Christmas in Itacaré

After 22 hours of traveling via bus (only 6 hours of which was air conditioned) we arrived in Itacaré, a small fishing village on the coast, turned hippie/hipster hotspot.

Right off the bat, I spent a day in bed with a fever and throwing up. Was it the chicken patty, the warm cup of tapioca pudding from that damn street vendor, or just a 24 hour bug caught on the bus? Reading the Health section of Lonely Planet Brazil suggested dengue fever. Apparently, in 2002, 800,000 people in Rio came down with it. That´s like the entire city of San Francisco getting ill. By noon on the second day, though, I could keep down a bowl of ramen and seemed to be fine.

Santa Cruz of Brazil

Itacaré is the Santa Cruz of Brazil. Lots and lots of white kids with dreadlocks selling jewelry. And these are Brazilians, not foreign imports. It´s like you need a tattoo or piercing just to get on the beach. Or at least a golden torso sculpted by years of paddling out into fierce surf. I, of course, have none of these. I quickly rented a surfboard to remedy the situation. Three days and I should be tan, if not sculpted.

The next morning I woke to a light rain, and resolutely lugged my enormous longboard to the beginner´s beach. I imagined Brodie heading into the Thousand Year Storm at Bells Beach, Keanu "I am an FBI agent" Reeves shaking his head on the shore. The rain picked up, further fueling my romantic surfer notions. In fact, the surf seemed a little rough for a "beginner´s beach," and sure enough, a nice lady in the waves told me to stay away from the rocks because the "waves were big today." After watching me try to catch an enormous roller and get pummelled, she also told me to stop that immediately. I thankfully moved closer to shore to find the baby waves.

I quickly learned that a surfboard´s first instinct is to try and kill you. It has many weapons at its disposal. The three sharp fins to sever an artery, the leash to tangle your legs, the board to club you on the head and ribs as it flops around in the waves. In fact, most of the first hour was spent figuring out how to avoid these threats, nevermind the huge friggin waves. It´s like swimming with a rabid pitbull chained to your ankle.

By the end of the second hour I had rope burn across my palm and my chest was scratched up from the board, despite the rash guard. I did stand up a few times, though I would be hard pressed to say that I actually "caught" a wave. The waves were only getting rougher as the tide went out, so I called it a day.

Over the next couple of days I came back to find much friendlier conditions. I'd say I actually caught and rode a total of one wave in 7 hours in the water. I stood up many times, but the wave died soon after I got to my feet. Still, super fun. Also, I'm really tan now, so there´s that.

Xmas in the Tropics

As Christmas approached, the people in town got noticeably paler and squashier, signaling the arrival of Brazilian tourists from the big cities. More families appeared and the restaurants started raising the prices. Fortunately, our hotel didn´t up their rates (we had a private air-conditioned room for $17) till the 27th, after we left. A few of the other places started to double and triple rates as early as the 25th.



For Xmas dinner we splurged on the fancy place in town, and had an AWESOME meal of fish with plantains, onions, and greens all sizzling on a skillet. Great sides of beans and rice, too. For dessert, we´d been having only açaí, a cold berry custard that we first tasted in Lençois (see photo of me about to dig in). The açaí berry, native to Amazonia, supposedly has amazing healthful properties. A cold bowl of açaí with sliced bananas is pretty much the best thing in the world. Someone should be importing this stuff.

Since we´re headed to Argentina tomorrow, a look back on the last 3.5 weeks:

Top 5 Brazil Things (In No Particular Order)

1. Açaí - Already covered above. Today we arrived in Ipanema to find every just-arrived New Year´s tourist sucking it up like it´s going out of style. As they should.

2. Havaiannas - Everyone from street kids to the wealthiest Carioca wears these rubber flip flops. They are really comfortable. I naively bought another brand when I first got here, only to experience burning discomfort after only a block or two. There´s just something about these slippers that works really well. A couple of the Lençois guides wore them with a fully loaded pack up and down steep terrain. Apparently, they sell for real cash in the US and Europe, particularly the fancy styles (I predictably have the basic ninja black). I think a nice Brazilian vacation could be financed through ebay auctions of Haviannas in the States, assuming you can sneak a couple of hundred pairs through customs.

3. Hot People - Brazilians are just really hot. There´s no getting around that. The chicks are nice and golden, with curves in all the right places. The guys look like surfers or super ripped breakdancers. And they're not afraid to show it off. The nice lady at the money exchange place today was about to explode out of her top, all over the keyboard. It´s probably also worth noting that Brazilians (at least in Bahia, which is, admittedly, the beach state - a rough equivalent of California) are super friendly and laid back.

4. Thumbs Up - Brazilians give a sincere "thumbs up" to express agreement, understanding, enthusiasm, whatever. The first time a guy did it to me (he actually gave me two thumbs up, a bolder option) I thought he was just doing it because he thought I was American, and that´s what cool Americans do. It took a couple more before I got used to it, and now I find it hard to avoid. It´s especially useful if you don´t speak the language but want to be friendly and agreeable. Surfer types will use the standard "hang loose" or "shaka" as an alternative.

5. Juices - In all forms are great here. Every place from the fancy Ipanema juice bar to the crappiest bus station lanchonette has a blender and an assortment of fruits. I also dig the fresh coconuts everywhere. I don´t actually like coconut juice that much, but it´s cool that you can buy an iced coconut with a straw on the beach, on the city street, and (again) at a bus station in the middle of nowhere. There´s also fresh sugar cane juice, squeezed from the cane right in front of you. A little lemon, some ice...ahhhh...

Other Travelers

We meet a lot of them, all the time. I´ve become more wary of writing snarky things about them since they may stumble onto this blog. Nevetheless, it´s worth noting that it's hard to find people that you want to hang out with for a long time. Even a meal can become tiresome in the wrong company, as evidenced by the lengthy diatribe we suffered last night on product tracking software, as used on the sales and marketing of insulating materials (I shit you not). I guess Jen and I are, deep inside, anti-social bastards, despite the friendly veneer. I start up conversations with other travelers constantly, but if things aren´t going well, I soon want to bolt. Jen and I have settled into a nice rhythm of our own. That being said, it would be nice to meet some fun folks.