In English, it can mean many different things... Entao, en francais, les Bresiliens ont chaud! And to my big surprise, even Brasilians get sunburns! Today, it was 42 degrees in Rio... It was also the official Carnaval day! Fortunately, I was in a colder place - about 37 refreshing little cute degrees - in Belo Horizonte! :)
So, last time you got some great and life changing news, I had just finished writing about my weird experience on the bus to Campo Grande... 22 hours... Actually, it was something that I really enjoyed - since I was going to a city where I had never thought I would go... such unpredicted thing is maybe what I like the most in traveling... This and all that comes with it! This is exactly when I can feel and touch the present moment - seize the day - carpe the diem... a great feeling - that I am very thankful for to the people that I met in this cool city!
I felt really lucky that it happened - and thought of all the small details - that, put together, made it become reality - and at the same time, I thought that if any of those details had not happened, I would have had a different itinerary... But in the end, it couldnt have been different because it did happen! I am being very vague, but it is about meeting someone that had given me a very good impression in Montreal - and it proved to be more than just an impression!
So I finally arrived in Campo Grande - I have been picked up at the bus station - had a rest and then been introduced to a group of people - a band called DELAY (many people have their sticker on their car) that plays both in english and portuguese - covers and original songs. The rest of my time in this city has been about relaxation and simplicity... and fans... the kind that pushes air in your face...
FOOD - There is something great about the food in Brasil - it is obviously really good - but it never stops coming to me... It is always time to eat - and not just snacks, but ALLYOUCANEAT meals... as a guest in some peoples place or in restaurants... ALLYOUCANEAT sushi - since there are many people who immigrated from Japan to Brasil in the 20th century - they also make dessert sushis... worth the try!
I also had ALLYOUCANEAT meat in a CHURRASCARIA... this thing was crazy and it didnt take me long to realise that there was something missing - a way to tell the garcons that I couldnt eat as fast as they were coming... There were about 50 different things to try... I have no idea how many I tried or I didnt try because things were going too fast - and I couldnt learn nor repeat the words of the things I tried - nor remember what I had tried or not - since my mouth was always full... so the mountain of meat on my plate got higher and higher... But the tornado of garcons kept turning - I could have felt dizzy - concentrating on my chewing - cutting - tasting - not saying the word with my mouth full - swallowing - enjoying the taste - explaining to my stomach what was going on - organizing the food in my plate and in my waiting plate... and so on... ALLYOUCANMEAT! MEAT! MEAT!
I forgot to mention that on the way to Campo Grande - I had millions of hours to enjoy the landscape - called Cerrado - looking very much like the arican savana - like in the warm places where I traveled in Ethiopia... with a bit of Saskatchewan - huge living skies (in a land)!
My backpack had already suffered quite a lot from my departure from Montreal - my maple butter had already explosed in it - and what I found out in CG was that my clothes had got a sticky and sweet taste - so I chewed and sucked on them for a few hours before it dried up - from a broken maple syrup bottle... Then I learned a lesson - called MOCOTO... Mocoto is what people should always use carrying breakable things in Brasil... It is 100% guaranteed - and lasts for at least a week - I bought some a week ago and it is still working... So what is mocoto? It is a sweet - that is made from animal fat - to which a lot of sugar is added - so the texture is kind of funny - hard to describe - but it is softy - spongy - I could sleep well on a big piece of it! It tastes like the crunchy part of the Crunchie chocolate bar! So this is what I use now to protect my last bottle of maple syrup... Hopefully, it is not going to melt and disappoint me...
Before I decided not to plan too much my trip to Brasil (I actually had not planned anything before I made this decision - so I never really made it to be honest) - someone had told me to go to Bonito - this was one of millions of recommandations that I had received from too many too generous and enthusiastic hot :) brasilians... Before I decided that their country was too big to go everywhere and I could not really afford seeing all of it in one trip and that I should kind of stop discussing it... Before I found out that I was really close to it (Bonito) when I arrived in Campo Grande - still about 22 hours by bus from where my original itinerary was supposed to take me... So in those simple and super efficient few days - accompanied by great people (even if one of them actually thought I was crazy - or coming from another planet - he obviously hadnt met CA) we took one day to go to this Bonito place...
We had picked two of the numerous activities they offer - I would have counted 3 : the ALLYOUCANEATBREAKFAST would have been the 3rd one - the first activity being a walk in the Gruta do Lago Azul... If youve seen the movie Turistas, you understand very fast what this place is about - If you have never seen it, you think youre going in a beautiful place - that youre going to make great blue pictures - see some stalagmites and stalagtites (it took me some time to understand this word in portuguese - even though it is almost the same - but its pronounced Shtalaktshitshi or something like that)... If you have not seen the movie Turistas, you think that the place is relatively dangerous but that nothing bad should happen... And you might enjoy it...
BUT if you ve seen the movie, you know that there are some crazy doctors in Brasil - with a good conscience - catching fallenfromthepaths tourists - and giving them some drugs so they can steal their organs and sell them... This is what this place was about... Starting on the top of a cliff - with a beautiful view of what was below - and then - trying to get down - on some things that can not really be called steps - but wet rocks... there is a rope that marks a line that shouldnt be crossed - that could make you feel safer - but if you pay attention, this rope is tied to some super small rocks that wouldnt even support the weight of my baby camera if it was falling (if it was alive and falling and intelligent enough to catch something...)! So they expect us to fall and there might be some people at the bottow catching us to take our kidneys... Like it happened to Charlie... (Charlie is a unicorn... with 2 friends... with long tongues... and that make weird noises... how sad...) Anyway, our whole group survived - luckily...
Then we went to the balneario municipal - to dive and swim with the fishes - actually big - probably fed with the parts that the doctors from the movie cant reuse...
Back to Campo Grande - the last day, after I had stopped the rain - I had to use one of my special powers - we went to see the Capivaras... They are super cool animals - apparently the biggest animal in the same family than the rats - maybe not so cool after all... So I dressed as a tree - beige shorts and green shirt - that I have actually wore the 4 following days - due to a notsoperfect organisation - I was a tree - and even more convincing with my arms above my head... So I walked closer to the capivaras - at first they were not sure I was a tree - but then they had to accept the truth - trust me (everybody should trust trees) and come out of the woods - with their many friends... To be honest - they were on the line to become creepy - there were so many! And they are the size of a pig - brown shiny hair - a mix of a huge new york rat, a pig, a beaver and a dog... Now close your eyes... What do you see? Capivaras! Easy!
I also discovered a few of new cool portuguese words... I like the ones with two identical syllabs... like terere (which is a drink - made of green mud (actually called erva mate) - but we only drink the water with a bomba de terere - and it gives a buzz after you drank 5 liters... just like chat - you chew on it for 2 hours and then you start to feel something... oh drugs!) tuiuiu (which is a big bird that lives in front of the airport - there are two of them) jacare (it doesnt have two identical syllabs but there is another word that sounds like it - acaraje - jacare is a kind of small crocodile - cocodrile) arara is a bird - and finally soba - which is a japanese meal that we can only eat on wednesday evenings - at the japanese market - where elvis (not the pelvis one from the god of small things) sings... live! Also, there are fans in the market - the kind that pushes some japanese food smelling - and live elvis sweating - smells in your face!
After all this, on Friday, I went back to the bus station - ready for a 25 hours ride... during which I had a smile on my face for almost the whole time - with the beautiful cerrado landscape in front of my eyes... actually before I started (and couldnt stop) noticing the smell of humidity on the bus - before the grids on the ceiling started to shake and make a noise that I couldnt ignore caused by the poor quality of the road - and before I realised that I could not get into horizontal position to sleep... I was missing horizontality so much - what a great invention! this might be why I had mares... morningmares... and afternoonmares... and when I woke up, the last time, I started to have hope... counting down the hours left to the ride... 8 hours... 7 hours... 6 hours... It went pretty fast... 5... 4... 3... I talked to some people on the bus but they got off... 2... 1... It was dark again and I was arriving in a new city - a huge one - with great views though... exhausted but happy of everything that had already happened - and that would come soon!
So, last time you got some great and life changing news, I had just finished writing about my weird experience on the bus to Campo Grande... 22 hours... Actually, it was something that I really enjoyed - since I was going to a city where I had never thought I would go... such unpredicted thing is maybe what I like the most in traveling... This and all that comes with it! This is exactly when I can feel and touch the present moment - seize the day - carpe the diem... a great feeling - that I am very thankful for to the people that I met in this cool city!
I felt really lucky that it happened - and thought of all the small details - that, put together, made it become reality - and at the same time, I thought that if any of those details had not happened, I would have had a different itinerary... But in the end, it couldnt have been different because it did happen! I am being very vague, but it is about meeting someone that had given me a very good impression in Montreal - and it proved to be more than just an impression!
So I finally arrived in Campo Grande - I have been picked up at the bus station - had a rest and then been introduced to a group of people - a band called DELAY (many people have their sticker on their car) that plays both in english and portuguese - covers and original songs. The rest of my time in this city has been about relaxation and simplicity... and fans... the kind that pushes air in your face...
FOOD - There is something great about the food in Brasil - it is obviously really good - but it never stops coming to me... It is always time to eat - and not just snacks, but ALLYOUCANEAT meals... as a guest in some peoples place or in restaurants... ALLYOUCANEAT sushi - since there are many people who immigrated from Japan to Brasil in the 20th century - they also make dessert sushis... worth the try!
I also had ALLYOUCANEAT meat in a CHURRASCARIA... this thing was crazy and it didnt take me long to realise that there was something missing - a way to tell the garcons that I couldnt eat as fast as they were coming... There were about 50 different things to try... I have no idea how many I tried or I didnt try because things were going too fast - and I couldnt learn nor repeat the words of the things I tried - nor remember what I had tried or not - since my mouth was always full... so the mountain of meat on my plate got higher and higher... But the tornado of garcons kept turning - I could have felt dizzy - concentrating on my chewing - cutting - tasting - not saying the word with my mouth full - swallowing - enjoying the taste - explaining to my stomach what was going on - organizing the food in my plate and in my waiting plate... and so on... ALLYOUCANMEAT! MEAT! MEAT!
I forgot to mention that on the way to Campo Grande - I had millions of hours to enjoy the landscape - called Cerrado - looking very much like the arican savana - like in the warm places where I traveled in Ethiopia... with a bit of Saskatchewan - huge living skies (in a land)!
My backpack had already suffered quite a lot from my departure from Montreal - my maple butter had already explosed in it - and what I found out in CG was that my clothes had got a sticky and sweet taste - so I chewed and sucked on them for a few hours before it dried up - from a broken maple syrup bottle... Then I learned a lesson - called MOCOTO... Mocoto is what people should always use carrying breakable things in Brasil... It is 100% guaranteed - and lasts for at least a week - I bought some a week ago and it is still working... So what is mocoto? It is a sweet - that is made from animal fat - to which a lot of sugar is added - so the texture is kind of funny - hard to describe - but it is softy - spongy - I could sleep well on a big piece of it! It tastes like the crunchy part of the Crunchie chocolate bar! So this is what I use now to protect my last bottle of maple syrup... Hopefully, it is not going to melt and disappoint me...
Before I decided not to plan too much my trip to Brasil (I actually had not planned anything before I made this decision - so I never really made it to be honest) - someone had told me to go to Bonito - this was one of millions of recommandations that I had received from too many too generous and enthusiastic hot :) brasilians... Before I decided that their country was too big to go everywhere and I could not really afford seeing all of it in one trip and that I should kind of stop discussing it... Before I found out that I was really close to it (Bonito) when I arrived in Campo Grande - still about 22 hours by bus from where my original itinerary was supposed to take me... So in those simple and super efficient few days - accompanied by great people (even if one of them actually thought I was crazy - or coming from another planet - he obviously hadnt met CA) we took one day to go to this Bonito place...
We had picked two of the numerous activities they offer - I would have counted 3 : the ALLYOUCANEATBREAKFAST would have been the 3rd one - the first activity being a walk in the Gruta do Lago Azul... If youve seen the movie Turistas, you understand very fast what this place is about - If you have never seen it, you think youre going in a beautiful place - that youre going to make great blue pictures - see some stalagmites and stalagtites (it took me some time to understand this word in portuguese - even though it is almost the same - but its pronounced Shtalaktshitshi or something like that)... If you have not seen the movie Turistas, you think that the place is relatively dangerous but that nothing bad should happen... And you might enjoy it...
BUT if you ve seen the movie, you know that there are some crazy doctors in Brasil - with a good conscience - catching fallenfromthepaths tourists - and giving them some drugs so they can steal their organs and sell them... This is what this place was about... Starting on the top of a cliff - with a beautiful view of what was below - and then - trying to get down - on some things that can not really be called steps - but wet rocks... there is a rope that marks a line that shouldnt be crossed - that could make you feel safer - but if you pay attention, this rope is tied to some super small rocks that wouldnt even support the weight of my baby camera if it was falling (if it was alive and falling and intelligent enough to catch something...)! So they expect us to fall and there might be some people at the bottow catching us to take our kidneys... Like it happened to Charlie... (Charlie is a unicorn... with 2 friends... with long tongues... and that make weird noises... how sad...) Anyway, our whole group survived - luckily...
Then we went to the balneario municipal - to dive and swim with the fishes - actually big - probably fed with the parts that the doctors from the movie cant reuse...
Back to Campo Grande - the last day, after I had stopped the rain - I had to use one of my special powers - we went to see the Capivaras... They are super cool animals - apparently the biggest animal in the same family than the rats - maybe not so cool after all... So I dressed as a tree - beige shorts and green shirt - that I have actually wore the 4 following days - due to a notsoperfect organisation - I was a tree - and even more convincing with my arms above my head... So I walked closer to the capivaras - at first they were not sure I was a tree - but then they had to accept the truth - trust me (everybody should trust trees) and come out of the woods - with their many friends... To be honest - they were on the line to become creepy - there were so many! And they are the size of a pig - brown shiny hair - a mix of a huge new york rat, a pig, a beaver and a dog... Now close your eyes... What do you see? Capivaras! Easy!
I also discovered a few of new cool portuguese words... I like the ones with two identical syllabs... like terere (which is a drink - made of green mud (actually called erva mate) - but we only drink the water with a bomba de terere - and it gives a buzz after you drank 5 liters... just like chat - you chew on it for 2 hours and then you start to feel something... oh drugs!) tuiuiu (which is a big bird that lives in front of the airport - there are two of them) jacare (it doesnt have two identical syllabs but there is another word that sounds like it - acaraje - jacare is a kind of small crocodile - cocodrile) arara is a bird - and finally soba - which is a japanese meal that we can only eat on wednesday evenings - at the japanese market - where elvis (not the pelvis one from the god of small things) sings... live! Also, there are fans in the market - the kind that pushes some japanese food smelling - and live elvis sweating - smells in your face!
After all this, on Friday, I went back to the bus station - ready for a 25 hours ride... during which I had a smile on my face for almost the whole time - with the beautiful cerrado landscape in front of my eyes... actually before I started (and couldnt stop) noticing the smell of humidity on the bus - before the grids on the ceiling started to shake and make a noise that I couldnt ignore caused by the poor quality of the road - and before I realised that I could not get into horizontal position to sleep... I was missing horizontality so much - what a great invention! this might be why I had mares... morningmares... and afternoonmares... and when I woke up, the last time, I started to have hope... counting down the hours left to the ride... 8 hours... 7 hours... 6 hours... It went pretty fast... 5... 4... 3... I talked to some people on the bus but they got off... 2... 1... It was dark again and I was arriving in a new city - a huge one - with great views though... exhausted but happy of everything that had already happened - and that would come soon!
I laughed a lot remembering the scenes! Specially the one with the capivaras hahahha
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy that you liked being here, I did my best to make you confortable, and sorry if you disliked something.
I'm also happy that I had the pleasure to have you here, and I hope that it can happen someday again.
Take care, see you, and I hope it'll be soon.
Beijooos!