dilemma

Since I wrote last, I've toured the capital, gone to a 3day electronic music festival where the trance music never stopped in the middle of a national park, gone on hikes to waterfalls, and spoken nothing but Portuguese. I'm currently in Manaus, which is the gateway to the Amazon. From here I have to take a 36-hour boat roat along the Rio Negro westward, deep into the Rainforest, to go to one of the best ecotourism spots in the world, the Mamiraua Reserve.

The dilemma is that on these boats you need to have your own hammock and rope to tie it up with, because that´s how you sleep. There's no beds, no chairs, just hammocks that you need to bring and tie up to the posts in the boat. My dumb ass didn't read the part of the guidebook where it said to bring a hammock and I didn't think to ask. Now its about 5 AM, none of the stores are open, and my boat leaves at 7. I don't know when the stores open or even where they are. I know there's some by the boat station so in a few minutes I'm gonna hang out outside one of the stores and wait until they open. The only drawback is I have everything with me-- my huge backpack, and everything in it, so it's ridiculously heavy.

This may sound crazy, but this type of adventure and problem solving is what makes us more equipped to deal with things in our day to day lives. Imagine this fucked up situation! I know it'll all work out. You'll hear about how this turned out once I get back from the AMAZON!!! AHHHHHHH!!!

No Rio de novo (In Rio again)

Being here now feels like I´ve never left but at the same time that I´ve grown up so much since I´ve gone back to the United States and come back here. On my way to the apartment that I´m staying at, the one on Rua Farme de Amoeido that I lived in when I lived in Rio before, I took note of all the things I was noticing again, that I had forgotten about before in the city. This is my list:

-palm trees
-kombis (cheap van taxis)
-beauty of the lush green mountains in the background
-the small cars
-the dilapidated infrastructure of the poor neighborhoods called favelas
-strong revolutionary messages written in graffiti

Leaving as a college student and coming back as an adult has a lot to do with the switch in perspective for me. Now, I feel more independent because I'm not tied to PUC-Rio, the university I studied at. I know only one other gringo here, so this whole time I've only been speaking portuguese, unless I'm talking to Eve. Relearning the language has been interesting-- I've forgotten a lot of words, but slowly they are coming back to me. Every day that I'm here it gets easier and easier. Luckily Eve's portuguese is really good, so if I need a word,, she's there to help me out. I find it easier to remember the word though if I look it up myself in a dictionary. I tried speaking Spanish to a hippie colombiano on the praia (beach) and it was really hard. I started in Spanish and ended every sentence in Portuguese. The languages are very similar so you have to pay a lot of attention to every word you, at least at first. It'll be easier speaking Spanish once I'm in a Spanish speaking country in a few weeks.

Otherwise, I'm loving being in this country, the people are so happy and friendly and warm, not to mention gorgeous. I've been eating salgados every day and I ate at a churrascaria on Thursday after I went to my friend's graduation ceremony. I can see how people get targeted here for crime, and luckily I think I'm blending a little better this time than I did last time.

I'm leaving for the capital tomorrow, but tonight it's all live samba at this nightclub called Melt.

Beijos!!

Anthony

No Promises

When it comes to blogging habitually, it becomes a pain the ass. Taking time out of a travel experience to record what's being done can be a daunting task for me, but I know that it needs to be done in order to have the memories last. In light of this, I entitled this entry "No Promises" because even though I'm leaving to go back to South America in a few hours and would love to blog about everything I do there, I'm not making any promises :-) .

So yes, I am leaving at 3:00 PM, eastern standard time, to go back to Rio de Janeiro. I have a short layover in Houston, and will arrive in Rio at 8:10 AM. SWEEEET! I have an agenda planned that shall unfold as the blog does.

Some highlights:

-Catching up with old friends,
-the Amazon,
-a crazy hippie electronic music festival in a national park,
-an indigenous flower festival in Medellin, Colombia
-the Angel Falls

But, like I said, no promises :-).

I love you all, and don't be afraid to show some encouragement! I know a lot of you read my blogs and never leave comments. Don't be a silent stalker.

A

SEATTLE!! days 1 and 2

OK, so I know this was supposed to be my "Brazil" blog but I am traveling and actually inspired to blog so why wouldn't I report on the enchanting city of Seattle?

My flight out here on Sunday night was pretty smooth, no serious problems, and actually landed 40 minutes ahead of schedule due to the winds working in our favor. Now many people have been asking me, "Why Seattle?", and the answer was that I was visiting a dear friend of mine and Seattle has been a place that I've been wanting to visit for a while. Something about the flannel reputation, coffee culture, and mysterious weather that intrigued me. Plus, since Ashley moved out here she has told me nothing but the best about it.

So after getting getting off the plane at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport on Sunday, I anxiously walked toward the door of the airport to get to feel the temperature of the night air. Upon walking outside, the air felt quite moist and cool, but nowhere near the blistery temperatures that I left behind in New York. I was looking at around 50 degrees and cloudy skies. My thick wool sweater and light khaki jacket with scarf was enough to keep me warm. Gideon, Ashley's fiance, picked me up from the airport, and brought me through the city to their apartment in a duplex house in the trendy neighborhood called "Capitol Hill." The hills in this neighborhood are extremely steep and one thing about all of Seattle's neighborhoods is that they are extremely lush and green due to the high amount of moisture in the air and the mild temperatures. We went to visit Ashley at the coffee shop she works at, and waited there until she finished closing up. The coffee shop, Roy Street Coffee, is owned by Starbucks and has a very local coffee shop feel, with every coffee made to order, really friendly employees, wine, beer, and an area for indie film bookings (that Ashley actually is in charge of.) I had a vanilla rooibos tea, which was sweet and fabulous, and a tomato soup, with some type of fluffy pastry with black olives inside. Delicious. I also had a glass of Malbec while I was there and was pleasantly surprised.

On Monday morning, Ashley and I woke up, went to a vegetarian breakfast at Cafe Flora (I got biscuits and vegetarian gravy, Ashley got this fluffy omelette with amazingly fresh garden tomatoes and carmelized onions with cheesy grits) and then mosied through a beautiful arboretum with different colored bushes of budding flowers. The air was still quite moist and foggy, and the whole city had an eery vibe. The air was so wet that I actually felt moisture gathering in my nose and I had to keep sniffling. The arboretum had a rich aroma of earth, and due to the moisture many of the trees had a thick, healthy layer of moss growing on their trunks. I picked one of the flowers from a bush and put it in my front pocket because I was in such awe of the fact that flowers were blooming in the middle of February.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, I did a little thrifting in the Capitol Hill area and bought a cute shirt and sweater and then had a coffee from this spot called Vivace . After, we went to this market with goods from all over Seattle, mostly local, home grown items, only to be found in Seattle. The market was set up right on the water, with the back drop of the Olympia Mountains and the Sound. There were street musicians, some of which were actually pretty talented, fruit stands, chocolate sellers, clothing, anything, really. The vendors were friendly and courteous seemed to genuinely be interested in the customers. I liked that :-). After indulging in tasteful goodies (READ: macaroni and cheese made with with homemade cheese, OMFG) we went to a gay bar by the house called Madison Pub and enjoyed some Slim Chance beers, which are from a brewery just outside Seattle. It was a light beer, but with a good flavor. The bar was pretty empty when we walked in even though it was Happy Hour, at least in New York it was.

We came back to the house tired and drunk, after a long day of sightseeing, and Gideon made the most delicious meatloaf and quimoa. I was very happy :-). We had some beers, chatted for a while and passed out early. And here I am on day 3, itching to get outside and enjoy the beautiful day.

Anthony

Rio Haikus

I wrote some haikus about Rio...

1
At Posto Nove
Sipping my caipirinha
Drunky before noon


2
Hiding my iPod
Trying to look Brazilian
Eyes behind my head

3
Que loucura*
Under the arcs of Lapa
Kissing cute strangers

*- loucura- craziness

4
Waking up at night
From the sounds of fired guns
More forgotten deaths

5
Rob me in the street
If you'll be able to eat
My money is yours

6
Jesus hovers there
On top of Corcovado
Watching every move

7
Beautiful people
Ridiculous beach bodies
Every shade of brown

8
Going home so soon
Back to that place I knew once
Only physically

a couple of first times

This week I knocked two things off the list that I made for things that I have to do in Brazil before I leave-- going to Maracanã and taking the chá from a Santo Daime church.

The Maracana game was actually really cool and exciting... I'll post pictures soon, but there was just so much energy and people screaming. The game was Brazil versus Colombia-- it was one of those qualifying games for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. Sarah and Eve and I got to the game a little early thinking that we wouldnt be able to get in otherwise, but it ended up being super early. In spite of this, there was still hundreds-- no, thousands-- of people outside of the stadium, drinking, smoking, fighting, everything you could imagine at a really crazy sporting event. They sold a lot of cachorro quente, hot dogs with all kinds of things on them (peas, eggs, beats... etc). Inside Maracanã, the cachorros weren't quente, they had been made hours before.c The guys who came around to sell food sold Biscoito Globos, these really popular Brazilian snacks made out of flour water and either a little sugar or salt. They also sold popcorn, ice pops, and beer. 

Everyone had Brazil shirts on and was screaming hilariously vulgar palavrões to Colombia. There was a song that they were singing that said "Voce vai tomar no cu" over and over again. Ten bucks for an American who can find out the meaning of that. hhah. It was just hilarious. They gave out these little plastic Brazil flags for everyone so the crowd was just a bunch of green wavey things. Rlet ight before the game started they out a bunch of balloons all by the goal posts. The crown really liked that.

There were no goals that game (what luck!) but it was definitely an awesome Brazilian experience. We went home on the bus with a bunch of crazy futebol fans...

Beijos--

Anthony

a consideration

Like the United States, Brasil has a really mixed population, with people with many different skin colors, hair types, etc. There's a sizeable Japanese-Brazilian population, so people with Asian roots can be "Brazilian", and same thing with people with blonde hair and blue eyes because of the sizeable German immigration that took place in this country for many years. The key to spotting a gringo, however, has to do to an extent (of course!) with your God-given physical characteristics, but a lot of it has to do with how you dress and how you carry yourself. For this reason, I'm considering changing my style of dress to be able to fit in more here. Of course I'm not gonna go crazy and throw away all my skinny jeans and cute t-shirts, but I've decided to take to wearing looser jeans and plainer (BOOOOOOO!!!) t-shirts.

So, what prompted this consideration? Last week Sarah got us all tickets to see these three Brazilian reggae/rap bands Natiruts, O Rappa, and Marcelo D2 in concert. So, logically, we met up in my house to have a few drinks before the show. While everyone was waiting, I ran into the shower, got clean, ran to my closet to pick out clothes that I thought would be appropriate for a reggae show in the States. I picked out this really cool green and red cottony linen shirt with wooden buttons that I bought in Africa, a brown bead necklace, and black jeans. I'm chillin', thinking everyone is gonna be dressed like me, or similarly. No.

I get to the show to find out that the crowd is dressed in the same homogenous fashion as the rest of carioca society-- t-shirts with outdated American logos, ill fitting jeans, havaianas, bermudas (board shorts), etc... And all around me I hear "gringo" every ten steps I make. "Olha esse gringo" and "Gringo aiiii"-- just a lot of people pointing out the fact that I'm a gringo and that I'm not from here.

My point here isn't that I'm ashamed of being a gringo, it's a reality that I have to face. My point is that dressing here how I would like to dress makes me more of an outsider than I already am because of my nationality. And although doing this goes against everything we learn in my country, regarding individuality and self-expression, I feel it would be in my best interest for the remainder of my time here to just try to fit in more.

The thing is that being a gringo here just doesn't mean that you're a foreigner. It means that Brazilians think you're rich and stupid. If you can speak Portuguese, you're OK, but if not, it could be really easy to get taken advantage of. A beer for a Brazilian may cost R$2, but for a gringo who doesn't speak Portuguese, it can be double that. Being a gringo here is pretty much a liability, and that's why I've made this consideration.

Check out the photos from when my Mommy was hereee!!


photos

Beijosss--
Anthony