Lapa and botanical garden

I’ve survived one more week in the big city. Highlights of the past week were a night out in Lapa at Scenarium and today’s trip to the Botanical Garden. Somehow I manage to spend way too much time wandering about in the streets—that’s pretty much how I use up most of my time here in Rio outside of classes.

I went to Lapa the week before but we just wandered around in circles for 2 hours. This time we went with a few Brazilians to hear the band of one woman’s husband. Outstanding! The leading musician played the violin and the band ranged from samba to forro. The venue itself was beautiful. Like a restored old hotel lobby/saloon. It was filled with antiques and I was told that these antiques get changed frequently—either because they are rented or they get sold. The area is an antique district during the day.

Today I missed my program’s bus to Petropolis—a historic city in the mountains—like an idiot. So I stuck around town again and me and Patricia went to the Botanical Gardens. Its really a lovely place and maybe one of the nicest botanical gardens that I have been to—not because it has more diversity or infrastructure or anything. It just had a really good feeling and maybe I was really relieved to finally get away from all of the cars and the traffic. We even saw some wildlife (toucans, monkeys) which reminded me how close Rio is to some beautiful and rich forest.






View of the mountains and favela (?) outside of the gardens.

Rio de Janeiro

I am in a homestay about 4 blocks from the famous beach of Copacabana. Really amazing to be here in Rio and again, standing in a place with so much history and famous reputation. I went to Ipanema on the first day here— I have to admit that like many other extranheiros, I’ve romanticized it based on “The Girl from Ipanema”. The family that I am staying with is wonderful. Marisa and her daughter Jennifer (23 YO); Patricia is another student from Boulder, CO; and until recently, Kendra was here as a tourist as well. It is a lively, friendly and comfortable house to stay in. I was pretty nervous about it before arriving since it’s a bit weird committing to stay in a family’s house for 6 weeks, but Marisa loves to chatter and treats us all like her children so I felt comfortable immediately.

Marisa and I.

A typical day for me: Breakfast at 8am with coffee and ham and cheese sandwich and fruit. Arrive for class at 8.45am and study Portuguese in my class of about 10 students. Then home for lunch—big lunch! Then sometimes back again to the school for lectures—the cultural component of the course. If I am free for the afternoon, then I explore the wonders of Rio de Janeiro with one or two girls from my house.

Yesterday Kendra took me to Santa Theresa—a small bohemian and artistic community surrounded by favelas. We rode the Bonde there, which was the most sketchy form of transportation that I am ever encountered. Maybe it was because when we arrived it was full, so we rode on the outside of it. The concrete along the sides of the tracks was brushing my pant legs as we went over the overpasses of the highway. All I could imagine as a pant leg getting stuck on an outcropping and me tumbling down to the favelas below. Besides that it creaked along like an old rollercoaster and often seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown. The kids were killing me as well, because they liked running along the bonde- jumping on and off and dragging their feet along the road as we moved along. Santa Theresa was quaint, charming, beautiful and a breath of fresh air for me- since the busy-ness of Copacabana has been a bit difficult for me to get used to. We had a lovely caiparinha at a hillside restaurant with some small food before leaving on the rickety bonde back into the downtown of Rio.

Kendra at the house.

Santa Theresa

 

Prainha

Kauai

We were in Kauai (the garden island) for about 10 days. We went west first. Punihale beach. Off road. Stuck in the sand. Amazing beach. Hawaiian monk seals on the beach.

Hawaiian monk seal (actually Hengjia looks like that when he's sleeping...) 

We look happy here, but we were actually quite lost on the Naulolo Valley trail. Didn't even get back to our car until past dark. 

Then up to Kole'e State park for 2 nights. 10 mile hike to see the south side of the Na Pail coast line. Then, we met my friend from Gainesville-- Elisha. He was in a really nice bohemian town called Kapa'a. He took us to a nice campsite in pine groves, and we had a great BBQ. Then Mario and I went to a 3 day ethnobotany field course in Kauai. We camped outside by the small clean (!!) river. About 500 meters from the beach. Then we hiked the Na Pali trail. 22 miles round trip. Amazing trail!! Completely along the ocean cliffs, and stunning!! We walked the first leg (11 miles) in one day easy, and were hardly prepared for it. No water filter, so we drank out of waterfalls.

Lobster - Mario traded an apple and a couple of granola bars to a hippie for a few lobsters. 

Hands down most beautiful mountains I'd ever seen

Mario is like me, so we had a great adventure doing everything that we wanted to do in Hawaii: forests, waterfalls, waves, beach, hiking, camping, eating great food, exploring... Every day here was a great day for us. Mario left today for New Zealand. We will meet again in another country this year. Indonesia? Thailand? Malaysia? We will see...

I must admit that one month of transient living in a tent is quite enough for me, and I am ready to be back in my house with my dogs, garden, kitchen and hot shower. I'm leaving tonight for North Carolina for an Society for Economic Botany conference...

Big Island

Mario and I have spent the past 10 days exploring the Big Island. This is my second time around the island. But the first time was more planned and I stayed in the public camping places, which required permits. Since Mario and I didn't plan much we played it by ear and went slow. Very nice! We would hunt out a nice spot and then hang out until evening and then set up our casinha! Our little house spots were much nicer than the dirty public parks were were open to everyone to use. We started in Kona. Mario has friends there and we organized our things and they so kindly lent us a beautiful 4wd Toyota. We took good care of her and she took good care of us. Then we went clockwise around the island. 2 nights in Palolu-- we climbed up and down that big cliff to our camp site everyday for more supplied (water!). Hiking to the top of the neighboring ridges. Eating liliquoi and little guava. One night in Waipio valley-- camping on the burial site. Bathing in the Lepto water fall. Crossing the unpredictable river. Climbing the ridge. One night in the middle before Hilo: sneaky camping on the outlook. Wine and cheese during the sunset. Next day Takaka falls. Then to stay with Mike in Puna Valley for three nights. Volcano at night. Boys surfing. Mike's interpretive dance of Pele. Snorkling in the reefs. Volcano Natl Park. Sulfur fumes. Rainbows. Punalu'u camping. Dirty public park. Black sand beach. Then back to Kona.

Tired of camping on top of little pine cones, Mario was delighted to find a patch of soft grass.  

Waterfall where we were apparently invisible to all other tourists - we were ignored for over an hour by all the tourist groups!  

Meeting up with crazy Mike from UF. And our very cool truck- our fast pass for being locals.  

We were such locals, in fact, that we accidentally made a BBQ on top of an ancient burial site (see Mario arranging the grave stones to balance our grill), and the passing tourists just assumed that we knew what we were doing.

 On the lava

Cooking out on the lava. Mike also convinced us to cross all of the "danger" barriers to explore the freshly hardened lava. All of the smoke coming out of the cracks convinced us it was a bad sign.  

 Mario surfing. 

 Active volcano.

 Black sand beach. 

Canoe mooring holes.  

Green sand beach

Oahu, Hawai'i

Here I am again. In beautiful Oahu. Downstairs in Michael's place where I can watch the sun rise over the Honolulu sky line. I had a hell of a time finishing the semester but I am glad to say that I did everything that I needed to do! And not a bad job at it at all. What a wonderful feeling to feel free again! And happy too-- knowing that I am doing everything to the best of my ability. So I have an exciting next 5 weeks, and rest of the summer. You will be seeing me alot again. May 1: the Big Island, May 10: Kuaui, May 25: Oahu. I am visiting the University, visiting friends, and taking a field course. You will see me on the beach, snorkling, hiking and having a fabulous time. And remembering what it is to be free again.

Belize

One of the most astonishing facts about Belize, is that it s hardly inhabited with about 350,000 people, of whom the most distinguishable are the Mayans, Garifunas, and plenty of Guatemala immigrants. Its a beautiful country full of forests, wildlife and beaches.

My first stop was Cayo where I went to meet up with a friend's cousin- Tim- who has been living there for 4 years. He's staying in a great house overlooking the beautiful forest around Cayo (San Ignacio). Lovely mornings on the porch with REAL coffee and lots of birds. One day we all went to the Pineridge Forest for swimming and exploring. Our rented Trooper broke down that same night and we ended up walking the last two blocks to his car-- Belizean style, I was told. BTW Tim's car is a story in itself bc it well represents life in Belize: He drove it into an unexpected river that flooded a bridge-- they had to drag it out of the river but the electronics have been shot since then. Someone threw a huge stone thru the window and he now uses this stone to set up the plastic needed to cover the window to keep the rain out. Then, just before I showed up, Tim banged on the dash to fix a rattle problem and punched a big hole in it.

Then I went to Dangriga for 3-4 nights. Now, this is considered the center of the Garifuna culture and Punta Rock. The Garifuna are an ethnic mix of Caribbean and African and are lovely people. They speak like they are reciting poetry-- a beautiful version of English that would be interpreted as highly descriptive street slang in the US. At first glance Dangriga's not the nicest looking town (the hotel owner was surprised to hear that we would be staying a second night). But the Garifuna are so charming and there were so many things going on, we just had to stay. Ahright mon! There was a cultural show with music and dancing one night. Great music! I LOVE the music! Imagine a town where you can walk down the streets in the evening and find that every house listens to good music-- Carribean, Latin, reggae, African, Garifuna beats. Que bonito! You should see these women dance. Their hips (read: ass) move as an altogether independent body and they risk some moves that border on vulgar-- a woman jumped up on stage to dance and stopped several times dramatically to flex her crotch muscles for the crowd. Throughout all of this, there was this multiple day dugu (spiritual healing) ceremony going on at a spiritual center (made of bamboo and thatch), which we attended intermittently. I joined in some of the dancing, which is accompanied by 3 big hand drums and lovely singing. The last day that we attended began with greeting the fisherman at the beach, who were bringing in seafood for the ceremony. It was a bit of a rough town (Lots of crackheads; we got robbed at gun point on the street one night, can you believe?) but it was completely exotic and interesting to me.

Spirit center in Dangriga.

Dangriga at sunset.

I headed to Placencia with the chief objective of staying out of trouble for the last few days of my trip. My first day there, I met a couple of girls (India and Italy) who invited me to share a room with them. They had a full out efficiency with a fully equipped kitchen, bathroom, and big veranda on the second floor of a wooden building (30$/night for the whole place!). It was perfect! Beaches were lovely, place was chill, sun was hot, and the water was clear. A perfect ending to over 3 months of travel in Latin America.

Quechi Mayan boys selling crafts made by their families.

Itza Mayans

I am on the other side of the lake (close to Flores in Northern Guatemala) in a little pueblo called San Jose. It is a very old town of several hundred years-- fully Itza Mayan. I´m staying with a family who is very (very) basic. I have my own little room enclosed in plastic and concrete with a tin roof. I eat carbs and carbs and more carbs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our toilet is a couple of holes in the ground (but fairly clean). And the mother of the house cooks on a fire-- yesterday I made tortillas! She´s got two ducks and 1 pig and I spend some time everyday watching them roam around and eat stuff (I like the ducks). I live at the top of the hill-- almost next to the Spanish school. The school is outside in a big garden overlooking the lake and we look at the wildlife that come to the garden everyday during my class. I am the only student at the school, so everything is one-on-one. The teacher is so-so, I tell her what and how I want to learn. She´s great for conversational practice but terrible with explaining grammar. I get my own private guide everyday-- and he is a really fabulous guide and speaks like he is reading out of book! Today we are going to another Mayan ruin for my own archaelogical and ecological tour. Yesterday I had a tour around this town of 3000 people. Tomorrow we are going to a cave. Some of the houses are still traditional with mud walls and thatch roof (photo).

Here´s the two main reasons why I am here: 1. The lake is stunningly blue and clear and completely beautiful. I make a point of swimming and spending time there everyday. The weather is good almost everyday-- too hot actually. 2. There is alot of use of plants here. They make soap and shampoo, weave and dye cloth, make plant based jewelry, collect and eat local plants, and use medicinal plants. I am also one of only 4 foreigners in this whole town-- I have only talked the Japanese volunteer who can only speak Spanish. I am Spanish speaking all day and it gets pretty tiring (no hablo Ingles nunca). BUT, I´ve learned tons already in 2 days. I´ll spend about a week here and then move on to Belize.

My room.