Final days in Brazil

Capitan Zanahoria (Captain Carrot) goes to the museum... but we were looking at him in a museum - mind boggling, I know.


On the beach in Florianopolis




We bought these vegetables and fruits for $2!!! Cortney was excited about it.


We are now in Uruguay. This means that we are no longer in Brazil. And no longer speaking in really pained Portuguese... but missing the bright sun and 88 degree beach days.

Lesson #1: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ACCEPT SEATS NEAR THE BATHROOM ON 11 HOUR BUS RIDES. THIS IS A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH.

Before we left Brazil, we went to a little city called Florianopolis, or for us Brazil saavy travelers, Floripa. We ended up renting an apartment for $7 a night per person with our own beds, kitchen, bathroom, and tiny little sitting area. We stocked up on food to cook in the apartment and settled down to four days of saving money. The saving money plan broke down a bit, however, when we decided to go out to dinner in a little neighborhood close to ours, jumped off the bus in the pouring rain, ran to the nearest restaurant, and ran into FRANK AKERS. WHOA. There are some of you who do not know Frank, but for those of you who do, you might also know that we went to school at UNC together and that I knew he was thinking about coming to live in Rio de Janeiro way back in May but hadn`t made up his mind. You might also know that we didn`t keep in touch about it and that running into him in a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere Brazil was crazy! I think he`s planning to stay in Floripa for a month with the friend he is traveling with and try to find a job doing something. The last plan I heard after we had sipped lots of caipirinhas and found our way home around 3am was that they were going to be hotel maids.

So, we spent four quiet days with gloomy weather hiking around our little beach town in Floripa. We found some awesome rock formations down by the water to scramble around on and Cortney did a bit of bouldering. We also took a walk on the beach where we saw migrating whales from the shore. We later learned they were Southern Right Whales making the swim down to Antarctica and that they were in calving season. They were probably fifty feet from the shore... near some surfers who had completely forgotten about surfing. We saw about 15 and who knows how many more there were. They kept surfacing to breath and a few of them looked like they had flipped over and were slowly moving through the water playing with their tails and fins in the waves. They were HUGE and so close to shore. Other highlights include being followed around by yet another stray dog... we named this one Stinky... and also saving a seahorse and a blowfish from certain death stranded on the sand.

After Floripa, we decided to head to Uruguay but this was not as easy as it might sound. Showing up at the bus station with no idea of the schedule seems like the wrong thing to do now since all the buses had already left for Uruguay until the following Tuesday (we were there on Sunday). However, a nice attendent squeezed us onto a bus to Porto Alegre where we spent a night since buses for Montevideo didn`t leave until the next day. Since our bus didn`t leave until 8:30pm we explored Porto Alegre for the day and it turned out to be one of the best days so far. We stored our bags at the bus station and walked to an abandoned train station about 15 blocks away where they now house modern art exhibits. We wandered around alone for a bit but were eventually found by a very cute guy who was a volunteering art student and he offered to help explain the exhibits - modern art is usually beyond me. My favorite included a series of 100 or so pictures about the life of Captain Carrot. I`ll try to post a picture of him on here. Apparently the artist`s son created the story and then the artists took a series of photos with a little carrot shaped man doing his daily activities. Hard to explain in print I guess.

We finally arrived in Montevideo early this morning and found a hostel with no trouble, took showers, and then explored the city a bit. It is a really beautiful city. It reminds me of Quito - but it is much calmer and more laid back as far as I can tell. Amy and I are very excited to be conversing a more fluently than in Portuguese and Cortney is putting up with our constant pressure for her to be practicing her Spanish.