Olodum...bop bop bop goes the drum beat!

We hit the streets of Pelhourino (Pelo) this past tuesday night to check out what is supposed to be the livliest night of the week...and boy was that ever true! We were in search of the famous drumming band Olodum, they have played back up for Paul Simon and Michael Jackson, and are Salvadorian legends. We were a bit dismayed to realize we would have to buy proper tickets in order to see them, everything we had read said they just wandered the streets drumming...but man am I ever glad we did! The show was AWESOME! The gut reaction that happens when you are listening to a stage full of drums is indescribable. They were great performers as well, throwing their drum sticks high in the air, shaking their hips, all the while keeping this intense beat. Everyone in the audience was dancing, moving in whatever way possesed them. I even stepped into a group dance, and had a ball trying to keep up with these three guys who were leading it. My mom was loving it too, mimicking their drumming moves and shaking her own hips...as was Andrew! :D The energy that was created in this plaza where they played was just amazing, clapping, hands in the air, screaming and jiving...we truly got a chance to experience all that is Bahia! :D

Official site http://olodum.uol.com.br/

Around Salvador

Some serious relaxing at Itapue beach. Peep the beer cozzies for the tallies on the right side of the table (jealous janel?)

Cool lighthouse Itapu beach

maritime museum

26 paychecks I did not get.

May 26th, 2006 or Memorial Day Long weekend was my last day in building 50.. its been a wonderful year and the cliche of ¨wow time flies¨could not be truer.. I am often asked ¨how will you go back to working life¨, honestly I try not to think about it :D mind you I have had plenty of distractions..

Pigs in Zen

Well it was like Christmas when Sandy came, she bought some fresh clothes for Heather, a copy of Marching Powder http://marchingpowder.com/ and some gossip mags for our reading pleasure but the best of all was Heathers camera, as you may recall mine has been on it~s last legs since Santiago.. so expect a flurry of photos in nightmode, B&W, Sepia and other combinations of manual settings, and videos as we once again have a fully feature functional camera at our disposal..

well at least it will do until I can get one of these cheap off EBay...

Stylus 770SW
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1287

Sandy in Salvador

Heathers Mum arrived, after a few major stuff-ups on the part of the airlines (AA sucks btw). We managed to pick her up at the airport on our second trip out there for the day.. and have settled back into Salvadors quaint historic district.

Maracaipe / Porto de Galinhas

More Brazil photos are on Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbinferal/sets/72157600222633635/

Hey All... we have spent the past three days on this costal town called Maracaipe and it is fantastic! It is a tiny town with only two dirt roads and a labrynth of back alleys. We scored a rental unit off a local and have been paying $40 a night for our own little apartment with ACon in the bedroom (thank goodness :D), just a stones throw from the beach. Andrew rented a surf board, and I spent the outrageous amount of 15$ US on a book and we have been hitting the beaches. Today was particularly nice because we rented an umbrella, chairs and table for $1 an hour. It was a great setup because the peddlers come to you, food, jewlery, the random small sailing ship or vase :D haha... and most importantly all you have to do is look up and a cold beer is delivered post haste! It was lovely... almost too lovely as we are both a little red from enjoying it too long! lol
Although we have been staying in Maracaipe, Porto de Galinhas is the biggest city next door (only 3km away) and I use the term "biggest" rather loosely as it is still a small town. Porto is mostly just a tourist town with shops and restaurants, and TONS of peddlers peddling everything from "incense" (we think it was a covert term meaning weed lol) to oysters. Its biggest draw are these tide pools that are revealed during late morning low tides, something we hope to check out tomorrow...and the other FAB thing about this town is the cheap bikinis! I broke down and bought two today for only 30$ US and they actually do not look like they might fall apart if I wear them in the water! lol Andrew has also promised to "go local" and buy a pair of "budgie smugglers" (in other words euro speedos) so we will really blend in...that is after our red tan lines go away! lol :D Tomorrow though we will be saying goodbye and heading back to Salvador...it will not be all sad though, as my mom is arriving Sunday and I am very excited for that! :D

These are the "jadanga" boats they use to ferry the tourists back and forth from the beach out to the tide pools during low tide. Kind of a mix between a windsurf and a sail boat.

Yes I really am talking into a big blue chicken! haha Porto de Galinhas actually translates to mean "Port of Chickens"...so all over the city they have these chicken statues and phones, it is pretty funny looking. But really the name Porto de Galinhas was named for something not so funny...according to local history this port is where the local brasilians smuggeled a lot of african slaves into the country, and mostly underneath chicken coops...hense the name...sounds pretty awful to me. :(

Olinda / Recife

We arrived very hot and sweaty to Olinda, we are not used to this humidity at ALL!
http://www.moon.com/planner/brazil/regions/recife_olinda.html

Olinda is a really quaint place along the ocean. Full of colourful architecture and historic churches. On arriving we quickly did the rounds of a few Pousada´s, bargained hard and got what we think is the best place in town for a good deal (pays to travel brazil in the low season).. our room is rather small but we get a massive breaky and have a pool included. Saturday night we roamed the streets of Olinda and ended up in a fairly busy part of town.. hit up the street vendors for some tamales and hot fries, hungout on the sidewalk and took in the action around us.. further along we found a shop that was selling beer with locals packing the street out front, pretty soon a group of musicians had turned up and in no time an impromptu street party Brazilian style was in full swing!

Sunday morning we attended Mass at Mosteiro de São Bento, a very famous landmark as you can read about below..
http://www.moon.com/planner/brazil/mustsees/recife_olinda/mosteiro_saobento.html

after a quick dip we headed into Recife and Boa Viagem. Rather luckily we got off right near the Hippy Market, which was decidely NOT in full swing.. but the beach front was! Locals lined the beach in their rented beach chairs, sipping beers, we saw a game of volleyball being played without use of the hands or arms (now that takes talent!) and generally everyone was out to enjoy the sunshine and beat the heat. The beachfront is reminiscent of Surfers Paradise as it is full of high rise buildings that as the sun sinks cast long shadows on the beach.
Neither of us had researched overly carefully the return bus journey and to our dismay the 30min ride took over 2hrs as we hoped on the RIGHT bus going in the WRONG direction.. one of the lesser joys of not knowing the language.. however people on the bus were super helpful and tried to assure us we would make it back to Olinda eventually, in the meantime we got a nice scenic journey into some of the not so nice parts of Recife..

Tomorrow we head south to Maracaipe and Porto de Gallinhas. I think there is some nice snorkelling at Porto de Gallinhas and it´s supposed to have a really nice beach.
http://www.moon.com/planner/brazil/mustsees/recife_olinda/marcaipe_beach.html

Maracaipe is on the Brazilian surf comp circuit, and is supposed to be an even smaller little beach town, with not much to do but hit the beach, definately what we enjoy...

the current surf forecast is 2.2mtr and glassy.. sounds heavenly to me! Its been over 2 months since I had a surf.
http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Maracaipe.0to2.shtml

Salvador, Bahia

a quick update from Andrew:

We are in Salvador, Bahia. It is really nice here, although the weather has been rather overcast and raining on and off. We are staying in the old historic area, which is very pretty but also very touristy, the beaches are not too far away which will make a nice respite from the city. We are taking a bus up to Recife to spend a week there on the beach, so I am not sure how often we will get on email or around to blogging..

a picture is worth 1000 words..

Hi,
Heather updated some entries that had previously only contained images...

Isla del Sol
http://puravida07.blogspot.com/2007/05/isla-del-sol.html

Salar de Uyuni trip - the shenanigans on this trip could take up an entire blog unto itself.. we saw more weirdness and had more misadventure in these 3 days than I can remember in ages..
http://puravida07.blogspot.com/2007/04/salar-de-uyuni-dia-1.html

http://puravida07.blogspot.com/2007/04/salar-de-uyuni-dia-2.html

http://puravida07.blogspot.com/2007/04/salar-de-uyuni-dia-3.html

Chau Bolivia

Bolivia was an unintended stop on our itinery, but we had so many other fellow travellers rave about it we just had to experience it for ourselves.. we met some fun peeps on our Salar tour that we ended up hanging out with right up till we left La Paz.. We caught a soccer match in La Paz with Jazz, Vicki and Claire before we left which was really fun albiet a bit chilly. I think we both have fallen in love with the vibrancy of Bolivia.

We are now down at a reasonable altitude in Santa Cruz, it's hot, humid, bugy and reminds us we are not far from the Jungle.. luckily our Hostel has a pool!

Well we are bound for Brazil tomorrow.. we have about 1 week until Sandy joins us (Heathers mum!) which we are both really excited to see her.. she will be with us in Salvador for a week or so.

The thought of tackling a new language is a bit overwhelming, we hear that Portugeuse is really tough to pronounce.. we have gotten to a nice level of comfort with our travel spanish, but that is what life is about, challenging yourself.. so bring it on BRAZIL!!

Unboliviable

sadly Bolivia has had a rather turbulent history.. a motley array of military dictators in power, and either getting beat up by its neighbours (it has warred with every neighbouring country at some point in history) and losing valuable lands or having the DEA getting involved because of the coca leaf production.. there are t-shirts you can buy that claim that the leaf of the coca plant is not a drug.. which in fact is true as the coca leaf has been fixture of the native traditions and everyday life since well before the Inca times.. sadly thought it is a huge cash crop for the poor peasants who grow it and then the leaves are shipped to colombia to be turned into cocaine.. 50% of which ends up in the USA. it takes over 200kgs of leaves to make 1kg of raw cocaine so you can imagine that growing coca leaves is a major sorce of income for the peasants.. as well as a part of their traditional lifestyle. sadly the war on drugs has had a big effect on the Bolivian economy despite the US having the best intentions..

Worlds highest capitol

La Paz is truly a different type of capitol city.. it is so colorful and vibrant.. the markets and locals in their traditional attire add to the charm of the city.. the day we arrive we saw a teachers demonstration, a regular occurence it seems as we have run into 3 more demonstrations since.. all peaceful thankfully. although when they let off fire crackers it can be a bit scary at first.. the witches markets were colorful, we saw a man reading coca leaves, dried llama feutuses and a lot of other wickedly bizarre stuff.. the tourist area is a bit over the top but we took the city bus tour (think red double decker bus) yesterday, on a recommendation from Neil and Alison.. we saw the posh parts of town, Valley of the Moon and a nice lookout over the city.. since being back in La Paz we have been hanging out down the south end of town away from the tourist area and it seriously feels like a different place.. no one trying to hawk me a dodgy llama wool beanie.. we are staying on the main street so watch the constant assortment of buses and collectivos spewing out exhaust fumes as they struggle up the hill.. traffic rules seem nonexistent and the pedestrian does NOT have right of way. The San Pedro prison is in the city, one of the most bizarre tourist attractions around
http://www.marchingpowder.com/

There are a lot of police and military police around so the city itself feels really safe. and in the tourist area the tourist police will even give you directions and an escort to your destination if you look lost. having our friends from the salt flats in town at the same time has been really fun and social.

Isla del Sol

What can I say about Isla Del Sol...except, ahhhh relief! After the hectic atmosphere of La Paz, Isla Del Sol was like an oasis! We docked and were immediately met by this young girl named Alejandra who hiked the 1000 stairs with us, talking nonstop about the islands inhabitants, and history. Once we arrived at the top, she showed us all the various potential hostels, we settled on one that cost us $4 a night! Who could resist! :D

The next day the 5 of us set off on a hike from the southern part of the island to the north. It was like stepping back into time 500 years... all along the trail there were these small settlements of adobe huts, and these local women dressed in traditional outfits. We saw loads of pigs, mules, and chickens everywhere as well. Supposedly there were incan ruins throughout the walk, but we didn´t find any until the very end. Isla Del Sol is the birthplace of the Incan Empire actually, we say the sacred rock where it all started, the sacrifical stone and the first temple of the sun.

Walking around these totally unprotected and uninhabited (and I do mean uninhabited, no police, no conservationist, nobody, except some grazing sheep!) ruins, it was a magical sensation to think about the powerfully spiritual people who had walked those grounds so many years before, and the empire that started because of them.

Locals on the Inca road

Hiking the Inca road
Incan sacrificial stone

¿Donde va?

We set off from Copacabana with Jazz, Vicki and Claire for the 17km hike to Isla del Sol.. the birthplace of the sun and the first Inka.. if one is inclined to believe Inkan mythology..

we wandered through small villages, passing the usual assortment of pigs, cows, llamas, sheep, donkeys, pigs, sheep, pigs.. we even took a short cut on an Inka road at one point.

Poor Heather was going pee when a rouge pig, whose rope was longer than heather had calculated, decided to get a bit too up close and personal with Heather.. I had to divert it´s attention with an apple so Heather could finish her business in peace.. we both had a bit of a laugh about that one!

the local kids would run up to us and exclaim ¨¿Donde va?¨.. Isla del Sol we would respond.. well they would say my brother/ uncle / father has a boat and can take you.. only 15 bs.. we politely refused their generous offers, but made a few friends along the way never the less.. it seems that not many gringos bother to take this lovely walk along the shore of the lake to reach the island, but the vistas were stunning making the trek well worthwhile.. we stopped for a quina kola near to where the boats were that take us the rest of the way across the lake.. a local quickly made his pitch and next thing the poor bloke is rowing all 5 of us across the lake to Yumani on the island.. whenever the girls would ask if he was tired he would start rowing faster.. although by the last few hundred meters he definately was waning in his enthusiasim.. we were met on our arrival by a young local girl of about 9 who without prompting became our guide as we trekked up the Inka stairway to the village.. she gave us a bit of a brief tour but was more interested in where we were staying for the night (i guess they start em young here).. we managed to find a nice hostel with views of the lake and sat out on the deck to enjoy a beer as the sun set. -AC

Copacabana / Lake Titicaca

no we are not in Rio yet! but at a small chilled out pueblo on the shore of Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is the worlds´highest navigatable lake.. what the heck does that mean? but at 3600m above the sea it´s not exactly beach weather..

We arrived from La Paz with some of the friends we met on the Salt Flats and spent the afternoon with Neil and Alison taking a look around town.. not much to see, so decided that the best thing on offer was a cold beer on the waterfront.. it was the weekend so lots of locals were out on the lake in paddle boats.. the sun was out and it almost, (almost) felt like being at the beach, although the water temp was bloody freezing..

Jazz and I walked up to the lookout at Cerro Calvarion, overlooking Copacabana and the lake and caught a nice sunset. The altitude really does make walking uphill more of a struggle than it usually would be.. said our goodbyes to Neil and Alison as they are heading onto Peru. -AC

Death road survivor

Starting altitude 4700m
Finish altitude 1300m
Total distance 64km.. 32km is on ¨the most dangerous road in the world¨ or ´El Camino de la Muerte’

I rented the Full suspension rocky mountain bike.. the sweetest bike I´ve ever ridden for the sweetest ride I´ve ever done..! And I got the T-shirt to prove it!

http://www.madnessbolivia.com/tours_tdr.html

It´s that fun I may have to go again..