in that the belo horizonte is blocked from view by all the sky-scrapers. Traffic is nuts here since alot of the intersections have traffic coming from 8 different directions (the streets are like a large grid superiposed on another smaller grid at a 45 degree angle) which makes things pretty chaotic--especially since jay-walking is almost expected to get across anywhere. Also, the air pollution here is disgusting...I would put it as bad as London, and worse than my own experience in Mexico city.

One of the highlights was a really interesting modern church with some awesome painted tiles describing the life of St. Francis. We also spent one day going to a cave about an hour outside the city called "Rei-do-Mato". We wanted to go to see the ancient cave art...which was off limits...but the rock formations were still pretty cool. Then, the morning before we left, we rushed to go see an art gallery, created by the local famous architect Neimeyer. We got there to find that it was modern art...meaning stuff just kinda strewn about. Maybe we just didn't get it.

From there we came here to Ouro Preto or as it was originally known, "Vila Rica de Ouro Preto," "Rich Village of black gold." Slaves built the city funded by gold overflowing from the local mines which was rumoured to be the fabled "El Dorado" when it was first discovered. The most famous slave of all was Chico-Rei who was a tribal king in Africa before he and his entire tribe were captured and brought here to work in the mines. By hiding gold dust in his hair and under his nails, Chico was able to buy his and his son's freedom, before eventually freeing the whole tribe and buying the mine he worked in. He then started holding a royal court here in Ouro Preto...which led to a Portuguese crackdown on slaves buying their own freedom. We got to see a church here, dedicated to the black Saint Efigênia (whose was a queen in Nubia) built by and for slaves, financed by the gold from Chico-rei´s mine.

We took a tour today where we went into one of the slave-built mines. Between layers of petrified from a pre-cambrian forest we got to see gold dust twinlking on the walls...but because it is a protected historical city you are not allowed to alter anything and there is no more mining allowed within city limits...besides it doesn't seem like a good idea to me to have mines underneath a city.

Leanna and mike

Igreja São Franciso de Assis

Rei do Mato

On our city tour...quite a leg workout!

Itacaré and Porto Seguro

2006-09-28T16:50:00.000-06:00

After heading from Salvador, our next planned step was Belo Horizonte. However, Just before leaving Recife we got word from our friend Shandy that she is in Brazil with her boyfriend, in a surfing town called Itacaré. So we decided to stop in and see her. She is living in an apartment style place, a little off the beaten path. It also just happened that the appartment next door was empty, so we were able to stay there for a few days.

I had a chance to do some surfing with Shandy, who is a pro. It was fun, and I think I did alright, considering it was my third time, and the other two times where 5 and 10 years ago. I think I got up 3 or 4 times, and caught one wave quite nicely so it shot me out (onto my face, but shot me out none the less). It was nice to have Shandy to make sure I was where I was supposed to be, and let me know which waves to go for.

Also, as it happened, apartments off the beaten path have their advantages. A troup of little monkeys wandered by the apartment one afternoon, and we raced up to the back window to have a front row view. They were tiny little guys, who looked like Tamarin Monkeys, only black. Very cute.

After Itacaré, we planned to head to Belo Horizonte. However, Leanna hasn´t been doing too well with the bus rides. Although the buses are quite nice, the roads are winding, and often pretty bad. So we decided to break up the journey and stop in at Porto Seguro, which is somewhat like Cancun or Puerto Vallarta. It turned out to be a good idea, as there are lots of hotels (800 the guide book says), so the prices are quite low. Also, there is a bit of history, as Porto Seguro is where Cabral landed in 1500. They call this the discovery of Brazil, although Pinzón did make it here a few months earlier (but he was Spanish... the nerve!). 3 years later in 1503 another Portuguese party landed and laid this marker of the Order of Jesus. We aren´t too clear who this order was, but I guess they financed the voyages or something.

We also went on a ´tour´, which turned out to be a drive to a beach, with several stops at stores masked in culture. For example the brochure says that we will see indigenous culture, dance and so forth, but all we did was stop at an indian artesans store for 10 minutes. Lesson learned... the beach was nice and deserted... although they did try to make us pay 20 reais each when we got there. They like to take tourists to the most expensive places, as I assume they have deals with the local merchants to either get free stuff or a cut of the action, not sure which.

The next step will be Vitória, which is 12 hours away, and from there we will take a train, which is slower, but should be a much nicer ride. We´ll let you know how it goes.

mike and Leanna

Bahia update

2006-09-22T12:35:00.000-06:00

Oi Galera,

We´ve moved on from Recife, after four months. In the end it was a very enjoyable experience, and we made a lot of friends, not to mention played a lot of capoeira. The group had a roda de despedida for us at Prof. Pitbull´s academy. Good times.

Now we are in Salvador da Bahia, known for it´s African roots. A large number of Africa slaves were brought here by the Portuguese from about 1500-1900, and it is said to be the place in the new world that most retains African culture. We are staying in a hotel on the Largo do Pelourinho, which is where slaves where bought and sold (and beaten... Pelourinho means whipping post).

It´s under debate where Capoeira originated exactly, but the modern forms led by Mestre Bimba and Mestre Pastinha originated here in Salvador. Last night we went to a class at the Associação de Mestre Bimba, which is headed by Mestre Bamba, who in turn has a group in Edmonton led by Prof. Reni.

Tomorrow we are off to Ilhéus, and then to Itacaré to see our friend Shandy!

mike and leanna

Haven´t you always wanted a monkey?

2006-09-09T14:56:00.000-06:00

After the gong show of Santarém, we grabbed a flight to São Luis, and Parque Naçional Lençóis Maranhenses. Lençóis in Portuguese for "blankets", and refers to the appearance of huge sand dunes. During the rainy season lakes form between the dunes and make for a beautiful landscape.

To get to the park we took a van 3 hours from São Luis, and then a 4x4 Toyota truck through the sand to the dunes. The truck ride is pretty crazy, and we were thrown around a lot. It´s worth it however, and cooling off in one of the lakes between the dunes is so refreshing. Just perfect to scale another dune and jump in the next lake.

The next day we took a motor boat down the river Preguiça to a place called Vassouras, where we found a half dozen playful little monkeys. They come out of the edge of the forrest to grab fruit and other things offered (or not) by the people there.

They are quite playful and tame. One really wanted to get into my water bottle, and was quite frustrated by it. He tried bashing it with his hands, jumping on it, biting it, and had he been stronger would have carried it away.

While he seemed to have all his attention on the water bottle, he kept himself secured to me with his tail, which has quite a grip.

Vassouras also has a smaller version of the dunes, with one or two smaller lakes between them. Although there were less of them, the dunes were larger, and steeper. There was a rope to help people scale the dunes (we were spry enough to not require them). The sand is very soft, and it´s fun to run or slide down the sides.

After Lençóis, we returned to São Luis, hoping to make it to one of three places next on the list, but found that the roads east of São Luis are terrible, and no one had heard of the places we wanted to go. We might have made it, but it sounded sketchy, and being a long weekend even sketchier. We opted for a cheap flight we were lucky enough to find straight back to Recife, where we are now, recuperating.

Rio Amazonas

2006-08-29T09:43:00.000-06:00

As part of our capoeira learnings, Monitor Malhado taught us how to make caxixis. They are reasonably easy to make, but quite labour intensive. Here is a picture of what we´ve been making. We also made a few baquetas by quartering and whittling down a briken berimbau. Beriba wood splinters very nicely.

So after that it was on to Santarém, a smallish city on the Amazon where the Tapajós and the Amazon rivers meet. The first thing we did was check out the beach resort of Alter do Chão, which has a peninsular beach, which is quite interesting and beautiful. We didn´t stay too long, however, as it was 35 degrees or so.

Two days ago we went on an Amazon tour. The tour was to include a trip to see the mixing of the waters of the Tapajós and the Amazona, which was quite interesting. The Amazon river is very silty, and as a results is dirty brown, while the Tapajós is dark blue. There is a very clear demarcation line, where apparently fish move from one river into the other, and get shocked by the difference, and are easy targets for birds, and fresh water dolphins.

The boat we took was a reasonably sized river boat, which could have fit 30 people or so. The unfortunate thing was that we were the only people on the boat, as all the places we went could only offer us personal tours due to the lack of other tourists to share costs with.

Our first stop was at and "inundated forrest", which means that the water level is high enough that the floor of the forrest is water. We picked up a guide named Sabá, who did all the paddling from the front of his canoe.

Immediately upon entering the forrest Sabá pointed up to a three toed sloth hanging out in the canopy. We spent about an hour in the forrest, and spotted more sloths, monkeys and iguanas high up in the canopy. Yes, the iguanas were high up in the canopy as well. They aren´t quite as nimble though, and one we saw fell 40 feet or so into the water.

We´ve also heard of boa constrictors and spiders inhabiting the forrest. Including a carangejeira (think that´s how to spell it), which is a spider that grows to 18 inches and east birds it kills by jumping on. Oh my. Luckily, we didn´t encounter either of those. The spiders we did see were 2 or 3 inches at most, including one that crawled onto my hand when I wasn´t looking... sent him packing quick.

After this, we went back to the boat ad headed further down river. We had catfish for lunch, which was tasty. We had seen a fisherman pulling in a catfish he had caught that must have been 3 feet longs and weighed 50 pounds. Anyway, we were traveling along just fine, until the boat hit a sandbar ad stopped dead. I was wondering how we were going to get out of this, as the only thing the could do was step on the gas. From here our guide took up in the launch further down river to our next destination. This is where things got bad. The launch was a small motor boat, that fit four of us, somewhat comfortably. It had an external gas tank in the bottom of the boat.

After travelling an hour downstream, we were wondering how much further his place was, and were looking nervously at the gas situation. I asked our guide how much further, and he waved ahead and said something unintelligible (It was loud due to the motor). I then looked back at our driver, pointed to the gas and to my eyes to make sure he was monitoring the situation. He game me the thumbs up. Alright then.

After two hours we spot some kids fishing in a dugout canoe, and stop to talk to them. To our surprise (kind of) our guide is asking directions. They laugh at him and tell him it´s back up river. He didn´t like that anwer, so we went over to some adults fishing on the other side and ask them. Same thing. So we turn back. By now we are quite nervous, and it´s obvious that there is not enough gas to get back to the boat. But I figured we would be able to buy gas when we get where we´re going.

We finally reach a community, which our guide tells us is Pato (duck), which is where he usually takes tourists for several day tours. By this time we don´t have much faith in this guy anymore. The sun was getting low, and we had an hour or so of light left. Our guide says because of this we´ll just do a half our tour of the forrest, and takes off between some houses. We follow with questions, such as can we buy gas here, and shouldn´t we leave now since it´s getting dark? After we ask, he stops and asks a villager if he can buy gas... no, not here, further inland a ways. So he says we should leave to make it back to the boat in the light. Again, we say that there is not enough gas to make it back to the boat. He asks us if we want to bet. By this time I am thinking about punching him in the teeth, but we need him to get home. We are astounded at this jackass, and I say "lets just make it back to the boat". Leanna ran ahead and asked a villager the name of the community, to make sure our guide at least knew that much. He did. I ask him what we´ll do if we run out of gas. Paddle. Paddle a motor boat with a single paddle. At this point, we were scared, but didn´t know what to do. Leanna wanted to stay in the village, and she was probably right. However, we went back to the boat and left. I figured the driver would at least know what he was doing and wouldn´t leave wihout enough gas. After an hour, the sun was setting, and shortly after, we ran out of gas. All our guide had to say was, looks like you were right.

The moon was bright, and we could somewhat tell where we were going (although these clowns didn´t seem to know where we were going). We spotted some other people in canoes, and they had little motors. We hailed them, and told them the story, and tried to by gas. They had pure gas and we needed a mixture. No good. They spoke very regional Portuguese, but the gist of the conversation was holy f*ck, sucks to be you guys.

We paddled towards the only lights we could see on shore, which turned out to be a farm. It took about two hours to get there. Paddling a motor boat with one paddle is not easy. Our driver, guide and I took turns paddling from the fron of the boat. I had to tell our guide to aim in front of the lights, or the current would take us beyond. There was not an entrance to the farm that we could find in the dark, however, and our guide and driver left us in the boat and waded into the farm. They returned after a half hour with a two litre bottle full of gas. We took this gas, and started off... in the direction we came. Again, the driver spoke in a manner nearly unintelligible to me, but there was plenty of arguing as to where to go.

After an hour or so, the engine stops, and we half paddle, half pull the boat through some reeds into a canal that leads into a bay. I thought the gas was gone, but it wasn´t, and we continued on into the middle of the bay, where the gas ran out again. It was around this time that the moon set as well, leaving it very dark, with no lights anywhere in sight. We continued to paddle for about 5 hours, until we arrived at a part of the river where the current was too strong to paddle against. This was about 3:30 in the morning. We decided to pull into the shore and look for a branch to tie to and wait for sunrise and help to come in the form of local fisherman.

When we made it close to shore, a piranha jumped in the boat, knocking into Leanna. Understandably, she jumped, knocking me and our guide into the water. I got back in pretty damn quick. Our guide was back in quick too, and we had a look at the fish. About dinner plate size and pretty ugly looking. Up until this point we had been scared and hungry, but now we were cold too. We waited out the hour and a half until dawn, and the current had died down. We continued on, and quickly ran into some finshermen, who told us that the boat was just around the next bend. Right up until the last minute, I didn´t think we were going to find the boat, and didn´t know how we were going to get out of the situation. The boat was a sight for sore eyes.

Amigos!

2006-08-23T10:31:00.000-06:00

Hi All,
Thought we would put up a post with some pictures of some of the people we have been hanging out with here.

This is Kong. As exemplified in the picture, he is generally not a very smiley-type guy...but he was rolling on the floor laughing in one of our classes the other day. Just seeing him laugh like that got me going to the point of tears.

This guy is Baixino. He appears to be pregnant...

And this is Maçete, whose capoeira is so fast, he does three movements for every one of mine.

And this is the exceptionally talented Negão, who we know from Canada. He speaks great English and has been just wonderful to talk to since I don't understand 100% of what is said here (maybe 50-60% on a good day). It is so nice to have a break from Portuguese sometimes.

This next guy is the aptly named Sapo, who does crazy flips.

And Cabaça with Maçete, two guys we train with at Pitbull's academy.

And last but not least is Pitbull himself, who has taught us a ton over the last couple of months.

Anyway, all is well here. We started taking our Malaria pills today in preparation for our trip to the Amazon. We leave in exactly a week. Side effects of the pills include depression, hallucinations, nightmares, irritability, etc. We'll let you know how it goes. That is all for now!

Marco Zero Roda

2006-08-15T12:47:00.000-06:00

On the second Sunday of every month Aché Brasil has a roda in downtown Recife at Marco Zero, where the city began. This month we were early, and stopped in at Paço Alfándega to take in the view from the top. Very nice. The tourism industry in Recife likes to compare Recife to Vienna... lots of bridges, I guess.

So here is a picture of Marco Zero, where the roda´s are held. Last month the roda was cut short because a "Mestre" showed up with a chip on his shoulder, and just wanted to fight. The roda degenerated until CM Gordo stopped it. Seems to happen often in street/open rodas. Lots of guys like to grapple, and it makes for pretty ugly capoeira.

Anyways, this month nothing like that happened, and we had a great roda. Here´s a picture of Prof. Pitbull airborn,

2006-08-09T09:51:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

So lately we´ve been hanging around with CM Gordo and Vitor. Here´s a picture of us taking a look for a dove that a kid had injured with a slingshot (good aim). It was dead when we found it.

Sunday night is normally time to go to the Sé, which is the big hangout in Olinda. There is always a roda there on Sunday nights, which has a reputation for being a tough street roda. I played in it the Sunday before last, and it was a good time... a bit rough, but nothing out of the ordinary. Last Sunday, however, we staying at home and had ourselves a back-yard roda. It was a much tougher roda than the one at the Sé! But a good time was had, and we worked up a good sweat.

Also, a couple weeks ago now, Instructor Soldado left for Malaysia to teach Capoeira there. There was a festa for him at his girlfriend Ani´s house.

Lately we´ve been helping out CM Gordo with his new CD, which has some really cool songs on it. Ok, I´m going to cut short, as my time on the computer is almost up... tchau for now.
mike

Whatcha' gonna eat when there aint nothing better??

2006-08-03T14:44:00.000-06:00

Hi All,
Sorry we haven't written anything for awhile. Can't say that we have been all that busy really...there is just nothing much new and exciting to report. We are still in the Recife area and still doing lots and lots and lots of capoeira. That has resulted in a rather dramatic shift in our schedule. Capoeira classes are every evening, sometimes until about 10pm. It generally takes us quite a while to get home (from some classes about an hour and a half or more) because Janga is quite far away from the center of the city (it is part of another city actually, called Paulista)so we come home late, and then take a couple hours to eat and calm down so we are never in bed before one...and therefore never up before about eleven these days. I guess that is what being on holidays is all about.

Of limited interest is the fact that another phase our acculturation into Brazilian society has begun. This is manifested by my cooking of feijão...beans. As sick as I am of eating rice and beans (not that I don't like rice and beans, it is just that we eat them a minimum of once a day, everyday), I have learned make them in the pressure cooker...and now we could potentially eat beans three times a day! I even put the horse/donkey meat (charque) in, just like a real Brazilian!

I have also figured out how to cook tapiocas. Here, tapiocas are kind of like pancakes made out mandioca flour, encasing tasty fillings, like cheese, chicken or coconut, not like the pudding we call tapioca at home. Quite good I think. I wonder, can you buy mandioca flour at home? As far as I can tell, mandioca is the same as macaxeira (also the source of Farinha I think too)...one Brazilian food Mike and I have not taken much of a liking to. Mike has even created a song, to the tune of Macarena expressing his dislike..."whatcha' gonna eat when there aint nothing better? Heeeeey macaxeira!" Maybe we'll get used to it eventually, which would signal the beginning of yet another phase of acculturation.

Speaking of cooking and food and such things, I should mention that the juice here in Brazil is absolutely awesome. For about $0.75CDN you can get a big glass of freshly made juice (comparable to Boosterjuice/Jugo juice juice), which we ensure that we do everytime we possibly can. As of late, Mike has started making juice at home too. Mmm mmm good. We absolutely love maracujá!

Anyway, I had planned to include a few new photos in this update but the computer I am at won't let me, so I will try again next time.

Castelo Brennand and Boa Viagem

2006-07-21T11:42:00.000-06:00

Hi All,

Contra-Mestre Gordo is getting ready to record another CD and we´ve been fortunate enough to hear some of his new stuff, which is pretty cool... here´s a jam session with some improvised instruments.

I don't think we have introduced Rivane yet. Rivane is Gordo's significant other and has been absolutely great to us. She is excellent to talk to because she has had lots of experience talking to other Canadian capoeiristas. She speaks slowly and clearly and has the patience of a teacher...because she is a teacher. Here she is trying on a samba mask at a art/craft show she took us to.

We also visited the Institutio Ricardo Brennand, which we saw as we were passing by going to the Instituto Ricardo Brennand. The Brennand brothers (the other brother has the weird ceramics museum we mentioned in the last blog update) appear to be extraordinarily wealthy old eccentrics with too time on their hands. The Instituto has exhibits of all sorts of crazy junk that Ricardo likes to collect. Lots of medieval armour, swords, knives, guns, painting of naked ladies as well as statues... of naked ladies. (Just to make things clear, I do realize that the statue below has two naked men in it) The weird part about it, is that the instituto is not really a museum, because it has no explanation and no organization really. It is just a massive collection of historical junk housed in a modern day castle that must have cost a large fortune. And the library was off closed to the public the day we were there. Leanna pouted.

Ah, but I can´t forget the Thinker.. or O Pensador here... I´ll have to check later to see where the Rodin originals are in the world, but somehow I doubt this is one.

And here is Monitor Malhado, a capoeirista from whom we have been taking classes these days, helping us get Acerola fruit from the tree in the courtyard at Gordo's. We make juice out of it... Some really good juice around here!

This last picture was taken at Boa Viagem, a famous beach just outside of Recife (although the urban sprawl is continuous, it goes by various names as you go along). Unfortunately you can't swim here because of the risk of sharks, but the beach is nice. We were shocked at the the amount of beachfront property here, just look at the never ending row of apartment buildings along the water behind us.

In other news...(it is Leanna writing/editing now) I have a new apelido--that is a capoeira nickname. When I left, my nickname was Borracha, which means Rubber, a rather obvious name for me I think. However, our group has a number of other Borrachas. Also, I am told that Borracha is a male sounding name (and Manteiga, Mike's nickname, which means Butter is a female sounding name...which maybe explains why everyone was mixing us up--doesn't explain why everyone thinks we are brother and sister mind you). So, Gordo put some thought into it and re-named me Gata instead. Gata means female cat, so named for my agility in the roda. I will have to keep practicing to fully live up to the name I think!

Anyway, that is all for now.

Leanna and Mike

Birthdays and Museums and Capoeira, oh my!

2006-07-14T12:26:00.000-06:00

Hi all,

Long time no blog. So I´ll summarize some of the goings on of the past couple weeks. On Leanna´s birthday we went out for some churrasco, which is tasty Brazilian BBQ. They are really big on meat here, and we were surprized to hear stories of picky Canadians, only to realize that they are vegetarians, who don´t get a lot of respect around here ;)

Anyways, we had dinner with CM Gordo, Rivane, Soldado and Ani. It was a nice dinner, and was quite cheap, even for all six of us.

We also finally made it to Porto de Galinhas, which we had been hearing about since we arrived. It turned out to be a tourist trappy place, which I´m sure was very beautiful before all the tourists and stores came. The best picture opportunity was with the phones.

We did have fun with CM Gordo and Rivane on the beach, and it was a very pleasant day. Apparently some of the best parts of the beach are the natural pools in the reef. When the tide is low little sailboats ferry everyone out to view them. However, when we were there the tide wasn´t low enough, so we didn´t get to see them... next time.

Yesterday we took a trip to the Francisco Brennand Museum, which is an odd ceramics and painting museum, which displays the work of local artist Francisco Brennand. His estate is on the outskirts of the city, and we had to take two buses, and then a taxi, in a very sketchy journey to the place.

It´s a bit of an odd place, to say the least, but it made for an interesting day.

In the time in between, we´ve been going to more capoeira classes, with Prof. Pitbull and Inst. Soldado. Soldado is taking off soon to teach capoeira in Malaysia, and we had a going away roda for him yesterday.

ok, that´s it for now...
mike and Leanna

Fernando de Noronha

2006-06-29T14:54:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

Been a while since our last post. We´ve moved in with Gordo in Paulista, which is a bit further north out of Recife. We haven´t found computers out here with working USB connections. Anyways, I digress.

We spent five days in Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago about 500 kms from Recife. There is one main island, and several small ones. We debated about whether to go on a package tour, or just wing it. We ended up winging it, and I think it worked out better that way. With Gordo´s help wheeling and dealing, we found return flights for about $330 cdn, and I called a pousada from the mainland and reserved a room.

When we arrived at the airport someone met us, and drove us to the pousada in a buggy (pronounced boogy here). We took a little walk into Vila dos Remedios, the biggest village on the island, for a fish in a banana leaf dinner. This was probably the most expensive meal we´ve had, which was $20 for both of us for all we could eat. There are lots of cute little froggy dudes around, like this guy:

The next day we took a walk down to the closest beaches, Cachorro and Meio. Very beautiful beaches, and nearly deserted.. in fact many times during the trip we found ourselves the only ones on the beach. Swimming was good, waves were decent as well. One of the islanders told us that in summer the waves get pretty big.

Also common on the Island were the little lizard dudes. The one in the picture I found in the sink of a pousada we were checking out.

The second day we rented a buggy, and headed to the beaches that were further away on the island. We tryed to get up at 5:00am to see the dolphins at Baia dos golphinos, like the tour book said, but didn´t make it until 7:00am. There were dolphins, but they were far away and not doing much. The view was very beautiful, however. Later rented some snorkelling equipment. We visted some more picturesque beaches and then headed for Baia dos Porcos, which had snorkelling. I went out first, and ran into a sea turtle, which we had heard were around. Leanna did really well snorkelling, not being a water person. We saw quite a few different types of fish, and some rays.

The Morro is a big rock on the middle of the main island that characterizes the place. This is on another empty beach.

We also took a boat tour of one side of the islands. In the first 20 minutes or so we encountered a pod of dolphins, who came to play in the wake of the boat. That made the trip worth it, which was good, because it poured rain for the rest of the trip. In fact, it was quite cold, which was a feeling we hadn´t had for a while. Fernando de Noronha is about 4 degrees south of the equator, and it was warm.

The last day we walked down into Porto and did some more snorkelling. I immediately was met by a couple stingrays (one I almost stepped on) and a moray eel. I swam after the moray, figuring he would just swim away faster, but instead he turned on me and coiled up, ready to tangle.... so I backed off. There is a sunken Greek ship not too far off shore as well, but I didn´t know quite where it was and didn´t manage to find it.

The trip was definitely worth it, and as these things go was relatively inexpensive. Since returning we´ve been back to our normal routine, taking capoeira classes, and watching Brazil´s soccer games, which unfortunately were ended by France this afternoon.

We´ll try to find better computer hook ups so we can put up more pics soon.
mike and Leanna

Mike and I had a bet...and I lost

2006-06-14T17:36:00.000-06:00

So World Cup has begun. Mike and I were debating yesterday about just how soccer crazy Brazilians actually are. I figured that the relationship of Brazilians to soccer was basically like the relationship of Canadians to hockey. It is a national passion. Basically all Canadians get into it, particularly during playoffs but shops don't close (though lots of places have TVs going) and life goes on basically as usual. How wrong I was. Here, everything...and I mean everything, shut down at 3pm, an hour before the game began. We were even starting to worry that the buses might stop running before we could make it to our friend Kira's house to watch Brazil's first game of the tournament. (I don't think they actually stopped...but I am not sure.) Luckily we made it and watched the game, along with millions of other Brazilians, from Kira's patio. We later saw some footage of a square in downtown Recife, filled to the brim with gyrating, samba and frevo-ing Brazilians. We'll have to head down there for one of the games just to check it out.

Perhaps I just can't see it, being unaccustomed as I am to futebol, but it wasn't a very exciting game. More exciting was to turn around and watch the Brazilians we were with cheer (well, mostly shout expletives). Brazil, after scoring only once, won the game. There is a great view of Recife and Olinda from the patio and after the goal and after the game you could see and hear fireworks (or in some cases just cherry bombs) going off all over the place. In fact, we were deafened several times by the explosions in Kira's neighbour's "yard." It is pretty rare to actually have a yard here...perhaps that is why I was told that every year a bunch of people, mostly kids, lose limbs and sometimes lives because of all the fireworks.

All in a all, a fun time...and pretty funny to see all the women we were with blowing kisses when they saw Ronaldinho on screen (have you ever seen Ronaldinho? Look him up on the net if you haven't).

Below are a few assorted pictures from an afternoon adventure Mike and I had the other day in Recife. I thought the outdoor pet store was kind of amusing...and I just like gargoyles.

Berimbau tocou na capoeira, Berimbau tocou, eu vou jogar

2006-06-12T08:44:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. The computers we use at the internet cafe here are painfully slow sometimes and uploading a picture take forever--if it works at all. But today, it seems to be working great, so I will upload all that I can.

These first three pictures are of Jan (whom we live with) helping Mike and I make berimbaus. For non-capoeira people, a berimbau is the primary instrument used in capoeira. We bought the beriba (the stick part) and the cabaca (the gourd used to amplify the sound) for next to nothing at the market in Recife and then went to work cutting and sanding all the necessary bits before stringing it all together. They turned out beautifully; simple and raw looking. As much as I like to look at the berimbau I made, I still struggle to play it. In fact, my pinkie finger, which bears the brunt of the weight of the berimbau appears to be permanently numb--or at least it has been for the last couple of days from practicing. Soldado assures me that this is normal but I am not sure if I believe him or not.

These next few pictures were taken around Olinda, about 10 minutes from where we are living by bus. We have been to the Sé, as it is called, a couple of times now but mostly in the evening when it is too dark for good pictures. So we decided to take a guided tour the other day to learn a little about the history. Can't say I learned much of the history but at least I got some good daytime pictures.

This is a typical street in the old part of Olinda with charming, brightly coloured buildings slowly slipping into decay.

At first I thought that this church had been through rough times in which the tower on the other side had fallen over (which isn't all that rare an occurrence--it happened at the Vatican once) but it turns out that Portuguese churches only have one tower, as opposed to Dutch churches which have two. I think I have that the right way around...at least I don't ever remember seeing churches with only one tower in the Netherlands when I was there.

We went into a monastery on our tour. This picture is from the courtyard. It was very peaceful there, although the building was also a lookout over the ocean to keep watch for any pesky Dutch ships (the Dutch wanted a piece of the sugar wealth here)and hence had escape tunnels and such things down to a fortress with cannons.

Finally, this is a picture from the Sé overlooking the city of Recife (basically attached to the city of Olinda).

In other news, it has been rather rainy here the last few days. In fact, it has poured here to the point that the main road in our neighbourhood flood. We attempted to get out one of those days to stave off cabin fever but mostly just ended up getting soaked despite our best efforts. Capoeira is still going well, when our bodies are up to it that is. My neck is still killing me. I aggravated it the other day doing some super sweet skills with Mestre Borracha. I couldn't not participate though, he teaches the most unique skills and we were having a private class on the beach.

Anyway, that is all for now. Hope everyone is doing great. Thanks to everyone who writes me emails, I love to hear from home (hint hint Dad and brother). Sorry some of the pics are the wrong way...it won't let me fix them right now, so you'll just have to crane your neck.

Leanna and mike

For the Library Folks:

2006-06-12T08:26:00.000-06:00

Hello Doucette people,
Thought you might enjoy taking a look at the library I found here in Recife. Absolutely beautiful. So, if the faculty ever wants to renovate the library...
Leanna

What day is this?

2006-06-07T08:22:00.000-06:00

Hi All,

Today is a monsoon day.. it´s pouring like mad! We almost got swept away wading across the street getting to the internet cafe (3 blocks). Looks like people stay inside, judging from the internet cafe, which is emptier than usual. So I will use this time to write a blog.

Last week we did a bit of sight-seeing in Downtown Recife. There is some interesting architecture, and lots of old churches, which we seem to be able to wander in and out of as we like. At the northern tip of the Island of Recife, there is the Palacio de Governo, and just south a park and a theatre. Here is the view looking south from the Palacio:

An interesting walk. Just yesterday we went on a tour of Olinda. We took the bus to Praça del Carmo, where we were quickly approached by a tour quide who, upon figuring out that we spoke english called for an english guide. I´m quick to suspect rip-offs, but we didn´t have much money anyways. Our guide, who´s name was Marqués does tours for donations, not for a set price, and didn´t seem to care much that we didn´t have much money on us. So he took us on the tour, which included the big samba areas, which culminate at Quatro Cantos, some Portuguese and Dutch houses, and of course more churches! Some pretty interesting buildings. Marqués says that you can tell which churches are Portiguese versus Dutch by the number of towers. One for Portuguese and Two for Dutch. So here is a Dutch Church, Igreja do Carmo, I believe.

From the Igreja we took a walk up to Alto da Sé, which is a great lookout point, where you can see Recife and the beach. It looks like a great beach and all, but it´s quite polluted and it´s not advised to swim there.

Rio Grande Do Norte

2006-05-30T09:19:00.000-06:00

Hi All,

We´ve been running around the last few days. On Saturday we day-tripped it to Palmares, which is a small town about an hour and a half from Recife. There is a group there that we went to visit with Mestre, CM Gordo and Soldado.

Here´s us stopping for some agua de coco on the way. When we made it to Palmares, there were tons of little kids playing around... the big one is mestre ;)

Afterwards we heading back to Recife... we stopped for some fruit on the way. This fruit is a Jaca, and may be the strangest fruit I´ve ever had... it´s got an external skin, but it´s quite... loose. Inside are seeds encased in the fruit, which is a strange stringy-marshmallowy goo. Yeah.... tasty tho.

On Sunday we travelled to Natal, which is in the state of Rio Grande Do Norte, about 300 kms north. We went to a very well organized capoeira event there. We stayed with some relatives of mestre, who were extremely nice. On Monday we went to see an island where Mestre´s family used to live years ago. Very beautiful.

On the trip we encountered our first interesting insect... check this dude out. He´s about an inch and a half long, and when someone went to flick him off the car he turned as if to fight..

On the way to Natal we also witnessed some more of Brazil that we´ve heard about... we were stopped at a military police checkpoint, and asked for our documents. We had decided to leave our passports at home, as they´re safer there... so we gave our driver´s licences and a photocopy of our passports and Mestre and his brother went into the office to talk to them... there was a heated discussion about our lack of passports, during which we started to get a bit worried. After a few minutes, Waldinho came out, took 10$R (5 bucks) from his wallet and went back in. Problem solved and we were off. At least the bribes are cheap!

All for now,
mike and leanna

Baldy!

2006-05-26T09:03:00.000-06:00

Hey Everybody,
Check out the new and improved Mike! Isn´t he cute!

The lady cutting his hair is Zica, the lovely lady we live with.

So, in other news, we went to another roda yesterday (sorry if this is getting boring for you non-capoeira people) at the academy of Contra Mestre Alemão. Alemão means "German." He explained that when he got his name he had a military buzz cut and was known for being punctual and hence the name. Funny.

After that we went out for goat ("bode"). Mmmm, declicious goat. Mike and I were a little worried because we barely brought any money with us but it turned out that 9 of us ate a gigantic meal with rice, fava beans, something squash like called macacheira (Sp?), beers, cokes, coconut water, fries and a bunch of goat meat for $47 Reais...about $25 Canadian dollars.

Also, I have begun taking Portuguese lessons...with a 7 year old. His name is Luan. He is a neighbour of ours...I think. He hangs around anyway. Yesterday, when Mike was out getting a massage to try to work out the knots in his back, the little guy came and jumped on my bed and wanted to talk. When he realized I couldn´t communicate very well he decided to take it upon himself to teach me. So we spent the next three hours or so learning new words with the help of various props, including hand drawn pictures and his school books. It is quite hilarious at times because the topics vary from the history of Brazil, to racism, to tango, to the reproductive system. It is hard to keep a straight face because he is so animated.

Anyway, this computer is brutally slow, and besides, we have to get back to our laundry (a very labour intensive process here).

Tchau.

Leanna and Mike

Updatezinho

2006-05-25T08:26:00.000-06:00

Hi all,

Just a quick update... We´re not feeling too well today, especially me (mike). I´ve agravated my back, which is a recurring injury for me, but it´s never been this bad. Despite that we´ve been taking one capoeira class a day. On Monday we went to a class in Rio Doce, which was taught by a few different people, as the instructors showed up one by one... we always joke at home that things at capoeira are running on Brazilian time, so I guess this is the real deal ;).

On Tuesday we went to Soldado´s academy, where Mestre taught the class... it was raining pretty hard, and the roof was leaking, and there were about twice as many people as the room could handle. Mestre taught a bit of Angola, and we had a roda. This was a fun roda, but unfortunately I hurt my leg. I threw a martelo, and the guy I was playing didn´t have time to esquiva, so he just defended his face and drove his elbow into my leg... ouch.

On Wednesday we were back in Rio Doce, and had yet another instructor teach the class. This was CD. I don´t know what belt he has, but he was only able to teach a few movements before we started a roda, as we (along with Mestre, Soldado, Jan, etc) were late. Mestre added his energy to the roda, as well as a few visitors (China for one).

The rodas have been fun so far, and I´m starting to feel more comfortable playing in them. It´s definitely different, as there are tons of talented capoeiristas, and I don´t know who is who, and what level everyone is at because they don´t always wear cords.

On Wednesday we also went down to Mercado Sao Jose and walked to Isla Recife to find a tourist info booth... we want to start to get our bearings better, as so far we just go where we´re taken. It seems to be a bit difficult, especially with minibuses, who´s drivers and money takers are crazy! Leanna flinches everytime we almost hit something (which is often).

The weather here is pretty variable... goes from hot to rainy and hot and back again, all in the same day! Everyone has been super nice so far... we´ve heard lots of stories of people being taken advantage of, but it´s been the opposite so far. People have bought drinks for us on a couple different occasions, and been very generous.

ok... that´s all for now... I´m going back home to resume laying in the fetal position.
mike & Leanna

Capoeira, capoeira, and more capoeira!

2006-05-22T09:20:00.000-06:00

Hey Everybody,

We still haven´t done much for exploring around here, but we have been so busy with capoeira over the last couple of days we haven´t had the chance. It is day 5 now...I think...(I have already lost track of time) and we have done capoeira at least twice a day everyday. Besides practicing on the beach every morning, we have gone to a couple of classes with different instructors and taken part in 3 rodas. For those of my friends who are not familiar with capoeira, the roda is when everyone stands in a circle and we actually play capoeira.

Our first capoeira class was with a guy named Professor Pitbull (for non-capoeira people, it probably seems pretty funny to call someone "Professor" Pitbull...at least I used to think so, but that is a title in capoeira that refers to someone with a very high level of capoeira). He suits the name Pitbull. Besides the large tattoos of a Pitbull and a Rottweiler on either shoulder, he is about the toughest, scariest looking guy I have ever seen. Despite the fact that he is shorter than me (Leanna), he is super strong and has major cauliflower ears. Never mess with a guy with cauliflower ears! Class is similar to the way it is at home, but it is so nice to see new moves and to get caught up in all the energy here. And beyond the scary exterior, Pitbull is actually very nice, and very funny...and made us feel perfectly safe walking down a dark alley on the way to the metro station after class since there was no possible way we could run in to anyone scarier.

Me and Pitbull

The next day we went to a capoeira competition. One thing we have to get used to is the concept of "Brazilian time". This competition was supposed to start at 9, about the time when we arrived. It actually started at 12:30. We got to see some sweet capoeira and then got to take part in the roda afterwards. It was so exciting because it is hectic, with so many people and so much energy. Luckily, people give Mike and I a break, and give us a bit of space to get in there without having to be too pushy. I think we suprise people a little when we pull out our best tricks and maybe just because we are new and stand out because of our blindingly white skin, we get a lot of attention. I basically had a hoarde of little kids surrounding me, trying to communicate with me whenever I wasn´t playing in the roda ("trying" is the accurate word...my Portuguese is horrid...actually that is an overstatement...it is basically non-existent) and I only made the hoarde bigger by giving them all Canada pins.

We are being very well taken care of here. After the competition, my absolute favorite person in the world of capoeira, Contra-Mestre Gordo (whose rather unfortunate name means "Chubby"), and our new friend, instructor Soldado (whose name means Soldier) took us to see to the old parts of Recife and Olinda which were booming on Sunday evening. Because it was dark, I couldn´t get a real sense of where we were, but it was loud and crowded, with people playing capoeira in a street roda and playing and dancing to samba music. So much good food and new smells.

Contra-Mestre Gordo and his son.

Instructor Soldado

I have so much more to say, about the crazy mini-bus ride we had the other night on our way to Rio Doce for another capoeira class, about my observations about Brazilian culture and my role in it as a female (very suprising...there are very few women doing capeoeira here and so far I have been the only girl in any of the classes we have taken)...but those stories are for another day. My time on the computer is almost up.

Hope everyone is well.

Mike and Leanna

We´ve Arrived!

2006-05-19T12:36:00.000-06:00

Hi Everybody,
We made it to Olinda...after 27 hours of travel. Unfortunately, in addition to the planned hours spent on a plane, we spent another couple stuck on a runway in Toronto, waiting out a thunder storm that never actually came. Luckily, it was no problem to buy tickets to Recife once we made it to Sao Paulo (Don´t worry Mom and Dad, we didn´t leave the airport as promised!)... and now we are here!

Since arriving, we have walked along the beach, and gone to the Mercado in Recife. It is rainy and cloudy here, but still nice and warm. Tonight we are going to our first capoeira class with an instructor named Pitbull.

Write more soon.

Leanna and Mike.

We're Outta Here!

2006-05-16T23:13:00.000-06:00

Hello All,

We are leaving tomorrow...jumping into the abyss!

Wish us luck!

See you in a year.

Leanna & Mike

(Picture from Teotihuacan, Christmas 2005)