Saudade

It's a week that I'm back in Switzerland now.

I still hadn't time to write my stories about how I met great people when I was visiting the Corcovado; the chance I had to see a great artist on work in Lapa; how I managed to transform a zoology lab in an actual zoo and ...oh, so many other things!

But, I will, I promise. It will just take a little bit of time. ;-)

However, right now, I really had the feeling to have to write. I'm missing Brazil so much.

It could be that the fact that it's raining in CH since a week non-stop, doesn't help my acclimatization here. But, it's also true that I had the best time ever in Brazil. I was so free. Full of work, yes, but free to be myself and not be judged! People there are as crazy as I am! I love it!

People love to dance, to laugh, to talk, to... live!

And I miss that so much.

People here seem to be so grey. They seem to have forgotten that life is not about work. Life is about us, about love, about fun, about.. friendships!

I have to admit, in this past week, I'm also focussed on my work. But I think that it's a matter of equilibrium. It's a bit like day and night. We need both to work. We need to have fun as much as we need our sleep. Fortunately I love my job, so I usually have a lot of fun there too. Anyway, there is nothing better than go out with friends, dance and laugh to regenerate!

And people here, they don't laugh enough. Actually, they barely smile! Seriously!

I was looking around in the tram today: it's like if people are scared to hell to meet the eyes of some strangers. People stare out of the window, right in front or even to the floor just to avoid the chance of meeting someone's else eyes. Crazy!

I hope the sun will come back soon here, to illuminate also the grayest faces!

Until then I'll miss my beloved Brasilia, my friends there and my life there.

It took my heart, slowly, with samba rhythm and sweet mango taste. It entered in my brain, in my vein. It's Brasil and its sun. Its people and its colors. Saudade is not only a word. It's the inevitable feeling you once saw the paradise on earth. 

Botanical Garden and a small cake in the Parque Lage

Last Saturday, Michelle and I went out with a friend of her, Aurelio, to visit the botanical garden. First we wanted to go to eat breakfast in the Parque Lage, a beautiful place near the botanical garden. We got there at 2pm, so that, of course, we couldn't have café da manhã anymore. So we ordered some small things like waffles and cakes. Actually, I was looking forward a chocolate cake. So I ordered what I thought would be a chocolate cake. What arrived was more similar to a small bottom plate than to a chocolate cake. I was starving, starring at this small thing in the hope that it somehow transforms itself in a huge cake. It didn't.

We then went to visit the botanical garden. Amazing. Everything seems bigger in Rio! Afterwards we walked along the beach and in the night we went to see a musical: Por uma Noite. The story is about a group of young singer/actors/dancers that want to organize a musical for only one night. I loved it! The best part, however, was the total participation of the audience! At the end all the people were standing, singing and dancing together with the actors!

me in the parque lage

Michelle :-)

Ipanema and the beach boys...

Rio and CS

After only a few days in the paradisaic Morro, I had to go back to Salvador to go to Rio. On one side I was sad to leave this island, on the other I was exited to know the marvelous city. After a six hour trip to reach my hotel near to the airport of Salvador, after two hours of delay in the airport because of the rain and after have been placed in a new direct flight to Rio, I finally reached the international airport.

I already had organized my staying in Nelson's house, another CSer. So I met him for lunch time and from the first moment I felt like at home. He's such a great guy! I really felt totally comfortable and secure in his house. 

In the first evening in Rio, I went out to have dinner with some friends of Nelson: Simone and Michelle. We went to eat in a Japanese restaurant: we opted for a all-you-can-eat. I filled my self with sushis, sashimis, ... It was great! The girls wanted to know more about the CS project and at the end I had the possibility to stay at Michelle's place for the rest of my holidays! She lives in Ipanema, near to the most beautiful beach of Rio. I really enjoyed my time with her! She's, like me, a lover of series. So, as you can imagine, we had a lot to talk about. :-) And also for the rest, we found out to have many things in common. She always cared about me, which I found totally cute!

Morro de São Paolo

Ah, Morro de São Paolo. What an enchanting place! I have to admit, it is a very touristic place. Anyway, it has such a beautiful landscape, that you completely forget about everyone around you! I was staying in a small lovely posada, called Albatros. Now, you have to imagine the place with four main beaches, one after the other. On the first and the second, there are all the posadas and restaurants. I was staying on the third, which is already much quieter. But, if you walk a bit (like 20 min), you reach the beautiful forth beach: a dream of turquoise water, fine gold sand and palms and trees that provide shadow. I was staying there only 2 days, and I spent most of the time under one of the trees in this magnificent beach. I also explored a bit the village and the proximity of the lighthouse. I made party, I walked under the rain, I eat like a queen and I slept a lot. I also had a photo-shoot with Rui, the CSer I met in Salvador. He was so nice to visit me in Morro for a few hours. We made tons of pictures together, it was fun! I really enjoyed these days.

I also met some really nice people, like the daughter of the proprietary, Indira. She wants to learn Italian (someone has some suggestions to do an exchange?), she's a girl full of positive energy and I was lucky to meet her again in Rio. I also met two German guys, David and Chris. I went out to dance with them, and I had one of my best nights of my holidays, dancing on the beach with them! It was great. Chris remembered me somehow my swiss friend Chris (Blomy): both look like living in a parallel universe! :-) And finally there was Errico, a guy that has a Restaurant in Morro. We talked a little bit and I was impressed about all the places in which he already had a restaurant. He really enjoys his work! I think, I would never be able to work always with tourists. I don't have the patience for this.

Igor, a spanish guy I met per chance again in the evening

Praia 4

Rui

Rui and I

No idea who this is, but the picture is good!

David and Chris

Praia do Forte and a strict CSer

The last time I wrote you, I had no idea what I was going to do that day. Well, finally I went to Praia do Forte with A. We went to see ruins of something they call here "castle" (no, it has NOTHING to do with the castles we know in Europe). It was nice, but I didn't get my shoes blow off. Afterwards we went to eat another Moqueca, this time with shrimps. It was really good. The guy of the restaurant told us that we could go to a place where you hang yourself on a cord and slide over the river from a vertiginous height to finally let you fall in the water. I was totally exited to do that! But we first wanted to go to the beach to swim a little bit. Thus, we arrived to this place, Praia do Forte. It was the most touristic place I have seen so far. I just wanted to leave again and go to slide down the cord. However, I saw how A. liked to swim, so I waited a bit to insist to go.. ;-) 

While I was in the water, doing nothing, I saw how a guy near to me was putting himself into a pose for a photo. I swam to him just in time to be in the picture too. It was really funny. As an exchange, I had to take a picture of the two guys (the one of the photo and the photographer). I have no idea what their names are or anything. I just have a picture of them. :-)

However I was still looking forward the "slide-down-the-cord" thing, so I asked A. to go. He insisted that I had first to visit the turtles of the Tamar project. Tamar is a project for the maintenance of turtles in the region. So far, so good. But I new how the thing would look like: small basins with giant turtles. I was right. And when I got out, it was already too late for my jump in the water from the cord. I was really a bit pissed. It was time to go to another place. Also because the guy always kept on making compliments, ignoring the fact that I was really and absolutely not interested in him.

So, the next day, I was ready to go to Morro de São Paolo.

leaving Salvador

Hairy dreams

Ok, this has nothing to do with my travel, but I have to tell you this story. 

Yesterday night I have dreamed that a lot of hairs started to grow on my breast and my belly, like a dude! In Rio I started to have a bad skin, probably because of the bad mixture of sun cream and sweat. So I started to use a specific soap to make it better. In my dream this soap was transformed in the worse soap ever: the more I used it, the more I had hairs growing everywhere. Horrible! So I woke up, sure to be full of hairs, ready to go to the bathroom to shave my self. I was sooooo relieved when I realized that it was just a bad dream! :-)

Salvador de Bahia

Finally I'm in HOLIDAY! I love this feeling of being free, to wake up whenever I want, to go where I want, to do what I want!
So, I'm now in Salvador since two days. I'm staying in the place of a CSer called Alberto. His apartment is great, and he was so lovely to leave me his own bedroom! However to get to his apartment was a bit tricky: in the airport I asked how to get to the estacion de transborte... No one could help me. So I asked a guy who told me that I had to take the next bus. I also asked the driver, who just liquified me with a "sim sim, transborte". Of course, it was the wrong bus.
Fortunately there was a nice girl sitting next to me who told me that I could go out with her and then take a bus called S. Joaquim to the main bus station in the city. After all my friends from Brasilia kept on telling me how dangerous Salvador and Rio are, that I have to be VERY cautious, that I should not walk around with my bag, etc.. I got totally afraid about my bags and I was suspicious about everyone, even this nice girl. I was looking at her with very intense eyes when she wanted to help me to get my bags out of the bus... Poor thing!
After a while in this other bus stop (I guess not even God knows where...) I got a bit more relaxed: no one seemed to pay really attention to this gringa sitting on the bank, sweating like a pig and holding her bags. However, after 30 min of waiting I was really starting to worry that this bus will never come, and that I will have to pass my vacation in the middle of nonwhere! But the nice girl showed up again to see for me (soooo cute!), saying that the bus sometimes "demorra um poco". Finally this bus arrived, I reached the main station, got into my third bus and reached my destination after 2h and 30 min (instead of 45 min...).

There was a friend of Alberto welcoming me, Rui. He's from Portugal and we had a long nice chat.
Yesterday I had the chance to visit the old city, Pelourinho. Beautiful, but compared to other placed I've visited in Mexico, like Campeche, I have to say that it's not as great as there. However, the people are great. Of course, they try to get money from you in all possible ways, as it's a very touristic region. But with a nice smile and a "Nao, obrigada" they usually leave you in peace. Much better than the people in Tanzania that keep on followig you everywhere! :-)

I made some nice pictures and per chance I found a place where people where building up a stage. I asked if they where going to make music and they told me that after 5pm they will have something like a concert. I met Alberto to drink somehing and to see the sunset and I then pushed him towards this place. It was great! They have a whole project going on (www.eletrocooperativa.org) and I met some really nice people there (now I have new friends on Orkut.. (Orkut is something like Facebook that they use here in Brasil))! As I speak english, a few wanted to practice their english with me.. It was really nice. They also invited me to their school, but as I'll probably go to an island tomorrow or sunday, I'll not be able to ass by.

After the concert Alberto went home to get a second helmet for me and while I was waiting I had to defend my self from every guy that was walking by. I think that every white woman with a small ego, should stay alone in a street of Palourinho at night: I kept on hearing "you're sooo beautiful", "I want to see you again", "I didn't know that angels can fly so low"... After a while I was a bit tired of this, so I just asked a family sitting on a bar, if I could join them. It was a family from Madrid, very nice and funny. The father asked me if I like Brasilia, and he told me that he had a very bad time there, because of the dry weather (apperently in winter the humidity goes down to 10%!).
When I was almost forgetting the fact that I had to wait for Alberto, he finally re-appeared. We went to eat some "siri" and to dance. We also had fun by telling to a drunk girlt hat I was from Salvador and he was visiting me, coming from Spain. She was sooo drunk that she didn't get the fact that my portoguese is too bad for a native.. Afterwards we made a round with his bike through the city. It was great! The combination of beach, skylines, favelas. The dust, the heat, the colours, the smell... I think that was the time when I felt in love with Salvador. And today this love just grew more and more.

For today I was totally looking forward to go to the beach, as the heat is almost killing me. But, of course, it started to rain. So I thought that i could go and watch for a suitcase. To make it short: I had a whole tour though the city, I took the same bus twice, I made new Orkut-friends and after hours of travelling in circle I finally found my suitcase. :-) It was really funny! The guys that sell the tickets are very nice. I wouldn't change my day, even if I could!

When I arrived to the shop I was looking for, the guy told me that the suitcase costs 180 BRL. I told him that i cannot afford for more than 60. After some time he told me that I could have it for 80, and I said that then I had to think about it. He finally sold it to me for 70 BRL. It seems to be a very good price, as so far everyone told me that he usually payed 150-200 BRL for such a suitcase. They all asked me from where I've got it. I just hope that it will not fall apart after the first flight! ;-)
Now I'll have to look where I want to go in the next days and on Wednesday I'll go to Rio. I can't wait!