I´m so bored of the U.S.A.
An Argentinian couple and one lovely lass from England have joined our little international group of misfits. This in addition to the Colombian, the Chilean, the Slovak and of course the Gringo. And luckily my Spanish is better than Lisa´s, the girl from foggy old London, so I am no longer the one slowing down the group!
There´s something about hanging out with such an international crew that I just love. Everyone has their own perspective on the world, and what´s truly amazing is that perspective generally fits the stereo-type of the country they are from. And I guess I realize that as much as I hate to admit it, my view of the world is strongly colored by living in the US my entire life.
José, the Colombian, and I got into a discussion yesterday about our countries. He started asking me what the US was like, what was good about it and what was bad. The majority of his knowledge about the US comes from Hollywood and what he´s heard from friends of friends who have been there.
Well I started with what was good. I told him that after being in Latin America for a couple of months and seeing some of the abject poverty first hand, you really appreciate the amazing wealth of the US. There are not people starving to death in the streets on a daily basis in the US like there are in every other country in the America´s (except maybe Canada).
I went on to say I have an amazing amount of freedom. I can sit back and critize my government and its policies without fear of reprisal. I don´t have to worry about a military coup or rigged elections. Ok, maybe that last part isn´t true. The rest of the world is still wondering how the state who´s governor is the brother of the guy who was running for President just happened to be the one with the controversial results that swayed the entire election.
And then I kinda ran out of stuff to say. The close-knit family structure I´ve seen in every Latin American country I´ve been in seems far superior to how we in the US deal with our families (move far away and only go back for holidays). Everyone I´ve met here also seems to have great friends who drop on by at all times and just have fun drinking and dancing and talking and laughing.
I certainly wasn´t going to refer to our military might or ability to affect change on the world map. The rest of the world already thinks we´re arrogant enough. And I guess I don´t see being the biggest kid in the playground as something to be proud of.
The truth is, I don´t remember why I love the US anymore. Having the passport is really nice, it gets you into a lot of places. But other than that, the US is kinda boring. And simply being able to earn more money here than anywhere else in the world isn´t a good enough answer anymore. Our culture seems incredibly shallow and vacuous, although I think I might have just made up that word.
Lately I´ve been thinking about just making it as far as Buenos Aires and stopping. I had thought about Colombia, but I figure the beautiful women are a wash in both countries and they´re equally cheap, but Argentina wins with the fantastic wine and heavenly steaks. Although Colombia does have a natural beauty that is literally beyond compare. Don´t worry Jeff, I´ll still be back for all my crap at some point.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Why don´t you all just hurry up and die?
Mick Jagger and his fellow cohorts have once again conspired to make my life difficult. As if being forced to watch that withered old man shake his geriatric ass during the Super Bowl wasn´t punishment enough, a few weeks ago The Rolling Stones decided to hold a huge concert in Rio de Janiero´s Copacobana beach. It happens to be this saturday.
Truth be told I have no desire to see them. But apparently somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people do. It is literally impossible to find a hotel, apartment or even park bench in this city for saturday night. And this is just a week before Carnaval starts, which was supposed to be my down time in Rio.
Oh well, life presents a problem and we look for solutions. I´ve managed to make friends with a great Colombian guy named José and a Chilean beauty named Teresa, who are staying in the same hostel as I am. We decided we´d try to find a room somewhere in the city. The other option is to flee Rio for a quiet resort town a few hours away which will no doubt be empty.
We´ve spent the last two days doing this. Well actually we spent the last two days talking about doing this as we all sat on the beach and drank. We did actually meet with a guy today who knew a guy who maybe kinda had an apartment, but we decided we didn´t want to wait for him to show up with the keys and went to the beach instead. And then we were late coming back from Corcovado and never did meet him and see this mystical apartment.
As you can tell we are all very preoccupied with this and are starting to get quite nervous.
Mick Jagger and his fellow cohorts have once again conspired to make my life difficult. As if being forced to watch that withered old man shake his geriatric ass during the Super Bowl wasn´t punishment enough, a few weeks ago The Rolling Stones decided to hold a huge concert in Rio de Janiero´s Copacobana beach. It happens to be this saturday.
Truth be told I have no desire to see them. But apparently somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people do. It is literally impossible to find a hotel, apartment or even park bench in this city for saturday night. And this is just a week before Carnaval starts, which was supposed to be my down time in Rio.
Oh well, life presents a problem and we look for solutions. I´ve managed to make friends with a great Colombian guy named José and a Chilean beauty named Teresa, who are staying in the same hostel as I am. We decided we´d try to find a room somewhere in the city. The other option is to flee Rio for a quiet resort town a few hours away which will no doubt be empty.We´ve spent the last two days doing this. Well actually we spent the last two days talking about doing this as we all sat on the beach and drank. We did actually meet with a guy today who knew a guy who maybe kinda had an apartment, but we decided we didn´t want to wait for him to show up with the keys and went to the beach instead. And then we were late coming back from Corcovado and never did meet him and see this mystical apartment.
As you can tell we are all very preoccupied with this and are starting to get quite nervous.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Her name is Rio
Rio de Janiero is amazingly beautiful. There is a saying here that God spent 6 days making the world and saved the 7th for Rio. One look around here and you can understand why. The sheer mountain cliffs come right to the shore, and there are miles and miles of beautiful white sand beaches to explore.
So far things have gone well here. Customs was easy, I slept the whole way from Panama. I found a hostel with availability pretty easy, and only 5 minutes from the beach (which is actually kinda far for Rio).
I hooked up with a few fellow travellers, the Colombian, the Chilean and the Slovak. Within 3 hours of my plane touching down we were doing cartwheels on the Ipanema beach. And the fruit is really good here, I´ve been missing great fruit, haven´t had any since Colombia really.
Turns out Portuguese sounds pretty much nothing like Spanish except the few words I happen to catch in common. But Spanish definately does help around here, especialy with the fellow travellers who all speak it better than I do.
Rio de Janiero is amazingly beautiful. There is a saying here that God spent 6 days making the world and saved the 7th for Rio. One look around here and you can understand why. The sheer mountain cliffs come right to the shore, and there are miles and miles of beautiful white sand beaches to explore.
So far things have gone well here. Customs was easy, I slept the whole way from Panama. I found a hostel with availability pretty easy, and only 5 minutes from the beach (which is actually kinda far for Rio).I hooked up with a few fellow travellers, the Colombian, the Chilean and the Slovak. Within 3 hours of my plane touching down we were doing cartwheels on the Ipanema beach. And the fruit is really good here, I´ve been missing great fruit, haven´t had any since Colombia really.
Turns out Portuguese sounds pretty much nothing like Spanish except the few words I happen to catch in common. But Spanish definately does help around here, especialy with the fellow travellers who all speak it better than I do.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Brazil here I come
I've only got a few short hours before I hop on that plan headed towards Brazil. I suppose this would be a good time to start learning Portuguese. Unfortunately that bittorrent of the portuguese lessons I tried to download only made it 1/2 way, and then turned out to be totally random snippets of the lessons. Just about useless.
Oh well, I feel somewhat comfortable with my Spanish, althought I know that isn't really going to help me in Brazil. But I have already found an English-speaking hostel to stay in and hopefully they'll be at the airport waiting to pick me up. After that I'll worry about learning the language. But I really probably should have bought a phrase-book or something. Oh well, maybe they'll have one at the airport.
Really this part of this journey is quite exciting for me. My buddy Ellick and my sister Samira are all set to meet me in Rio and enjoy the festivities that Carnaval will no doubt bring. It'll be my first chance in two months to reconnect in person with the lives I left behind in the US, and I'm curious to see what has changed and more likely, what has not.
I've only got a few short hours before I hop on that plan headed towards Brazil. I suppose this would be a good time to start learning Portuguese. Unfortunately that bittorrent of the portuguese lessons I tried to download only made it 1/2 way, and then turned out to be totally random snippets of the lessons. Just about useless.
Oh well, I feel somewhat comfortable with my Spanish, althought I know that isn't really going to help me in Brazil. But I have already found an English-speaking hostel to stay in and hopefully they'll be at the airport waiting to pick me up. After that I'll worry about learning the language. But I really probably should have bought a phrase-book or something. Oh well, maybe they'll have one at the airport.
Really this part of this journey is quite exciting for me. My buddy Ellick and my sister Samira are all set to meet me in Rio and enjoy the festivities that Carnaval will no doubt bring. It'll be my first chance in two months to reconnect in person with the lives I left behind in the US, and I'm curious to see what has changed and more likely, what has not.
Shameless Advertising
I promised Mundo and Paolo I'd do this. Tourist coming to their pueblo is really the most significant form of earning dollars that the Kuna people have. They are concerned that they'll become over-run with tourists and further lose the grip they have on their traditional way of life so they maintain pretty tight control of who is allowed in. But they are among the nicest people I've ever met, and went far out of their way to make sure I was happy.
So if you every happen to find yourself in the San Blas islands in the puebo of Playon Chico and you need a place to stay, look up Mundo. Just ask around town for him, everyone knows him. He's been working at the local post office for 16 years and doesn't have any plans to go anywhere. Sure the odds that any of your are heading to Panama any time soon is slim, but even if one or two of you make it there it would make a huge difference in their livelihood.
Or if you like to plan ahead, call the pueblo at either:
011 507 299-91-17
011 507 277-91-68
Those are only two public phones in the pueblo, so likely someone will answer and you'll have to ask for Mundo in spanish. And then you'll hang up and call back in about 5 minutes, and hopefully by then they will have found him and he'll be waiting for your call. Just let him know that Kashif from Seattle sent you and they'll treat you right. For those of you who can't speak Spanish, there are a few people in the pueblo who speak English relatively well and I'm sure they'd be willing to help out with translations.
Or mail Mundo at:
Raymundo Gonzalez
Correos Playon Chico
Entrega General
Kuna Yala
Republic of Panama
The accomodations are nice although you do have to kinda enjoy roughing it. We wound settling on $20 a night which included 3 meals a day and for the last night several beers. It's definately an experience like no other.
If you are looking for a few more amenities in your accomodations I met Petita one of the nights while we were relaxing in the village, and her family runs a nearby hotel. It's website is http://www.kuanidup.pa.kz and they seemed like lovely people as well.
I promised Mundo and Paolo I'd do this. Tourist coming to their pueblo is really the most significant form of earning dollars that the Kuna people have. They are concerned that they'll become over-run with tourists and further lose the grip they have on their traditional way of life so they maintain pretty tight control of who is allowed in. But they are among the nicest people I've ever met, and went far out of their way to make sure I was happy.
So if you every happen to find yourself in the San Blas islands in the puebo of Playon Chico and you need a place to stay, look up Mundo. Just ask around town for him, everyone knows him. He's been working at the local post office for 16 years and doesn't have any plans to go anywhere. Sure the odds that any of your are heading to Panama any time soon is slim, but even if one or two of you make it there it would make a huge difference in their livelihood.
Or if you like to plan ahead, call the pueblo at either:
011 507 299-91-17
011 507 277-91-68
Those are only two public phones in the pueblo, so likely someone will answer and you'll have to ask for Mundo in spanish. And then you'll hang up and call back in about 5 minutes, and hopefully by then they will have found him and he'll be waiting for your call. Just let him know that Kashif from Seattle sent you and they'll treat you right. For those of you who can't speak Spanish, there are a few people in the pueblo who speak English relatively well and I'm sure they'd be willing to help out with translations.
Or mail Mundo at:
Raymundo Gonzalez
Correos Playon Chico
Entrega General
Kuna Yala
Republic of Panama
The accomodations are nice although you do have to kinda enjoy roughing it. We wound settling on $20 a night which included 3 meals a day and for the last night several beers. It's definately an experience like no other.
If you are looking for a few more amenities in your accomodations I met Petita one of the nights while we were relaxing in the village, and her family runs a nearby hotel. It's website is http://www.kuanidup.pa.kz and they seemed like lovely people as well.
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