Guess who's back, back again...

...Mateo's back, tell a friend. And so are these long-forgotten blog posts! I'm gonna split up my trip into four entries so as not to bore you with a single epic novel. That way I can also post four pictures from my adventure instead of just one! (For lots of amazing pics, check out my Facebook albums!)

David and I caught our bus to Iguazu Falls at 1pm on Saturday, October 10th. We had made bologna sandwiches to sustain us on the 23-hour journey, which was a fantastic idea. Highly recommend it. I introduced David to George Lopez and hyphy music, and he showed me Miley Cyrus (haha, but seriously, he did) and Death Cab for Cutie. Time flew by, we slept a little, and before we knew it we were pulling into the Foz do Iguaçu terminal. We took a bus to our hostel, but since our beds weren't ready yet we decided to go straight to the Brazilian side of the falls. Iguazu is a more legit border town than El Paso because you can take a 15-minute city bus for 75 cents and end up in Brazil, Argentina, or Paraguay. So we did, in that order, one country each day.

My first image of the Brazilian side of the falls took my breath away. I know that's cheesy and cliché, but I don't care. From the entrance of the park they have buses that make several stops at different hiking trails and vantage points, and there are trees blocking the view of the falls all along the road. David and I got off at one of the early stops, pushed our way through the trees and tourists, and found ourselves at the edge of a sweeping panorama of roaring waterfalls and blue skies. For a moment I just admired the beauty. Everything seemed to fall silent around me except for the rushing water. I whispered a prayer of thanksgiving and my heart smiled.

And then I pulled out my camera just like the other 200 tourists around me and tried to take a picture. Except the screen of my viewfinder was all white, and there was a crack in the middle. The camera had been in my pocket during the bus ride because I was taking pictures of the Brazilian countryside; I realized that I must have sat on it and broken the screen during the trip. For a minute I was totally crushed. This was the first day of our trip and my camera was potentially destroyed. I decided to try and use it anyway, since it appeared as though it still registered the pictures. For the rest of the afternoon, I used the old "point and click" method to snap photos, never knowing what I was taking or if the images were being saved on my memory card. Even so, the excursion was unbelievably wonderful. I had never in my life seen such an abundance of natural beauty, and I couldn't wait to see the Argentine side the following day.

Hostel Bambu was nice and homey. It had a backyard breakfast patio and a pool, which is not bad for $10 a night. The staff was really fun, a mix of Brazilians and Argentines. David and I spent our evenings eating all we could at a restaurant called "Tropicana", playing pool in the common room, and joking with the workers and other guests in Portuguese, Spanish, and New Zealand-ish (the latter is definitely NOT English).

You need a tour guide to visit the Argentine side of the falls, so David and I paid around $50 each to make the excursion through the hostel. When the van picked us up, four giddy middle-aged Uruguayan women greeted us with, "¡Hola! ¿De dónde son? ¿Cómo se llaman?" I got a kick out of the way they pronounced the last word "chaman"... little did I know, the Argentine Spanish quirks to come would provide WAY more comedy for my Mexican ear, haha. There's lots of controversy among travelers as to which side of the falls is cooler. Brazil's half was awesome, but David and I both agreed that Argentina's was better. Maybe it was the twisting trails literally feet from the thundering water, or the brilliant rainbows, or the Uruguayans screaming "¡QUE DIVINO!" at every single stop- I don't know what qualifies my decision, but the Argentine side takes the cake. I can't remember the exact numbers our tour guide told us, but something like 12000 tourists visited the Brazilian side the day prior, and 8000 visited the Argentine side. Por favor believe it.

On Tuesday our bus to Buenos Aires didn't leave until 6pm, so David and I checked out of the hostel early and took the bus to Ciudad del Este, a shopping wonderland in Paraguay. It's the first place I've ever visited where street vendors accept payment in four different currencies- Paraguayan guarani, Brazilian reais, Argentine pesos and, of course, US dollars. We walked along the bustling sidewalks and haggled with the pushy vendors. Both of us ended up buying "authentic" soccer jerseys and Ray-Ban sunglasses for 50 pesos, or around $13. The vendor, who was our age, tried to sell us the shades alone for 60 pesos, but he quickly found out that we weren't the average tourists. That's what's up. Haha who am I kidding, he still made a profit!

On the bus back to Brazil two federal Paraguayan agents boarded and caught two people trying to bring back lots of purchases. It was a little unnerving, since our passports weren't stamped and officially we could be apprehended too. We sat quietly, our eyes hidden behind our stunna shades, and the agents didn't bother us. When they got off, the Brazilian woman behind us said, "Wow, that was a little scary, huh? You guys are lucky, sometimes they check everyone!" It was fun while it lasted, but at 6pm we were back on the bus and starting our 21-hour trip to Buenos Aires. This ride felt a little longer since I couldn't get to sleep, but like everything else, it passed. I realized at the Argentine border that we had visited three different countries in a half-day, a cool feat I might never repeat. We had spent the perfect amount of time in Iguazu, enough to see everything and meet everyone, and were both looking forward to some Argentine escapades in Buenos Aires.

It was insane.

I'm only writing to apologize quickly to my international readership for skipping a post on this thrilling blog. If my adventures are the sole thing sustaining you, it must have been quite difficult to pull through the past ten days. Thanks for enduring.

I am literally typing this on my way out the door- in one hour I'm starting my 18-day trek through southern Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay! I might not be able to post more entries until I get back at the end of the month, but you never know...

The Friday before last Brazil won the bid for the 2016 Olympics, and there was a party on Copacabana Beach with one million guests. It was insane. On Sunday I went to the last Flamengo-Fluminense game at Maracanã Stadium until the World Cup 2014 renovations are completed. There were 82,566 fans in attendance, a record public for this season. Adriano scored two amazing goals. It was insane. This past week I had two papers and two midterms for Thursday, plus an article for my Globalpost internship. And it poured every single day. It was insane. I felt like I was back in Cambridge again. I wish I could celebrate the completion of each round of midterms up there with a three-week excursion. Then they wouldn't be so bad, huh?

Ok familia, I'm off!

Rockin' in Rio

According to my internship director, I'm a boss at writing proposals. An original gangster, I think he said. I did a fantastic job with last week's assignment for National Geographic, so now we're just waiting on their official return letter!

Let's see, this is gonna be a Sparknotes entry because I'm super busy and behind schedule with these blog posts. Last Tuesday I ended a long day at school with some intense futsal competition with Gustavo at the apartment complex next door. It was hecka fun and both of us played pretty well. Wednesday was mostly spent writing the proposal, Thursday was school, and Friday was beach exercise and letter writing. On Saturday, the director of my internship rented a recording studio in Botafogo for me and two other program friends. We jammed for five hours on his three guitars and bass, and a professional drummer accompanied us for part of the time. It was SO much fun! We played everything from Johnny Cash to Oasis, Chuck Berry to Los Lonely Boys. It's been a while since I've played electric guitar, so that was sweet. After the studio session, I went back home quickly and got dressed up a bit. I walked to Ipanema and met some friends to confront the pizza rodizio once again. This time we definitely won the battle. I ate about 16 pieces, which was well worth the US$9. Somehow we were able to stand up after a few hours of stuffing ourselves, and we made our way to a housewarming party in Leme. Four girls in the program just moved in to an unbelievable apartment overlooking the beach; it belongs to a family friend of one of the girls, so they're getting it ridiculously cheap. There was loud music, lively conversation, and a table full of food that made me sick to look at for the first couple hours. I knew I was going to stay late, and since Leme is pretty far from Leblon, I just stayed over the whole night with a bunch of other people. We didn't sleep a wink. The sunrise was gorgeous, and I would have been down to take a dip in the ocean if others went, but instead a few of us caught a bus home at 6:30am.

I slept soundly for six hours, woke up, ate lunch, and headed straight back to the beach. I spent Sunday afternoon playing soccer and swimming in the ocean, then watched the second half of the Flamengo-Internacional game and took a bus home. On Monday I met my friend David at PUC to talk about our impending trip. We made some hostel reservations, so now it is totally official. Today we're gonna go to a travel agent to buy our bus and plane tickets, and then we'll be set. The itinerary is basically the same as I described in the last post, except that we'll finish in Porto Alegre for two days before flying back to Rio. We'll just happen to be there on the day of the Gre-Nal (the soccer game between rivals Grêmio and Internacional, the southern equivalent of the Fla-Flu in Rio), so we'll definitely check that out. Monday night I played pick-up soccer for a couple hours, and my team dominated those barefoot 15-year-olds. Haha that doesn't seem like a very big feat, but it is. Trust me.

More "EXCELLENT" adventures!

I DID do something big this past weekend, just like I had suspected. Only it wasn't really the result of my independent exploration; all I needed to do was sign a list. More on that in a moment.

Last week was really laid-back, just how I like it. Surprisingly, however, it didn't include a single swim in the ocean! Wednesday and Friday I did my normal beach boardwalk workouts, but that was as close as I got to the water. Tuesday was spent entirely in class. Yes, I met some more Brazilians and found them on Orkut. On Wednesday night we had a Brown-in-Brazil reunion at the Planetarium in front of the university. It was really fun to see everybody again all at once, and the coordinators were thrilled by the leaps and bounds we've made in our Portuguese. While we were hanging out and stuffing our faces with appetizers paid for by Brown University, something crazy happened in the tunnel that passes above the PUC entrance. All of a sudden we noticed that every car was stopped and that people were running out of the tunnel in absolute panic, abandoning their cars and tripping over each other. Everyone at the Planetarium was transfixed on the action. Several police cars showed up, blaring their sirens, but they couldn't get into the tunnel because of all the parked cars. After twenty minutes or so, people started to make their way back to their cars and the traffic cleared. The next morning in the newspaper I read that the panic was caused by an arrastão, literally a "trawl" (that big net fishing boats use to sweep up fish). This is a pretty common and very frightening tactic that thieves use to steal from large groups. Often a bunch of delinquent kids on the beach will run as a pack through the crowds, screaming and grabbing everything they can before disappearing into the city. One of my friends from the program almost got caught in one in Ipanema a few weeks ago, and he said it was terrifying. In the case of the tunnel last Wednesday night, drivers heard what they thought were gunshots, and then saw two motorcycles driving on the shoulder in the wrong direction. The motorists stopped immediately, got out of their cars so they wouldn't be trapped, and ran out of the tunnel. Kinda exciting, huh? Just another form of Brazilian nightlife.

On Friday I played pick-up soccer for a few hours with a couple friends and a bunch of barefoot teenagers. The level of play was pretty good, and I had a blast. One of the kids knew a few English words, and thought it would be funny to shout "EXCELLENT!" after every goal or good move. He was right; it was hilarious! Especially when he got nutmegged playing keeper and all his friends (from BOTH teams) yelled "EXCELLENT!!!"

I spent all of Saturday on a field trip for the international students at PUC. We met on campus at 6:45am and proceeded to fill three buses with 130 sleepy foreigners. The trip was to the Hotel Fazenda Arvoredo, a "leisure farm" two hours outside of Rio in a town called Barra do Piraí. We arrived, ate breakfast, went on a hike through the Atlantic rainforest, paddled a raft with bamboo poles, swam in the pool, ate lunch and then had until 7:30pm to do whatever we wanted. There was a ropes course, horseback riding, a gigantic slip-n-slide, volleyball, billiards, ping-pong, and a grass soccer field with goals and nets. I went straight for the soccer, and that's where I stayed. Fortunately for me, a lot of other guys did the same thing, so we played an 8-a-side tournament for hours. It could have been the World Cup with all those languages and cultures represented! I got home around 11pm and slept as well as I ever have.

Yesterday and today were devoted to indoor intellectual work. I spent a few hours planning my trip to Argentina and Montevideo in October, which is the most exciting type of research on Earth! There are SOOO many places I want to see, but I think I settled on this: bus from Rio to Iguazu Falls, bus from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, daytrips to Colonia and Punta del Este, ferry from Montevideo back to Buenos Aires, daytrip to La Plata, and plane home from Buenos Aires to Rio. Hopefully my friend David will be able to travel with me, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to spend some quality time with friends in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. I'll probably leave October 9th and come back around the 22nd. What about school, you say? Ahem. What about it?

Besides making travel plans, I've also been working feverishly on a new project for my internship with Giros Productions. It is my job, by next Saturday, to write a proposal to National Geographic Television for a $3 million documentary on rainforests. I have a basic proposal in Portuguese that I've translated, and now I need to add some missing elements and spice it up. The idea is that this documentary will coincide with a National Geographic Magazine cover story on rainforests, that it will have its 100-minute premier on the Sunday night before the magazine comes out, and that it will instantly increase global awareness of the need for environmentally sustainable practices in rainforests around the world. You remember how this director told me I was already working for National Geographic when I had my interview? Yeah, now it feels real. Wish me luck! :)

Daydreamin'

Big news! I found my dream home this week, or at least one of them. Wanna know where? Wanna know how much? Well you're gonna have to read through this entire post, because I'm saving the best for last! (Alternatively, you can just scroll down. Cheater.)

This past Tuesday, just like the Tuesday before that (and the one before that), I had class from 9am until 7pm. Nothing very exciting to report, except that I'm beginning to meet and befriend some of my Brazilian classmates. I already have seven friends on Orkut, the Brazilian version of Myspace. Yeah, so there. Beat that. By the end of this week I bet I'll be in the double-digits!

I spent most of Wednesday writing my first article for the GlobalPost website. This opening assignment was supposed to deal with initial impressions, so mine detailed the hours between stepping off the plane and really realizing I was here in Brazil to stay. The surreal moments leading up to the real moment, so to speak. "And that's when it hit me..." I'm not sure when it will be published, but I'll keep you GlobalPosted.

On Thursday I went to class in the morning, wrote and mailed two long letters during my four-hour break, then watched a sweet documentary about Portuguese language around the world. Did you know that Portuguese is spoken officially in Angola, Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe (islands off of Nigeria), Goa (India), Macau (China), Timor-Leste (Southeast Asia), the Azores and Madeira (Atlantic archipelagos)? It looks like I really will be able to travel all over the world with Romance Languages!

Friday was beach workout day. I ran from my apartment at the end of Leblon to the top of Arpoador, around 2.5 miles. When I reached the end, I rested a bit and watched the skateboard tournament in the bowl at Arpoador. I don't know the first thing about skating besides the anti-gravity cheat in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater videogame, but even I could appreciate the gnarly-ness of those tricks. On the run home, I stopped at every post to do pull-ups and sit-ups. I'm gonna get sufficiently tanned and ripped just in time to lose it all in Bologna.

You've all been aware of my desire to explore someplace new each week, and on Saturday I ventured across the bay to the charming city of Niterói. I initially planned to just visit the saucer-shaped Museu de Arte Contemporânea designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the same architect who designed the space-age buildings in Brasilia. On the way there, I got enticed by an enormous outdoor market under the freeway across from the ferry station. I wandered for over an hour without seeing everything, feeling like I was back in Mexico. Eventually I caught the ferry and was thrilled to discover that we would pass right by Ilha Fiscal, a castle-like building that used to manage import and export taxes but now serves as a cultural museum. That was one of the places I intended to explore, but now I can cross it off my list!

When we arrived at Niterói's dock, I got deliberately lost for a while in their enormous Saturday street market, then finally found my way back to the beach and walked to my original destination. The Contemporary Art Museum is a little eerie because it's SO out of place. Perched on a cliff (see the photo above) and blinding white, it could be a forgotten prop from a 60s sci-fi movie. I ended up not even entering. Instead, I took lots of spectacular photographs of the outside of the museum, which is undoubtedly the coolest part anyway, then paid a trip to the grocery store for lunch. I ate my nutritious focaccia and wafers on the stairs of my future apartment building, with its beachside views of the museum, Sugarloaf and the Christ statue. Niterói is a tranquil city 45 minutes outside of a crazy city, just the kind of place I'd like to call home. Sitting there in the shade of the afternoon sun, I imagined myself living comfortably with a panorama like that. Especially out the window of a plush million-dollar penthouse. Once I took my fill of photographs, I caught a bus back to PUC and walked home, finishing the perfect day at an all-you-can-eat pizzeria with some friends. Oh, what a life.

Sunday and today were lazy days of drizzling rain and indoor responsibilities. I read the first 185 pages of the 400-page book due for my literature class on Thursday, prepared tomorrow's 10-minute presentation for Portuguese class and managed to write a new song (with lyrics!) on guitar. This coming weekend I'm gonna do something big. I don't know what, but I'm already feeling extra-adventurous! Vamo' ver!

More of the same...

And another week passes, just like that. Today was my 66th day in Brazil, and guess what... It was perfect. I played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. I have only 101 more perfect days here in South America before I fly home! Gotta enjoy each and every one to the fullest!

So I did indeed do my fair share of soccer playing and ocean swimming this week- again- but let's just assume that's an uninterrupted pattern and skip ahead to the other stuff. Monday and Tuesday were pretty boring, just class and beach. On Wednesday I had to visit PUC to complete my official course registration and take my student ID photo. Supposedly we'll get our cards this week, which is sweet because students with ID only pay half price for movies, soccer games, plays, concerts, museums, parks, and similar admission-charging venues. A night showing at most cinemas in Rio will now cost me just the student price of R$6, or around US$3! Might have to take advantage of that bargain, huh? Classes on Thursday passed quickly, and I was excited to buy my first book for Brazilian Literature: A Grande Arte by Rubem Fonseca. It's a murder mystery that takes place in Rio de Janeiro; the main character mentions a gym on my street on page 11! I thought that was extremely cool, even though the girl on the treadmill is the assassin's first victim... On Friday I felt adventurous and decided to walk all the way around the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in the center of Rio's southern zone. It took me around three hours from start to finish, although I admit I was snapping photographs and working out on the pull-up bars every chance I got. Some of the pictures came out really nice despite the cloud cover and stagnant water (like the one of the Christ accompanying this post!). On Saturday night, Brazil played Argentina in an away World Cup qualifier match. I went to watch it with some friends at an open-air bar in Ipanema, surrounded by die-hard fans that have closely followed Brazilian soccer for at least sixty years each. That's exactly the kind of crowd I like to be a part of for a rivalry matchup like Saturday's! I screamed for each of Brazil's three goals, fell silent when Argentina scored, complained about the referee's calls and ridiculed Argentine legend/coach Diego Maradona every time he appeared on screen. I learned the lyrics of a passionate anti-Maradona anthem and sang along with all my peers. It went like this: "Cheira Maradona, Maradona cheira, cheira Maradona seu amor já foi embora!" ("Maradona smells, Maradona smells, Maradona smells so his lover left him!") It's way more eloquent in Portuguese, trust me. I ended up pulling an all-nighter after the game, chilling at Copacabana Beach and watching a couple movies in a friend's apartment. I finally made it home at 9am, after which I slept until 2pm, Skyped with my family, and wrote a new song on my guitar. Today was Brazilian Independence Day, and because God is Brazilian He turned Sunday's rain into Monday's sun. Since the winter temperature reached a satisfactory 91°F, Ipanema was completely packed with beautiful Brazilians and tourists alike. Needless to say, "I played-----" :D

On the way home from the beach I witnessed two amazing sights. First was a middle-aged woman walking along the street juggling a soccer ball. Since I was walking the same direction anyway, I slowed my pace to watch her. I told myself I would only follow her until the ball hit the ground. Fifteen minutes later, I was still trailing behind her, mesmerized by her incredible skill and slightly upset that I've played soccer my entire life only to have a 50-year-old Brazilian woman unwittingly show me up. Not only was she juggling with her feet, shins, thighs, chest, and shoulders, but she was also stalling the ball on her head and walking normally! After I passed her, sufficiently humiliated, I saw a man on rollerblades do a complete front flip off a curb- on purpose- and land it perfectly! I started clapping, and he gave me a thumbs-up as he skated off in the other direction. Who needs a circus when you have the Ipanema Beach boardwalk?

Monotony

I recently realized that if I'm not creative with the way I write up these blog posts, it's quite possible that they'll quickly become repetitive and evoke feelings of resentment instead of excitement in my readers, especially as temperatures in the northern hemisphere start to drop. My blog could very well read like this for the remainder of my time in Brazil:

"Sunday was perfect. I played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. Monday was perfect. I played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. Tuesday I went to class from 9am-7pm, then ate dinner and went to bed. Wednesday was perfect. I played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. Thursday was perfect. I went to class from 9am-1pm, then played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. I went back to class from 5-7pm, sandy but content. Friday, Saturday, and today were perfect. I played soccer on the beach and swam in the ocean. Check back next week for more updates on my life in Brazil."

Fortunately for both you and me, I actually did more than that this week! On Monday I had a meeting with the documentary filmmaker with whom I'm going to be interning while I'm here in Rio. He has a number of projects going on right now, but I'll be focusing on a film called "Beyond Babel" that follows language change around the globe. I've been doing fascinating research this week on endangered languages in New Zealand, Alaska, and Ireland, as well as studying how Jacques Derrida's writings on the Tower of Babel remain relevant in the midst of today's culture of globalization. While I was in the meeting, he received a call from National Geographic offering $3 million to make a worldwide special on rainforests. One more project on the table. He's kind of a big deal. On Wednesday I took the metro to the music stores in the center of Rio; two hours later I took the metro back to Zona Sul with a brand new acoustic-electric classical cutaway guitar over my shoulder. I consider it a celebratory gesture to myself for landing two awesome internships in the past two weeks. Now I'm going to spend a few hours each week writing bossa nova songs dedicated to the girls of Ipanema and Leblon. That night, at the urging of my friend David and a British dude named Nick who's staying in David's homestay, I made the spontaneous decision to attend my first professional soccer game at Maracanã Stadium. It started at 9:50pm and featured Rio's two biggest club teams, Flamengo and Fluminense (this particular matchup is called the "Fla-Flu"). The stadium wasn't full by any means, but it didn't need to be. Crazy fans from both teams were flying enormous flags, screaming incomprehensible chants, and banging African drums the entire time. There were illegal fireworks after each of the two goals (it ended in a tie, 1-1), and my voice was long gone by the time I got home at 2:30am. On Friday I spent a few hours catching up on letters and post cards (so if you sent me one, get excited!), and yesterday I spent a few hours exploring Leblon. I found an absolutely amazing nature park ten minutes from my apartment called Parque do Penhasco Dois Irmãos, with hiking trails, a pond, a soccer court, an amphitheater, sculptures, and spectacular panoramic views of the beaches at Leblon, Ipanema, and São Conrado. Apparently it's one of Rio's best-kept secrets, because it was completely empty during the two hours I was there and because nobody I've spoken to has heard of it! I've been feeling adventurous lately, so I'm challenging myself to investigate a new aspect of this marvelous city every week. I'll let you know what I find...