Salgueiro Samba School

Official site Carnaval 2011: http://www.salgueiro.com.br/

Updates

Hi everyone,

Many of you have written to me asking to update my blog. I'm so sorry I haven't kept up regular entries. The good news is that I've been having the time of my life in Rio and have been busy socializing, learning Portuguese, laying on the beach, and going out! I will try to take some time over the next few days to update my blog as much as possible.

Amelie

Petropolis

Petropolis is a beautiful colonial town about 1 hour from Rio. It's located in the atlantic rainforest and is at approximately 1000m above sealevel. The climate is much cooler than in Rio de Janeiro and it is often very misty.

RIO- Part 1

I like Rio a lot more than I had imagined I would. It has beautiful beaches as well as most things a city could offer.I’ve been here for almost 2 weeks and already have a minilife here. I study Portuguese in the mornings and have a job working at a hostel on weekends. The hostel is to practice Portuguese although it's been hard to not mix Portuguese and Spanish together. This is probably one of the happiest times of my life!
I’ve been going out a lot and have met some amazing people in my classes.

Ilha do Mel

Ilha do mel is located in the state of Parana and only reachable by boat. Cars are forbidden on the Island which has been transformed by UNESCO into an ecological station. It was an extremely relaxing few days waking up to the sound of the ocean. I love being in remote places and forgetting the meaning of the word stress. There are tons of dolphins here too. I walked over to the Brasilia part of the island by climbing over hills and rocks under rather heavy rain. It was wet and windy but still very beautiful.

Floripa

After a 28 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires, I arrived in Florianopolis.
I stayed in near Mole beach and went surfing, tanning, and sand boarding. It was so awesome!
I didn’t get to know the city but I spent 4 days on Ilha Santa Catarina and loved it. It’s a beautiful island with 47 beaches, large lakes, sand dunes, and hills. I was there during low season but during the summers it’s usually packed with tourists from Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.

On my way to Brazil!

I finally have a new camera! I'm relieved! Hopefully, I will be posting a lot more pictures from Brazil as I didn't have a camera for the whole of Argentina. I keep changing my plans about my trip! I am definitely leaving for Brazil on Thursday; however, I am not sure if I will be going straight to Rio or if I will spend a week in Florianopolis first. I plan on being in Brazil for about 3 months in order to learn Portuguese to a decent level. I am so excited for the beaches! As much as I love Buenos Aires and big cities, the Florida in me needs the beach and sun right now!

Brazil: Basic Facts

Largest country in South America

5th largest country in the world

Population: 195 million (5th biggest population in the world)

Capital: Brasilia

3 largest cities
1) São Paulo
2) Rio de Janeiro
3) Salvador

Currency: Real (about 1.6 to USD $ 1)

Brazilian national anthem with English and Portuguese subtitles:

Buenos Aires: La cucaracha

I absolutely love Buenos Aires! It's my favorite city along with New York!
Initially, I planned on staying here 2 months and take some Portuguese classes, find volunteer work, and possible work in a hostel or as an English teacher too. Therefore, I found a room in an apartment that seemed decent. The next day I realized I must have had visited the apartment while my mind was on a planet in another galaxy because it was horrible. I suddenly noticed dust everywhere and saw crumbs of food in all the drawers of counters. To top this off, as I went into the kitchen to wash my dishes, I saw cockroaches running on the counter. I approached the landlady about this and her reply was that she spends her life fighting cockroaches and that I shouldn't be phobic. She further chose to mention that they used to have a rat problem. At that moment, I told her I needed to leave immediately. She said she would give me my money back once she finds someone new so until then, I am spending as little time as possible in the apartment and not even stepping in the kitchen.

My mind lacks clarity sometimes! As much as I love BsAs, I want to have time to discover new places and I would learn Portuguese much faster in Brazil (even if it's way more expensive). My goal is to be fluent in 3 months! Hopefully, if I have money left by then, I will spend a month or 2 traveling in Colombia afterwards.

Bus to Buenos Aires: Floods and other miseries

Unfortunately, I am not lying when I say something goes wrong in about 50 % of my bus journeys. After 4 days of constant rain in Cordoba, I decided to head to Rosario for a night. I was supposed to arrive there at 4 pm, spend the afternoon there, and head to Buenos Aires the next day.
It was raining especially hard when I got on the bus but I was drowning myself into music while falling asleep. I woke up at one of the terminals only to see water everywhere in the bus. Of course, that had already happened in the last bus where I woke up soaked so I wasn't really surprised. What did surprise me however was that the drivers where being rained on as they were on the road and decided this bus was ending the journey preemptively. No big deal, we just had to wait an hour and a half for the next bus. We cram into the next bus and happily drive to Rosario. As I was calling hostels to book a bed for the night, the bus stopped on the highway. What now? Oh yeah- bus number 2 ran out of gasoline! Sure enough, we waited another 2 hours for another bus to come and get us in the middle of the highway. By that time, it was 8pm, cold and raining, so I decided to go straight to Buenos Aires.

Cordoba – rain, Che, and Jesuits!

After almost 2 weeks in the quasi-desert, I got to Cordoba and with my luck of course came 4 days of rain including the biggest hail storm I’ve ever seen in my life. I had never seen bullets of ice the size of ping-pong balls shoot down from the sky before.
Cordoba was okay but would’ve been a lot nicer with sun.

Night out with awesome people from the hostel Che Salguero:


Alta Gracia: Che



I went to Che Guevera’s childhood house in Alta Gracia; it was very interesting. It showed pictures from his childhood along with bunch of letters he had written to his wife, children, and to Fidel Castro. All of them were about being revolutionary no matter what. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez also recently visited “The Che Museum” which is also referred to as “The Temple of Revolution”:

http://edant.clarin.com/diario/2006/07/22/um/m-01238437.htm

Jesus Maria: I visited an old Jesuit mission which apparently was started in order to fund Argentina's oldest university, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. Jesuits used to enslave indigenous people to work at the missions.

Carlos Paz: A very touristy but beautiful town 30 minutes from Cordoba with a very nice river and a huge lake. It's a very popular summer vacation spot.

Price points and facts: Northeast Argentina (Regions of Jujuy and Salta)

Average price of a basic hostel: USD $ 6
3 course meal (soup, meat with side, desert, drink): USD $ 4 – 7
4 hour bus ride: USD $ 7- 12
Big loaf of bread: USD $ .50
A kilo (2 lbs) of tomatoes: USD $ .75
Altitude: Between 1500 meters and 4700 meters (La Quiaca)
1 liter of beer from the supermarket: USD $.50 to USD $ 1
1 empanada: $ .50
Main religion: Catholic and Pachamama
1st civilization: 10 000 years ago
Most villages in Jujuy only get about 20 days of rain per year

Cafayate

Cafayate has some of the highest vineyards in the world (almost at 2000 meters) and a very dry climate which is ideal for white wine.

Purmamarca and Salinas Grandes

Pachamama

TBE soon!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachamama

Tilcara

Tilcara is a beautiful town in the Northwest of Argentina about 4 hours from Salta. It is extremely relaxing and with astonishing views. There are 1000 year old Pucara ruins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pucar%C3%A1_de_Tilcara

Tren A Las Nubes: Picasa picture link

Salta: Dia de la virgen

Big day for Salta with over 500 000 pilgrims coming from the region of Salta and Jujuy.

Salta: Horseback Riding

Salta: Mummies and Incas

On Sundays, Salta has an amazing food, arts, and craft fair which takes over most of the city. I was looking at necklaces and one had an interesting symbol on it. I was told it was an Inca symbol representing material and spiritual protection while traveling. After my not so great bus journeys, I thought it might be wise to wear it and to pray to the Inca gods.
I went to the most amazing museum called MaaM. It’s a museum about 3 children who were discovered on top of a volcano (at 6200m) in perfect conditions in 1999. They had been sacrificed to the Inca Gods over 500 years ago. They are preserved in glacier like conditions and they are said to be the best-preserved mummies to date.

Mendoza to Salta: 2 near deaths experiences in 22 hrs!

I’m sure that everyone you meet will rave about the comfort and luxury of bus travel in Argentina. The seats are extremely comfortable and turn into 180 degree beds, food and snacks served to you throughout the trip, and if you’re lucky you even get wine and champagne. This comfort is due to VERY long bus trips that are often 15 hours or more (Argentina is roughly the size of India). I was super excited for the 17 hour bus journey from Mendoza to Salta. We had gone out to Mendoza’s nightclubs the night before (clubsdidn’t START until 3 AM) so I was exhausted and ready for a peaceful sleep on the bus. Sure enough, I was happily falling asleep at one of the stops when all the sudden I hear some people coughing. I’m trying to ignore them in order to fall asleep when the bus driver screams GET OFF THE BUS NOW! Within seconds everyone is coughing and unable to breathe due to an electrical fire on the bus. We all get down safely while they inspect the bus. 20 minutes later, they ask us to get back on the bus and I was terrified to burn alive on the way to Salta so I checked every emergency exit. However, within minutes I was sleeping like a baby. Somewhere around 4 a.m., I hear a loud explosion and the bus swerves off the road in the middle of the desert. I had my valuables in hand, ready to jump off the bus into safety because I was certain the engine had exploded and there was going to be a huge fire. Nope, it turns out the tire had conveniently exploded in the middle of the desert. I thought ‘great we’re going to be stuck here all night until it’s safe to change the tire during day light’. At that exact moment and to my great surprise, or perhaps horror, the bus got back on the highway driving without a tire, and tilting heavily to the left. No one seemed to confirm but was mentally preparing my self for the bus to topple over. I put on a jacket to protect myself from broken windows and got all my valuables together. We slowly drove to the nearest town ( a few HOURS) away and they fixed the tire. Luckily, we made it to Salta alive and only a few hours late. I can proudly say I survived a fire and a tire explosion in the middle of the desert!
This is by no means a typical bus trip in Argentina. I think it was just bad luck, Argentinean buses usually are excellent and luxurious.

Mendoza: Hot springs and peace

Mendoza: Where tourists love riding bikes drunk to the bodegas.

We rented bikes in Chacras, one of the 3 provinces where 70% of Argentinean wine comes from, and cycled to various bodegas (where wine is made) to sample delicious wine.

Pictures to come later!

Due to extremely slow internet connections, I am unable to upload pictures. Argentina is the most beautiful country I have been to and pictures don't do it justice. However, I promise to upload pictures as soon as possible.

Valpo to Mendoza: Crossing the Andes Pictures

Valparaiso to Mendoza: I Am Broken!

Lesson 1: If you are to cross the Andes and have a tendency to get motion sick, make sure to overdose on motion tablet sickness before getting on the bus!
Many people will comment on the beauty of the mountainous scenery between Santiago and Mendoza; however, that crossing was hell on earth for me! I suffered a mixture of motion sickness, altitude sickness, and fear that the bus was going to topple off the mountains at any time! The crossing was extremely steep, narrow, and windy. Furthermore, I was petrified, green, and super nauseous. When we stopped at border control, I had to throw up while everyone kept talking about the beauty of the mountains.
By the time I got to Mendoza, my back hurt, I was dehydrated and exhausted! To top things off, I got a pinched nerve in the middle of the night and had tendonitis in my left ankle and could barely walk. Within a week of traveling, I was broken!

I will soon upload pictures of the Andes that Alice took while I was avoiding to look out of the window.

Basic facts about Argentina

2nd largest country in South America

Population: 41 million

Capital: Buenos Aires

3 largest cities:
1) Buenos Aires
2) Cordoba
3) Rosario

Currency: Argentine Peso (about 3.7 to USD $ 1)

Highest point: Mount Aconcagua at 6,960m

National anthem sung by Mercedes Sosa:

Day 4: Valparaiso pictures

Day 3: Valparaiso

This is our first CouchSurfing experience and it’s going really well. We’re staying with a student of photography and a couple in a house up one of the many hills of Valparaiso. They have a magnificent view of the city! We’re learning a ton about Chile and its government, culture, and history. I’ll try to post some popular and traditional music at some point.

Interesting facts:
- The New Year fireworks in Valpo are the biggest in South America (possibly second biggest after Rio de Janeiro).

- Valparaiso had the highest unemployment rate in Chile

Day 2: Bellavista

My favorite neighborhood in Santiago is Bellavista which is full of students and artists.

Here is some graffiti art for you:








P.S.: I’m going to start a Picasa album soon.