Archive for the 'Travel' Category
Bahia Island Tour Photos
Monday, July 2nd, 2007Here are the promised pics. I can’t do any descriptions now because today is Bahia Independence Day and we’re off to watch a parade! I’ll try to post descriptions (and a video clip!) in the next day or so though. First a bit of back-story…
On Friday night we decided we wanted to go on a tour of the bay (“Bahia” is the old Portuguese word for “bay”), and check out all the little islands, or at least two of them. So Saturday we stopped at the hostel we had stayed at previously, because part of staying there is that they’ll book island tours and other outings for you. Unfortunately, we got there at 6:30 pm and the booking office closed at 6:00. Russell, the guy who runs the hostel, was awesome enough to still try to call, and when he didn’t get through, told us to just do it on our own and gave us all the details.
So, bright and early Sunday morning, we caught a cab to the docks and, when we arrived, were quickly shuffled by some random street person and convinced to go on a different, but similar, tour. I was a bit skeptical, but since we didn’t pay anything up front, and since it was cheaper and Tanya and her friend Cassie felt okay with it, we went along.
The tour was for two islands: Ilha dos Frades and Itaparica. Ilha dos Frades has only around 70 inhabitants, while Itaparica has around 70,000. We were to leave at 9:30, get to Ilha dos Frades around 11:00, stay there for 2 hours, take a 40 minute trip over to Itaparica, get lunch and stay there until 4:00, then head back and get to the mainland around 5:30.
The tour started out really great, with a fun three-piece band singing traditional Brazilian songs.
All Saints’ Bay is quite large, and still seems to be a major port for the country, as we saw many large (and some ridiculously large) vessels.
Three different men took turns navigating, and a few of them caught Ali’s eye for little Brazilian flirting sessions.
Not long into the trip we were told that we would have to make a stop and let on 10 more passengers. I had no idea this “stop” would consist of sliding upside another boat and precariously helping people over.
Salvador is big. Really big.
1 1/2 hours later we pull up at Ilha dos Frades, with its crazy ruins and bizarre landscapes.
Ali and I pose for a pic… apparently wind-swept boat-ride hair is my new fashion statement.
Ali is a ham, no matter where in the world we are.
Tanya thought the sand was brown sugar, and had to snap off a shot of her and Ali’s feet. I concur… it was the softest, most perfectly brown sand ever.
I have a good story about the natives of Ilha dos Frades, but I’ll save that for later.
After a quick 40 minute ride we’re over at Itaparica, which means “circle of stones” in the native Amerindian language.
We were served a buffet-style meal of “food typical of the Bahian people”, the best of which was spaghetti. :)
Shortly after 4:00 it was time to head back.
It’s winter here now, so it starts to get dark right around 5:00…
…thus leading to an amazing sunset and the most magical colors on the waters of the bay.
Como uma lagosta
Sunday, July 1st, 2007Yesterday, at the beach, I started the day as the whitest guy there. Today, the following morning, I am swiftly becoming the reddest dude here.
The Brazilian sun is hot, and sneaky. I didn’t feel like I was getting burned, but then, I haven’t been out in the sun long enough to get a sunburn since I was earning quarters mowing my grandma’s lawn. Luckily, I didn’t get it too bad. I did use sunscreen, but I either didn’t get myself well enough, or the American stuff we brought from home is bunk.
I think today is the day to buy some legitimate Brazilian-tested sunscreen, particularly considering that we’re getting ourselves ready to leave for an island tour in about 3 hours. I don’t remember what islands there are, but there are two, and the first is completely uninhabited (minus the cafe there for the tourists). It’s a whole day ordeal as well: we leave at 9 and come back around 6… assuming we can book some tickets. Yesterday we tried to hit up the hostel we stayed at last week (Barra Guest House — awesome place by the way), because they arrange that sort of thing, but we got there too late, after the booking offices had closed. So, the owner of the hostel, Russell, told us to just go to the ticketing booth directly. I’m hoping it works; it should prove to be a fun time.
And assuming we go, pictures will be up tomorrow.
Brazil in Pictures
Thursday, June 28th, 2007Today is only my second day with an actual Internet connection in Brazil, but I’m well overdue for a post. Things are going pretty well: we’re settled in now, I’ve had my full experience of culture shock (yesterday was “I want to go home!” day), and I’m getting more Portuguese thrown at me than my Pimsleur tapes could have ever prepared me for. I promised to post some pics for the folks back home, so here we go:
Tanya crazy and wild-eyed after no sleep and a successful landing in São Paulo.
Me crazy and wild-eyed after no sleep and a successful landing in São Paulo. And Ali, totally oblivious to the excitement.
Apparently, we were lucky enough to land in Brazil during an air traffic controller strike…
After waiting in line for 2 hours, the news and camera crews decided to show up.
But we still managed to make it! Salvador here we come!
Salvador is one of the oldest modern cities in the Western Hemisphere, and its expansiveness shows it.
Welcome to Bahia, where all our signage and t-shirts are in English (and here I thought I’d be reading sooo much Portuguese).
“ORDEM E PROGRESSO”
I almost thought I was in Florida… those sneaky palm trees are everywhere!
First day at the hotel, and already Ali has snuggled up in the hammock with her buddy, Lil.
The Barra Guest House, a great hotel in the Barra neighborhood of Salvador. This is where we spent our first four days in the city, waiting for our host family to get back from vacation. We happened to come down during the big festival season of Brazil, called São João.
All of the hotels, guest houses, and residences are walled and covered in spikes. If good fences make good neighbors, then spikes on your fences must be the reason Brazilians are so touchy-feely.
And for our first Brazilian meal… PIZZA! There is a saying in Brazil “tudo acaba em pizza”, meaning “everything ends in pizza”, implying that when people don’t make decisions, people end up just ordering pizza by default. Truer words were never spoken.
The restaurant we ate at. I’m not really sure if the pizza was as good as I remember it to be, or if I was just that sick of airplane food.
Ah, the Barra Shopping mall, where during São João they flood and freeze the central area of the lower level and let Brazilians ice skate. Hilarity ensues…
In Brazil, they start teaching them how to put on skimpy bikinis at a young age. These were basically giant magnetic colorforms covering a shop they were remodeling in the mall.
Ah, the beach. I was the whitest dude there… I almost blended into the sand.
Ali had fun though, except for when she tried wiping sand off of her popsicle… using her sand-covered hands.
Totally the perfect beach day.
Ah, we’ve finally made it to the host family’s house! Here’s the kitchen (PS: their fridges open on the wrong side).
On the 20th floor, we have an amazing view.
Priscila, the lady housing us, has a little open terrarium in the house. There’s a turtle in there somewhere.
More amazing views.
And more.
Invest in duct tape, because that is the only thing holding this country together.
More awesome views.
You learn rather quickly that 20 floors up is very, very high up.
I think they installed this gating over the windows more for my benefit than for the children’s. Luckily, this is the closest I’ve gotten to the windows since I’ve been here.
We’re here!
Saturday, June 23rd, 2007We made it to Brazil. Yesterday, and only about 2 hours late! Getting through Sao Paulo was a nightmare (2 hours waiting in lines — apparently having air traffic controllers go on strike can do that), but we finally made it to Salvador. I don’t have much time to chat now, or post pictures yet, but it’s very nice here. The buildings all seem quite run down, and it’s very “historic”, but I’m liking it so far. It helps that we’re in Barra, one of the nicest areas of Salvador.
Okay, I’m out — more to come later. Tchau!
I’m leaving… on a jetplane
Thursday, June 21st, 2007Pretty soon now the big trip begins. My bags our packed, I slept horrible last night, and I’ve been up for an hour already working on client work. Typical pre-trip routine.
My big hope for this first adventure of just getting down there is keeping Ali entertained during the plane ride. We basically have a day’s worth of travel, since we head out this morning and arrive tomorrow around noon. The bulk of that is layovers (something like 5 hours in Dallas and 4 hours in São Paulo), but we do have about 9 hours of flying just to get into Brazil. It’s an overnight flight, so hopefully she’ll sleep and not be too crabby. Hopefully we can all get some sleep, or we’re going to be completely dead come arrival time.
I’m sure Ali will be good though. She’s been looking forward to this trip since… well, since she made her map of South America in school and realized what Brazil was (to her, a big pink blob of construction paper). I’m hoping the excitement of finally getting there keeps her in a good mood, because no one likes to spend a day in a plane with an irritated 3 year old.
Our money is dumb
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007For those unaware, I leave for Brazil in TWO DAYS! I’m super excited (obviously), and while I’m not there yet, I can already tell that I’m going to love the country. I mean, honestly, where are the FERAL PREDATORY ANIMALS on our money?
And it has just as many music videos as ours
Sunday, May 27th, 2007They say the best way to learn a foreign language, short of dating a native speaker, is to watch TV in the language you’re trying to learn. Since I’m in the process of learning Portuguese (only 25 days until I’m in Brazil!), I managed to track down the webcast, Brazilian version of MTV.
I’m on my second day of programming, and I’ve already learned the following words: domingo, segunda, terça, quarta, quinta, sexta, sábado (the days of the week — I then also learned that the weekdays are actually followed by -feira), bunda (ass), maratona (marathon), assine e ganhe (sign in/subscribe and win), quebra-galho (literally “twig breaker” — it seems to mean a resourceful penny-pincher with connections, but I’m not completely sure), lei (law), aborto (abortion), corno (seems to mean a stupid, slutty guy who cheats on his girlfriend/wife), batalha (battle), modelo (model). I’m sure there are a bunch more that I’ve subconsciously taken in as well.
Also, there have been a few really, really good web resources for helping me out with Portuguese stuff:
Online Verb Conjugator
Portuguese Wikipedia
Portuguese Dictionary
Big Trip
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
The biggest news in my life right now is the big trip I have planned for this summer. From the end of June until the first week of August I will be in the lovely country of Brazil. Specifically, I’ll be in São Salvador da Baía de Todos os Santos, or Salvador for short, helping wrangle Ali as Tanya wraps up her Spanish-Portuguese degree with an immersion program.
Based on the Wikipedia article, the GlobeTrekker episodes from my library, and random travel guides, I’ve learned that Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil, best known as being the first capital of Brazil, a major city for the early sugar and slave trade, and the birthplace of samba. It sounds like a city with a very rich history and vibrant culture, and I’m really excited to spend six weeks there.
My favorite part so far of this “getting ready” period is the Portuguese I’m learning. I’ve amassed a pathetic amount of the language so far, but I think I’ll really get the hang of it once I’m down there. The parallels with Spanish are readily apparent and quite convenient for the condensed amount of learning time I have. I’ll probably attempt a few posts here and there in Portuguese just to force myself to learn new words. Sorry to my non-Portuguese readers in advance :)
GNUstep FOSDEM 2007 Recap
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007One of the core GNUstep developers, Richard Frith-Macdonald, posted a great recap of the entire FOSDEM from the GNUstep perspective. It’s a great, very accurate read, and, as my Etoile-buddy Nicolas says: “it makes you want to go to the fosdem :)”.