Sao Vicente

Sao Vicente is a smaller (500,000 people) city south of Sao Paolo. I am here because it's on the way to Rio de Janeiro, it's not Sao Paolo, and I met a local by the name of Fabio while I was in Florianopolis who wanted to show me around his home town.

The drive from Curitiba to Sao Vicente is amazing. More winding mountainous roads, except the mountains are in the jungle and there was a misty fog hanging over the peaks and valleys. In two locations I saw to 18 wheelers flipped over on the side of the road, one on the up hill, one on the down hill, their cargo strewn out on the ground. Later I was told that these trucks flip over all the time and that people often hope for the perfect crash between a truck with livestock and another carrying beer. BBQ time. 

I arrived in Sao Vicente without getting rained on, as expected, and found the hostel in about 5 minutes. It's a 4 story building pasted to the side of a steep jungle rock. The top floor is a 3000 square foot dance floor that overlooks the city and is a great place for doing yoga.

Fabio came by the hostel with his friend Marcos the night I arrived and we planed activities for the next few days. These guys were a ton of fun and extremely giving. They also love riding motorcycles. We toured around town on our bikes and Marcos gave me maps and showed me photo's of his motorcycle trip to Boliva and Peru several years ago. I played music with the workers at the hostel, Fabio's friend Felipe, and for Wagner and Sil, two more of Fabio's friends. Everyone seemed to appriciate the very uncommon and folky style of music I play, as well as my singing. Go figure.

On Sunday Fabio, Wagner, Sil and I rode our bikes up into the mountains above Sao Paulo into an old train depot town built by Englishmen in the coffee business at the turn of the century. The roads in Brazil are some of the best motorcycle riding I have ever seen. 

Photos:

1. Flower

2. Flower

3. Street light with a photocell that never turns it off b/c of kudzu.

4. BOM, strawberry, condensed milk, chocolate. It's a super cadbury egg.

5. Typical food, beef, beans, rice, salad.

6. Fabio & I

7. Wagner and Sil

8. Limes, flowers, and mountains,

9. Fabio & Marcus

10. Curitiba to Sao Vicente

11. Sao Vicente into the mountains (road over the jungle canopy)

12. Curitiba to Sao Vicente w/ banana crazed monkey.

Curitiba

I left Florianopolis begrudgingly and headed for Curitiba, the capital city of the State of Parana. It was a great day on the motorcycle because the road climbed and wound its way from sea level to around  3000 ft through jungle rain forests and banana plants into plateau and pine forests. I arrived in a huge city (see arial photo stolen from Wikipedia), cold, and wet. It took me about an hour to find the hostel because the streets run like a spiderweb bending in the wind (bad analogy or good?) I drove my bike over the sidewalk and up a few steps into the hostel lobby and out of the rain. And there I waited for about 20 minutes. Turns out that the hostel wasn't really a hostel.  It’s actually a student-housing complex for the local college kids. And the students themselves run it. It’s pretty run down but the system functions without chaos. Try to imagine 18 year old American kids self running a 5 story housing complex of about 50+ kids with no adult supervision.  Insanity. Also the kids who run this place don’t get paid, it’s totally volunteer. When I asked one of them (Hector) why he did it he told me it was because he liked the community of it. Hector invited me to diner and we walked a few blocks to a “student cafeteria” that serves several of the colleges in town.  The food is subsidized and costs the students $.50 cents a meal. Because I was a visitor is cost me $3.00. The food was nutritious and tasted decent despite the prison like process of eating off of a stainless steel tray with several indentations for the various food items. On the 5-minute walk to and from the mess hall Hector said hello to about 10 other kids that passed us, he seemed to know everyone.

I shared a bedroom with two other 21 year old guys who were ready to party and smoked in the room. Despite Hectors kindness I decided to get out of Curitiba as soon as possible. A rainstorm was coming and the time to act was the very next morning.

Florianopolis

Is the undisputed winner when it comes to awesome places to go for a fun, semi-tropical vacation. Good surfing, great beaches, beautiful people, good food, Kitesurfing, sandboarding, scuba diving, paragliding, and a hostel with a pet Parrot to help you live the pirate lifestyle. None of my photos do the place justice, I was too busy having fun. Note that in one photo you'll see a group of angry motorists. We got stuck behind a freeway accident during rush hour and all the motorcycles split lanes until they were stopped at the road block. There was over 50 bikes by the time they cleared the road and when they let us through it was like the start of a race.

Photos: 1. Partial view of the brackish lake facing East. The ocean is on the other side of the land mass. 2. Houses during sunset. 3. Angry motorists. 4. Famous Brazilian surf beach "Joaquina" a day before the huge waves came. 5. Standard Issue Sustainable transportation (in wide use).

Bom Jardim Da Serra

60 Miles from the sea this road climbs about 5000 feet in elevation. Steep. At the top is an incredible view. A shot of the road, waterfalls and hydrengia's not shown. The high platue extends towards the town of Bom Jardim, where an Apple festival is held in early April. A few of the leftovers are shown. Those are pine nuts? (taste like chestnuts), big ones, in the plastic bags in the crates.  This little guy, (South American Coati) was at the lookout point at the top scrounging for people food.

Puente Del Diablo to Brasil, Poletas & Torres

Worm Houses made of sand

Wetlands

Night Shot of Pelotas

Roadside stand

Capaybara's (They bark like dogs)

Ant Mounds(?) in pastures. 

Puente Del Diablo

Housing Designs in Puente Del Este

Puente Del Este

Photos: M bridge at Barra, Night Shot of West Puente Del Este, Yacht/Fishing Dock, Muscles, Lobos Del Mar (Sea Lions)

I left Montevideo and headed East to the city of Barra, but all hostels were closed for winter so I backtracked to Puente Del Este as the sun was getting low in the horizon. In the process I crossed the "M" shaped bridge in the photo. I had the overwhelming urge to open the throttle and try to catch some air but the police were parked on either side and scared me into keeping my speed down. Probably a good thing. It was still a fun whoop-d-doo anyways.

Puente Del Este is the current Hot Beach Resort for the Rich & Famous of South America. The large, developed peninsula juts out and creates a bay on one side and an ocean break on the other. The outskirts of town are filled with Mansions; some resembling American style McMansion's while others are extremely artistic and interesting to look at. I hope to get some photos in better weather. 

Speaking of which, I've been holed up in the same hostel waiting for a current 5 day rain storm to let up. It's been a good opportunity to practice writing, yoga, and playing mandolin. All for fun than riding in the rain. The city itself is safe, clean, and attractive. There's some good kiosks down at the pier selling fresh fish, shrimp, and muscles. Though the watershed from recent rain makes eating the muscles a bad idea.

Next stop is Puente de Diablo. Then I'll make my way to Florianopolis, Brazil via a stop over in Puente Allegre on Saturday or Sunday. 

Montevido Picts