Way back at the end of January, what seems like a lifetime ago, I caught my 3 day, 4 night boat trip through the Amazon Jungle from the Colombian border to Manaus, Brazil, the biggest city in the Amazon (pop. 1.3 million). The trip was everything I expected and much more. The entire time I just couldn´t get over the fact that I was in the Amazon forest, and it was its beauty was jaw-dropping. The sunsets, the tranquility, the remoteness of it all was really powerful. We would stop at these little ports to pick up passengers and stock up, and that was a lot of fun to get off and try the food. Everybody brought their own hammocks to sleep in and there were like 200-250 people, 95% Brazilian, sleeping everywhere, feet hanging in faces, very close quarters, but it really didn´t bother me too much. There were two levels where everybody hung their hammocks and put their belongings, and up top there was a covered area and a snack bar, a TV always blaring Brazilian Novelas, and another open area where I would hang out watching the jungle, looking for anacondas and monkeys (I did see what I believed to be a pretty darned big anaconda head in the water off to the shore).  The food (which was included in the price of the ticket) was phenomenal, abundant, and an impressive first tast of the Brazilian gastronomy.

We spent a day in the Amazonian city of Manaus and didn’t do anything notable, and then a week on the Northeastern Brazilian coast, known for it’s breathtaking beaches in Fortaleza, Natal, and Joao Pessoa.  It was relaxing as we prepared  for Carnaval, lounged on the beaches and drank coco water and Brazil’s phenomenal soft drink, Guarana (best pop I’ve ever had). The beaches were really awesome and the sun was strong too. My Colombian friend (Ricardo) and I met a bunch of Brazilians (from all over Brazil) in this hostal in Joao Pessoa just before Carnaval and we ended up becoming a tight group and spending all of Carnaval together. We became really close and I’m planning on visiting them later on when I pass through the Center and South. If there’s one thing I can say about Brazilians up to this point, THEY ARE REALLY AWESOME PEOPLE.  I am blown away by the hospitality I have received every day from complete strangers here in Brazil, and it’s really easy to make new friends too.

So I showed up in Brazil really quite flexible and open before the idea of Carnaval. I hadn´t made any plans. I had always heard about Carnaval in Rio and Salvador but without making accommodations well in advance, it´s gonna cost an arm and a leg and maybe not be the best value…. So being in Brazil, talking to people and investigating where in the world I was going to spend this crazy and famous Brazilian festival, I started to hear about this well-known little colonial town called Olinda in the Northeast of Brazil, which is supposed to be the `People´s Carnaval,´ with the most authentic cultural demonstration in Brazil. And everybody I met was talking about Olinda as the place to go for Carnaval. So I found a reasonably priced space in a shared house and braced myself for Carnaval do Brasil!

To begin to describe Carnaval is really hard unless you have some frame of reference. It´s a cultural festival that starts Friday and ends Wednesday at noon, and it´s 5 nights of pure music, festivals, parades, craziness… But I’m wasting my words here. You really have to see it to believe it, to experience it to understand, but once you do, you´ll never be the same.  I’ll never be the same. It blew my mind and I’m still reeling.
After Carnaval I caught a bus to the interior of Brazil to visit a friend of mine, Itali, and her family, in a small, little known city called Serra Talhada. This was the perfect post-carnaval activity because it was so nice and calm, and the family was SO EXTREMELY hospitable and nice and they fed me so well. I spent 5 days not doing much really, but it was awesome because I was with really good people, practicing my Portuguese, reading (I´m reading `Marley and Me` in Portuguese watching the famous Brasilian novelas (soap operas) and just chilling, absorbing the culture and the language. It was everything I needed to recharge the batteries and get my Portuguese percolating.

It’s really awesome to go through the language learning process once again. It’s extremely humbling not knowing how to communicate, that deer in the headlights look when you don’t understand anything somebody just said, which is happening a lot these days (Less and less thankfully)… but it’s extremely gratifying to take these huge leaps with the language each week as my ¨Portunhol¨ (a mix of Spanish and Portuguese) morphs into something you might really be able to call Portuguese. I studied for several months before coming, and that’s served me well as I’m starting to feel more comfortable with my knowledge, my ear for the language is developing, and I find myself feeling more and more fluent in day to day interactions, and able to communicate myself on a deeper level with friends. I’m excited to see where it’ll be in a month. I’m really eager to learn this.

So the plan from here is to spend a week or two in Salvador, a week or two in Rio de Janeiro, hit the South (Curitiba and Florianapolis) and then a month or two from now decide where I’m gonna set my backpack down and look for work.  Rio and Florianapolis seem like great options. Sorry I haven’t gotten picture up on this blog. My computer’s not really cooperating with that endeavor right now. I have a lot up on facebook.

As for today, Bogota. It’s a bit chillier here than other areas of Colombia, and honestly, it’s not my favorite city….I always get overwhelmed by the throngs of people (population 8 million I believe), the traffic, how it takes forever to get from point A to point B … the average temperature is like 15 degrees Celcius, which is like 59 degrees Ferenheit, which is way better than the American winter right now. Since the last post I’ve been criss-crossing the Andes a bit… I’ve had a week to wait for my Brazilian visa, so I’ve traveled a bit.

I was in a city in the Northeast called Bucaramanga (state of Santander, Population 1.2 million, 8 hours NE of Bogotà by bus) for a few days, and it was fricking HOT. Let me check my celcius converter to tell you… 32 degrees celcius or 90 degrees ferenheit. It’s surrounded by mountains and huge spacious and steep valleys that definitely give the impression that you’re gonna die as you descend the switch-back cliffs, passing car after car, peering off into the void, the glimmering little river way way at the bottom (for those of you that know Colombia, this is the Parque Nacional de Chicamocha). Bucaramanga is a bit different than other places I’ve been in Colombia… the people are drier, more reserved… Colombians say they have a reputation for being ¨bravos,¨ which in spanish doesn´t quite mean angry, but sort of like they have a chip on their shoulders. I had the opportunity to visit a little colonial town called Giron as well and walk the cobble-stoned streets and hang out in the church plazas.

From Bucaramanga, I headed to a smaller town called San Gil, which I noticed on my way to Bucaramanga, thinking to myself  ¨Now that´s a town I would like to visit,¨ as it seemed small, quiet, picturesque, and with a beautiful river running through the center. San Gil has a burgeoning tourist industry that seems to be pretty recent. A few adventure/ ecotourism companies have sprung up in the last few years, offering paragliding, rafting, caving, rappeling (climbing down a waterfall with climbing gear) and tourists from all over the world have flocked to take advantage. The owner of the hostel was telling me that 3 years ago there were less than 50 foreign visitors. Last year San Gil was blessed (or cursed– depending on how you look at it) with over 3,000 foreign visitors, which has really stimulated the local economy.

I stayed at a hostel called Macondo (The name of the sleepy paradisiacal town in Nobel Prize winning novel ¨100 years of solitud¨ by Colombia’s own Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and took advantage my time there to go on a cave tour, which plunged me 80 meters beneath the earth, crawling through crevices and long tunnels as I had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of our Earth from the inside. It was really awesome and I have some cool pics I’ll try to get up here soon. I met some 10  year old kids that night and was hanging out with them for a few hours in the central park. They were really pleasant and so curious about the U.S. and English and introduced me a street performer from Cali who makes his living lying down (on his back) on a bed of broken glass bottles while volunteer stand on his chest. He did his show and asked me to volunteer. He claims he can endure over 400 kilos (around 900 pounds) while lying on broken glass bottles.

The next day in San Gil we (with some Canadean friends I met and went on the cave tour with) went to a swimming hole on the river, some waterfalls, and the farm (finca) of the Australian owner of Macondo Hostel. We crossed the river beneath or behind the waterfall (like in ¨Last of the Mohicans¨) to get to the other side and climb up to his cottage, lush with orange trees and striking views of San Gil in the distance. From there we headed back under the waterfall and further up the river to another waterfall which empties into an exquisite swimming hole with a tame 6 meter (12 foot) drop into deep cool waters (San Gil is also hot and the cool refreshing dip was more than welcome)… We jumped the cliff, climbed the wall back (it would have been a daunting climb if not for the safety net of the water beneath). Also we discoved the joy of climbing straight up the waterfall, behind it, to emerge from the falling water and plunge into the pool beneath  (My Canadean friend took a really great picture of me emerging from the waterfall. I´ll try to get it from him to post on here). And then some locals showed up and humbled us with their diving prowess. These guys grew up on the river and definitely knew what they were doing.

In a nutshell, after a few days in Colombia’s gem, Medellin, I spent 4 or 5 days in Manizales, the beautiful medium sized city in the Andes Mountains where I lived in for almost 2 years. It was during their annual festival (feria). From there I went to the small town of  Salento, and  did some horseback riding in the marvelous Valle de Cocora (Cocora Valley) with it’s giant Andean wax palm trees and picturesque views of rolling mountains, waterfalls, and sprawling valleys.  I spent a few days in crazy Cali, the salsa capital (of the world?), a few days in Cartago, and now off to Bogotà, where I’ll spend a few days and get my Brazilian tourist visa.

I am enjoying myself. I’ve been able to visit a lot of old friends, do a little bit of dancing, participate in some Colombian Indigenous rituals, and get back into Spanish mode (Portuguese is on the backburner for now). The weather is warmer, the days are longer, and overall life is good!

After an exhausting 24 hours of travel (Seattle to Houston to Panama to Medellin), I finally arrived in Medellin, Colombia. The trip was pretty uneventful. I spent the entire time listening to a Spanish audiobook and reading my other book in Spanish.  I also met a Brazilian woman in Panama and practiced my Portuguese (although her English was perfect as she was a Yale grad and Washington D.C. human rights lawyer) for like 20 minutes. That was a lot of fun, and I’m at least conversational with my portuguese.

It’s really nice to be back. The people here are wonderful. It’s like 75 degrees outside, and it’s 4:30 and there’s no sign of darkness creeping in. It’s a nice feeling to escape the winter, and cold, and the Northwest drizzle.  I went and got my yellow fever shot (again– but i don’t have the card anymore to prove it) and get things in order to apply for the Brazilian visa, but unfortunately the Brazilian consulate is closed this week. So, I have to see what my options are, and maybe do it in Bogotà or another city later.

I’ll probably go to Manizales tomorrow, which is the city I lived in in the Andes mountains about 4 hours from here. They’re having their yearly ¨feria¨ or festival.

It’s January 1st, and as I pack and prepare to head to Colombia in a few days, I’ve decided to start sharing my adventures on this new blog.  I’m hoping it’ll look nicer as I update it and learn and add photos and maybe even videos. I’ve decided create this blog because I’ve been inspired by fellow adventurers who’ve mastered the art of travel blogging, as well as a few friends and family who have created amazing blogs. In past trips, I definitely have had a hard time communicating with all my family and friends, so maybe this can help bridge the gap. I’m really looking forward to sharing with you all, to updating it frequently, and to hearing from you.

So, the loose outline for my South American odyssey is to spend about 3 weeks to a month in Colombia, travel Brazil from North to South, and find a wonderful, fitting city to live in and teach English. I’d like to spend at least a year living in Brazil.

I’ll be in Colombia until early February, visiting friends, attending festivals, and exploring the Amazon Region. From that point, I’m planning on catching some type of cargo boat down the Amazon river toward Brazil. Apparently it’s a week long and you sleep on a hammock with a lot of locals. However, it’s supposed to be pretty cheap, a once in a life time experience, and what better way to practice my burgeoning portuguese?

I plan on getting off the boat in Manaus, which is the biggest city in the Brazilian Amazon (in the North Central part of Brazil) and from there flying to the Brazilian Northern Coastal city of Fortaleza in mid-January (Carnaval!), and begin my journey South through Natal, Joao Pessoa, Recife, Salvador, all the way to ¨The Marvelous City¨ of Rio de Janeiro. There’s a lot of stuff South of there which I’d like to find out about and surely intend to get to (Curitiba, Florianapolis, some giant crazy beautiful waterfalls that I can’t remember the name of right now), but really I HAVE TO WRAP MY MIND AROUND BRAZIL FIRST.

So, needless to say, I’m excited. I’m really enthusiastic about all of this, and can’t wait to see my friends in Colombia. I’m so excited to start speaking Portuguese, especially because I’ve really put in a lot of work these past few months trying to learn it, and I feel like I’m absolutely ready to hit the ground running. These past 5 months at home have been wonderful, I’m grateful to have spent a whole holiday season with my family, helped coach cross country at my alma matter, seen so many friends and family, and recharged the batteries for yet another chapter of my life.