I fell in love with Rio

I fell in love with Rio. Everyone must go to Rio. So much energy, so much life, sounds, colors, passion, and contrasts. Rio puts your senses in overdrive. Breathtaking beaches, mountains, great samba everywhere, beautiful expressive and animated people. The streets are intense and the drivers are completely reckless. But we were safe! And no holdups or robberies, despite the many warnings we got. I think you just need to be smart, and listen to suggestions about where to go and what to bring (or leave at home). Don´t let the stigma of danger associated with Rio dissuade you from checking out this amazing city! I definitely want to go back for Carnaval.

Favorites of Rio:

* Favela Tour - amazing, eye opening experience. Causes you to realize favelas aren´t just filled with drugs and violence, lots of very nice people are there (they´re just poor)

* Friday Night Run - started raining mid run, pouring... then lightening and thunder!

* Hangliding - awesome rush and views, a must do in Rio

* Cristo Redendador (big Jesus statue) - amazing 360 views of this ginormous city, our camera died ;(

* Hoppin live Samba clubs. Rio Scenarium in Lapa was a cool old mansion turned venue

- Leblon - phonomenal beach, and great SAFE neighborhood, stay here

- Ice cold choppe (draft beer, cold tall glass, with at least 2 inches of foam) helps cool you from the heat any hour of the day

- Suco shops - they serve every frush fruit jiuce you can think of. Maracuja (passion fruit) was our favorite, and also acai, which is served in a frozen yogurt like form, but more icey no creamy.

First Week in Brazil

So far we've been to Lima (for 7 hours), where we met a wonderful family who treated us to a wonderful chicken rotisserie lunch (more expanded story another day). then 5 nights in Ilha Grande (pronounced Eee-la Gran-jeee), a beautiful island off the coast of rio with beaches and wonderful boat trips and mosquitoes that have left my legs attacked, but also provided a great tan!!! then now Paraty, a unesco site which has a charming colonial centro- cobblestones, white buildings with colorful doors and windows, antique lanterns.

so what's Brazil like so far?... i'll share a few of the biggest impressions from small town Brazil (Ihla Grande and Paraty). remember these are pre-Rio. so i'm assuming i'll have a fair amount to add in a week post Rio.

* first the heat, its really hot and humid here! i mention this first only because during our first 12 hours in Brazil, the heat actually was most impressionable. after 23 hours of airplanes and airports, we arrived in Rio at 5am. we stood foot outside and almost broke a sweat. our first destination was Ihla Grande, not Rio yet. so via cab, then 3 hour bus ride, then second cab, we made it to the dock at Angra Dos Reis, where the ferry was to pick us up and take us to our island getaway. one catch here - we arrived at the ferry at 10am, but the boat didn't get us until 4pm. now at this point, we're a bit tired as you can imagine, a bit hungry, and certainly ready to get there. but we had time to kill, so we dragged our bags around this small city until we found our hangout - an outdoor bar with red umbrellas which seemingly would provide us with some shelter for our wait. well, at 11pm it was hitting 90 I'd say, with NO wind. mclure decided a few beers and a coconut milk (which they do serve out of the coconut with a straw, which is pretty cool) would help to cool us. they did.... for about 20 minutes. but then it got hotter, and hotter. and we no longer felt any benefit. so another round or two later of beer, coconuts and hamburgers, we were sweltering. too hot to read, or talk or do anything productive. all i could think to do was walk around the 5 touristy outdoor shops that were attached to the bar, and then visit the ladies room to splash water on my face.. every 30 minutes. so if you calculate that out, i'd say i took that lap about 8 times, before i drove mclure mad. we finally realized we needed a change of venue for the second half of our wait. so we moved under a tree in the park, where we watched little kids play on jungle gym. much cooler, finally found a breeze. (if you're looking at our picasa photos, towards the beginning there is one of us laying down, then another of a lush tre with red flowers. delirium).

* the people are just as beautiful as you hear about. mixed of every beautiful skin and eye color you can think of, brazil holds an eclectic, sunkissed mix of people that leaves you envious. again, i think after rio i`ll have more to say here. in terms of personality and disposition, they are hard to categorize after only a week, give me some time on that one. but most are friendly and happy to help with our 100 questions in a mix of spanglish.

* speaking of language - portuguese is hard! especially the rio dialect. they add all sorts of sh's and jsh`s to words and don't prounounce anything the way it looks. for example, the money here are Reales. you'd think reee-all-les, right? nope. its pronounced - `ghey-ice`. tricky, right? but the language is beautiful and easy on the ears. and they are very happy here to correct you and teach you if you`re interested.

* the beaches, just like the people, are just as beautiful as you`d imagine. While in Ihla Grande, Brazil`s second largest island, we went to Lopes Mendes beach, which is supposedly one of the top 10 beaches in beauty in the world. i agree. its stunning. white soft sand that squeaks when you walk on it, and crystal blue green waters. however unlike any beach i`ve been to, its so hot in the sun that everyone actually sits under the trees in the shade.

Initial Itinerary

Here´s how the agenda looked from the start. We´re hoping to have additions and changes for the better.
Please send on suggestions of any kind!

Part 1 - South America
March 1st- Brazil - Ihla Grande, Paraty, Rio

March 15th - Argentina
Buenos Aires - Punta De Este, Iguazu Falls
El Chalten , Bariloche, San Martin De Los Andes, El Bolson
Pucon, Chile, Mendoza, Salta?

May 1st - Chile - Santiago, Valapariso, Vina Del Mar
May 15th - Peru - Cuzco. Arequipa
May 28th - Machu Pichu Trek

Part 2 - Europe/Africa
June 3rd - London
June 7th - Amsterdam
June 20th - Paris
July 1st - Nairobi, Kenya or Morroco or Croatia?
July 15th - Johannesburg -South Africa

Part 3 - SouthEast Asia
August 1st - Bali, Indo
September 1st - Hanoi, Vietnam
Oct 1 - 15th - Vienetiane, Laos
Oct 15 - 26th - Siem Reap, Cambodia
Oct 26th - Bangkok, Thailand
Nov 24th- Kathmandu, Nepal
Dec 22nd - Australia? New Zealand?

Perito Moreno Glacier is unreal!!

You know when you see something so beautiful you can´t stop staring? You stare and stare, look away, and then look back and its like the first time you´re seeing it? That is what its like checking it out the Perito Moreno Glacier.

First we were bused to the ¨balconies¨ right across from the Glacier, where you can see the entire face of the glacier from land. Its unreal - basically a 600 year old froven river, but instead of settling at water level there is 200 vertical feet of ice above water level, and 3 miles across the river bed - not sure how long. But the total size of the glacier is actually bigger than BA city. One of the biggest glaciers in South America! Anyway, so you´re checking out this massive freak of nature and you wait, listen to it crack and hiss, and then all of a sudden you hear a huge crack as a massive piece of ice slides off the wall, crashes into the water and creates a huge wave. No better word for it than awesome. McLure got addicted to it, waiting for the next thing to crash. He actually didn´t want to leave, it was like pulling a kid out off the swing at the park. :)

Next we took a boat that crossed right in front of the glacier and then got dropped us off on the land right next to one of its ¨banks¨, where we got to hike ON the glacier. We strapped on crampons, which felt like moon boots, and then in single file hiked on the ice. Really cool!! There were little blue streams and holes in the ice - I liked these, took lots of photos. We got to go pretty far in and got some great views and pics and then turned back. Last stop - they surprised us with whiskey on the rocks at a little ¨bar¨aka table with glasses on it, and used the ice to serve up the drinks. McLure, again, was in Heaven.

As I said, it never gets old looking at this glacier- its unreal. We continued our gringo photo session on the boat back to the bus. A day to remember...

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, we ended up loving. I say ended up because at first the air pollution, traffic and noise downtown can be a turn off. But don´t let it´s city facade fool you. The people are amazing - very genuine, very open and very friendly. We literally had 4 or 5 long conversations with strangers turned friends. All totally willing to share their opinion of anything, and at length. We loved it, because it meant they shared a lot of insight on their experiences, their country- the good and the bad.

Argentina just went through a bad economic crisis in 2001, so it was really interesting to hear their perspective on ¨bad times.¨ In 2001, their crash was so bad, their currency went on hold completely. Andres, one friend we made outside a bar at 2am hanging out, shared with us how he remembered thinking it so odd that his paycheck was just like any other piece of paper - worthless. The turmoil and instability of their political and economic situation has created an Argentinian people with very thick skin and a very well grounded attitude. They realize how this is just how it is, not much they can do to greatly change what they´re dealt.

Photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/jenniferhlavac/BuenosAires#

Highlights of BA

* Futbol Game - went to a River Platte game, one of the two famous BA teams (Boca is their big rival.) The fans are cra-zeeee passionate about their team. At the end of each home game, they lock their fans into the stadium and have the opponents fans clear out and get a 5 minute head start before they let anyone leave.

* Los Girasoles, Camino Abierto Foundation (1 hr outside BA), An organic garden and farm and restaurant plus home to 12 at risk boys. Fabulous concept - they host an amazing, organic Sunday lunch, serving food that all comes from the farm and the proceeds all go back to the farm and care for the boys.

* Tigre - Delta that serves at a water playground for Portenos on weekends and holidays. Our friend Marcelo was kind enough to take us for an amzing day on the water and the best steak lunch we had! (see photos, one steak is as big as my head.)

* Steak - we ate lots of Asado (grilled steak) here, the hype is right on, its unreal and cheap!! And their fries, best I´ve ever had. We typically spent between $30-$40 on a really excellent meal. Favorite Parillas - Miranda, Don Julio, Bar Uriarte (all in Palermo SoHo)

* Malba - BA´s modern art museum is excellent, newly built modern spot with very chic lunch area on the park

Oh, lastly McLure is acclamating quickly to the Argentine ways. He´s purchased the setup to make Mate (traditional tea they drink here all day) and he is digging it. His Spanish is also improving daily, especially with the constant caffeine high. :)

Favela Tour in Rio - Rocinho

Probably my biggest highlight of Rio was the favela tour we took of the largest favela in Rio, Rocinho. It was an eye opening experience, educational, and also just fun. It started with our tour group of of 12 getting dropped along the street, where a line of motorcyles were waiting to cab us up to the top of the Rocinho favela. (Favelas are generally built into the hills of the city - the areas that were undeveloped by the city when they started. The poor have occupied them and really built them into their own cities with free/illegal access to tv, electricity, even internet! ) People in Rio drive crazy, and it was just as thrilling to fly up the curvy roads of a favela on the back of a bike, as it was to jump off a platform and hanglide. At the top we continued the tour from top to bottom of the favela, passing through a house, an artist gallery, a bakery shop, a day care center. The conditions of the ¨streets¨were amazing, all self made and developed as the favela has grown. Wires everywhere, dirty polluted water running through every crevice, no apparent garbage system, very close quarters. As you walk through the narrow pathways and you look in an open door or window, you´re practically in these people´s homes. I was worried this tour was going to be voyeristic, and uncomfortable but it wasn´t at all. People in the favelas generally like ¨gringo´s¨as one kid shouted at us - the tour guide told us they like getting their photos taken too, as they think they may become famous this way and become the next rich hollywood star. Another stigma that the tour set straight is the danger in the favelas. Yes, there is a drug trade going on, and its sad and horrible and dangerous to the parties involved, but its only 10% of the population in the favelas that are involved and they are mostly boys from 10-18 in age. The current ¨boss¨ of the favela is supposedly 23, but typically the boys don´t last that long in the business as they often die early. Anyway, the majority of the people there are very friendly, and are simply living there because they have no better option and not because they are bad or dangerous people. McLure and I dug it so much we would definitely go back. The Tour company, Be a Local, did a really good job of educating us on the situation in the favelas, and making sure we all walked away realizing that City of God, while realistic in depicting the drug situation in the favelas, doesn´t represent all that a favela is. The tour company owners also opened an NGO there, a free child day care center enabling parents to go out and find work.