--> SALVADOR da BAHIA.

Getting to Salvador...

Lets see how long this little journal keeps up, staying strong at Day 2.. so thats good. Im in the Sao Paulo airport with 12 hours to kill before my plane leaves to Salvador. Lesson for next time: read layover information before clicking on the cheapest price. The Sao Paulo airport is no Denver Airport, let me tell you. Theres nothing really to do besides board a plane. The airport is located kind of outside the city, so its a hassle to get into town- traffic and you either pay a shit ton in cab fare or take an hour bus, so theres no point in leaving really... ahh I just want to bathe! So I talk to a lady from TAM (the airlines) about switching my flight to the next one so I didnt have to wait forever.. She looked at me like ::Yea genius, and youre the first one to have this idea- go to the back of the line:: she says, "The flights to Salvador are soldout for a week.. its Carnaval. Theres no waitlist."

But you know.. those flight attendant ladies, they can be god when they want to be.. they have so much power, in just the little click of a button - its not a matter of IF they can help you, its more of do they WANT to help you. Once I realized I was dealing with god, things went a lot more smooth for the rest of my airline encounters. Anyway, so this girl sucks, moving on to the next one. Girl 2 tells me the same thing, "Aw theyre all booked until February 14th." Okay. I get it, 12 hours. Fine. I just sat by her station, didnt really have anywhere else to go at the moment. Then! 10 minutes later, she yells "BAROS!" and Im like, what.. Baros? "Quick! I got you on the next flight! Your plane started boarding 15 minutes ago! ...RUN!"

YES!! I hugged her and ran. Told you, they are god. I arrived in Salvador at 2:30PM. Awesome.
*TAM has the best in-flight sandwiches AND they give you chocolate! Big fan of TAM.

DFW Flight 963

... so I took a little hiatus during my Brazil trip and came home to Texas for a few weeks for a health thing that luckily ended up not being so bad and of course to see my awesome family and friends, of course :)

I figured, in the Dallas Airport as I was getting ready to fly from Dallas back to Sao Paulo that it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a little journal during my travels... so I did, and I tried my hardest to keep it up-to-date. So the rest of what I write about Brazil is kind of an edited version of what I wrote in my journal. Its red by the way. ... so here we go. Some of its real cornball , so prepare yourself. Cheers!

<<02.09.10>>

I have such a long 24 hours ahead of me, Im in Dallas waiting for my flight to Sao Paulo- with only 20 minutes left to wait... I think.. I hope. Im saving my IPod battery for the 10 hour layover I have in Sao Paulo before my flight leaves for Salvador. Carnaval starts tomorrow in Salvador !! 24 hours and I'll be at one of the biggest festivals in the world! How do you even prepare yourself for that? I think my excitement and tequilla intake in the last two hours has shadowed my fear of flying because right now I'm feeling good, not too afraid. I set up shop at a mexican taco grill for a little bit, hoping to calm my nerves with a few doses of Herradura and a last fix of a chicken fajita taco before I left. This crazy geologist guy sat at the table next to me and immediately sarted talking to me when he saw me reading a book on Brazil... kind of had this crazy silent laugh like Harry from Dumb & Dumber. Real odd guy. He kept insisting that I take his "Eating the Dinosaur" book, so I took it.. I figured it'd be more of a battle to say no than to just take it. So now I have a book with a triceratops on it... cool. Its by the author who wrote, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs which I heard was good, so we'll see. Not something I'd expect from a geologist. (I actually ended up reading the entire book, not too shabby actually ... and I'm not a reader, so that was huge.)

I feel like my trip just shifted into "real mode" after walking up to the waiting area and hearing portuguese everywhere, even the PA announcments were in portuguese.. in Dallas! I'm ready to conquer this trip! (probably shouldn't have had that last margarita.. "ready to conquer this trip"...really? .. oh it gets worse..) Beaches, nature, fruit, hiking.. bring it Brazil, Baros is Back! haha. Up up and away, they're calling my group!

So Im sitting in my seat and the alcohol is starting to ware off because Im starting to freak. But Im sitting next to a really nice lady from Sao Paulo who seems like shes got a good vibe going which is so nice because sometimes you get stuck next to some pretty interesting characters- like this one time I sat next to this odd Canadian man.. they really do say "Eh!" .. all the time. Ok, the engine's starting! Here we go! Norah Jones has this line in one of her songs that says, "Our fears are only what we tell them to be." So Im just going to keep telling myself that. It's- all- in- my- head, -everything-will-be-okay. deep breath. See you in Sao Paulo ;)

FLORRRIPA!

So after Porto Alegre I booked it up north to Florianópolis, a big island between Porto Alegre and São Paulo. Its the closest "nice" beach really from Argentina, so it was filled with porteños. Its a lively party town, really fun, awesome beach, small waves for surfing and surrounded by huge green mountains. I think there are like 42 little beaches that make up Florianopolis.

I stayed in the part of town called Barra Lagoa by the coast away from the main part of the city in this great hostel- in like a huge wood cabin on the top of this hill that over looked the main beach and a secluded lagoon. Pretty sweet deal. The picture is the view from my balcony.

Ended up staying with such an amazing group of people and had a blast for a week... that pretty much sums up my trip to Floripa... went to the beach during the day and partied at night....kind of exactly like a week at Spring Break.

Huge gaudy tattoos were pretty much everywhere on the beach, so we all did henna-liquid eyeliner gaudy tattoos of our own. When the henna dried and peeled off, the showers and sheets were covered in dried flakes of black henna, the maid was more than angry.

Hope to catch up with yall soon one day! .. in big Oz, Europe or back in the states :)

When in Doubt , go Raw.

Buenos Aires --> Porto Alegre

I bussed 18 sweet hours from Buenos Aires to Porto Alegre. The ride wasn't bad- long- but do able. Crossing the Argentina - Brazil border was where it kinda got a little dodgey . The bus route goes up north to Iguazu Falls then crosses into Brazil, avoiding having to pass through Paraguay. We stopped at customs, everyone got out, showed the passports, got their stamp yada yada.- We got in our seats to cross and all of a sudden the bus doors open, oh I guess we forgot someone... suddenly about 20 questionable characters jump in really quick. They didnt take their time getting in- it was like a 25 second motion . The bus which was comfortably filled was now crammed with people standing in the aisles. Where did these guys come from? Mind you it was like 2am and we were in the middle of an empty parking lot. Oh god, this is where I get robbed, I know it. The bus, for some reason, was pitch black which made it even worse. For some reason I looked back to the last row and all I could see were 3 pairs of wide white eyes staring at me. Its like the eyeballs were glowing. I just sat there, stiff. We crossed the border, the driver gave a little wave and off we went. 5 minutes down the road the bus stops on the highway, lights turn on and they all jump off without saying a word. And that was it.

Anyway, I decided to stop in Porto Alegre to break up the voyage. Luckily Bryans family has a friend there so I stayed with him and his family for a few days. Really nice family. Not really anything exciting going on in Porto Alegre- industrious, clean, nice thats about it. I ate chicken hearts- that was pretty eventful. If you eat the heart, do you eat their soul? That has to be morally wrong somewhere. I did some research and apparently its not bad luck to eat the chicken heart, BUT swallowing it raw- THATs where the good luck comes. (according to Kentucky Superstitions) If only I wouldve known....

This is the family I stayed with. It was Silvio's 53rd birthday... hence the the hands.

*by the way, I keep feeling the need to correct my punctuation, add apostrophes , cross my

"T"s, dot my "I"s, but I got to thinking and you know what... this is my blog and I'm not going to do it anymore. There, I said it.