2nd Impressions *sorry no pictures yet

I find myself in a bittersweet mood for the second time in Bogota. The first time I was grieving leaving home, missing friends and family but excited to go adventuring in South America. This time I find myself excited to go home, but grieving the adventures and more specifically the people Ive met and grown close to while traveling. I go home in about a week and the adjustment to this reality hit me really strongly today when I said goodbye to my companion of the last few months.

The familiar streets and sights of Bogota remind me of when I first got here. I think back on that time now and realize how different my perspective of this place has become. When I first got to Colombia *and South America,  my head was filled with the places I imagined I would go. I had ideas of what things would look like, what troubles I would face and what awesome things I might behold... but those fantasies have been replaced with the reality of those places. Lists of towns all checked off, and now so much of it feels familar even comforting.  I can recall and describe neighborhoods and the special differences between countries. Returning to them would be easy, and without anxiety.  But when I first got here 6 months ago I was full of fear, anxious about the people, the smells, the foods, conversations... I had only my imagination and the descriptions I had heard from others and those descriptions weren't always comforting. 

I was walking through the old town and central Bogota, a place that Ive been reminded I should be on guard. But it feels comforting to see the old places I'd visited before. Now the streets are filled with holiday lights and the costumes of the street performers have changed to christmas themes, but its just a nice spin on a familiar thing. Likewise the restaurants I avoided because I couldn't read the menu- now are revealed. The places remind me of different experiences... seeing dunkin donuts reminds me of my binge in Trujillo, Peru where I went 3 days in a row and eventually got really sick. The indigenous faces remind me of the months I spent in the Andes region, so different from the last few in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. 

But its also a bit difficult to be excited now. I have 5 full days left in Colombia and a very strong sense of lonliness.  I'm headed home for the holidays, but don't really know what to do next.  

The Ocean

Throughout this trip I've had plenty of opportunities to see the ocean. In fact with the exception of the landlocked countries of Bolivia and Paraguay, I saw the ocean in each of the countries I visited. But it wasn't until Brazil (in the last two weeks of my trip) that I actually swam in it.

I know it sounds crazy, but in Colombia the beach I was at had super dangerous currents.

 In Ecuador, the water was dirty where it met the polluted river. 

In Peru and Chile it still felt far too cold, 

in puerto madryn it would have been freezing, plus scary to swim with whales. 

 In Uruguay it was stormy everyday, and finally here... In the warm shallow bay waters of a Brazilian town called Paraty I finally swam in the ocean.

Paraty felt like a bath

The waves were tiny and the water far warmer than it should have been, but the saltiness could not be denied.  It's been a long time since I swam in the ocean. I never went in Southern Europe, or India. I didn't swim in Mexico or Belize, I certainly didn't swim in Iceland or Ireland... So the last time I swam in the ocean must have been a family trip to California right around the time Ok Computer came out.... That had to have been the mid 90s.

The ocean is always impressive to see. The waves of all sorts, the colors, the vastness. But there is something incredible about being in the ocean. Something a little bit scary and also incredibly natural.  Considering I grew up around tranquil lakes, I will probably never get used to the ocean.  But I kind of like that, because it will always make me feel that awe.   

Street Art of São Paulo

São Paulo in ~Ten (written about 6 days ago)

1) The Biggest City Ever

Most cities have one skyline, often identifiable, a familiar set of shapes...Everywhere you go in São Paulo you see a city skyline in the distance.

Recently we went to the top of one of the downtown sky scrapers, the city of São Paulo doesn't end, in any direction. 

We were honestly kind of awed, when we realized there were mountains in the distance... Who knew?  But on careful examination I realized the city crept up them and into the valleys between...

2) Buffets!

In the last few countries we started seeing more and more of the pay by weight buffets. This is an especially good option for a picky-eater and a vegetarian who don't speak the language, but in São Paulo we have run into buffet heaven. At the food court in the local mall there are about 25 restaurants, I'd guess about half are buffets of different styles. Japanese, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Chinese, Italian, etc. much like many of the Chinese buffets in the US a lot of them offer a little bit of everything.  Here is one we ate at in the Japanese neighborhood:

But here is a suggestion, don't get watermelon at a pay by weight buffet. 

3) Portuguese 

This is not really a language but a series of "sh" sounds added to words randomly. 

After being in this country for 5 days I can say honestly that I still don't know how to pronounce a single word properly. In Spanish each letter is pronounced the same everytime, I'm pretty sure Italian is the same, however Portuguese takes liberties on many letters... Like an "São" is pronounced saong with the last few letters sort of implied but not spoken directly. The United States is basically pronounced "doosh eshtadoosh ooneedoosh" anyway I can't help but laugh at most "portugesh."

4) Homeless

With a population of around 12 million in the city limits and 22 million-ish in the metro area, there are bound to be homeless people. But our guide through downtown today told us that there are estimated to be at least 15,000 homeless people in the city (especially the center). Walking to the center isn't recommended at night, the parks, alleys and churches are full of people who have fallen on hard times. Our guide noted hard times... By saying tourists are often surprised by how often the homeless will approach them speaking their (foreign) language. 

5) 500 Years of Immigration

The local Tupi-guarani people were set upon by Portuguese colonists, slavers, Jesuits, farmers trying to find land, adventurers in search of fast wealth. The mixture of peoples over the years have shaped Brazil into a multicultural society with strong ties to foreign lands such as Japan and Italy. While in São Paulo we went to two museums honoring the cultural contributions of two groups who came to Brazil under very different circumstances. The first was the Afro Brazilian museum which documented through maps, artififacts, costumes, instruments, art and photos the history of people of African ethnicity in Brazil. The museum showed both the positives like contributions to music and art, carnaval costumes etc, but also the negatives like the history of slavery, displaying chains, pictures and even the wooden frame of an old slave ship. Brazil didn't officially end slavery until 1888 which is ridiculously recent. The Brazilian economy for many years was based on slave labor in agriculture like sugar plantations and rubber collectors, both of which relied heavily on black and native slave labor. But around the time that slavery ended another industry (coffee) was taking off in the south and Japanese immigrants were recruited to meet the labor need. The Japanese immigration museum is located in a neighborhood of São Paulo that is is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and has a huge population of Japanese families still to this day. 

The museum highlights the living conditions of the people who emigrated from Japan, how they merged and contributed to Brazilian society. Artifacts and documents show work and life conditions in the jungles, clearing farms and starting business and community organizations. 

The contrast between the two museums, the one showing a people kidnapped and forced into slavery vs another of courageous people who willingly adventured to start a new life is extreme. The afromuseum shows an incredible amount of visual evidence, but very little written documentation of afrobrazilian life. 

For instance a picture shows how Africans were brought by the hundred chained in rows to the decks of the ships with very little room to even eat or defecate. They had no idea where they were going or what to expect.

The Japanese(a much more recent immigration) have pictures getting on and off the ships, and photo evidence to document the classrooms on the ships in which they learned Portuguese on the ride over. 

6) Diversity 

São Paulo with it's massive population and history of immigration is the most diverse place I have ever been. People in every shape size and color. The combination of the entire world melting together. It's beautiful honestly.  I know a lot is written about how Brazil has conquered the race issue, and a lot is written about how that is bullshit, but as an American who reads every night on Facebook about the continued racial tension in the US, it's really amazing to see a society that SEEMs to have integrated so many differ people so well. 

That being said...

7) Or Not?

In one of the wealthiest areas of the city, we saw all of the worlds famous stores (name any high end designer) and the entire mall was full of white people.  

If I spoke the language, I'd guess id hear a lot more about the differences, the biases and other inequalities present in Brazil, but as an outsider who doesn't speak the language... It mostly looks beautiful if you don't pay too much attention. 

8) wtf? 

Mcdonalds doesn't have chicken mcnuggets on their menu?

9) Street Art(see next post- sorry but it may take some time to load the photos).

10) The Christmas Spirit

For me Christmas usually means snow or at least cold weather. Its been about 80-90 degrees here everyday but the Brazilians are out in full swing to celebrate X MAS.  Here are a couple of the public displays... 

The Falls and the Consulate

(Written about two weeks ago)

In Paraguay we were told that each Brazilian Consulate creates their own rules for giving out visas. The consulate in Ciudad del Este has a general policy that all visas for the US (for me) and Australia (for Eduardo) take at least three days to be cleared. We decided that would be too long in that shopping haven border town so we decided to check out the smaller of the three border towns back in Argentina.

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina is a small border town with a few major tourist sights. Located near several nature reserves as well as the ideal viewing spot of the "tres fronteras" and of course the highlight Iguazu Falls!

Tres fronteras is where Paraguay(left), Brazil (right) and Argentina (front center) come together.

The falls are shared by Brazil and Argentina and it is recommended that tourist see both sides for the full experience. Unfortunately we were only able to see the Argentina side due to a number of unforeseen difficulties obtaining a visa and crossing the border. 

The Argentina side was incredible.

And in the national park we saw lots of these guys. 

The park warns that though they seem friendly(unscared of humans) they are actually quite dangerous. 

The argentine side of the falls was great, but we hoped to quickly cross the border so we could see the Brazilian side.

Unfortunately we ran into issues.

The first issue was being prepared for the consulate. When we got there we found out that the consulate did not have the application form on paper, instead we were required to fill it out online and bring a printed copy of the verification. Unfortunately they didn't have internet. So we had to leave and go fill out the form at a place with wifi. We also needed a printer... For some reason no one in Puerto Iguazu has a printer. Two hostels, and the photocopy shop didn't have what we needed (internet AND a printer). We ended up putting all the files on a jump drive at the hostel and taking it to the photocopy shop(that didn't have internet), but all this took several hours and a few walks back and forth through town in the hot sun, so by the time we got back to the consulate they were beginning close for siesta (2pm). The very strict consulate guy who had already yelled at us in Portuguese and spoke no English or Spanish then told us we had 20 minutes to pay him the consulate fees for doing the visas. We got our money out and he yelled again that it had to be in argentine pesos. 

If you have been reading my posts about Argentina´s money issues, then you know exchanging is both a necessary and very complicated process. 

In Puerto Iguazu we were told there were NO money changers who would give us a good rate. Fortunately though we found out that that was untrue. There were many money changers who were very secretive and Eduardo had figured out who they were, so we rushed out of the consulate hoping to exchange just enough money to get our visas and not have too much because Argentine money is worthless outside the country. 

Eduardo found the money changers and we ran back to the consulate with about 5 minutes to spare. The cranky guy said ok come back tomorrow.. And we sighed with relief and exhaustion. 

We worried all night long that they would reject out applications, but the next morning they were ready and waiting for us.  

We crossed the border without a hitch, but the process took so long that by the time we got to Foz de Iguacu, Brazil the park was about to close. We opted to head to São Paulo and you can read about that in the next post.

Paraguay!

A little off the beaten path, or rather the gringo trail, Paraguay is the country stuck inbetween all the others.  Though not often visited by non South Americans I personally enjoyed several aspects of the week there.

We spent 2 nights in the capital Asuncion, which unfortunately wasn't all that and a bag of empanadas. The downtown area consisted of narrow streets with cars that whizzed by without regard to pedestrians or traffic postings. There were a number of public parks and a bunch of craft/souvenir sellers, plus a bunch of bars and restaurants that catered to the weekend shopper... But outside of the core shopping streets the city seemed vacant, void of life and eery.

One area near the government center had hundreds of what looked like makeshift shacks. Tourists are warned that this area is unsafe especially at night, but basically it seems like poor people from a round the country go to live in the capital, and when they can't afford an apartment they set up a shack, maybe pretend to sell something and stay perpetually in sight of the politicians who run the country. - to me this is rather incredible, I can't imagine people being able to do this in the US.

I found Encarnacion to be much more agreeable, aesthetically pleasing and tourist friendly.  The city is built on a massive river but the river front has been remodeled into a beachfront similar to what you'd find on a nice lake or even the ocean. The locals gather and play volleyball and hang out at night when the day has cooled off. 

There wasn't much to see in the city itself, the remnants of the past along the breach front, the church lit up at night, a few public parks with nice gardens. 

The big draw to the area are the ruins of Jesuit missions. These towns were abandoned/destroyed in the mid 1700s after the Jesuits were expelled by the kings of Portugal and later Spain. The towns were fairly wealthy cooperatives in which thousands of Guarani (the local indigenous group) lived, worked, learned and created works of art. The communes  were so successful that they made local plantation owners jealous, this envy lead to the political maneuvering to evict the Jesuits who protected the natives. When the towns were abandoned by the Jesuits, many of the natives were killed or enslaved and the towns fell into ruins. 

We visited the largest of the Jesuit missions in the area, a place called Trinidad. It was easy to picture the beauty  that once was in the ruins, the picturesque surroundings didn't hurt either.

The legacy of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay stands in contrast to Christian missions in other locations which sought to eradicate the local customs, in the Guarani lands the Jesuits promoted education and music in both Spanish and in the Guarani language so it is still spoken by many people today.

The last city we visited in Paraguay was the border town of Ciudad del Este. This is one of three towns that sort of make up a metro area between three different countries. Ciudad del Este (and Paraguay) are the poorest of the three, so many Brazilian and Argentinians cross the border to buy cheap or knock off goods without paying high taxes. The city is considered kind of sketchy and most tourists are told to stay on guard.

We stayed just a little outside of the main down town area in an area that could be an upcoming suburb neighborhood, or maybe is just like much of Paraguay in that they built some nice buildings in an area with little to no infrastructure. 

The hostel we stayed at was like a realy nice mansion, but the electricity went out numerous times while we were there and the road to get there was mostly mud.

Nearby was a nice lake that reminded me of the cities. Malls seem to be the refuge to escape the heat.

In general Ciudad del Este didn't quite meet my expectation for sketchiness, in many ways it is similar to Peru or Bolivian markets, but compared to Argentina, Uruguay or Chile I can understand why people would look at the rough market stalls and be a little wary. 

Outside of ciudad del este is the worlds second largest dam Itaipu, which we visited on a quick bus trip outside the city. The 30 minute tour included one major photo opportunity, but since the dam wasn't at full capacity when we were there the pictures we took didn't look nearly as dramatic as the ones online.  It was a really massive structure and made me really awed at what humans can do! 

This is from one of the official posters.