The Epic Journey to Salvador

It´s currently 2:40 in Salvador, 8:40 a.m. in Reno. Whew, Day 2, moving toward Night 3. The trip to get here was interesting but... well, interesting. Waiting for 7 hours in LAX was a test of patience and of the willpower to not get sloshed at the airport bar (which I didn´t). Finished a book Anna gave me about English bloopers, so I bought Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Fight Club to tide me over. Then, my Korean Airlines flight was 12 hours. Those stewardesses were SO polite and attentive, it was shocking. The jet itself was a 777, with 3 seats outside the aisles and 5 in the middle. A really huge bird. Each seat has a personal flatscreen TV with tons of music, games and movies available for free. I actually had an agenda for myself to read and learn a bunch of Portuguese from my book on the way there, as well as finish a long poem I´ve been writing and memorize some lyrics I printed. The guy sitting next to me was such a pain in the ass, though. He dozed in and out unsuccessfully the whole 12 hours and made a fuss with body language whenever I turned on the reading light. Also, hadn´t adequately bathed before the flight, kept letting his head, shoulder and leg invade my space, and ate like a starving dog. Hyenas eat with more dignity than that guy. So, unable to read or write due to lighting constraints after the first 2 hours, I watched Wall-E, Hellboy 2, and Wanted. Woof. I have trouble sleeping even in my own bed with zero sound and plenty of exercise, so it goes without saying that I didn´t/couldn´t sleep on the flight. Flying into the city was amazing. It´s like one big pond here. The land to water ratio is kinda small. All the roofs were a beautiful orange clay color, there was a thick cloud layer just above all the rolling green hills, and every undeveloped part of the town is covered with thick, bushy trees like Jolly Green broccoli. Every single neighborhood I saw coming in has a soccer field, and they were all occupied with futbol players. We arrived in São Paulo at about 1:00 pm their time and I had to go through a big customs routine. It´s fine, obviously I hid the dynamite and plutonium in an uncomfortable but safe place :). So, some paperwork, two searches, long lines, checking of the passport and immunizations, yadda yadda. Then got my backpack, checked in for my next flight, went and exchanged US money for Brazilian Reales (pronounced hay-eye-is), and hunkered down to wait about three hours for my flight to arrive. That was my first introduction to Portuguese. It was sweeeet. So beautiful, imagine Spanish being spoken by stunning people with a French accent with a devil-may-care attitude. I knew some key phrases like I don´t speak Portuguese, Do you speak English?, I understand/don´t understand, Please, Thank you, and a bunch of functional smaller words. So I chatted with some ladies working in the airport, bought some juice, and sat down to read and listen to the conversations around me. Mind you, it wasn´t to eavesdrop since I couldn´t really understand what all was going on, it was to start learning and getting accustomed to Portuguese. Oh I forgot to mention that I was VERY sick from a day prior to leaving until basically today. It made for an interesting trip to not be lucid, to constantly need to sneeze, cough and blow my nose, and to have no energy but be forced to be awake. But hey, it´s an adventure!
So then, got on the flight to Salvador, killed 2 hours finishing Darkly Dreaming Dexter (great book by the way, I read it within 24 hours of buying it), and got off in Salvador. Grabbed my stuff, cleared customs one last time, and heaved a wheezy sigh of relief to be done with airplanes for a while. Lovely Fernanda, my friend here, was waiting right at the gate for me with a dashing smile. Also with her was her brother, Alexêu (we call him Leu, pronounced Lay-oh), his girlfriend Thaís ("Ta-EES"), her 14-year-old cousin Mariana, and Nanda´s dog Blink 182. When I arrived, it was about 8:15 at night there, and it was about 80° outside! We piled into Nanda´s VW Golf and drove a beautiful 25 miles to her apartment up the hill and down the beach from downtown Salvador. If you guys want to see a map of what the area is like, you can Google Earth it or Google Map the address. From her balcony, I can see the Pacific Ocean and part of an island about a mile out to sea called Porto da Barra ("Pore-too da Baha"). I obviously have a lot more to say, but I'll cut off this post here.

Nun but love to y'all,
Tchau

Brad

My homies Andy and Pat

  My good friends Andy (bottom) and Pat (top) will ultimately be my contacts in South America, probably in Chile, when I leave Brazil.  Andy and Pat (minus the beard these days) have blazed the trail thus far from Buenos Aires down to the southern tip of Argentina (a city called Ushuaia) and are headed back north along the west coast now to seek fortune in Chile.  Although it's still about a month from now, I can't wait to bump into these two dudes.

  Guys, keeps on rockin' in the free world.  We'll be jammin' as a trio before you know it.

  As always, devoted fans, live in love.

  B

Leaving FINALLY

  As some of you know, I actually have been in Reno since January 8th waiting for my Brazilian visa to arrive.  What a fiasco.  But hey, it makes the adventure all the more succulent and outrageous.  Some great stuff happened to me while here for the last two weeks.  In addition, I will now be in Salvador during CARNAVAL, which is the largest street party on the planet.  It's two weeks long and attracts hundreds of thousands.  Also, Salvador supposedly has the biggest and best one (Brazil has Carnavals all over the country) coincidentally, so I'm sure to bug out in style.

  Now, with visa in hand, still packed and ready from freaking two weeks ago, I just have to sleep tonight and then do the whole thing again.  Only this time, I'll make it past LAX and into Brazil!  To all of you who I got to hang out with over these last two weeks, thanks for being around while I was without school or a job.  You helped my time pass.  Especially Amy, Rob, Josh and Austin!

  Vi veri veniversum vivus vici (by the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe).  Keep shecking out my posts if you want.  Take care, live in love.

Bah-rad