The End: Cusco and Arequipa

I'm currently chilling in the airport in Lima, Peru killing time during a 10 hour layover before I finally head home. It's crazy to think that after 3 months and 5 countries, I'll be home in the USA tomorrow.

The end of my trip was solid. After saying goodbye to the guys I had been traveling with, I stayed in Cuzco for another 4 days, for the most part checking out more Incan ruins. The day after seeing Machu Picchu, I took a day to relax, strolling around the city and checking out a cathedral or two. The city of Cuzco is probably the most charming of the cities I visited in Peru. It has a handful of nice plazas and churches, sporting some pleasant colonial architecture. It also had a good nightlife. Saturday night I ended up at a bar/club called Mama Africa. I spent the next two days seeing all sorts of Incan ruins on a tour of sites near the city and throughout the "Sacred Valley." They were cool but it got old after a while, constantly riding around on a bus then hopping off to see similar looking ruins. My last day in Cusco was my favorite. I did a 4-wheeler ATV tour that ended up being just me with the guide. I basically got to drive around at 50 MPH on dirt roads in the shade of the Andes for 4 hours, avoiding herds of farm animals and stopping to see a couple of unique Incan sites, including a salt mine still in use. That night I took an overnight bus out to Arequipa.

Unfortunately some 24-stomach bug kicked in while I was on the bus, so after a miserable night, I was happy to be greeted at the bus station by my Davidson friend, Andrea, who is from Arequipa. Last year, she did a 1-year exchange at Davidson and I had gotten to know her at the Spanish table and other Spanish-related events. I was excited to spend the last part of my trip staying with her and her family in Arequipa. Unfortunately, I was still unable to stomach any food and spent about 22 of the next 24 hours in bed sleeping. Fortunately, I was completely fine the next day, even getting in my first solid workout in 4 weeks at her gym there.

 In addition to hanging out with Andrea and her friends and family, I did some more sightseeing. Walking around the city, I saw a couple more cathedrals and an enormous old convent called Santa Catalina. Andrea and I also did a bus city tour, which included stops at Alpaca World and cool viewpoints around the city, where you could appreciate the 3 enormous volcanoes right next to it. Only one is still active, but it hasn't erupted since the 15th century. If it does though, I'd say Arequipa is screwed. My last full day, I did a day trip to Colca Canyon. After leaving Arequipa at 3 AM, we spent the day driving to and through the canyon, stopping at various points, including one where we saw some condors (enormous birds) up close. We also stopped at some "hot springs," which were a complete bust. It was basically just a heated pool, less impressive even than my experience with Sarah at the springs in Mendoza. I got back from that adventure around 5:30 PM, and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Andrea, going to the gym, and packing. This morning, I flew out of Arequipa to Lima, from which I will fly direct to Atlanta tonight.

Just because my trip has basically come to an end, it doesn't mean this incredible blog has quite yet. Once I get home, I'll write a quick summary post with some pictures from my all of my adventures (since I'll actually be able to upload them at home).

Bolivia, Machu Picchu, and a crazy encounter

After saying goodbye to my sister and an uneventful flight from Santiago, I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia. I stayed at a nice but very party-hard Irish hostel called the Wild Rover. I’m now actually at another Wild Rover in Cusco, Peru. La Paz is at around 13,300 feet (4,000 meters) of altitude, and I noticed immediately. I initially suffered a little from altitude sickness and just walking up three flights of stairs to my room put me out of breath. The first night I just chilled in the hostel and partied with a random Brazilian guy.

The next morning I was in the bar area eating some breakfast when I saw an American guy that looked really familiar. I initially assumed it was somebody that I had seen traveling in another hostel at some point, which wouldn´t have been a huge coincidence. He also looked at me with a strange sense of familiarity. I then realized that it was Chris Hartle, one of my future co-workers that I had met back in November, when Bain had us all down for the weekend in Atlanta. Running into each other in Bolivia was absolutely absurd. He had also been traveling in South America for a few months as well, and was heading with a couple of British guys, George and Gareth, in the same direction that I was planning to go. So I decided to join them for the next few days.

That day we did a little exploring of the city, which was fairly uneventful. La Paz is pretty cool, but noticeably poorer than other places I have visited thus far. Despite the lack of decoration in its houses, L a Paz has a certain charm because the city is actually in the mountains very high up. At a market we visited, I did buy a sweater and socks made of Alpaca, and with designs of Alpaca on them. They were really cheap and are already starting to fall apart, but they are good for staying warm, which is sometimes hard to do here, especially at night. When originally packing for this trip, I mistakenly assumed that because Bolivia and Peru were much closer to the equator than Argentina and Chile, that they would in fact be warmer. I was very wrong, due to the much higher altitude.

The next day, we went on an all-day bike tour in the Bolivian Andes outside of La Paz on “Death Road.” It was absolutely incredible. We started early in the morning really high up. With good mountain bikes, helmets, elbow and knee pads, and many layers of clothing, we began the journey, which was 64 KM and mostly downhill. The first part was paved, but the actual Death Rode was dirt. It is called so because so many people have died on it (Imagine that). It is a one lane road that people used to drive on both ways. Unfortunately, if you fall off the side, you tend to plummet to your death 1000 meters below. Now it’s basically just used by bikers. I made a point to maintain a comfortable speed and not fall off the side of the mountain and plunge to my death. In fact, I got a t-shirt commending my survival. By the end, we had descended to what was technically the Bolivian Amazon, and it was really hot, especially compared to the temperature at the top. We were rewarded with a cold beer and a few hours at a pool. It was one of the best days I’ve had while traveling.

The next morning, the four of us headed for Copacabana, a small Bolivian town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the world’s largest high altitude lake. From there, we took a boat to Isla del Sol, where we stayed the night. We arrived at the shore and didn’t see much. Looking for our “hotel,” we realized that we had to climb up hundreds and hundreds of stairs with our enormous backpacks. Thanks especially to the altitude, the climb was incredibly exhausting. It was worth it though. The view was incredible from up top. I found the community of Isla del Sol to be fascinating. At this point, it seemed the island was totally dependent on tourism, but it was still very poor. Running water was scarce, because it had to be carried up the mountain all day in jugs on donkeys. We ate dinner at a “pizzeria,” which had dirt floors and only used electricity for the pizza oven. We ate by candlelight and the owner used a headlight to see what he was doing in the kitchen. It was a very pleasant experience though, especially watching the sun set over the lake and other mountainous islands.

The following morning, we took the boat back to Copacabana to catch a bus to Puno, Peru, which is on the opposite side of Lake Titicaca. In Puno, we did a quick tour of the floating islands, which are really hard to describe. Basically, the islands are made up some kind of grass that grows from the bottom of the lake and makes the islands appear to be floating. People have lived there for a very long time. They travel between the small islands on grass made boats, in one of which we got to ride. It was all really cool.

We returned to Puno to catch a solid Peruvian meal before getting on an overnight bus to Cusco. We arrived in Cusco and 5:00 AM and per usual, I barely slept. After randomly spending an hour and a half in the apartment of our tour guide, we took another bus, then a train for a combined three hours to arrive in Aguas Calientes, the small tourism town in the valley next to Machu Picchu. After another 30-minute bus ride, we arrived to the top where we entered and were sorted into a tour group to see Machu Picchu. It really was unbelievable to see the Incan city, still very in-tact up high up in the Andes. Unfortunately, I was really tired, it was very hot, and the place was slammed with tourists, so I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate it as much as it deserved to be appreciated. Even still, it was Inca-redible (Thanks George). After the park closed, we headed down to Aguas Calientes to kill a few hours before catching the train out. We ended up doing so by eating and all getting massages. It was completely random, but a great use of $20 USD for an hour. We then made the journey back to Cusco and, completely exhausted, crashed when we got to the hostel.

Today I said goodbye to the guys, as they headed off to Santiago. I’ll be hanging out in Cusco for a few days before heading to Arequipa, from which I will fly to Lima, then home. It’s hard to believe that I only have 10 days left to go.

Don't cry for me, Argentina! (I'm in Chile)

The pass to Chile eventually opened up but our original plans changed a bit. Instead of spending a few nights in Valparaiso, we went directly to Santiago from Mendoza. Traffic at the border was insane, since so many people had been waiting to cross, so what is normally a 5-hour bus ride ended up being 10. Fortunately, it was absolutely beautiful since most of the journey was through the Andes.

Santiago was really cool. We got really lucky too because the weather was great--sunny and hi 60s most of the time we were here. The first day Sarah and I did a guided walking tour of the city, which gave us a good feel for Chilean history as well as the city itself. We ended the day taking a furnicular up to a small hill/mountain called Cerro San Cristobal, which sported a large Virgin Mary statue at the top (cool but not as impressive as the giant Jesus in Rio). The next day, we retraced our steps from the previous day to visit a cathedral or two, a castle thing that used to be a fort back in the day, and a museum of pre-colombian history. We also got lunch at the famous Mercado Central. Chile has a lot more seafood, of which I am not a huge fan. There is good food here, but I definitely prefer Argentine cuisine. We had a very American evening, grabbing McDonald's before seeing the movie Captain America, which disappointed me a bit.

Friday, we made a day trip to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, two cities on the coast about an hour and a half away. They were cool cities, but unfortunately we got sucked into a bit of a tourist trap. We decided to do a tour where they shuffled everyone on the bus around the two cities all day. We would get off and take pictures and never really had time to enjoy the cities. It was the easiest way to see both cities in the little time that we had. Including that tour, I have seen a ton of tourist Brazilians here, so I've gotten the chance to continue practicing my Portuguese. Unfortunately, it is noticeably worse than it was when I was in Brazil.

Today, Sarah and I went to visit a winery called Concha y Toro. We had a great tour and then after it did a tasting. We had a sommelier lead us in a tasting of four really good wines accompanied with cheeses and nuts and such. Afterward, I accompanied Sarah to the airport and returned to the hostel. I fly out to La, Paz tomorrow around noon.

What do we do when we fall off the horse?

My last few days in Buenos Aires were great. My sister arrived in BA last Sunday morning after an overnight flight from Honduras to Panama to BA. We spent all Sunday and Saturday seeing all of the touristy things that I had already seen last year when I was there. Sunday we first went to the Plaza de Mayo, where we saw the cathedral and Casa Rosada (Argentina’s White House). We then visited the market in San Telmo, before making our way to Recoleta for tea at the famous La Biela café. After that we visited the famous Recoleta cemetery, where all of the Buenos Aires elite have been buried in enormous and elaborate mausoleums, the most famous of which belongs to the beloved Evita Peron. Finally, we stopped be a really cool bookstore called El Ateneo that used to be a theater. Sunday night we had an incredible dinner at the best parilla en Buenos Aires, Cabaña Las Lilas, in the neighborhood of Puerto Madero.

Monday, we were at it again, making our way to El Caminito en La Boca before lunch at Buenos Aires’s most famous café, Café Tortoni. Monday night, my roommates and Sarah and I celebrated my despedida (going-away party) by hitting up a few bars and then a club in Palermo Soho.

Tuesday, we took a tour of the Teatro Colon, the city’s enormous and very Parisian opera house and did a really cool wine tasting that my roommates had given me as a birthday present. Tuesday night, we got dinner at a parilla with most of my roommates and Catherine. After dinner, I had to say goodbye to everyone before Sarah and I headed to the bus station to catch an overnight bus to Cordoba. It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone but I was excited to have Sarah there and to start traveling.

Despite being in a so-called “suite,” in which our seat reclined until flat, the bus-ride was absolutely miserable for me. I slept very little and by the time we arrived in Cordoba, I was not feeling very well. I initially thought it was because of the bus ride, but it turned out that I was really sick. Among other unpleasant symptoms, I was exhausted and uncontrollably cold, which was unfortunate because the heating in our hostel was really bad.

That day, we toured the city seeing some cool churches and a market. Cordoba was founded by the Jesuits and has a lot of interesting religious history. That evening, I still was really cold, staying in my bed fully clothed with a jacket on and two extra blankets just to stay warm. At that point I decided to call a doctor and for a mere $5, one came to the hostel, diagnosed me with some sort of bacterial infection and wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic (which cost another $8). At that point, I was really thankful that my Spanish was good enough to properly communicate with the doctor. Over the next few days I got better, though I was still very tired.

The next day, Sarah and I did a tour of a famous Jesuit university in Cordoba before making a day trip to Alta Gracia, a small town about an hour away. There we toured a disappointing Jesuit estancia and saw the house where Che Guevara grew up. They had turned it into a museum/shrine to the Che, who is a hero in Argentina. In fact, they use “Che” in spoken language like we say “Man” in English.

Since I was still struggling just to walk around, we decided that a 6-hour hike through Cordoba’s beautiful national park was not a great idea, so instead we decided to relax a little. We ended up wandering to a park in the city, which turned out to have a zoo. Somehow, we ended up spending a few hours checking out the animals. My favorite was definitely the hippos. It was kinda ridiculous. Later that day we went to the mall in Cordoba, where we ended up doing “Space Bowling,” which was again, ridiculous. That evening, we headed to the bus station for another fun overnight bus, this time to Mendoza.

After getting a solid hour of sleep, we arrived in Mendoza around 7:00 AM. Fortunately, our room at the hostel was open and they let us in. After a solid 5-hour “nap” we did a wine tour, where we visited two bodegas and an olive oil maker. The first bodega was actually one I had visited last year. It was large and somewhat industrial and the wines were really mediocre. The second bodega was a smaller family-run organic bodega, which I enjoyed a lot more.

The next day, we did an afternoon horseback ride tour through the Andes. That was the first time I had ridden a horse in a very long time, but it wasn’t too difficult. The ride was beautiful and a lot of fun until the very end. Following the gaucho leader, our horses started moving at a full gallop. At this point, my horse somehow managed to lose its footing, falling to the ground and throwing me off of it, and then somehow it managed to land on my leg. Fortunately, I was mostly fine, just a little banged up. So, I got back on, even though I’m not a gymnast (see Zoolander quotes).

Today, we were supposed to leave Mendoza and head for Valparaiso, Chile. Unfortunately, the passage through the mountains to Chile is currently closed due to snow, so we are temporarily stuck in Mendoza. Today, we made the trip to some Hot Springs, which were a huge disappointment. Most of what we saw in the brochure was dry and closed (maybe because it’s winter), so we spent a few hours in a few different pools, that were indoors. It was pretty boring. From what we’ve heard, the pass is still closed, so we might be stuck in Argentina longer. We’ll see what happens.

For an alternate account of the same stuff, check out my sister’s blog: http://slannerstravels.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday to me!

Ok so this will be a quick post since I haven't been up to much new since the last one and the fact that I'm also typing this on my iPad which is slower and will inevitably lead to some typos. I'm about to start traveling non-stop so the rest of my blog posts should be pretty entertaining.

I've been continuing to hang out, eat, live the dream, etc. here in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately I've picked up a pretty nasty cold over the past few days that has put a damper on properly celebrating my last weekend here.

Last weekend Joe, a fraternity brother from Davidson, was here for a little while with one of his friends from Davidson, Lorena, who is originally from Argentina. I joined them for an adventure to the city's Chinatown (Barrio Chino), where I found some creamy peanut butter, which I was pretty excited about. Later the three of us went to dinner at a parilla with Dolores, a family friend of Lorena. Dolores was a really interesting person: In addition to running ultra-marathons and such in her spare time, she is also the illustrator of the Spanish version of the Harry Potter books. I thought that was particularly cool since I actually have a copy of her work with me right now. I'm about to finish the 5th (Harry Potter y la Orden del Fenix). I've been reading them to practice my Spanish. 

Last Sunday, I went with some of my roommates and friends to Tigre, a beautiful city an hour away from Buenos Aires. The weather was great and the city is very nice. It is on a bunch of different rivers and other bodies of water and is a popular weekend getaway spot for people from BA. We took a water taxi to an island where we got lunch on the river and walked around for a bit, exploring the island. It was a lot of fun. Somehow, I ended up being an American in a group of 6 other French people, so I stayed more quiet that day than I normally would. 

Tuesday was my 22nd birthday. This is the second year in a row that I've celebrated it here in BA. (As you can imagine 21 was not quite as big of a deal as it would have been in the States). I had a little party at a popular bar here called Sugar. There were about 7 or 8 nationalities represented, which I thought was pretty cool. In addition, I was serenaded with 4 different renditions of the birthday song: French, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. It was a crazy night and a lot of fun. 

The past two Fridays I joined my old coworkers for lunch and really enjoyed seeing them. Yesterday, my old boss showed me all of the new stuff related to the work I did last year. It was really cool to see that I had actually done some really useful work for them. After lunch, yesterday I said goodbye to all of them, which wasn't fun. Unfortunately I'm just getting started with the goodbyes.

Fortunately, I'll be saying hello to my sister, who arrives here tomorrow. We'll be hanging out in the city for 3 days before heading west as we make our way across Argentina to Santiago, Chile over the next 2 weeks. From there, she'll fly home and I will fly to La Paz, Bolivia. After a few days in La Paz, I'll travel through Peru for the next two weeks before flying home from Lima on August 31. I'm really excited, but the relaxing part of South American adventure is definitively over. I will be constantly on the move for the next month.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong

With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane


Though the weather in Buenos Aires is hardly that of Margaritaville, I find that Jimmy Buffett’s infinite wisdom applies perfectly to the last couple of weeks I’ve spent here in Buenos Aires. Despite the fact that I am here to do little more than enjoy life, I have not been bored for a second—just living the dream. This post is a disorganized summary of what I’ve been up to for the past week or so.

The piso compartido where I’m living is now full, and we have a great group of people from all over the place. In addition to the original two guys, we now have girls from Brazil, France, Chile, and Austria, and another guy from France. It’s a solid mix that results in a lot of different languages flying around. We often eat together and go out at night together and have a really good time. As a group, we usually end up speaking Spanish, but with some people I speak English, and I also have gotten to practice my Portuguese with the Brazilian. Strangely, I have not had many problems at all switching from Spanish to Portuguese here, like I did speaking Spanish in Brazil.

It’s a great group of people, and I’m really lucky to live in such a fun place. I’ve spent most of the past week doing the same thing: wake up, gym, food, errands/relax/read, tango/swing/salsa, food, bars, etc. It’s a tough life. On that note, I’ve been keeping up with the dance stuff, and have now moved on to the intermediate level of tango and swing, though I’m staying in the beginner salsa class for now. All of those classes are usually fun, but often somewhat frustrating due to my impatience and total lack of body awareness. I do like a challenge though.

Last Sunday, the city of Buenos Aires had elections. Voting is mandatory and they banned the sale of alcohol after midnight on Saturday night (technically Sunday). I found all of that to be a little strange. Needless to say, nightlife was somewhat limited that night.

Since the bar closed at midnight that night, I went with a few friends to Freddo, a famous ice cream chain here (Have I mentioned that ice cream here is delicious and way better than in the US?). There was a big crowd in line and all of a sudden a full-blown fist fight broke out between two guys. It was pretty ridiculous. From now on I’ll be sure not to accidentally take someone else’s helado.

Monday night I went out to a really cool percussion concert event thing called Bomba del Tiempo (Time Bomb) that happens every Monday here. I went with Catherine and her friend Chris, who was in town for a week on vacation. Wednesday night, the three of us went to La Cabrera, which is the most famous parilla (steak house) in Buenos Aires. It was amazing, and since it’s only a couple of blocks from my place, I’ll definitely be going back another time or three.
Tuesday, I was at the gym in a classroom alone doing P90X Plyometrics with the video on my iPad. One of the trainers there saw what I was doing and came in to watch. He started asking me about it and ended up taking a seat for 45 minutes to watch me do it. It was kind of absurd, but very amusing. Later, the owner of the gym asked me where he could get those videos.

The Copa America has been going on while I´ve been here. It’s kind of like the World Cup except for only Latin American countries. It happens every four years and is a really big deal down here. This year, Argentina is the host country. I made sure to watch every Argentina game in a bar, donning the jersey I bought last year when I was here during the World Cup. Saturday they lost to Uruguay in an epic quarterfinal game that went down to penalty shots. I was pretty pissed about that loss. The rest of the country is too.

Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to La Plata, a city about an hour away, to see a game live. Through 90 minutes of regulation and two 15 minute overtime periods, Brazil and Paraguay were tied 0-0 (The American in me was begging for more scoring!). Paraguay ended up winning on penalty shots after Brazil missed all of theirs. It was crazy. Despite the lack of scoring, the game was a great cultural experience. I’m just mad because now Argentina and Brazil are out of the tournament.

Meanwhile I’ve been noticing all the bandwagon hype in the US from the Women’s World Cup, which nobody here knew was even happening. I’m proud of the US team and all, but after living in Argentina and Brazil, where everyone lives and breathes futbol, I think it’s a little ridiculous when a lot of Americans randomly pretend to care about soccer every four years or so.

After we got back from the game in La Plata, I went out with a group of friends to finally see Harry Potter (in English with subtitles). Because we were in a hurry, right before the movie began, I ended up eating McDonald’s, something of which I am not proud.

Buenos Aires

Ok first of all, in response to some recent public criticism by my sister on Facebook, I would like to invite everyone that reads this to make suggestions on ways to make the blog more entertaining.

So I’m in Buenos Aires now and have for the most part gotten settled in. Getting out of Rio turned out to be tricky. After packing up all of my stuff and leaving my hostel, I headed to the airport last Friday to find out that my flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled thanks to ash from the volcano in Chile. After I waited in line forever, the fine folks at TAM Airlines told me that I was confirmed for the soonest flight out, on Monday. I ended up spending the night in a low-grade “hotel” in the basement of the airport and waking up at 4 AM to put my name on the waitlist for a flight that morning, which turned out to be full. Having once again been told that I was confirmed to leave Monday, I headed back into Rio to stay at another hostel. When I arrived there, I got an urgent email from Expedia saying that I was confirmed for a flight out that night. So I headed back to the airport in Rio, enjoyed an hour delay and eventually landed in Buenos Aires around 1:30 AM and got to a hostel an hour after that.

It has been really, really cold here in Buenos Aires. The hostel didn’t really have heat so I was miserable that night and slept very little. I spent the next day watching the Wimbledon final and checking out a couple of rooms to rent for the month. Both were initially very disappointing, but the second was obviously the better choice so I moved in there that night. All of that was less than ideal, but this trip isn’t an easy-going vacation. Dealing with some difficult and often uncomfortable situations is part of the experience and is definitely helping me learn more about myself.

I’m living in a piso compartido. It’s kind of like a dorm in that I have my own room with a bed and furniture, but I share a kitchen and bathroom with everyone else. The problem is that the kitchen and bathroom are outside, and like I said, it’s been freezing. I’m getting used to it though. It’s a new place, and I currently share it with Andrés, a Venezuelan law student, and Sebastien, a French engineer. The location of the apartment is fantastic. For those of you who are familiar with the city, I’m in Palermo Soho on Armenia and Cabrera, a few blocks from the Plaza Serrano. I’m actually overwhelmed by the number of cool cafes, restaurants, bars, and stores in the neighborhood. It took me a few days to get my Spanish back and to stop speaking Portuñol but I’m speaking it pretty well now.

Living in Buenos Aires again for a month, I have a few simple goals:
1) improve my Spanish
2) eat a lot of delicious food
3) exercise a lot to make up for #2
4) try new things

I joined a gym a few blocks away and have been keeping up the P90X (see #3) in addition to doing some yoga classes in Spanish (#4), trying to make up for the large quantity of delicious food and beverage that I am consuming. My diet here consists mostly of steak, empanadas, choripan (a sausage sandwich more or less), beer, and wine (#2). I did find some oatmeal and after a long search some peanut butter so maybe I’ll start eating more healthy foods soon, but I doubt it. Everything here is delicious and incredibly cheap compared to the US. A good filet mignon would be anywhere from $8-25 here, with the $25 variety being of the highest quality.

I’ve stayed surprisingly busy so far. In addition to going to the gym, I’ve been branching out and taking dance lessons (#4) at a famous Tango place a block from my apartment. So far, I’ve been two nights, taking classes in Tango, Salsa, and Swing. It’s actually been a lot of fun, but I am not very good.

Monday night, I celebrated the 4th of July with an American friend, Catherine, who I met at the Tuck Business Bridge Program at Dartmouth I did a couple of years ago. I also visited her in Istanbul, where she lived for a year, back when I was studying abroad in Madrid. We ate dinner at a fancy American restaurant called Kansas. It kind of reminds me of Houston’s. I had their specialty, barbecue baby back ribs. They were tasty.

Since then, I’ve been enjoying life here, going out with different friends every night. Today I got lunch with my old boss and coworkers at the place that I did my internship last year and it was great to see all of them again. This evening I did a wine tasting, learning a little more about Argentine wines, including the Torrontes and Malbecs.

Despite some struggles at first, life is now great and plus, it seems to be getting warmer.

Rio de Janeiro

After a 7-hour bus ride delayed by holiday traffic, I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday evening. At the bus station I met up with Raquel’s friend Leo, who had offered to pick me up show me around the city. After a quick driving tour, Leo and his wife took me out to a great pizza place then dropped me off at my hostel. I am so appreciative of the incredible hospitality that I have received from so many people here in Brazil! My hostel is located in one of Rio’s best neighborhoods, Ipanema, one block from the beach. This is where the famous bossanova song Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema) was written.

Praia Ipanema

Monday the weather was cold and a litle rainy so I opted to postpone my tour of the city and instead did a “favela tour.” The favelas are Rio’s infamous slums (read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela). I was initially hesitant to do such a tour for a couple of reasons: 1) Favelas are notoriously run by drug dealers so they aren’t considered the safest areas 2) The idea of touring a slum seemed incredibly elitist. After being convinced that it was  must-do by the folks at the hostel, I discovered why it was such an incredible experience. After being picked up at the hostel, we arrived at the bottom of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela with over 200,000 people. One by one we traveled to the top of the favela via local transportation, a 5-minute ride on the back of a motor-bike taxi. From the top, our guide led us down through the narrow streets of the favela, stopping along the way at a local artist’s “studio,” a small store with food and other products, a quick samba show in the street, and a non-profit organization that offers childcare to locals in the favela. Using my limited Portuguese, I spoke to a few of the people we met. All of them said that the tours were a great thing because it meant that people were learning about the problems faced by people in the favelas. Other than occasional stares from guys that apparently kept watch on behalf of the dealers, I never felt unsafe. Nor did I feel elitist, since everyone in the tour acted with great respect.

Rocinha Favela

Tuesday it was 80 degrees and sunny. In the morning, I went for a solid run along the beach. After lunch I headed out on a city tour. The first stop was the famous Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue, which is located at the top of a mountain called Corcovado. The statue itself (a realy big Jesus) was pretty cool and the views of the city were great. Next, we headed to the charming old-town neigborhood of Santa Teresa, then visited the enormous, and extremely bizarre, Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. After a stop by the famous Lapa Steps, we finally headed to the famous Pão de Açucar (or Sugarloaf) mountain. We took two cable cars to the top, which offered incredible views of the entire city.

Cristo Redentor

Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro

Lapa Steps

Pão de Açucar

Wednesday was pretty chill. I went for a run and hung out around the beach and hostel until the evening, when I went to a soccer game of Vasco da Gama, one of Rio’s top teams. The environment was really interesting. Despite the fact that nearly half the stadium was empty, the fans near us played drums, waved enormous flags, and chanted and sang during all of regulation. Unfortunately, Vasco lost 3-0 so the fans were not very happy. Thursday morning, I woke up at 6:30 to do a day trip to Angra dos Reis, a city south of here with a large number of beautiful islands. I basically spent the day on the boat, eating, drinking caipirinhas, and enjoying the views of the islands. We stopped a few times and I got in the water once, but it was pretty cold, even though it was about 75 degrees and sunny outside (such a harsh winter!). Thursday night, I met some crazy Brazilian guys from the hostel and ended up going with them out to bar on the beach in Copacabana then a great club until late this morning. After a couple of hours of sleep, I had to get up to check out of the hostel. Rio has been absolutely incredible. I will definitely come back here at some point.

Angra

The Brazil/Portuguese part of my adventure is coming to an end now. I’m headed off to Buenos Aires in a few hours. Hopefully when I get there my Spanish will come back to me and I won’t speak too much Portuñol!

 

last week in São Paulo (next stop: Rio)

Tuesday was fun. After class, I went to visit the São Paulo office of Bain & Company, for which I will start working in Atlanta in September. I was given a tour of the entire office by someone in the recruiting department and had the opportunity to speak with a few different employees, including an American that had been transferred there. I was surprised to hear as much English being spoken in the office as Portuguese, and I was excited when they told me that I already speak enough Portuguese to possibly do a transfer to that office one day. That night I met up with Rachel, a fellow southerner who studied at my school the past week, and we explored the nearby Shopping Bourbon (a mall). There we found a Portuguese-English dictionary for her, saw clothes and other items that were twice the price that they would be in the U.S. (thanks to some ridiculous import taxes), and had a good dinner at an Italian restaurant.   

Wednesday was my last day of school, since Thursday and Friday were holidays. In addition to helping console my somewhat distraught teachers, I went with two of them Poliana and Bartira, to a pasteleria for lunch to celebrate my last day with a delicious meal, including a heavenly white chocolate pastel for dessert. I left school early to take a taxi to the Policia Federal to register as I had been instructed to do by the Brazilian Consulate in Atlanta when I got my student visa. After I stood in line for over two hours amid total chaos, the lady told me that I did not need to register unless I plan on reentering the country, which I do not. So that afternoon was not ideal. It was unclear why the consulate told me I had to go in the first place. I was not pleased.

Thursday was Dia de Corpus Christi, a religious holiday here, so most everything was closed. I went with my family to the Clube do Palmeiras, a sports club to which my host parents belong that has one of the major soccer teams from São Paulo. It was kind of like their version of a country club or Lifetime Gym (though much older), complete with numerous pools, playgrounds, gyms, etc., not to mention an enormous soccer stadium. We walked around the club and got a hardy lunch there.  Thursday evening, I went with my host parents to the apartment of their son, his wife, and their new baby, Alice. Again, I was just another member of the family along with baby Alice’s aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents that were there visiting.

Friday, my host parents took me to the city center to the Rua 25 de Março, which is home to the busiest shopping area I have ever seen with 1400 stores in the general area. Around there we visited an incredibly large market with all of the meats, fruits, and other food products you could possibly imagine. Friday night was my despedida (goodbye party) with teachers and students from the school at the same pizzeria we went to a couple of weeks ago. It was a good way to say finish things up in São Paulo.

just an idea of the madness of 25 de Março

Saturday, I had a three hour adventure via public transportation to the bus station and back so that I could buy my ticket to Rio de Janeiro. Apparently foreigners are not able to buy bus tickets online. I spent Saturday packing and preparing for the next part of my journey and enjoying my last dinner with Gati and Cidinha. Then I went out for a beer with Bartira to a really cool bohemian bairro called Vila Madalena, which reminded me a lot of the Virginia Highland area in Atlanta.  Tomorrow morning I’m off to Rio.     

playing tourist in São Paulo

This past week has been busy. I can’t upload any pictures because I don’t have my camera cord with me, but I’ve uploaded some I found online so you can get a feel for what I’ve been seeing. After being here for two weeks, I’m finally playing tourist a bit.

For my Wednesday afternoon class, my teacher took me to the Museu de Futebol (Football Museum), which is located inside the Pacaembu soccer stadium in São Paulo. The museum itself is fairly new and very hi-tech. It basically gave the entire history of soccer in Brazil, helping its attendees to relive the glory days of Brazilian soccer, of which there are many. Brazil has won the World Cup five times, more than any other country. On Wednesday some friends of my host parents, Carlos and Yvette, arrived to stay with us until Sunday. At dinner that evening, Yvette casually mentioned that I have very nice facial skin. Thanks?

Thursday evening I got to share a very special moment with the family. We all went to the hospital to see Alice, my host parents’ new baby granddaughter, who was born on Monday. She was really small and very cute (like any newborn I suppose).

On Friday for class, one of teachers took me to the city center for a solid few hours of touring. We walked around the center then went to the Banespa building, which, at a mere 35 stories, is one of the tallest buildings in São Paulo. The top has an observation deck where we were able to see some incredible views of the city. From there, I really got a feel for how enormous the city is. Interestingly, there are no skyscrapers, but there are buildings of 10-20 stories as far as the eye can see. We then got some lunch at the famous Cervejaria San Jorge (St. George’s Brewery), which has murals and pictures of famous Georges (from W. Bush to Costanza). Later, we walked by the Brazilian Stock Exchange but it was unfortunately closed, then we headed the Catedral da Sé, where the official center of the city begins.

The Banespa Building

Catedral da Sé

On Saturday, the five of us went to visit my host family’s daughter Priscilla and her husband and two young kids. Later, we went to Libertade, which has the greatest concentration of Japanese people outside of Japan in the world. It is basically the Chinatown of São Paulo, with immigrants from many different Asian countries. The five of us ate lunch at a great Chinese Restaurant in Liberdade and walked around some to explore the neighborhood and the street market there.  Saturday night, I went out again with Lucas to a balada (club). The night ended with a hot dog at Black Dog (pronounced Blacky Doggy), a 24 hour-Brazilian version of Cookout. I’m not sure if a hotdog at 6:00 AM counts as breakfast… 

Liberdade

      

A final thought: Brazilian Portuguese has imported many different words from English. In Portuguese, words that begin with r make an h sound. In addition, words don’t end in hard consonants, so imported English words get extra vowels at the end. The result is usually amusing, but nothing more so than the pronunciation of rap and hip-hop, both of which exist as genres of music here. Imagine a strong accent saying happy and hippy-hoppy.

I now have one week left in São Paulo before I head to Rio.



Week 2: aula, happy hours, and my first churrascaria in Brazil

The second week of class was pretty standard. I’m back alone again which is nice because I basically get to move at my own pace and learn exactly what I want to learn. I’m definitely pleased with the progress I’m making as a Portuguese speaker. There are two other foreign students who study at the same time as I do in the mornings but are in a beginner course, Janghun (a.k.a. Korean Jay) and Carina, a German girl here studying and working for EADS, the company that owns Airbus. I usually get a chance to chat with them in between classes, which is nice. For the most part, I’m sticking to my routine of a quick bite to eat and some time to read from noon-1:30. On Wednesday, I wandered to a park near the school. I was expecting a standard green area with grass, trees, and benches, but it had a lot more than that, including chickens just running around freely. I was really hungry, so I didn’t stay to explore everything, but I will at some point this week. I recently discovered a solution to my aforementioned Spanish problem. One of the teachers in the school is from Mexico and she works the front desk during the afternoons as I am on my way out. I try to speak some Spanish with her every day to practice transitioning from Portuguese to Spanish (and back). It’s harder than it sounds, but I’m getting better at it. It’s just something I need to practice.

My afternoons/evenings are still pretty chill. I’m proud to say that so far I’ve completely kept up with my P90X schedule, which is not too hard when you have a lot of free time. On Wednesday and Friday, I went for a nice run in the neighborhood. There’s a long busy street called Sumaré that has a median area with trees and a running path that quite a few people use.

Thursday evening, I met Lucas at a shopping in the nearby bairro of Higienópolis. We explored the mall a bit and saw the new X-men movie. This time it was in English with Portuguese subtitles, so that was ideal. The movie itself was surprisingly really good (Does Dick W. Schulz agree?). On the way back I took a cab. On my behalf, Lucas negotiated the fare with the driver, explaining that I was American, before I got in. On the way, the driver looked at me and said in Portuguese something to the effect of “You don’t understand a damn thing I’m saying, do you?” When I responded, he seemed pretty surprised, and we ended up having a solid conversation on the way back to my apartment.

Friday night, the school had a “happy hour” at a pizza place in the neighborhood with professors and some students. It ended up being more of a happy four hours from 8-midnight with good food, good beer, and a lot of good laughs (It turns out that it’s a lot easier to make jokes in English than in Portuguese).

I spent most of Saturday relaxing and exploring the neighborhood some. Saturday night, I was supposed to go to a party at a club with some friends of Bel. At around 8:30, three hours before I was supposed to meet them, I was at home, in bed reading and just trying to stay warm (Have I mentioned there’s no heating here?). I rested my eyes for a second and the next thing I knew I was waking up to a text at 11:32. I guess my body was exhausted from waking up at 7:15 every morning for the past week, so I decided to just go back to sleep. Even though I missed the party, sleeping for 13 hours wasn’t too bad.

I woke up this morning feeling very refreshed. At noon, I was picked up by Raquel and her husband to go to lunch. I met Raquel at an HBS info session when I was interviewing there a month ago. She was a Brazilian there for a month studying English, basically doing the same thing in Boston/Cambridge that I was about to do in São Paulo. When I told her that I was headed to São Paulo to study Portuguese, we exchanged information and ended up getting a burger at the famous Mr. Bartley’s. She and her husband are a few years older than I am and just moved to São Paulo, where they work for Kraft.

Today they took me to a famous churrascaria here called Jardineira Grill. It is one of Fogo de Chão’s main competitors (Yes, Fogo de Chão is actually from Brazil. There just happen to be more of them in the U.S. than here.) It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. For those of you who don’t know, a churrascaria is a traditional Brazilian “barbecue” restaurant. Waiters come around with different skewers of different cuts of meat and you take what you want. You get a little circular card that is green on one side and red on the other. Green means I want food. I tried so many different cuts of beef, lamb, pork, and sausages, not to mention fried potatoes, fried corn meal, and fried banana. In addition, there was a buffet of salad, bread, meats and cheeses, all of which were of the highest quality and absolutely delicious.  It was so good! It’s been 5 hours and I’m still stuffed. Afterwards we all went to Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo’s version of Central Park, and walked around for a while, before they drove me home. It’s been a great day.            

primeiro fim de semana

The rest of the first week of class was fine. Thursday and Friday, a Korean student also named Jay was in my classes and as a beginner he kind of slowed things down, but he’s going to be in a different class this week. I’ve basically developed a comfortable routine for weekdays: wake up at 7:15 to get ready and eat breakfast with Cida before walking over to the school for class at 8:30; class from 8:30-10:00, 10:30-noon, and 1:30-3:00; and lunch in between classes at a nearby café where I read The Economist or Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego on my iPad. After class, I head home, spend an hour or two in the gym, eat dinner with Cida and Gati, then hang out reading or on the computer for the evening. Not a bad way to live.

Friday evening, I went with Cida and Gati to the apartment of their son, Luciano and his very pregnant wife Patricia, who is scheduled to give birth this week if I understood correctly. I had a mildly horrifying experience when I met one of Patricia’s Argentine friends there. I tried to speak Spanish to her, but for some reason only (bad) Portuguese would come out when I tried and I got totally tongue-tied. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a problem when I head back to Buenos Aires in July. Later the five of us went to a pizzeria for a late dinner. São Paulo is actually famous for its “pizza paulistana,’ which was in fact delicious.

After sleeping in for the first time in a week, I hung around the house during the day Saturday. Saturday night, I met up with Lucas, a friend of a friend. I went with him to a birthday party of one of his friends, which consisted of pre-gaming at an apartment complex then heading to a club. We ended up staying there until about 6 AM (pretty standard here), and I made it home in time just to see the sun rise before I went to sleep. Everything here is ridiculously expensive, including clubs. The one we went to last night had a minimum charge of 80 reais (approximately $50), which got me 5 drinks throughout the night. After meeting a lot of new people, I’ve noticed that everyone is very surprised to meet a gringo American like me in São Paulo. Usually tourists head for Rio de Janeiro. I wanted to live and study in São Paulo because it’s the major business center in Brazil, and international business is the reason I’m studying Portuguese in the first place.  Anyway, the weekend was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the week ahead. 

settling in and seeing Rio

Glad to see that so many people are reading this. Now, if you could shower me with compliments about my blogging, that would also encourage me to continue writing...

I'm starting to get settled in now. My host family really is fantastic. They are basically an active recently retired couple and they seem to really want to have me in their home. Unlike other homestays I've had in the past, I'm not just a way to make money for them. They are basically taking care of me as if I were there son/grandson. My only complaint is that there is no heating (in any apartment in São Paulo), since it is usually about 70 degrees during the day (harsh winter huh?) but gets chilly in the house at night. So I'm just doing my best to fight my nudist tendencies when I'm in the apartment and piling on blankets when I go to sleep.

The first days of class have been solid. This is the low season for visitors (since it’s winter here), and right now I'm the only person in my class at the language school. So, I'm getting one on one instruction from four different professors at this point, which is nice. Next week, other people are supposed to join. My Portuguese is pretty good, but I'm kind of starting to think that although it sounds like I'm nearly semi-fluent, the truth is I'm speaking Portuñol (Portuguese + Spanish). Basically, when I don't know a word in Portuguese, I just say it in Spanish, and I think that half the time people understand what I'm saying and just don't correct me.

In between classes I have a lunch break, which I've spent grabbing a quick meal and exploring the neighborhood. The neighborhood is extremely hilly, much like San Francisco, so I get a decent workout just walking around. Today I tried a famous Brazilian pastel in a feira (street market). It was basically just a glorified hot-pocket fried with ground beef, but it was really tasty.

Once I got home after class today, I went with my host parents, Cida and Gatti, to a mall, which here they call a "shopping," spoken with a heavy accent (e.g. Vamos ao shopping. = We are going to the mall.). We had some tea and famous pão de queijo (cheese bread) at a cafe in the food court, then saw the movie Rio in the cinema there. I felt more legitimate seeing Rio in Brazil, but unfortunately for me, the movie was dubbed in Portuguese. I understood enough of it to follow the story and understand everything that was going on, but definitely missed a lot of funny moments from the dialogue. Maybe I'll watch it in English sometime to see what I missed. A final interesting note: São Paulo's traffic is so bad, that apparently they have restrictions on driving for people during rush hour. I didn't exactly understand who it applies to or how it's enforced, but apparently, today we were not allowed to drive between 5:00-8:00 PM, so we arrived at the mall before then and left after.

and so it begins: arrival in São Paulo, Brazil

So I'm going to try to keep a blog of all of my travels. If you are actually reading this, please let me know to encourage me to provide regular updates. For those of you who didn't know, I´ll be traveling in South America from May 27-August 31. I left Atlanta Friday night and will depart from Lima, Peru on August 31. Between now and then I will spend some time living in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, while doing some quality backpacking through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. The title of my blog is just Spanish for "Where in the world is Jay Lanners?"

Right now that question should really be "Onde no mundo está Jay Lanners?" (That's Portguese.) After an uneventful 9.5 hour overnight flight from Atlanta that did not involve much sleep, I arrived in São Paulo, Brasil on Saturday morning. From the airport, I took a taxi to the house of my friend Bel Guarita, a rising sophomore at Davidson who was my AT for Self-Instructional Portuguese last semester. Bel and her family were incredible, giving me a place to spend the night and feeding me very well. After a solid nap, I spent most of the afternoon relaxing. That evening, Bel and her mom took me to a shopping mall to get a prepaid phone. They actually let me use one of their old cell phones and helped me buy a SIM card and prepaid plan. It was very helpful to have them doing the talking at the phone store. Anyone that wants to call me for the next 5 weeks can reach me at +55 (11) 9999-1158. After dinner, I spent the evening getting beat by Bel's little brother in PS3 games. Today, I went with her family to her grandparents' house for a delicious Sunday lunch. Afterwards they dropped me off at the apartment where I will be living for the next four weeks in a homestay.

I was greeted excitedly by my new host parents, a couple in their mid sixties. They have been very nice and seem really excited to have me staying with them. We talked for a while and had tea. Then they showed me around the apartment complex and the neighborhood. The apartment has a small gym, which, combined with the P90X I hacked onto my iPhone and iPad, should be good enough to keep me in shape despite the large quantities of delicious food that I am bound to eat over the next four weeks. The neighboorhood seems pleasant. I'll explore it more tomorrow.

São Paulo itself is enormous. There are tons of large "bairros" (neighboorhods), and it is incredibly spread out. It is very much a driving city, not unlike a bigger version of Atlanta. In the past two days I have spoken and listened to more Portuguese than I did over the entire last semester. I am proud of my ability to converse thus far. Although currently I speak very poorly and am limited to a a few tenses, I have been able to have fairly legitimate conversations with Bel's family and my host parents. Still there is a lot of head nodding and pretending that I understand what they are saying. I am certain that the 120 hours of class over the next four weeks combined with the homestay will help me improve tremendously. Immersion is definitely the key. Tommorow is my first day of class. I'll let you know how that goes.