Carnival!! (Plus Iguazu Falls and Florianopolis)

***Video is only for sound purposes with Carnival post***

Because it took so long to get out of Pucon and I was in a rush to get my visa and get to Brazil for Carnival, I only spent two sweltering hot and sweaty days in Buenos Aries...not enough to write much about it. I didn't really take any photos because of the high theft rate. It's common knowledge among travelers that you don't take a backpack out in BA so all valuables remained locked up. But from what I saw, it's just another city. The interesting thing about it is that nothing is open before 10:00 a.m. And then everything shuts down around one or two o'clock until five or six p.m. then it's open again until 21:00. She has a reputation for being a nightlife city but I didn't get to know that side of her. However I did run into the French couple that was with me on the Colca Canyon hike in Peru!

From there it was a 17 hour bus trip to Puerto Iguazu to see the much talked about water falls. If I thought BA heat and humidity was unbearable then I'm not sure how to describe Puerto Iguazu. Sweat dripped down my back, legs, entire body, my clothing was constantly soaked and mosquitoes tried to satiate their voracious appetites through me. Despite that, my memory of it conjures up images of an easy to navigate town, beautiful flowering trees in yellow, orange and red and fruit trees! Guava, star fruit, coconut, banana plants and other native fruits and animals I never learned the names of. And a lovely river walk that ends where the three countries-Paraguay, Brazil & Argentina-meet.

People are divided on which side of the Falls is better but personally I find the Brazil side more spectacular. It is a shorter visit and was much less crowded. Both have coati, monkeys (but AR has more) and incredible iridescent blue birds flitting around but in Brazil you get an impressive panoramic view of the immense falls that put Niagra to shame. And after you've taken thirty photos you walk down the path and realize you've only just seen a portion of what is there! So you take more photos and walk down and discover even more! one gets you so close you can almost reach out and touch them. Obviously one must see both though as each has something different to offer. In AR, you walk more along the tops of the falls through one meter wide steel trails with railings. at he AR side is an all day event and when I was there it was incredibly crowded to the point that it wasn't enjoyable. I literally had to wait several minutes, eventually elbowing my way through the rude people, to get a spot along the rail to see the top of the falls and snap a few photos. And being stuck behind everyone for about one kilometer as they slowly made their way to the open area was more than I could tolerate. So I rushed through all these trails out of obligation. What I was really looking forward to was the solitary waterfall that one could swim in. It was a 4 km walk down the only dirt path in the entire park. In the park I saw a lot of cream and black colored birds but what I was keeping my eye out for was a Toucan. I desperately wanted to see one! After looking about the dense trees for hours I determined that the only way I'd actually see one is if it flew in front of me and landed in a nearby tree. Half-way down the quiet trail, that's exactly what happened! I couldn't believe my fortune! I stopped and we watched each other for several minutes and I marveled at his beauty and how his beak was the size of his body. On the way back I saw a rather large snake! Feeling refreshed after a swim in the cool pool of the small waterfall, I decided it was a good day indeed! :-)

There is a Brazilian Consulate office in Puerto Iguazu so the next day I spent the day checking to see if the two internet cafes I was told about were open so I could print the documents I needed to get my visa. To my dismay they were closed everytime I walked by. It's a small town so I didn't think there were any more. I was ready to cry...it was Monday night and Carnival was to start on Friday. I figured it would take three days to get my visa and Recife was a three day bus ride away. That was the original plan--to meet there the English man with whom I'd traveled in Peru. I'd never make it in time. So I walked around that night and although I found a different closed internet cafe I'd already given up on fulfilling that bucket list item. So I treated myself to a sit-down restaurant dinner that was mediocre at best but at least the wine was good. The single German gentleman at the table in front of me struck up a conversation with me and the next thing you know we were sharing a large bottle of wine. That turned into a couple beers at the club down the street and a couple more beers at another club--all compliments of him. Late the next morning, after spending a couple hours evaluating my options and arguing with myself, I decided to ask the consulate office how long it would take to get the visa. So I hurried over and couldn't believe my ears when he told me he could have it to me the next day if I got the paperwork to him before they closed at 2:00. I rushed to the internet cafe I'd found the night before, which was in the back of a convenience store, and spent a couple hours on the computer then rushed to the Consulate with 30 minutes to spare. He took my money and paperwork and said to return at 11:00 the next day. Woo Hoo! So I walked across the street to the bus station and bought a ticket to Rio leaving at 1:30 the next day. Only a 22 hour bus ride, I would be there a day before Carnival started, which turned out to be perfect!

In San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, I'd met four young folks from Rio and invited myself to stay with them during Carnival. The one young lady, Nathaly, agreed happily so I contacted her and got the address. An hour and a half bus ride from Rio and a short boat ride later I arrived at the lovely island where she lived with her Dad and brother and now temporarily, her mother and her two small dogs, in a two-bedroom structure. It was a great little island and we went out in her kayak, swam in the pool and her dad took us for the best pizza I'd had in South America. He was incredibly kind and generous, making us breakfast in the morning of fresh juice, papaya, melon, bread, cheese and orange cake along with tea and coffee and served Nathaly and I out on the patio. Then he went in the courtyard and gathered some green coconuts from the trees, cut them open with a knife and gave them to us to drink the water. When done he opened them all the way and the sweet meat was so tender I could scoop it out with a spoon! Absolutely spectacular! Due to the crowded conditions and distance to the city, I booked a hostel in Botafoga, a central section of Rio according to my friend. Then we met her girlfriend and went shopping for Carnival costumes. The energy was electric! Music, street vendors and stores selling colorful wigs, penis straws, costumes, bling and beer. Afterward we went to the museum to check out the Kandinsky exhibit. On the way I cried as I looked at the eight red body shapes painted on the sidewalk as we walked past the church where the Candelaria massacre occurred in 1993--when police shot at 70 homeless children sleeping in front of the church, killing eight. The disgust and distrust in the still-corrupt police is alive and well today.

I had a bunk in a 14 bed room with its own toilets and showers. There were only two other females in the room, one transgender, Well, with whom I became quite close, and nine really cute guys from Australia, Germany and Brazil. On Saturday Well and I went to Copacabana Beach and had a blast ogling the same guys. I was expecting the women to live up to their international reputation of perfect figures with round butts and was quite surprised to see that they didn't. The majority of them were seriously overweight and I was one of about three people in the entire country that wore a one piece. The beach was jam packed and anything you wanted could be bought there. People walked around with coolers of beer, trays of grilled shrimp on a stick, racks of bathing suits and countless other food and merchandise items. It was an opportunist's dream! Back at the hostel in the evening Well used his supplies and did a fabulous job on my make-up and bling. He slipped into a tiny, black sequence dress and outshone me as we headed out to the nearby bloco. Music, dancing, throngs of hot, shirtless guys and cold beer--what more could a girl ask for? It was a blast but ended early, much to my surprise. The next day two Germans joined us for the beach and back at the hostel they met a Brazilian guy who knew a lot more about Carnival so under his direction all of us, plus a Canadian, went to Lapa in the night. It doesn't matter where the blocos are, the nights end in Lapa. There, more bands, hot guys (and girls) vendors, beer and food-aka fun-are to be had. The last night of Carnival I was privileged to go with my Brazilian friends to an area in Lapa that only Brazilians go to. It was a completely different feel and totally awesome!

The weather in Rio was the same as in Buenos Aries but somehow more tolerable. Perhaps all the eye-candy helped with that. I loved waking up in the mornings to the cute Australians walking around in nothing but their boxers. Still a little buzzed from the night before we laughed and joked around and got ready to do it all over again! The hostel fed us breakfast and every morning I'd gorge on bread, cheese, cake and fruit because we were so busy drinking beer all day and night that for three days I ate no other meals. The guys would get a sausage or something at some point but for the most part we didn't eat beyond the most important meal of the day. Four days of too much fun was more than this old lady could handle. Wednesday I sat around and recuperated while the others went to see the Christ the Redeemer. Then at 23:30 I went with the two Germans and three Brits to the airport to catch the 1:30 flight to Florianopolis, Brazil. It turned into a fun adventure that ended for me around 9:00 in the morning when we all went our separate ways.

Florianopolis is a large island in the south of the country with lakes and mountains in the middle and 42 beaches ocean side. It's a popular vacation place for people from Argentina and Uruguay. Hot and humid and not being a beach person I didn't appreciate it as much as it deserved although it truly is beautiful. I wanted to go diving so I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately the diving was terrible for multiple reasons, low visibility being the main one. I did enjoy some good sushi where a very nice Norwegian man ended up joining me at the my table and afterward he took me to Books and Beer, a very cute place on the lake where liters of beer are served in silver ice buckets and the menu of food, wine and 150 kinds of beer is a thick book with descriptions in both Portuguese and English. In detox mode it was my first night out in a few days and I realized what I had been missing. The place comes alive at night as the temperatures drop and street performers entertain.

After five days I finally figured out what I was going to do next. Although I very much wanted explore more of Brazil and to go to the jungle I realized the middle of the summer would not be the best time for me to do that and the other parts of Brazil had been spoken about with warnings so I opted not to do that as a single female. I might have mace and a knife but the Brazilians have guns and don't hesitate to use them. Or so I've been told. That left me with finishing what I'd started but now in reverse order so I booked a flight to Ushuaia. I was very much looking forward to the cooler temperatures of Patagonia! But first I had to get there which meant a 30 hour bus ride to Buenos Aries.