The path less taken...

I am currently on an island off the northern coast of Brazil called Morro de Sao Paolo. This place is a little piece of heaven, when it´s not raining. Every day we step out of our hostel straight onto powdery white sand and spend most of the day sitting on the beach. But there have been a few days of rain, so it´s important to find other things to do as well.

One day, when it was raining, one of my friends came to me and said, "Hey Maya- want to go see a jungle?" Now I didn´t know that there was a jungle on this island, so I said sure, why not? and we set out on our way. As we walked along the beach, I asked him what he knew about this supposed jungle, and he said he didn´t really know anything about it, but he said we would be fine. Along the way, a couple passed us by on a carriage attached to a donkey. So we stopped them and asked if we could hitch a ride down the beach, and they said yes and took us. They let us out when we saw a big group of people, and turns out it was a big soccer game outside of the locals´ village. I don´t know that much about soccer, but I understood pretty quickly that even if it was just a local league, the level of technique was very high (my friend does understand these things and said that they were indeed very impressive). There was drumming along the sides and some capoeira as well (Brazilian fight-dancing. very cool stuff).

After about 15 minutes we decided to turn down the path that we hoped would lead to their village. We walked for a while and saw people passing by in carriages, on horses, bicycles, and cars. We reached their village and wandered around for a while, soaking in the sights of real life on the island, far away from our touristy area. Some people looked at us suspiciously, some waved and smiled. And I thought to myself, this is what I´ve been looking for the whole time. Something off the beaten track- something left relatively undiscovered by the masses. So maybe it wasn´t a jungle, but it was still exotic to me.

Am I really in Brazil?! Already?

Could it be that I have made it to my last country-destination of this trip? Yes, I decided to save Peru for another trip because I got to Brazil a week ago and decided that I just couldn´t cut this part of my trip short. I was originally planning 3 weeks in Brazil and 3 weeks in Peru, but then I realized that I had a bit less time than I thought, so I said "ok 3 weeks Brazil, 2 weeks Peru." But ONLY 3 weeks in Brazil? No way. So here I am, in Brazil, coming home in just less than a month. And what will I be doing for the next 30 days? Exactly what I´ve done for the last week... sit on the beach.

Now don´t get me wrong. Sitting on the beach is hard work. I have to wake up in the morning, eat a huge (and delicious!) breakfast of fruits, cheese, and coffee. Then I have to put on my bathing suit, cover-up, and flip-flops, take my brazilian flag towel, sunscreen, and water. Finally, I have to decide which beach to sit on that day. Or at the beginning of the day, because we could always decide to move if we want to. Yes, life is tough here in Brazil. I don´t know how I will survive.

What do we do while we sit on the beach? Well yesterday, we were at a beach on Ilha Grande (and island a few hours south of Rio), and my friends and I went in the water, played in the sand a bit, and towards the end we even got a boogie board from some guys who didn´t want it anymore. So I boogie boarded for a few minutes, snapped a few photos with our new toy, and then left it for someone else to play with. In addition, I´m doing a lot of reading and writing--I just read Brave New World in 2 days, which I have been waiting to read since I read 1984 in Mrs. Fisher´s 10th grade English class. I´ve aslso been playing a lot of guitar, which makes me very happy. Like everything else here.

Anyway, I can´t believe that I will be back in the US of A in less than a month. Kind of sad, but I´ve been doing a lot of daydreaming about the summer and next semester on the long busrides. Being the optimist that I am, I have begun already looking forward to what will come after the grand adventure is done. But I can´t say that all that daydreaming is making me wish that I were coming home one minute sooner...

The end of chapter II

Hello everyone

First order of business- new photos.

It´s been a little while since I wrote a blog entry, but that doesn´t mean that life has become boring or slow-paced. In fact, the past few weeks have been so packed with adventures that I have not had time to write about them (sense the not-so-clever excuse?). In short, I spent a week and a half back in Buenos Aires and then came out to Iguazu Falls, which is on the border of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Tomorrow at this time I will be on a bus to Rio de Janeiro for the third leg of the trip.

What have I done in the last few weeks? Well let´s start with Passover. I spent first night of the holiday at a Beit Chabad Passover seder of about 300 people. It was in a hotel in the middle of Buenos Aires, and the room looked like it was prepared for a wedding, not a Jewish holiday meal. It was quite an interesting experience being at a seder with so many people (most of whom were Israelis). The rabbi did a good job of keeping everyone´s attention in the beginning, but by the end he was yelling as loud as he could to be heard over the chatting at each table. I spent most of the time wishing I was home with my family, but at least there was kosher meat (which I ate every day in BA, by the way).

The second night of the holiday I went with my friends to a local Jewish family´s home in Villa Cresco, which is one of the Jewish neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. I was much more nervous for this seder. In contrast to Beit Chabad, where I was not worried that we would leave a word out, I was told that this family did not know the first thing about the seder and that my friend and I would be running it for them. Turns out that that was not entirely true--they knew some of the songs and understood the basic storyline--and they were extremely excited about every part of the seder that we prepared. It felt great to be in a home with grandparents and babies, and of course it was also a great opportunity to practice my Spanish on locals who don´t drive taxis or work in hostels.

Okay exciting event number two of the week was my skydiving adventure. Yes- I jumped (or was pushed) from a plane and landed successfully with my feet on the ground. My general strategy to avoid chickening out was to not think about it, but in truth I decided about 2 months ago already that I was going to do it before I left Argentina. So I woke up in the morning, went out to a field 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires, got in a plane with an instructor (who was attached to me, of course) and a cameraman, and the next thing I know my stomach is in my throat as I plummet 3000m down to the ground. I don´t know which part was more fun... before or after the parachute opens. You definately have more time to enjoy the view once you aren´t racing headfirst towards the ground, but I think nothing can beat the feeling of the freefall. Maybe now I´ll even start going on roller coasters, huh?

Last exciting thing of the week and then I´ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing before you decided to stop by this site and see if I posted anything (aren´t you glad I did?). Today I went to see the Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side. Now if I´m not mistaken, Iguazu is the widest waterfall in the world (or the place with the most waterfalls maybe? I know its not the tallest...) Anyway it didn´t really matter to me what record it holds- all that was important was how incredible magical the place is. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and I spent the day with a bunch of friends wandering around billions of gallons of pounding water. Since it´s been a little while since a place of nature really took my breath away (maybe a few weeks), it was refreshing to see a spectacular park like this. It reminded me, once again, to thank God for our wonderful world and the natural beauty that it hosts.

Anyway, like I said, tomorrow I´ll be off to Brazil for Part III of the adventure. My friend with whom I just traveled for the past month and a half flew to Panama this week, so now I am with a few other girls. Once again, I feel like I am starting a new piece of the experience. New country, new language, new sites, new people. New music and dances and food, and maybe even a new bathing suit. Who knows, really...

On the linguistic front...

Hey everyone

So I am currently in Cordoba, Argentina. It´s the second largest city in Argentina (after Buenos Aires, of course), and it´s quite a nice place. There are seven universities in the city, so I could theoretically compare it to Boston, but there´s really no comparison. In contrast to Boston´s historic and orderly nature, Cordoba is a bustling city of parties and bars. After a fun weekend in the city, my friends and I decided yesterday that it was time to explore the surrounding area, since we heard that there were many nice little towns in this provence. So off to Villa Carlos Paz we went.

Villa Carlos Paz is a relatively small town and as far as I could tell, it´s not a tourist hot spot. Which was exactly what we were looking for. The attraction in this town is Lago San Roque, a nice lake. We planned to go sit next to the lake, but ended up sitting on a beach on the river that leads to the lake itself. It was great to be surrounded by local families instead of just tourists- it was like being on vacation from vacation for the day.

One of the people I went with is a lovely girl from Belgium who is in Argentina for a few months working. Why is she so interesting to me? Because she speaks French, English, and Spanish. And as a linguistics student, I have been having a ball observing her and her language habits. French is her mother tongue, she learned English in university, and until two months ago she didn´t speak a word of Spanish. But now not only is her Spanish pretty good, but her Spanish, her third language, has totally messed up her English, her second language. Her sentences are half and half (just as interesting to me is the fact that I have no trouble understanding her Spanglish, assuming that she doesn´t slip any French words in). I´m working on figuring out the patterns of which sorts of words she says in English and which come out in Spanish. I know that I´m supposed to be taking a break from college but I can´t help myself... I´m still a dork, even when I´m traveling far away from home.

As for my own language journey, I´ll write more about it soon because it´s also interesting (at least it is for me). In the meantime, I´m heading off to Buenos Aires tonight and that is where we´ll be for the beginning of Passover, which begins Wednesday night. So for all of you celebrating, chag kasher v´sameach. And wish me luck finding what to eat for a week here. And to my family, I love and miss you all very much and I hope you have a wonderful time together at the seders!

A town of attractions

(first order of business- here are my pictures up until, but not including, Pucon)

In contrast to El Bolson, which is known as a place to go and do nothing for a few days, Pucon is known as a place where you go to do everything. This town is located under Volcan Villaricca, which is covered in snow, and is also located next to a big lake, where you can sit on the beach. There are a ton of other things to do in and around the town, including rapelling down waterfalls, horseback riding, sitting in hot springs, bike riding, and rafting slash body rafting. Of all of these things, I´ve done the rapelling, horseback riding, hot springs, and (of course) hiking the volcano.

I guess chronological order is the best way to start. Horseback riding- lots of fun... my horse´s name was Pinta, and the name of our guide was Chichi. I went with 2 friends and some other people, and we had a nice time on the way to our destination, which was an 85 m waterfall. On the way back, I got my horse going really fast and everything that I learned in childhood horseback riding lessons came back... thank goodness.

Rapelling down the waterfall was perhaps the highlight of the week for me. There were 3 waterfalls, but the third was the real attraction. It was 85 m high, and the first 4 meters was really rapelling down a wall, but then the next 40 meters was just lowering myself down a rope (I was in a harness, of course). I bounced my way down and spun around 360 degrees a few times to make sure to appreciate the view that was before my eyes. The last 40 meters I was back against a wall, and at that point I hopped around in the waterfall and danced a bit in the rainbows that were all around me. I´m not sure exactly what the words are to describe the experience... it was one of the coolest things I´ve done so far on this trip.

Hiking the volcano was pretty incredible as well. It took us maybe 5 hours to get up the volcano, but not nearly that long to come down because about half of the descent was sledding down a glacier on our butts. The view from the top of the volcano was incredible- it probably was considered a cloudy day by people in the town of Pucon, but it was not cloudy where we were because we were actually above the clouds. I felt like I was in an airplane looking down at the world from above. And the status of the volcano itself? Statistically speaking, it was supposed to erupt last year already, so it was pretty cool standing on the top looking down inside the volcano. Even though we couldn´t see the lava, we could hear it from where we were standing.

Anyway there were a lot of other things that I did this week, but I´ll stop here because this is getting a bit long. I´m off in a few hours to Santiago (just for the night, I think) and then off to Cordoba, which is back in Argentina. I´ll send an update from there, I imagine.

What a week it´s been

Hey everyone

Sorry I haven´t sent an update in a little while- my trip is totally different now than it was before. What exactly does that mean? Well the last time I sent an update was before I left El Calafate, and up until then I had mostly been hiking and seeing beautiful views and I was with a great group of guy friends. From there, I took a 30 hour busride to El Bolson where I sat on an Israeli farm for almost a week just relaxing and soaking up some sun, and now I´m in Bariloche, which is 2 hours north of El Bolson, and here has also mostly been relaxing time, though we´ve done some sight seeing also around here.

Both El Bolson and Bariloche are places unlike anything I´ve seen before. The farm in El Bolson where I stayed was designed specifically to be a home away from home for Israelis traveling in South America. How comfortable and homey was it... as soon as we got there we ordered some delicious Israeli food (my friend and I ordered one hummus, one malawach, and one shakshukah, which are three traditional dishes that are just delicious) and the staff of the farm where just the most friendly and warm people I´ve met. They just want everyone to feel at home all the time, and if I had some more time I would have stayed to work there as well. Who knows- maybe I´ll go back for a few weeks if I get a chance (you don´t get paid to work there, but you get free room and food, which is all I really need anyway haha). Actually, the farm made me think about camp because we spent most of our time lounging out on the grass- people were playing soccer or volleyball, some guitar too, and just getting to know each other, and that´s my favorite thing to do at camp so it made me miss home a little bit.

After El Bolson, we headed up to Bariloche, which is a city that´s still considered part of Patagonia but is much warmer than the places where I had been before. The city is surrounded by a lot of lakes (the area is called the Lake District), and I´ve done more sight seeing here in the last few days than we did in El Bolson. One day my friend and I hiked to the top of a viewpoint where we could see a lot of lakes in the are, then we did a 2 day road trip around 7 lakes and went to a town called San Martin de los Andes as well, and then yesterday we did a 30 km bike ride around another beautiful lake area (the same lakes that we saw from the viewpoint earlier in the week). Each place is just more beautiful than the one before, but it gives me the opportunity to have a freshness of appreciation (a term I remember learning in psych 101). Each stop along the way takes my breath away and I say a quick little thank you to God for creating such a magnificent world. Then I think about my brother and how I wish he could explain to me the geological reasons for why the world is the way it is. So I get to think a little bit about everything in the end. Lots of time for thinking down here... lots of time.

Anyway, we´re heading off to Pukon, Chile in the next few days, and there we´ll hike a volcano and do some other fun things also. Ciao, in the meantime.

A glacier and some snow too

Hello there

So it´s been a little while since I wrote an update, but that´s not because I haven´t been doing anything. In fact, quite on the contrary- I´ve been so busy (and the internet in the hostel is so slow) that I haven´t had a chance to write anything substantial until now. So here´s a quick update as to what I´ve been up to over the last week.

The four boys and me have mostly been in El Calafate, Argentina, which is the town next to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. This national park holds a major South American attraction- the Perito Moreno glacier, which is the only glacier in the world that is not shrinking in size. You wouldn´t necessarily know that by looking at it, though, because it´s constantly advancing and chunks break off on a regular basis. I guess it´s unclear how consistently the glacier cleaves off walls of ice, but while we were there we saw three whole walls fall, plus lots of other little pieces. From what I understand from the other Israelis who have been there, that´s an unusually high amount of collapses to witness, so we must have chosen the right rainy, yucky morning to wake up at 5 and go see the glacier.

The other main thing that my friends and I have done in the last few days was a 3 day hike to see the Fitz Roy, which is in a town called El Chalten. This trek is about 2 hours north of El Calafate, and can be done as a day trip, with one night, or more. We, of course, chose to hike more than the average backpacker does, but we got stuck in some pretty crummy weather as well. The Fitz Roy is also a series of towers (torres), like the Torres del Paine, but in my opinion these towers are more impressive. As usual, when I get a chance to upload some pictures, I will, and then you can see the difference between the two. Anyway, so we hiked some other trails besides for just the one to the Fitz Roy, but the second day we stayed in our tents all day because it was rainy and windy and cold, and when we woke up this morning there was snow all around us. Pretty crazy, but the Fitz Roy looked beautiful, once the clouds cleared.

The news on the social front is that the boys and I are parting ways, at least for now. They´re going off to road trip up Ruta 40 (part of Che Guevara´s path in the Motorcycle Diaries), and I´m going to a farm in El Bolson to chill out for a few days with a new friend who I made along the way. Who knows what will be from here, but as I like to say, it´s all part of the adventure.

Now, if I were writing a fictional book based on this trip, this would be the end of Part I of the journey. At this point, you would put down the book (which up until now has been a page turner and have you haven´t put it down since you started reading), you´d take a bathroom break, maybe grab something to eat, and start reading about what happens next, in Part II. I´m not sure yet what Part II holds for me, but as soon as I figure it out, I´ll post and let you all know.

Long post, but I had to make up from some lost time. I´ll make sure to update again soon.