Driving Leg 2

After the return from Brazil it was time to get back on the road...but have to say, starting to get tired of being on the road. We are now in Portland and not sure if we are going to be heading to Richland or making a slight detour to Seattle while waiting for the housing to be arranged in the Tri-Cities...

Driving Leg 1

Part one of the road trip. After Austin there was a slight (35 day) detour to Brazil, but at least we got a break from driving.

Pictures from Brazil

Trip summary... so far

South Pasadena, bought a car
Monterey, CA. went to the aquarium
San Francisco, met with James and Lisa went to the Jelly Belly Factory
Lake Tahoe, a night of camping and a day of hiking
Sandy, Utah, time with family, some good jiu-jitsu
Moab, Utah, a night of camping and some awesome trail riding
Denver, CO, Riot Fest, hiking St Mary's Glacier, great to see Pablo and Kristin
Plainview, TX... dont bother
Austin, TX, time with Phil and Maryann...Brazil prep
Sao Paulo, cold and rainy. The city is overwhelming, but Brazil is great.
Curitiba. Met up with Nilson and had a fun time in the city, first Brazil BJJ
Florianopolis. One of the best places I have been. Surfing, BJJ, beaches, great people and food.
Iguazu Falls. an amazing waterfall but a very underwhelming city
Salvador, the food, the beaches, beautiful city, some good bjj... time well spent.
Trancoso, sleeping resort beach town, warm water and endless beaches
Arraial D'ajuda, good people, more going on, Marina gets food poisoning.
Rio... one of the most amazing cities. so many sites, great food 24 hours, fantastic BJJ, beaches, surfing, dancing... it just goes on
Arraial do Cabo...crap town, great diving. saw a sea horse, didnt get to ride it, happy to dive, happier to return to Rio.
Rio 2, more BJJ, food and dance class, but sadly, time to leave
Austin 2, rest, relax, train and head to finish the loop
Albuerquerque... used a UPS store to send some documents... good waffles
Grand Canyon, cold and raining, but made the hiking far more pleasant than hot and sweaty.
South Pasadena... back at the start. Muay Thai, BJJ, food and movie, family time and then back on the road to (hopefully) the final destination.

Coming full circle

Now back in South Pasadena we have come full circle from the start back in August, but there still is more to go. Marina was able to score a solid job in Washington State, so now we finally know where we are going. After making it all the way from South Pas to Brazil and back, we are going to start the trip again along the same route, making some of the same stops for the first day or two before continuing north to Portland and on to Washington.

Before making it back to South Pasadena we stayed a few days in Austin to rest and get used to the states again. We were able to get in a good roll at South Austin BJJ, a great and very welcoming school that I look forward to going back to next time in Austin.

After leaving Austin we headed to the Grand Canyon for a couple days of hiking and camping, at least that was the plan. The first day we pushed to Albuquerque and finally got hit with cold and rain. Winter is going to be a rough adjustment from Hawaii. The next day we arrived at the campground inside the national park at the Grand Canyon, it was cold. Apparently, they were experiencing colder than usual temperatures and we did not have cold weather camping gear. After setting up the tent we put in 4 extra sweatshirts, a couple jackets and anything else that we thought might keep us warm. It turned out to not be enough.

Things started ok, it was cold but we got the fire going and had some dinner. Then is started to rain. Light at first, but it picked up and stayed consistent. We moved into the tent, watched some TV on the laptop (camping just isn't that hard anymore) and then after a couple hours and the rain not stopping decided to call it a night. Unfortunately we did not have enough warm gear and the night was pretty miserable. Marina froze going to the bathroom and I couldn't sleep because I refused to get up and held it all night. Needless to say we were up early the next morning.

We set out on a hike down the Kaibab trail and made it Skeleton point, 3 miles down the trail. It was an amazing hike with stunning views and lots of mule poop and mud. Everything you might want on a hike. We made it down and back in 3.5 hours with a 30 minute stop for lunch. When we got back we realized that it was supposed to be a 6 hour or so hike. I think our legs would have preferred if we took our time. 6 hours later on the drive to South Pasadena our legs were hurting...hiking and then driving are not a good combo. After the hike we decided that it was not worth camping our second night and got on the road.

After a 7 hour drive we were back at our starting point in South Pasadena and happy to not be cold through the night. Now its time to prepare for the last leg... to Washington.

Back to Rio

Last days in Rio
Return from Arraial, traffic. We caught the bus out from Arraial do Cabo without incident and were on the road pretty much on time (which for most things here is not the norm. Brazilians, like Hawaiians, have their own sense of time, punctuality is not really part of that system). However, as we got close to Rio traffic started to back up. Even though it was midday on a weekday, a 3 hour bus still took close to 5 hours to arrive. We covered the last 10km in about an hour to nintey minutes. But after arriving it was nice to be back in Rio. It is night and day between the smaller places around. There are so many small cafes open till midnight or 24 hours, something is always happening, and you can find pretty much whatever you need. Except socks.
Marina bought some boots when we arrived in Sao Paulo because the weather was a lot colder than expected or a least that was the pretense. But because she didnt have any with her, she also didnt have anything besides sport socks which were too thick. After a brief search in Rio, we started to realize that they just dont sell socks. We started looking at women's feet to realize that no one was wearing anything, footwear wise, that required socks. It was all flip-flops and sandals. I guess it just doesn't really get cold enough to warrant foot condoms. So we spent the morning of one of the last days on a mission to find socks, someone had to carry them. After about 6-8 stores we arrived at a C&A, European chain, that had what she was looking for. Some things are hard to find even in Rio.
We also hit up a final Churrascaria, although I know I butchered the spelling. These are the true Brazilian steakhouses. All you can eat meat being paraded around the restaurant on platters. It just keeps coming. At least 10-15 different kinds of BBQ'd beef, chicken, pork and seafood along with a buffet of salads, sushi/sashimi (although pretty much only salmon), and the sucker foods. Sucker foods are the fillers they want you to eat so you cant eat your share of meat. I learned that before coming so I was prepared. But that also means that you eat until you are sickeningly full. The two times that we went out to an all-you-can-eat, I didn't eat again for about 12-18 hours. Just not hungry. And usually need about 3-4 hours to digest enough to feel like moving. But the BBQ is amazing and the variety impressive.
We were also able to go to one last BJJ class the night we arrived back in town. Over the weekend while we were off diving, there was the Rio Open BJJ championship which several of the guys from the gym competed in. One of the white belts took second, a purple belt (who was annoyingly good and composed while rolling) took first, and a black belt took first in both gi and no gi. Impressive given the quality of BJJ that we encountered while in Rio.
On Wednesday afternoon, after stuffing ourselves at BBQ, we went to Parque Lage. It's a park that is open to the public but seems to be maintained by the school for visual arts. It makes it interesting because the center piece is an old mansion that is open to the public, but also is an active classroom/studio building. There are art exhibits on display as well as students working on their paintings in a large courtyard that shares its space with a cafe. So you can sit, have an espresso and watch as the students work on their paintings. The building is scattered with little exhibits and classrooms, with class in session. The grounds are eclectic and well maintained and also contain the trail head to hike up to Christo Redento, which had we known would have been better than the train, but what can you do. Too much in Rio to know it all ahead of time.
The last thing we did was squeeze in a Samba class. Now, I cant dance. But I really cant dance Samba. Marina had a good time, both dancing and watching me fail at it. It's hard and they move their feet so fast in such small little steps. But the instructor was patient and there were only 3 of us in the group class. And the other guy was having a more trouble than me, so at least I took second (out of 3). I am not opposed to going out dancing more often and I think when we settle in the next location the plan is to go more often than every 6 months so at least I dont have to start each class back at the beginning and can hopefully remember something to build on each time moving forward.
Rio was great. It is hard to imagine that I am writing this at the airport in Sao Paulo waiting for check-in to open so we can go through customs for our flight back. 35 days went fast. Real life is going to start again soon...

Arraial do Cabo

Arraial do Cabo
Our trip to Cabo did not start out well.  The initial bus was delayed about an hour by something, accident or who knows on the highway just outside of Rio. Once we arrived, the taxi took us to the right number for the address, but unbeknownst to us, the wrong street. However, there was a hostel/hotel/pousada at #440 so we jumped out thinking it was the right place. We quickly learned otherwise, but fortunately is was only one street over. So we walked over and found...nothing. All of the homes tend to have large fence/walls around them with gates for the car and walking in. However it means that you really cannot see what the inside looks like at all. Some could hovels, others could be mansions, but all equally hidden away by their outer gate. We had only seen interior pictures so we had no idea if we were at the right place. And no one was responding to our knocking at the gate. We returned to the original hostel and they were nice enough to let us use their wifi and were soon able to get in touch with the person in charge of our accommodations. After getting into the room, we realized that we had been pretty spoiled by really good airbnbs leading up to this place. It wasn't that bad, but the standard had been set so high that it felt like a let down. There was a nice outdoor kitchen area, but no pots/pans, matches to light the stove, or even sponges/soap to wash the nonexistent dishes. There was a coffee maker, fridge, microwave and plates, but again no way to clean them. The internet didn't work. And the next morning there was no water in the bathroom. There was a housekeeper, very nice, but she didn't speak english, and the owner was not to arrive until the next day. All of these problems were solved to some degree, but it was a change from the amazing service and preparation in the places that we had stayed previously.
Things got much better the next day as we started our first of two days of diving. While the water was a little colder than we have become accustomed, the flora/fauna was plentiful and easy (to some degree) to spot. The first dive we probably saw the most, but each of the dives was fun. We got a little lucky as they had been forced to cancel several of the previous days due to high winds and bad weather. It was still a factor, but at least our dives were not compromised. Visibility was a bit poor, if you weren't careful it would be easy to lose the group, which we did at one point. But the sites were easy to navigate and finding the boat at the surface was no problem.
Across the 4 dives we were able to see a seahorse (first time outside of a tank), eels, batfish, a snake eel, skates, lots of fish, spider shrimp, some local corals, nudibranchs, puffer fish, turtles, a rock fish and many false flyers. Overall, it was good diving and nice to see some different species from the stock that I had seen often in the Pacific. Next time, whatever is the recommended wetsuit/warmth protection we are going to need to ask for more, cold was the only challenge. But people were great, the boat was a diverse international mix and overall awesome.
The last day we decided to go on a 3-hour tour, boat tour of the outer beaches and islands. The tour ended up being about 6 hours, so for about $12-15 (USD) a person, it was a good deal. The weather was good, but the wind was still very strong and mixed with cold waters, we did not spend much time swimming. The trip took us out to see a local lighthouse and then back to a beach with an interesting unloading/loading procedure. The beach was located on an island that could only be accessed by boat. The tour boats would get as close to the beach as they could and discharge whoever wanted to go ashore (most would swim about 10-20 meters). Some of the larger boats had small inflatables that would ferry people in and out. However, our boat had someone who not only couldn't swim, but also had two injured fingers she kept in a waterproof iPhone case and held above her head as she went ashore. Both on arrival and return someone from the boat with additional flotation devices had to help swim her across. All the time the boat is trying to hold as close to shore as possible with several other boats and inflatables around it, strong winds and a few rocks nearby. At first I was rather nervous, but then realized, 1) its not my boat, 2) shore is close, and 3) nothing I can do right now so just enjoy the show. She got on fine and the boat went to our last stop, a floating restaurant.
The restaurant was a floating platform of plastic barrels with wooden planking holding it all together. About 100 meters away was a mussel farm that seemed to supply the specialty food for the place. For about $US 7-8 we got a huge bowl of mussels that were delicious. And as you are on a floating restaurant away from everything else they have a pretty captive clientele. Thankfully the food was good and it was a comfortable way to end the day. We finally got back to our room, cleaned up and pretty much passed out from 6 hours of fun in the sun.
As I write this know we are on the bus heading back to Rio. 2 days left before returning to Texas. It looks like Washington might be the final destination, but it is still pending. Should have more info actually around the time we get back to the states. Which is good, because we need somewhere to go...  

Rio 2

Rio 2
After our long morning at BJJ and with Christ we were pretty exhausted and went back to our now travel staple home cooked meal of pasta with either tomato or pesto sauce. Once again we made a shit load and spent the next several days trying to eat it all before leaving town. By the way, grating tomatoes with a cheese grater to make sauce, pretty awesome.

The next morning we set out on what would end up being about 10K worth of walking around the city. First stop was to Dios Armois (spelling may be all wrong) or two brothers. A small park on the south end of the city where Leblon beach ends. It is a nice hike up to the top and made even better by the way the natural setting erupts out of the urban landscape around it. The views were nice and there were some monkeys that we are starting to realize are pretty much everywhere. They are pretty ugly fuckers and are more like the Brazilian equivalent of squirrels. They look like if they were larger and you gave them wings they would be helping the wicked witch of the west as her minions.

Next stop, after more pasta and some rest, was to Santa Teresa, the Escalaron steps, Lapa and some other sites I cant spell. Santa Teresa is an older neighborhood in the more central part of the city. It has many small hostels and lots of the reviews claim the best food in the city. In the center is a large (250 steps) staircase covered in mosaic tiles. It was commissioned by someone to be really cool and they did a great job (all questions see wikipedia). The walk to the top was slow and hot, but at the top is an old convent that does not seem to want visitors. Around the way is an old mansion that has been converted to an art exhibit. Sitting at the top of a hill it has amazing views of the city from a central tower that looks about 270 degrees across downtown. Not as good as Christo Rendento, but free. The house itself is an old mansion that has been donated to the city and renovated, to a degree, and now contains art and sculptures. A fair amount of the house has not so much been repaired, but had metal and glass sections built into the rubble to complete missing walls. It gives a very cool airy and open look to a beautiful old stone mansion that if restored would feel closed off, cold and claustrophobic.

There is also an old aqueduct in the area and its cool, but kind of random. After that we were exhausted and headed back to the house.

The next morning it was up and out again. This time out of town to Barra de Tijuca (that is also spelled wrong) to look for surfing. We found some, but not much. The stranger thing was who we ran into. Marina found a listing for a surf school and we located it pretty easily on the beach. The conversation went something like this; "The surf instructor there asked where we were from. Hawaii. Oh cool I am going there to surf later this year. Do you know Caveirinha? Yes, we trained BJJ with him a few times. Oh he is my brother-in-law. No shit." Took a photo and turns out sure enough we met Za, Caveirinha's brother-in-law, randomly on a beach outside of Rio.

Surf wasn't great, but it was a nice beach and fun to be in the water. We headed back to town, got in another BJJ class and headed home. The next morning we packed up and took the bus out to Arraial do Cabo.

Rio 1

Rio, 1
We arrived in Rio to a little bit of cooler weather and light rain after so many days of strong sun in Bahia. It was a nice change, especially since it lasted about a day before clearing. Today, the weather is still cool and slightly overcast, but comfortable. The apartment was easy to get and great overall. So far the best shower and some of the fastest wi-fi that we have had since we got  here. Now we can stream a show and get frustrated with lag time and turn it off after a few minutes. Marina seems to have recovered from her bout of food poisoning as well so after a slow first day things are moving well.

After an early evening we went for a walk on Monday along the Copacabana to explore the area. Two blocks away we found two BJJ schools and a Muay Thai school. So far we have already gone to the BJJ school twice as it is close and they have a lot of classes. Everyone has been great. I think now that Marina is feeling better, we might check out the MT place later today.

On the walk along the beach it was pretty empty because of still intermittent rain, but one local vender definitely marked us for tourists and made his move. He was clearly pretty destitute, clothes dirty, not looking to great, trying to earn a buck shining shoes for tourists. However, it seems that he boosts his business by dirtying your shoes first and then offering to clean them. I noticed him make a b-line from across the street toward us, walk past and in front for a minute and then turn around and point out that I "had shit" on my shoe. He said shit in several languages to make his point and then offered to clean my shoes. I looked down and sure enough I had a streak of bright yellow across my shoe. However, it was pretty clear that it was mustard and the little had sprayed it there on his walk past. Give him credit for good aim and craftiness. Later when we got back while wiping off my shoe a quick sniff confirmed, French's yellow mustard... We have been very careful with bags and how much cash and goods we carry since.

Monday night we went to check out Pedro do Sal, the old salt and apparently slave market that now houses a lively samba and dance ...party I guess, every Monday. Although there wasn't any Samba going on, there were Samba bands playing live music, various groups dancing and a couple streets of outdoor food and drink vendors, little tables with small crafts, and what not going on. It was pretty fun and we were able to make use of the Metro to get around pretty easily.

This morning after dropping in for the 7am BJJ, we headed to the Christo Redento, Christ Redeemer, big ass statue that looks over the city of Rio. While I could really care less about the statue, the views from the top are pretty amazing. The crowds all vying to take their selfie with god really get annoying fast, but when you walk to the areas out of the direct frontal assault, i mean view, the spaces open up and you can look out on the vast and sprawling city of Rio. It is pretty amazing, between the beaches and forests, the city is really carved out of a beautiful area and has done well to merge the urban with the landscape.  Now its back to the apartment to rest for a bit before heading back out to the next stop on the Rio exploratory tour.

Trancoso, Arraial d'Ajuda, to Rio

Trancoso
After spending a couple days in the city of Salvador, the next stop on the trip was to Trancoso. A small, coastal town, just a few streets, nothing paved and not a single stop light. The town is a retreat for the rich to come and pretend that they can live in the country. The beaches are beautiful, water is warm, and the town is very quaint. But it is also lacking in things to do. The area is oriented around a central square or quadrado with an old church at one end and restaurants all around. The only catch is that no one who lives in the town could ever afford to eat or play in the town they live and work.

We stayed in a guesthouse on the property of an Italian couple who lived on the outskirts of town. Again called a chalet, but I think people are using the term a little loosely. It was a nice place, although it could have used some curtains. The main house was very interesting and had an open floor plan. The majority of the home seemed to be centered around a central patio with couches and hammocks. The only drawback was that it is a good 40 minutes to an hour walk from the town center and to the beach. However, once we got the hang of the moto-taxis (motorcycle taxis) getting around was much easier.

We were able to spend several days lounging on the beach and body surfing. It was also nice to be able to cook for ourselves, something we can continue at our current stop in Rio. The last day we went up to Arraial d'Ajuda a slightly larger town to the north and closer to the airport. The plan was to spend one night there and then be able to get to the airport the next day. The town was nice and we spent some time with a good host who showed us around and took us to the beach. The town came alive at night with shops, music and tons of restaurants. However, Marina didnt fare to well and may be suffering from a severe-ish bout of food poisoning.

We have made our way to Rio and so far things are going well. Although the weather could be better, it looks like it is going to clear in the next couple days. We found a small BJJ school around the corner and were able to walk the Copacabana. But there are so many sites to see it will be hard to get it all done in time...

Salvador

Salvador to Trancoso
We are now in Trancoso after spending the last couple days in Salvador. The contrast is impressive. They dont seem to have much of that internet here, although we were assured that it might come back at some point tonight or tomorrow.

Salvador was an amazing city, but also had the feel of a city in ruins. Walking through the historic city center we were able to see many of the historic sites for which the city is known. There are endless cathedrals and small churches that have been decorated in the baroque style. To me that seems to mean that every inch has to covered in gold and nothing can left without some kind of ornamentation. It looks like a gold mine vomited all over the inside of the church. If the sunlight hit it directly the whole congregation would be blinded in an instant. But it also makes for really cool churches and they provide great variety.

Most impressive to me are the mass murals painted on the ceilings. I tried to paint the ceiling of my apartment once. I gave up after like an hour. Between craning my neck and dripping paint either in my face or on the floor, it just wasnt worth it. I am sure they may have had better technique than a paint brush and tilting your head 90 degrees, but still, 60 square meters of ceiling space would take some time.

One way to reach the city center is to take an elevator from the harbor level up to the historic district. There is a steep hillside that rises up a couple hundred meters from the sea, steep enough to prevent anything from being built on it. which is in itself impressive because it seemed that every inch of the city had been claimed for some sort of building. At harbor level there is an elevator that you can take up for $R .15, like $US .03-.04, or you can walk several kilometers around. Or you can take a taxi or bus... you take the elevator. One day we did do the walk as there are several stops along the way including a museum of modern art that although it said it was open, when we got there the only thing we saw was some kind of live art display that without labels or the ability to speak Portuguese made no sense. Later that night when reading the guide book we saw that it said, "at no time should you take the path along the water, it is dangerous at all times of the day" or something like that. I can see why. It borders a couple favelas and several of the people we passed had an overwhelming air of desperation. And there is poop everywhere, some seemed not feline or canine... But we didn't have any problems.

Anyway back at the top of the elevator you can look out across the buildings that make up the more business-ish district of Salvador. What you notice is that while they all have these amazing historic facades, a good number are missing their roofs. Above the first floor a great number of buildings are in shambles, or straight up ruins. The majority of the trees that we saw in the city were growing inside buildings that had roofs that either collapsed years ago or where removed. I say removed because looking in it didn't look like the roof caved, it just looked like it wasn't there...

The area around the hotel we stayed was really nice. It was down by the water and couple of nice beaches along a recently refinished ocean front promenade. On Saturday and Sunday there was live music, street performers and many people out enjoying the nice weather and a grassy knoll by a lighthouse that separated two beaches. It felt safe, many good cafes and restaurants and we even found a martial arts school that offered classes in muay thai, bjj, karate, capoeira, kung fu, boxing, wrestling... it keeps going and to honest seemed a little much. But we dropped in one day for a solid 2 hour workout.

The hotel itself was run by a French woman, Stephanie, who was amazing. Borderline annoyingly nice, but gave great recommendations, was very accommodating and helpful at every step.

The only downside to our stay we learned was that the city comes alive on Tuesday nights, the day that we were planning on heading out. We were able to see numerous churches and museums, a few capoeira demonstrations, ate some great food (moqueca, acaraje, and bohlinos are all really good) but if we go back we will have to make sure it includes a Tuesday night.

Our departure on Tuesday was via 12 hour bus that took 13 to Porto Seguro, a quick ferry across the river to another bus that took about 1.5 hours to reach Trancoso. The contrast between the two places (I started to write cities, but calling Trancoso a city is not right) is night and day. Trancoso is a sleeping beach town that Marina read is where rich Brazilians come to pretend they are poor. It has a beautiful coastline with white sand beaches that seem to run several miles in each direction, warm shallow waters and quiet town dominated by a central quadrado (square) that comes alive at night with ritzy restaurants and locals trying to earn a living selling anything they can.