Brazil

For our last 6 weeks in South America we headed into Brazil just as the pre-carnival "rehearsals"... began.  (They seemed pretty adept at dancing and partying in the streets so I am not sure if the practice was so much needed!)
Although severely challenged by our lack of Portuguese, we managed to get about and found enough English speakers to get by (ex. quickly learning the words for creepy fish on the menu). It was definitely frustrating after finally feeling like we could communicate reasonably in Spanish to be back at square one with another language.  Our other challenge was the heat which hovered between 35 and 45 degrees with humidity.  Air conditioning and fans became our friends and we eventually bought our own fan so we could sleep at night.

Florianopolis

Our first week we rented a car and explored a little island called Ilha Santa Caterina.   With 42 beaches we had our work cut out for us.  We started in a cool little fishing village where we watched the villagers throw nets from the beach  amongst the sunbathers.  Here we developed a wicked addiction to beach paddleball which we continue to play.

Having a car was an awesome luxury so we jumped in on a whim to check out the villages, beaches or to simply go to the best beach for oysters.  A big highlight here was when the hostel kids took us on a jungle hike complete with big spiders and slippery trails over to a secluded and wild beach with sand so fine it squeaked like chalk when you walked on it.  I could have done without the spiders but Wacker got the brunt of them being so tall. 
As we moved further North, the Island got substantially more developed, replacing fishing boats with surf shops in a Daytona Beach kinda fashion.   Rolling with it, we took three days of surf lessons.  The waves in Lagoa were perfect for learning to catch green water as they were small and they broke close to shore.  Ian learned to stand up right away and was surprised how much he liked it.   Lagoa also had a huge lagoon with great wind, so I rented a Laser 1 and bombed around on it for a few hours and once I felt like I remembered how to steer it I took out Ian for a spin.  I didn't dump him so I think he'll go out with me again.


Rio
Rio de Janerio was our next stop and our favourite big city of South America.  We lived just up from Lapa, a funky old area full of samba clubs, restaurants and sidewalk bars and huge outdoor parties on the weekends.  We kicked off our stay with a dance lesson to learn the basic steps of samba and the partner dance Forro. After our lesson our instructor Heilo took us to an awesome club full of antiques, history and a rockin band to practise our "moves".  It was also pretty funny watching all the ladies trying to walk down the cobblestone streets in their high heels.

The beaches were gorgeous and crazy crowded with thousands of Cariocas (Rio residents) strutting around in their speedos and bikinis,  drinking and eating under unbrellas and definitely taking their beach time seriously.  Thong bikinis were standard issue and locally nicknamed dental floss.   As you soaked in the sun, you were offered beer and food so your only challenge was to brave the crazy waves to cool off in the ocean. We loved watching a popular variation  volleyball crossed with hacky sack- same rules but no hands only heads, feet, legs and chest.

The best way to check out the gorgeous coastline was actually from above.  We headed up to Christ the Redeemer, the iconic statue that looms above the city from the granite peaks. It was a bit of a tourist nightmare, but yes a great view. Even better, was visiting another one of the hills call Sugar loaf located right beside Copacabana.  It had a scary cable car that took you up to the top and beautiful views of the harbour and surrounding islands.



Since Brazil's national love is futball, we checked out a game and were sadly disappointed.  Less then 4000 fans came out and the teams played like crap.  Nothing like a Rider's game.  We did get a great local experience the next day when we visited a favela (slum) with a small tour.  The favelas are changing fast as the Brazilian government is beginning to enter them and provide services in order to "clean them up" for the upcoming Olympics and World Cup.  Most are run by drug lords, but once inside are probably one of the safest places in Rio.  They self  police themselves with steep penalties for anyone who commits a crime inside.  As our guide told us, "the guy who smiles and chats with you in here, might be the same guy who robs you next week in Copacabana." There were few roads so we took motorcycle taxis up to the top of the hill and walked down through tiny winding alleys and lanes strewn with tangled wires and yucky sewers, and met many wonderful residents along the way.


Paraty/Ilha Grande

Next we headed to Paraty, a pretty colonial town a few hours south of Rio.  Here we really got a great taste of Carnival festivities with concerts every night and amazing little bands playing in every nook of the town.   We did a schooner tour of the islands and beaches and rented bikes to explore the waterfalls and hills nearby.  One had an amazing slickrock slide which you could slid down into a pool below.  The local teenagers however were freakn' loco and sliding down standing up, taking jumps and air and some even doing flips.  They all managed to stay in one piece, it was a British girl who manage to knock out her front teeth just walking along the bottom. We camped for a night out on an incredible, secluded beach just south of Paraty called Trinadade then headed off to Ilha Grande.

Ilha Grande island was until recently a prison island with a history of  deranged criminals.....which put a dent in its tourist development until only a few decades ago.  We expected the town to be super small and laid back, however it recently was put on the cruise ship circuit so it was sadly overrun by hoards of cruiseship zombies that were being constantly ferried over in little pods to shore everyday.  Vehicles are not allowed on this island, the only way to get around is by foot or water taxi.  We decided to camp at a small little beach where there were only had a handful of campsites and restaurants and I think we were the only foreign tourists there.  The island is covered in protected Atlantic rainforest and has a great network of hikes to lakes, waterfalls and beaches which we checked out.  The best part is you can spend your day hiking to beaches and when you are done you can always find a water taxi to take you home at the end of the day.

Salvador

Next we travelled up to the colonial city of Salvador in the Bahia region.  It definitely had a different feel to it with its African history, drum music and Capoeria martial arts .  Here we were confined to the small historical area of the Peloniho.....yes, we were allowed to leave it, but you really didn't want to as it is one of Brazil's more dangerous cities with lots of poverty and drug abuse.  You know you're a wee bit uncomfortable when 8 year olds with wild eyes are trying to sell you drugs and you're kinda scared of them.  Despite this, it had an amazing energy and was in full throes of their pre-carnival celebrations.  Everyday drum corps paraded through the streets with onlookers dancing along behind them and every night there were great concerts and bands playing in small clubs.  We gorged ourselves of fried cheese skewers, took in the beaches and  visited lots of beautiful old churches as well as an  incredible museum on Afro-Brazilian history.  A definite highlight was a dance performance which has me excited to sign up for West African dance again when I'm back in Calgary.

Carnival

Olinda was our last stop in Brazil and South America, and our home for Carnival (a crazy 5 day party throughout all of Brazil). Olinda is a pretty, coastal colonial town with windy cobbled streets and gorgeous old buildings. It had a really safe and playful atmosphere with lots of families, costumes, and bands parading through the streets with giant puppets of famous people in front of them. After much work (months) trying to make pre-payment for a hotel booking, I called a friend of my sister's from Brazil for help with our language difficulty booking our hotel.  She gave us a contact who found us a spot in a house with 28 other Brazilians for the week.....we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into....but we are glad we did.  Our hosts Batatina (little potato) and Jean, rented a house in the epicenter of the festivities.  The house came complete with two cooks, security guards/bartenders, a dj, daily live bands, meals, beer, and 24 hours a day of mayhem.

The place was completely emptied of furniture except for a big beer fridge.   There were 300 dozen beer for the 30 of us, which for five days worked out to "rations" of 2 dozen beer per day per person (we ran out the last day).  Brazilians take their partying very seriously.  Most of the peeps in the house were a group of friends from the capital Brazilia which doesn't host much for Carnival festivities so this group has been coming up to Olinda for the past 11 years. Everyone squeezed their sleeping mats together on the floors of 3 rooms, but thankfully Batatina gave us the newcomers the one small private room which helped a lot for getting more sleep. (Downside, being the only private room, it was often borrowed by others when we weren't in it.)  For 5 days the party  was relentless and we had a bit of a love hate relationship with it -  It was the best of times and the worst of times.

The heat and humidity was so crazy that by mid-day, I'd have sweat so much my fingers would be wrinkled like I had been in a hot tub for hours.  We had planned on chilling out on the beach a lot during the days, but the beach area was really dirty and laden with signs warning of high probabilities of shark attacks....no swimming for us :(  From about 10 am till 7 pm the streets would be so packed it was like being in a mosh pit. Our house was on the main corner and it had big windows to hang in and watch the happenings without getting squished.
The biggest pastime of the guys at the house was to hang out out front in their speedos and spray cute girls with their waterguns...or if they were lucky a full bucket of cold water from the beer cooler. Otherwise they would try to charm themselves a "Carnival Kiss" which was a bit nauseating to watch....very sloppy, tongues everywhere.

Then there was the song. The one song they played as their anthem from the time the first person rose till that last soldier went to bed. It was called Baby Doll in Nylons and it was on repeat.  The odd time they'd put another song on for a bit but would cut back to the song and cheers would follow as they all sang and danced along.  They loved it.  By day 4,  I thought I may go crazy, but by the last night I couldn't get enough of it.  I guess it grows on you- (I've got some great footage of Wacker dancing to it wearing a speedo....you can ask but he'll never show it to you.)
In the streets, I acquired lots of impromptu dance lessons from Brazilian ladies who thought it was hilarious that a gringo was out dancing in the streets. My favourite was a house of women dressed in colourful wedding dresses who taught me to samba and  declared me an honourary Brazilero.

The craziest part, was the last morning when a bunch of commotion, banging and music woke us from our sleep and someone was trying to bang down our door at 6 am. Wacker had his feet wedged up against it so it didn't budge.  I, against better judgment got dressed to investigate.  Within seconds I was handed a red rose, a can of Redbull and was dragged down the street by my 3 new friends from a crazy Bloco which  paraded around from 6am-9am, weaving through peoples' houses with drums and trumpets, dancing at the feet of unsuspecting sleepers' beds until they got up and joined in.  And it wasn't just the young taking part, as I went into houses waking up ladies in their 60's sleeping on the floor.  The family  across the street from our house had a little girl not even 3 years old that was up every day by 9am, and would still be up around midnight.

By our last afternoon....we didn't think we could continue.  We holed up in our room for hours with our fan.  When we ventured out the streets were filled with garbage and stank of urine and we were exhausted and nauseated by the taste of beer.   Then somehow, we got swept up by a passing band, started dancing and had probably our best night of the week.  Ahhhh Carnival.