It’s Just Poison…

We woke up about an hour before we were supposed to be at check-in for the penguin tour. I grabbed a quick shower and some cake and then headed down to the bay to start the trip.

As it was explained to us before we left, we would be taking an hour or so bus ride through the mountains to get to private farm where we would then take a 15 minute boat ride to the island. Once we landed on the island, we would be staying for about an hour and then have to make the trip back to Ushuaia. The whole thing was to take about 5 hours. Penguins! I’m going to hang out with wild penguins! So excited right now.

The hour bus ride wound up being a little tour on it’s own. There were 12 or so of us all together and the guide talked about various points of interest along the way. I learned a lot about Ushuaia and beavers killing trees with their dams. Apparently some dolts brought down a bunch of beavers for some reason and the spread to crazy numbers because they don’t have any natural predators around. This led to lots of dams in the rivers and drowning of trees all around. The trip seemed like a tour of a forest graveyard.

One of the stops along the way that we made was at the one point where the wind was so strong almost constantly, that all the trees in the area were best way over. Looked pretty trippy considering that where we were there, there wasn’t any wind.

A little while longer in the bus and we arrived at the farm where we were to switch to a boat. We all boarded and were off to penguin island (Not the real name, just what I call it). It’s one of the little islands at the very bottom of continent. When the boat came to shore, we all jumped off and stood very silently for the first few moments. We were surrounded by penguins!

There were these three, that were already pretty close to us, that waddled up to check us out. None of birds on the island were afraid of us. Not used to that too much.

After a little discussion from the guide about the surroundings, she lead us around the island pointing things out and making sure everyone stayed a safe distance from the penguins. The were nesting all over the place and sometimes didn’t care if it was in the middle of the tour path. Before leaving the beach area, we were all allowed to take a photo with with penguins. We didn’t hesitate.

We then walked around the beach and up into the nesting area where we saw two different types of penguins nesting. One would build little pebble mounds, and the others would dig holes about three feet into the ground.

We walked around for a while in the nesting area and I got a couple neat photos of the penguins in the brush, but my crappy canon lens is broken or something, so most of my shots came out too blurry for my taste. I think it’s time to get a new all purpose lens =(

When we left the nesting area and were returning to the beach to get back on the boat, one of the other tour boats showed up. This was the tour that didn’t get to go on the island and was about $20 cheaper. I felt bad for them. They were probably pretty jealous of us. There were probably 30 or 40 people on the boat trying to cram up to the front to take photos and see the penguins. Sucks to be them.

We hung out with the penguins a little while longer while our boat came to shore, then we boarded and began our trip back to the farm where we were going to have cake and tea (yay cake!).

I think the penguins enjoyed our company, and were sad to see us go. One of them even hung out to say goodbye to us =)

We ate some cake, Nicole had some tea, then we all got into the bus for the trip back to Ushuaia. I think most of us slept a good portion of the trip. We walked around town a little while when we returned looking for a place to grab some dinner. We wound up eating at a place that was right next to our hotel. The food was overpriced and not too hot. Oh well, can’t have a great meal all the time. I don’t remember what I ate (the food made that good of an impression on me), but Nicole had the king crab something or another. The only reason I know this is because we took a picture of it. Once we paid our check and skidaddled, we went shopping. Well, Nicole went shopping, I tagged along. Around 10:30pm or so the crazy, “there’s still light in the sky” was going on. I told Nicole that I wanted to head back to the hotel so I could grab my camera and get a photo of it. She told me it wasn’t possible. I think I proved her wrong…

Getting ready for bed, we packed up all our things so that we would be ready to leave in the morning. We needed to grab a couple things from around town before we left and our flight was at noon, so we would be a little tight on time. Hopefully, everything will work out.

Tags: Travels by .: Adam
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Apparently our alarm clock was set with the wrong time. So we were woken up at 4:30am from the guy at the hostel with, “Hey, your cab is downstairs waiting for you.” Crap. we hadn’t packed, or found a place to stay in Ushuaia. I was going to do that in the morning before the cab was supposed to arrive.

We crammed all our stuff into our bags, and ran downstairs to meet our ride to the airport. Thankfully, the airport was only a 10 minute drive away (different one that where we came in). But of course there would be one last hitch. To get out of the hostel, you have to buzz an intercom and say that you’re leaving. This is because there’s two doors to get outside, and they’re both controlled by a guy two floors above that can’t see anything. We have to say that we’re leaving so he knows which order to buzz the doors. Well, apparently the guy missed the second buzzer. We were stuck between the two doors and there’s no intercom. We banged on the doors, and I even contemplated kicking one off it’s hinges. What a stupid system. Before breaking the door and running away, I figured I’d try to jimmy the door open with a piece of wire I yanked out from the ceiling (hope it wasn’t to anything important). I was able to feed the wire around the locking mechanism, and with one swift pull the front door popped open. Freedom! On to the airport.

We showed up with time to spare. Checked our bags, and headed through security to our gate. Apparently, security for domestic flights within Argentina is pretty lax. Reminded me of what it was like to fly in the US before 9-11. We were waved through by the one guy working the metal detector. I don’t think he even looked up at the x-ray machine. We sat around the gate for a little but and then boarded the plane when it was time.

Our flight was a little over three and a half hours long with one stop in some little city that seemed to be in the middle of absolutely nothing. While descending we hit some pretty heavy turbulence. Felt as if we were in a boat more than an airplane. The lady that was sitting next to Nicole had a look of, “Uh oh… this looks like it’s the one.” on her face. The pilot made a quick hard bank and then things smoothed out for the landing. There must have been some serious cross winds or something coming off the Atlantic. Nicole wants me to mention that there were some "big" rabbits running around around the nothingness next to the runway.

It was somewhere about an hour to get to Ushuaia. For those that don’t know of the city (I didn’t until I bought the ticket), it’s the most southern city in the world and only a couple hundred mile to Antarctica. A lot of the cruises to Antarctica leave from there. Other than to say that I’ve been as far south as you can get, I also wanted to see some penguins. There’s a tour / charter that you can do go out and check them out. I was really excited about this part.

First thing I noticed once I got out of the airport was the view. It was spectacular. I’ve never see anything like it in the world. The second thing I noticed was how cold it was. When the sun is on you, it’s not that bad. Jeans and a hoodie would do. When the sun was gone / shade, it got pretty cold. At one point I was wearing long underwear, jeans, t-shirt, hoodie, jacket, winter hat, and gloves. A little different from laying on the beach in Rio a couple days ago.

While on the plane, the lady that sat next to Nicole told her that her friends rented out rooms and she would give us their number if we needed a place to stay. Sounded good, so we took it. The only problem was that all the phones in the airport were broken. We had to take a cab to the city center where there was a tourist information center. When we got there, they gave us a list of all the hotels and hostels in the area. The hotels were so cheap, that we chose one that was only a couple blocks away. It was somewhere around $60 a night. And we needed a break from the hostel life. The hotel was awesome. They also had free breakfast all day long which consisted of toast and cake. Free cake 24/7! Yes! Our view from the room was nice too. It overlooked the bay.

After dropping off our bags, we headed down the street to where all the tour guides were to try and get on the penguin excursion. The guy at the information center told us about how there’s one tour you can do where you actually get off the boat and get to walk on the island with all the penguins. Hell yeah! Unfortunately, the tour was already full for today, so we booked ourselves for the afternoon tour tomorrow. We then headed back uphill to find some lunch. We found a place that looked perfect. They had a giant sign painted on the side of their building stating “great service to tourists since 1912″. We both ordered some pasta (made fresh right there) and a bottle of wine. After lunch we had some dessert. Nicole got a homemade flan, and I had a crazy thing (The Don Pablo). It was neapolitan ice cream with walnuts in a glass of whisky. Sounded good. Not too much. The dairy seemed to curdle in the whiskey. I ate all the ice cream and left most of the whiskey. Then Nicole did the unthinkable. She dared me to down the rest of the melted ice cream whiskey walnut concoction. There was about a "full half-glass left" (Nicole’s words). I would like to tell you that I was smart enough not to do this, but after a bottle of wine, I’m not exactly up to par in the brains department. I knew it was going to be rough, but I totally forgot that there were nuts in it. Not really something you want to be surprised by while shooting liquor. I had to use all my shaolin skills just to keep it down. Although I was in agreement that if I did hurl, I would be allowed to do so on Nicole.

We left the restaurant and walked around town to look through all the souvenir shops, and there were a lot of them. On the main street, it was either a souvenir shop or a cafe.

I think these guys put nyc to shame. They had everything you could think of with either "Ushuaia" or a penguin on it. It was a tad sickening. Nicole bought a couple little things, and I bought her a neck scarf thing.

The sun looked like it was going down, and Nicole wanted to go back to the hotel to grab something. When we go there, she said she wasn’t feeling so well and wanted to take a nap. I wasn’t ready to sleep, so I went back out to take a couple pictures around town.

When I returned to the hotel room it was somewhere around 6pm and Nicole was out cold. I was pretty tired from the night before and I was beginning to think that my allergies her in Ushuaia weren’t actually allergies. I think I was sick. Crap. Pretty exhausted myself, I laid down and took a nap.

When I woke up, I felt like death and needed water so bad I would have drank toilet water. I was sick for sure. This sucked. I felt like I had the flu and I was supposed to go see penguins tomorrow. I had no idea what time it was, but I could see a little light breaking through the clouds, so I figured the sun had just set and it was about 8pm or 8:30pm. Nicole and I left to find water and some Tylenol Flu. Luckily there was a little 7-11 type place only a block away. I got my water and sucked it down. Now I felt a little better. Still mildly death-like though. This is also where I saw the news about the Antarctic cruise ship that sank. It was front-page news on all the papers in the store. Everyone survived. They just had to sit in a life raft for 3 hours. What a story those people have!

The bodega guy also told us about a pharmacy that would be open just down the street. In South America, nothing is really over-the-counter. All drugs must be asked for and retrieved by a pharmacist. You just don’t need a prescription for the over-the-counter stuff. They didn’t have Tylenol, but they had something else that did the same thing. I have no idea what they were. They didn’t even come in a box. It was 12 pills in the aluminum foil wrapper thing. I didn’t care. Popped the pill and headed back to the hotel to pass out. Before I fell asleep, I had some cake, and got the low-down on the crash from Nicole. I also took a couple night photos from the window. Two amazing things happened. 1, I was already feeling better. Not a little better, but totally better. These unknown pills are miracle drugs! 2, it was a little after midnight! We’d only been gone about 30 minutes or so. That was my first experience with the sun not really setting. Guess that’s what happens when you’re this close to the pole. Crazy.

Tags: Travels by .: Adam
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Today was tattoo day, and I was pretty excited. I got out of bed around 10am (pretty early by my standards), and jumped in the showed. Actually, I should say, I walked down a flight of stairs and locked my self into a little closet that had hot running water. Fine by me, it did the job. I then put on my shorts / bathing suit / cut-offs, and grabbed some breakfast (ie. free bread). After there was some food in me I took my allergy cocktail and also added in a giant herbal vitamin. I try to be as healthy as possible the day of a tattoo. I tend to get sick after getting tattooed. My immune system is so busy dealing with the trauma to the skin (which is a giant open wound), it’s prime time for catching something.

Since it was early, we headed for the subway to go towards Bond Street and then I was going to look around to see if I could find the Alien DVD for sale somewhere. I still didn’t have Argentina, and I highly doubt Ushuaia is going to have it. This is my last chance. The entire time I was trying to find it, Nicole kept reminding me how stupid it was to get it, and that I already had it in Spanish. I think I must have heard that speech 4 or 5 times. With no success, and feeling quite aggravated that I will not get the DVD from Argentina, I stopped into Burger King to try the exclusive “XL Doble”. It’s like a long cheeseburger / sub mix. I ate less than half of it knowing that it was not the healthiest of foods.

Right before heading into the tattoo studio I stopped at a little Bodega-ish thing to stock up on apple and orange juices (good stuff to drink when you’re losing a lot of blood).

I had my necessities, so it was time to head on up. When I got there, there was a french film crew hanging out in the studio. Turns out they were there to film Cray tattooing me as part of a french hip-hop graffiti documentary.

They wanted to interview him about all his years doing graffiti while I was getting tattooed. I said it was cool with me, so the production started. This is when it clicked that this guy really is some world renowned graffiti artist. I found out later while talking with Cray that this kind of stuff happens all the time. His graffiti is is public mainstream artistic side, and he does tattooing to bring his art to a more personal, out of the lime-lite, nature. Something I appreciated very much.

Here’s the rundown of how Cray tattoos, slow, heavy handed, and he buries that needle! Oh man. My leg was tore up. Oh yeah, the tattoo wound up being pretty much the entire right side of my right calf =) “Go big or go home,” as Nicole likes to say. I find out about 6 hours in that he’s only been tattooing a little over 2 years. Oh… that 3-4 hour thing? Nope. We got a good 8 and a half to 9 hours in. Like I said, my leg was toe’ up from the flo’ up! I may have lost count, but in that time period I took at least 6 motrins to get through it. I don’t think I’ll ever get the back of my knee tattooed, that area is intense!

So, all in all, I wound up with a definite one-of-a-kind tattoo that I’m very proud to wear. On top of that, I made a bunch of great friends, Cray and Sebastian kick ass. After a few more years of tattooing, this guy is going to be insane. I plan on keeping in touch with him for sure!

When we were done saying our goodbyes, we took a cab back to the hostel. I wasn’t in the mood for a lot of walking around. We found a nice Italian place a block from the hostel and had dinner there (there’s a lot of Italian food in Argentina). I should probably say, tried to have dinner there. I wasn’t feeling so hot, nor was Nicole. The mushroom risotto was awesome and I really wanted to eat it, but my body just wouldn’t allow it. So I just payed the check and we left for the hostel. I think it was somewhere around midnight when we arrived, and I passed out almost immediately. We had a 6am flight to Ushuaia the next morning and a cab picking us up at 4:30am.

Tags: Travels by .: Adam
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I woke up sometime around noon I think. Well, I was repeatedly woken up throughout the morning by other people in the room and the perfectly aligned sun through 3 different windows hitting me directly in the face. I actually wondered if they positioned the beds so as a cruel inside joke. Oh well. So noon is when I actually got out of bed.

To start the day out right, I popped a Claritin 24 and one of the knock-you-on-your-ass benadryl. I figured with a full nights rest, one of them shouldn’t really affect me…too much.

Nicole and I then headed outside to find a certain area in Buenos Aires called “Bond Street”. Here’s the neat part, it’s not a street. So asking around for “Bond street near the intersection of Santa Fe street and Rodriguez Pena street, and bond street isn’t a street” got some weird looks. To start the adventure off, I located the intersection that I was told to go to. I found it on the map in the back of my guide book, so we walked a few blocks and jumped on the subway six stops and then walked through what looked exactly like NYC’s upper west side to the intersection. The more and more I walked through Buenos Aires, the more I don’t notice it. It’s so much like nyc that I feel right at home. For the most part, I just thought I was in a part of nyc that I’ve never been to before that had a lot of spanish speaking people in it. The only difference is that Buenos Aires is waaaay cheaper. About a third of the cost. Very tempting relocation spot. New york feel and atmosphere, but without the ridiculous cost of living, and a much better climate. Something I’m seriously considering…

Ok, back to the Bond Street thing. Bond Street is a place that Gaz told me I would love. Supposed to be full of tattoo shops, metal-head stores, video game stuff, a bar, and all kinds of cool things. This is why I wanted to find this place so bad. After a few blocks of walking around the area we were told to find it, we stopped into a cafe to grab a snack. I had an apple tart and a coke (in a bottle…love it), and Nicole had a fruit salad.

A couple bites into the apple tart, I heard the voice, “Hey, remember that pizza last night that I told you not to eat?”. The bathroom was on the third floor.

Before we left, I asked our waitress about this mysterious Bond Street, and thankfully knew what I was talking about. In the mix of my less than perfect Spanish and her better-than-my-spanish English I got the directions. Turns out we passed it a couple blocks back. I guess in thinking “street” and not actually looking for a literal street I missed it. Her directions worked out perfectly. Bond Street turns out to be a mini-mall just like the one in Santiago. A bajillion tattoo parlors, and all the other deviant after-school kid hangout necessities. Though this one was much cooler. These people definitely 0wned this place. It was covered in graffiti, a lot of the lights were busted out, and there was various music playing all over the place. If you’ve ever seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie, think of the hideout for The Foot. This is the closest thing to that, that I’ve ever seen, except everyone is in their 20’s and early 30’s. I liked it =).

There was actually a more specific reason as to why I wanted to find this place, and the story starts with the discovery of Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. It’s only a couple hundred miles from Antarctica. This was my next destination, and we bought the tickets back in Florida with the others. I had the brilliant idea to get a tattoo on the lowest part of my body (my foot) in the lowest city in the world. Brilliant! Here’s a mockup of my original idea:

It’s a simple outline of the lower area of South America with a bold star at the bottom pointing out Ushuaia. Well, after almost two weeks of sitting on this idea and mulling it over, I kept updating it and modifying it until I had a completely new idea. I wanted to get something iconic from every area that I visited all mashed into one collective piece. In the end, here’s what I came up with:

- Penguin (Ushuaia)
- Steak (Buenos Aires)
- Llama (Lima)
- Volcano (Pucon)
- Monkey (Rio)
- Coconut water (Rio)
- Pudu (Valdivia)
- Some Inca symbol (Machu Pichu)

A Pudu is a mouse-deer, worlds smallest deer and only found in Chile. It represents Valdivia because when I was drinking at the Bunker with everyone I was asking around for what is really Chilean. Matias mentioned the Pudu. Bam, pudu is was.

I would be taking a gamble with the penguin and machu pichu because I haven’t been there yet, but I figured I’d probably find a better (read: any) tattoo artist here than in Ushuaia or at Machu Pichu.

So we wondered through all the various tattoo shops looking at portfolios, or pictures on wall (that was the extent of a lot of portfolios) looking for someone that was half-way decent. Most of them were scratchers or copiers. Not too much originality. Then when I felt all hope for a nice tattoo, I stumbled in this one shop at the very top floor in the back with no one in it (most of the others were busy). The first thing I noticed about this guy was that he was a developed artist. Not tattooing necessarily, but he was gifted, creative, and definitely had his own style already pinned down. His name is Cray Fish. He turns out to be a world renowned graffiti artist that decided to move into the tattoo industry. His tattoo portfolio was ok, nothing really popped out and said, “woah!”, but I figured that was because I’ve been spoiled by being around some of the worlds greatest tattoo artists. What did pop out at me was his portfolio of graffiti. It was some of the best pieces of work that I’ve ever seen! This guy was awesome. I found my tattoo artist. A few minutes later and the artist, Cray, arrived. Nicole acted as a translator for us and I described what I wanted, “I want these items all working together somehow. I don’t care how it’s done, I just want it to be done completely in your own style.” We went over the list of items and he seemed more than happy to take on this project. I think he thought the collection of items was pretty amusing. There really isn’t a common link anywhere. After discussing placement and size, he told me to come back tomorrow at 1pm and that it should take around 3-4 hours. Seemed reasonable to me, so I shook his hand, left a deposit and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for some dinner (Argentinean Steak tonight!).

My dinner was awesome. Nicole’s on the other hand was plain gross. She ordered a salmon dish and the fish tasted not so fresh. She was also too embarrassed to send it back and get something else instead. So I did the dick move and told the waiter the fish sucked and to bring an order of the shrimp ravioli. This wasn’t exactly Burger King. When we showed up I thought there might have been a dress code just to get in. Anyway, the waiter took the fish and brought out a plate of the ravioli a little later (btw, the ravioli’s were “really good”… i don’t like shrimp, so I wouldn’t know).

After dinner, neither of us were feeling too hot, so we called it a night and headed back to the hostel to catch some zzz’s. This night was a little different than last night though. I wasn’t as tired, so I laid a sheet down first. Still no pillow. Still didn’t care.

Tags: Travels by .: Adam
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I was woken up by the maid close to 8 in the morning. I tried to tell her to leave me alone, and let me sleep, but every 10 minutes, she kept coming by and poking me and gibbering something at me in broken english about getting up. I was running on about 3 hours of sleep, and the sleep I did get was on a smelly uncomfortable sofa that was definitely older than me. To say that I was irritated would be a huge understatement. With no place to sleep, and this pest-of-a-lady bothering me, I just got up and took a shower. After my shower, I just sat on the couch and watched TV. I still don’t understand. If I’m sleeping on the couch, she bothers the hell out of me. If I’m sitting on it, she leaves me alone. Oh well.

We had to check out of the hostel by 1pm and had to get to the airport for our 5pm flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Between now (10am ish) and 1, we had to get our laundry done, find a hostel to stay at in Buenos Aires, and get something to eat. Thankfully, there was a place just down the road that did drop-off laundry service. I got all my clothes washed (expect my leather pants and a sweater coat thing) for about $5 USD. Not too bad.

While we waited for our laundry to be finished, Nicole and I grabbed some lunch at an all natural Vegetarian place. This place said “No way, just turn around now” all over it to me, but Nicole went with me to the Brazilian BBQ place in Rio, so I figure I can find something. And I did. I ordered a caesar salad and a lemonade. Simple, tasty, and refreshing for the hot afternoon (especially when you’re wearing leather pants and a sweater).

Surprise, surprise, the food sucked. Bad. The lemonade was just squeezed lemons with water and some chopped ice. It was horribly bitter. I stole the sugar from the coffee tray and put in about 5 tablespoons just to try and cut the bitterness…failed. I sucked it down anyway. How was the salad, you ask? There’s no way they just mess up something simple as a caesar salad, especially at a veggie place. Wrong again =). I wish I had a photo, but I left my camera at home. Imagine, if you will, a bowl filled with iceberg lettuce where each leaf was the size of your face and so yellow, that it was almost white. Now add in a bunch of those center pieces. You know, the ones that are hard knots of lettuce, that even starving people throw away. Good, now for the dressing. Soak it. Yep, make sure there so much dressing that you leave a good 1cm pool of it at the bottom. I gotta give it to them though. The cheese that was sprinkled on top was nice.

Nicole’s food on the other hand was great. She got some weird crape veggie platter thing with all kinds of stuff going on. I had a couple bites of that to tide me over. I think when I walked in the place, they knew that I was a meat eater and just wanted to mess with me. Point, veggie people.

After lunch, we headed back to the hostel so that I could get my money back for the sleepless night, and to charge up all my electronic gizmos (computer, ipod, psp, camera batteries, ets).

The people at the hostel were nice and understanding, and refunded my money with a bunch of apologies. The hostel overall was great, and I would go back again if I ever need to stay in Santiago (though I hope I don’t). It’s kinda like Frankfurt, in the sense that you have to go there frequently just to get somewhere else, and there really isn’t a whole lot to really do there. While my gadgets were juicing up, I went downstairs to use the internet to check out a place to stay that night once we arrived in Buenos Aires. The common computers at the hostel have a 30 minute time limit and they had 3 computers. Unfortunately, when I showed up, they were all taken and someone was already in queue. I didn’t have anything else to do, so I just napped while I waited. Finally it was my turn (yay!). I jumped on the computer and went to google. I searched for a hostel and was returned with my results. BUT, when I clicked on the links, none of them worked. Why? because the internet line to the hostel went down. Amazing timing if you ask me. No problem, I’ve done this kind of thing from the hip before, so I wasn’t too concerned. Anyway, I had a name of a hostel that was recommended to us by our friends in Rio. Things should be fine.

Around a quarter to three, we headed out to the laundry place to pick up our clothes. They were all clean, and nicely folded. We paid for our stuff and were went back to the hostel. When we arrived, we immediately called for a cab (it’s about a 30 minute drive to the airport). I then grabbed some clothes and ran for the bathroom to change real quick. When I got back, Nicole realized that her new pair of jeans weren’t there. So first she ran up to the room to see if she left them there. While she was gone the cabbie was showed up and put our bags into the car. On the way out I noticed that the internet was back up…figures. We jumped into the van and Nicole had the guy swing by the laundry place to see if her jeans were left out by mistake. Yep, still in the dryer. Crisis averted =)

We arrived at the airport around 4pm. Our flight is at 5pm. As we are walking up to the checkin counter, a tour bus load of elderly french people enter the line in front of us. My heartbeat rises. After 30 minutes of standing in the same fricking line, I had Nicole tell one of the workers that we were on a flight that was to begin boarding any minute. By the time someone got around to actually listen to her, I was already at the counter. We checked our bags and headed for customs. We breezed right through and jumped into the security line. Wednesdays aren’t the busiest of days in the Santiago airport, so that line went by pretty quick as well. We then power-walked to our gate and onto the plane. My heartbeat lowers.

On the way to Buenos Aires, I slept. The plane could have gone through some crazy turbulence, and I never would have know. Hell, the pilot could have been on meth and tried to do a loop-de-loop and I wouldn’t have known. We landed in Argentina a little after 7pm. Deplaned, went through customs, got our bags, and headed to an information booth. There I asked for information on the “Palermo Home” hostel. The lady “googled” it and found nothing. Not trusting the lady’s “googling” abilities, I went to a little internet / phone booth shop thing (they’re all over South America), and “googled” it my self. Well, it wasn’t Palermo Home, but Palermo House. That took all of about 2 seconds to figure out. So i got the number and Nicole called to check on availability. They gave us the “OK”, so we left to go to the taxi stand to get us a cab to the hostel. When we arrived at the hostel, a guy that works there met us at the front door (I think it was by accident actually). We then walked up 4 flights of stairs with all our things to get to the lobby / front desk area. These weren’t exactly regular stairs though. The whole place was a renovated home of some kind, so we had a mix of wood stairs, curvy stairs, metal stairs, and a little spiral staircase.

After checking in, we plopped out bags on the beds and ran out to get some food. I was starving. Oh… I should also mention that I seem to be severely allergic to Buenos Aires. Out of no where I was sneezing, sniffling, and had itchy eyes like crazy. I basically just wanted to rip my face off. Thankfully I had a couple Clariton 24’s with me, so I popped one of those before we left to find dinner. Being really hungry, and not wanting to tour the town right away, we settled for a little pizza / cafe place that was right around the corner. We ordered a cheese pizza and a couple drinks. I was a little concerned at this point that my Clariton wasn’t kicking in. I couldn’t even hold a conversation. When the pizza arrived, Nicole and I just stared at it wondering what to do. There was so much cheese (I think 3 different types), that the top of the pizza was soupy and falling off. Literally, you could stir the cheeses with a knife (I did). Again, this said “Don’t Eat Me!” all over it, but I was hungry. I think I ate almost half of it, then asked for the rest to go. I’ve never seen a waitress so confused. At first I thought it was a language barrier issue, but no. Apparently they’ve (meaning Argentina) never even heard of taking food to go. She was nice though and wrapped it up in some placemats (the paper kind) and ceran wrap. The total was $75 (in USD, that’s about $25). I had exactly $77 on me, and Nicole had nada. So we were able to pay the bill, but not tip the lady. Oh, and it’s a cash only place, and the nearest ATM is 4 blocks or so “down that way” (pointing toward 3 different streets). Not cool. So I mentioned to Nicole that she simply explain our situation and that we’ll come by tomorrow after we get more cash and deliver the owed tip then. If she was rational, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Nicole didn’t like this plan, so I went for a walk down the street I figured had the best chance of an ATM being on. After about 8 or so block, railroad tracks, and seeing a cabbie with a hooker in an ally, I turned around and went back to the pizza place. Nicole was just going to have to go with my original plan. I was in agony with these allergies, and I just wanted to go to sleep (it’s about 11:30pm). When I got back, I told Nicole about my little adventure and to please proceed with plan A. So she went with plan C and asked someone else where the nearest ATM was. They said “in the shell station 4 blocks down that road”. You know what, I know exactly which Shell station he meant too. Because that’s exactly where I turned around and said, “screw it”. Needless to say, I went for a walk a second time. This time, I got another surprise. Guess what was on the railroad tracks… a train! Yay! I waited… and waited, and finally the thing went by and i proceeded past where the cabbie was to the Shell station. When I entered, I see the ATM hidden in the back (that’s why I didn’t see it through the glass the first time). As I approached it, my laughing grew louder. My Spanish isn’t even good enough to label it as horrible, but I know an out of service ATM when I see one. So I left the gas station and I saw another Shell station a couple blocks down another road, so I figure hey, they probably have an ATM. I get there…nope. Nada. Ager sets in. I was so pissed that I did math. Yep, I had the time on my hands during the walk back to figure out exactly how much the tip owed would be in USD, $1.67. Not even two dollars! I just spent about 30 minutes walking around aimlessly for some mysterious money machine just to give someone $1.67! When I got back to the pizza place the second time, I told Nicole the deal, she tried to get me to go find another one, but I was convinced that I did more work trying to find an ATM to pay this chick a buck sixty-seven than she did dropping off a pizza and a couple drinks. Nope, in my mind we’re even. So Nicole settled for my plan A and told the waitress the deal. Amazingly she didn’t care and said it wasn’t a problem (and that she worked tomorrow). ARG! (FYI, I didn’t go back… we were even) As soon as we got back to the hostel I took 2 one-a-day, knock-you-on-your-ass benadryl and struggled to stay up about another 15 minutes. My bed had no sheets, no pillow, was about 2 feet shorter than me, and the bunk above me was about 3 feet up. It was the most comfortable thing I slept on in over 48 hours.

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We had to get up really early today for our Favela tour (explanation on those in a sec). We had to meet the guide on the beach at 8:45am. I wasn’t terrible excited about this part. So heres, the funny part. Nicole wakes me up and asks me what time it is. I instantly freak out thinking we’re late and check my watch (in the dark). I see that it’s 8:30am. We had 15 minutes to get up, ready, and walk to the beach to meet our guide. So we frantically grab our stuff and run out the door shoving some free hostel food in our mouths on the way. We arrive at the meeting point on time. I’m very relieved. We wait, and wait, and it’s now 9am and no guide. Umm… no it’s not. It’s 8am and of course there’s no guide. I guess being startled awake and reading your watch in the dark isn’t a good combination. So we walked back to the hostel and took a 30 minute power nap in the hammock.

At the real 8:30am, we head back to the meeting point and our guide showed up promptly at 8:45am with a full bus of other tourists. Okay, so a Favela is a very poor city that’s basically hacked together that, until recently, is completely unrecognized by the government as existing (nor it’s people). We’re talking about 750+ favelas with the largest one, Rochina, having what is estimated around 200,000 people living it it! They are run either by the people living in them, or by the drug lords if there’s drug trafficking in them. The police do not enter them, and the government has no control over anything within them. They are notorious for high violence, drugs, and all types of crime. We were on a tour (most of it walking) right through the middle of them =). To get a clearer picture of the favelas, you should see “City of God” or “Elite Troups”.

The first favela that we entered was Rochina, a drug run favela. Our tour guide told us that we have a better chance of having our stuff stolen from us outside of a favela than inside because the drug lords have a strict policy on thievery. First offense, you get shot in the hand. Second offense, you’re killed. So, there isn’t much theft in the favelas.

As we walked through the favelas, we were allowed to take photos most of the time. Sometimes though, we were told that we had to put our cameras away in our bags because there were drug people around. If anyone snapped a photo of them, they would have come up and taken away all our cameras. Of course, they were where all the cool stuff was to take photos of.

These cities are amazing. They is absolutely no organization whatsoever, and they just hack together whatever it is that they need. Wires are just spliced and run wherever they’re needed (for electricity and cable tv), and houses are built as boxes one on top of another. Here’s a couple photos of us walking down a “street” in a favela:

They have all their own everything in the favelas. Banks, shops, TV channels, Radio stations, newspapers, hospitals, schools. Everything. They are completely independent from the city of Rio.

The other favela that we went into was a small one that wasn’t run by the drug lords. We stopped by one of the schools, but it was a holiday so no one was in class. We were encouraged to purchase little crafts made by the students with all proceeds going to the school. We were then also told about funding for these schools. They used to be partially funded by the city for a while, but a year or two ago, they cut all funding, so the majority of it comes from the favela tours (a large portion of our tour cost went to the schools).

When we were done with the favela tour, we were dropped off at our hostel. I think it was sometime around noon, check-out time. I had to run out and buy another smaller backpack for all the misc. stuff I bought along the way. On my way back from the store, a bird took a massive dump right on my shoe. I was so pissed. I scraped most of it off on a tree and quietly cursed to myself as i headed back to the hostel. A couple blocks before I got there, I saw a some homeless guy giving shoe shines… yep, I did. I walked over and put my foot on his box and asked for a cleaning. He wiped it with a towel and then stuck it by his nose to sniff it, out of curiosity I guess. He jerked back, looked up at me, and said, “Shit!”. I laughed and just said, “Yep”. He cleaned my shoes and polished them up quite nicely (they were already pretty muddy from the hike in the forest earlier). When he was done he asked for R$50. I couldn’t help it. I bust out laughing and handed him R$5. Most people wouldn’t pay more than two or three. Just so you know, the backpack I just bought cost about R$30. After some arguing he went down to R$30, then R$20. I was getting irritated now, because I was in a hurry to get back to the hostel and pack up so I didn’t get charged for another night. I didn’t want to stiff the guy because it was pretty nasty, so I told him to take the money or walk away. He took the cash and I left.

After I crammed everything into my backpacks, we left our bags at the desk and headed for the beach. When we got to the beach, I slathered on my SPF50 sun block and then complained about how bright and hot the sun was. Nicole was going for a suntan, so she didn’t bother (she got burned, not too bad though). I wound up getting a really weird sunburn in the middle of my chest. Guess I missed a spot =)

While we hung out on the beach, all these vendors kept coming up to us to show us their wares. “You want a hat?”…no, “You want sunglasses?”…no, “You want beer?…um, ok (not for me), “You want bracelet?”…no, “You want fake tattoo with crap that’s been known to cause chemical burns?”…no…Ah! Get that shit away from me, I said no!, “You want cocaine, marijuana?”…no…what? By the end of our stay on the beach, Nicole bought a dress, and we got a nice hammock for our backyard. Handmade soft cloth, super comfortable (same as the ones in the hostel), and it cost somewhere around $30 USD. We then headed back to the hostel, washed off the sand and called for a cab. We had a plane to catch back to Santiago.

Our cabbie showed up, we threw our bags in the car and said goodbye to Rio. Our flight left around 7:30pm and had a stop in Sao Paulo. We arrived in Santiago around 1:30am. After getting trough customs, we found a cabbie to take us to the better hostel that we found the first time we were there. I think we checked in around 2:30 in the morning. We were given our keys to the room, and headed up for a quick sleep. We were just spending one night in Santiago, because we have a 5pm flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina tomorrow. Nicole found her bed, and crashed. I found mine (the only one available, and crashed). Around 3:30 or so in the morning, some guy woke me up to tell me I was in his bed. We went back and forth a few times before it just wasn’t worth arguing anymore. There was a couch in the lobby that sounded fine to me, so I jumped out of the bunk, scared the hell out of the guy, and left for the couch. I couldn’t fall back asleep right away, so I turned on the TV to see what was on. Nightmare on Elm Street 4… in spanish. It’ll do. I fell asleep before it ended.

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We woke up bright and early at 9am for our tour of Rio. I stumbled downstairs to take a shower and grab a quick bite to eat of the free breakfast before the bus showed up. At 10am, our guide, Marillo, showed up full of energy and ready to take us on our adventure. Nobody from any other hostels / hotels signed up for the tour so it was only the five of us from our hostel. Made it feel like a small personal tour.

Our first stop was in the protected forests of Rio for our hike to the top of a mountain thing. I say mountain thing, because there’s a specific name for them… I forgot =).

We were told the night before that the 30 minute climb to the top wouldn’t be a problem and that elderly people do it all the time. Well, I don’t know who these elderly people are, but I imagine there was a bit of fibbing going on. We had to stop for a few breaks, as the girls we having a hard time getting up through the forrest. This wasn’t a nice clean cut low grade path either. There was some steep, mud covered, slopes pretty much the whole way up. Once we got to the top though, the view was amazing and made the hike totally worth it.

This definitely wasn’t a tourist spot. We were standing on top of a giant rock with sheer drops all around us of about 3,000+ feet. We were above the clouds, birds, and hang gliders. One slip and you were toast. If you were careful and slid down a little bit of the slope of the rock, there was a little rock that jutted out that you could stand on and see a straight down drop. Of course I had to see it. Here’s a couple pictures, one of me on the rock, one looking down from it, and another taking a picture of our friends from it (so you can see the slope to slide down to get to it).

While we were up there, the clouds stared coming in from the west and a couple minutes later we couldn’t see anything, not even the edge of the rock! So, we thought best that we leave before it got any worse and someone had an “accident” =).

The hike down was a lot easier, but the guide was moving a tad faster than we could, so we kinda had to guess at some points which way to go. Thankfully, we guess right =). Our next stop was a little ways away and was not part of the tour. We were stopping to see a waterfall in the forrest. We got this bonus stop because the guide said we may have to pay an additional fee to see the Redeeming Christ (the giant Jesus on top of the mountain). Originally it was supposed to be included in the fee of the tour, but the guide said that yesterday, his people had to pay the guards to get in. Oh, Rio has a very corrupt government and police. Cops will actually stop cabs and harass the tourists for all kinds of BS. All they want is some cash. So I always carried around $20 for bribe money in my wallet. I was told by one of the locals that $20 is generally enough to get them off your back. So, back to the waterfall. It was pretty cool. Here’s a photo.

Yeah, on to the Redeeming Christ! It took a little while to get to it, and there were a lot of people there, but it was worth it. Not really for the giant jesus (kinda boring really), but the view was awesome. You could see everything from there. The jesus is the second largest statue in the world. First being the statue of liberty. I tried to get some nice shots of the thing, but with a grey overcast as the background and it being right up in your face, it just didn’t happen. So here’s Nicole throwing the horns, Jesus style:

I was also able to get a nice shot of the Sugar Loaf from here too:

After descending from jesus, we stopped of for some lunch in the history Santa Maria(??) district. Supposed to be the old rich neighborhood. Nothing really worth photographing, but neat to see. We ate at a pay-by-the-weight place again with some authentic Brazilian food. We were definitely eating with the locals here. The bonus… air conditioning =). When we were done with lunch, it was the end of the tour. Because we haven’t seen the sugar loaf yet, our guide dropped us off in front of the entrance and then took Gaz and Lex back to the hostel. This thing had the largest cable car that I’ve ever seen. Each basket(??) held up to 70 or so people and it flew up and down the wires.

It was a series of two rides. The first one was a shorter ride to the shorter hill, and then a longer, steeper one to the top of the taller hill. The main goal for Nicole on this adventure was to see some monkeys. We were told that there a various species of wild monkeys throughout Rio and Nicole had to see a monkey before we left. Before we got into the cable car at the bottom, we ran into a couple people that we stayed with from a previous hostel and they said they saw some monkeys at the top of the sugar loaf. Nicole was ecstatic.

The views from the top of the sugar loaf were really nice. Got to see some great views of the beaches all around us.

After a few shots of the view, it was on to find the monkeys in the jungle below. About 30 minutes of hiking around, we saw no monkeys, and when we were furthest from the cable car, of course, I heard the voice. The one that says, “Hey, your stomach doesn’t like whatever you put in it, and you got about 30-45 seconds before I push the ‘Unleash Fury’ button.” Also, this is the same moment Nicole spots a monkey and needs me to take a photograph of it. Slight panic comes over me. The damn monkey was too far off to get a clear shot, so I took what I could (It’s a “Where’s Waldo” kind of photo looking for a monkey in the jungle) and then bolted back up the steps / ramps / vines, whatever to get to the bathroom.

After fury ended, I went back down into the woods to find Nicole. I figured she’d be where the monkey was. Well, when I got there she was no where to be seen. But, the little monkey was there and closer. Then all his little monkey friends showed up. There were probably about 10-15 little monkeys bouncing through all the trees. A few got even closer, some came right up to me to check me out, so I got some pretty cool shots of the little furry guys.

After hanging out with the monkeys for a while, I headed back up to the top to try and find Nicole so we could head out. I found her by the gift shop and I told her about all the little critters I saw and showed her some of the photos. As we were walking towards the cable car, a bunch of the little monkeys came up one of the sides by the tourist area. So Nicole got to get close up to them and see a bunch as well. On the ride down I got a nice shot of the city and the cable cars.

Once we reached the bottom, we jumped in a cab and headed back to the hostel. We then tried to figure out what to get for dinner. We agreed on something simple and went with pizza. So I asked the guy working the hostel where there’s a good pizza place around. He then replied, “Do you want good pizza or really good pizza?” I wanted simple, so I just said that “good” was fine. After a minute or two of thinking, he told me that he doesn’t know of anything around. So I asked for a place that serves “really good” pizza”. Again, he pondered for a minute or two, and then told me that he doesn’t know of any. I was seriously stunned. I didn’t know what to say. So I just turned around and left. I found a pizza place that got good reviews and had a modest price point in my guide book, so we chose to go there. When we got there, it turned out to be a really fancy restaurant that served pizza. Prices weren’t too bad, so we stayed. Nicole got a plain pizza, and I had a stuffed pizza (which turned out to be a calzone, which I don’t understand, because they had calzones on the menu as a separate dish).

After dinner, we went back to the Leblon mall so that I could pick up a copy of Alien in Portuguese (I’m collecting them from every country I visit. So far I have Germany, Italy, Poland, Chile, and now Brazil. And US of course.). Nicole doesn’t get it, and keeps making fun of me for it, but I don’t care. Some people collect shot glasses or baby spoons. Me, it’s Alien DVDs =)

After our visit to the mall, we headed back to the hostel to meet up with Gaz and Lex to go out for some drinks on the town. We found a place that looked pretty cool right around the corner. Turns out they either don’t like foreigners, or they have really bad service, because it took forever to get our drinks. After a couple hours there, we decided just to head back to the hostel and grab some drinks on the way and just chill out there. Nicole wound up passing out in the hammock, and Lex went to bed, so Gaz and I just stayed up BS’n again. Not sure what time I went to bed, but it wasn’t terribly late.

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I think we woke up around noon or 1pm and Nicole had a bit of a hangover from one to many Skol’s (Brazi’s Budweiser). So we got dressed and headed out to find an Acai(??) fruit shake thing. It’s a natural hangover cure made from berries only found in Brazil. They give you a bunch of energy and they are loaded with antioxidants. I tried it and it even tastes pretty good. The only downside is that it turns your mouth and teeth black.

Next to the juice bar, there was a flea market type thing going on in the plaza. Filled with trinkets, handmade crafts, leather goods, clothing, and other stuff. I think we spent an hour or so just looking at all the different things for sale. I bought a cool bottle and shot glass from this one guy. It has a leather sheath and strap around it, so I can carry my drink and do shots in style =). Nicole bought a dress, a top, and a few other little items.

When we were done there, we went back to the beach and ordered some more coco water.

Then we just chilled out and watched the crowd. There were a couple games of volleyball and something like volleyball going on next to us. The Brazilians have a game with the same rules as volleyball except that you’re not allowed to use your hands or arms. So it’s a mix between volleyball and soccer. Very fun to watch. No way I could do it.

When we were done with the beach, we went back to the hostel and met up with Gaz and Lex. They had just returned from checking out the Sugar Loaf. The Sugar Loaf is a natural Rio icon. It’s these two mounds of land that are really high up and stick out of the water. There’s a cable car ride that takes you to the top for some nice views of the beaches and city.

All four of us then signed up for a 5 hour tour of Rio for tomorrow that’s supposed to take us to the major Rio attractions, and a 30 minute climb through the world largest city forest for what should be a spectacular view that tourists don’t really get to see. Should be fun.

For dinner, we went to a really good Brazilian barbecue place. If you’re not familiar, Brazilian barbecue means unlimited food and all kinds of meat. Waiters keep coming by about every 5 minutes or so with a different kind of meat. If you want some, they cut off as much as you want. Normally it’s just a slice or two. They had somewhere around 30 different types and styles of meat being served. They also have a salad bar with soups, sushi, breads and cheeses, and other sides. This isn’t Old Country Buffet class of food either. It’s fine dining quality. I’m not a big fan of pork, but I had the best pork ever there. Made me rethink my mindset on the meat. Maybe I’ve just never had it done properly before. When we were done stuffing ourselves stupid here, we went back to the hostel to meet up with Gaz and Lex to go out for some drinks. They were already planning to go out to an Irish pub, so I was happy about the choice. Turns out it was “Shenanigans”, which was located directly on top of where we just had dinner. When we showed up there was some quality live music covering american rock songs, and a very lively atmosphere. The drink ordering process was a little odd though. When you enter the bar, they give you a sheet of paper that looks a little like a scantron sheet (Multiple Choice quiz sheet for school) that had all the different beers and liquors listed on it. As you order a drink, you hand them the sheet and they mark down what you ordered. At the end of the night, you take your sheet to the register and then cash out with them. You then have to show the receipt to the bouncer at the door to leave.

We then went back to the hostel and passed out as we have to get up early tomorrow for our tour.

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I woke up in the hostel with my chest still hurting a bit, but not as bad as the night before. I grabbed my towel and headed for the shower. I experienced a first in during this one. I got electrocuted by the shower head. Apparently, there’s this thing attached to the shower head that heats the water. This thing had some exposed wires and it’s own fuse switch hanging off of it. I saw the stuff, but thought nothing of it… until I tried to move the shower head. Once i got feeling back in my arm, I dried off, and then went back to the room to pack my things. We were going to check into a different hostel. The new one was on Ipanema beach.

When we arrived at the new hostel, we could see a drastic difference in the neighborhood. Much nicer, and a lot safer. The hostel was also a lot better. One of the best hostels I’ve ever stayed in actually. And the best part is that it’s only 1 block from the beach =). After checking in and dropping off our bags, we headed out to the beach to check out Rio. It was a little cloudy, but still nice and warm.

While on the beach, we partook in our first true Rio activity. Drinking coconut water. It’s a complicated process. They cut off the top of a coconut and put a straw in it. Their not the type of coconuts we’re used to (the brown hairy looking ones), they’re a lot larger and green. The coco water was pretty good. Very refreshing.

After tooling around on the beach for a while, we scouted out a place Nicole read about that was supposed to have a good Vegetarian buffet for lunch. I have no idea what any of the stuff was that I ate, but all of it (except for the weird yellow stuff on the salad) was really good.

We spent the remainder of the day just walking around the town and seeing what city life in Rio was like. We mainly stayed in the Ipanema and Lablon area (nicer parts). We did find a mall in the other side of the canal where the parking was on top. I’m guessing something like the top 8-10 floors. At the very top (on the roof), there was a great view of the lagoon / bay. I snapped a couple photos, and then we headed back to the hostel to figure out what we were going to do that night.

For Dinner, Nicole and I did Kilograma. It’s a nice buffet style restaurant where you pay by the kilogram. We went to town on that buffet and got 5 or 6 different types of cake for dessert. I was stuffed.

Back at the hostel, we ran into this British couple (Gaz and Lex) and hit it off pretty much immediately. They told us about this huge on-the-streets city-wide party that takes place every weekend in Lapa, so we decided to tag a long to check it out. We were told that Lapa is a pretty shady area, and that we should be mindful of our things while we were there. They were right. The area reminded me a lot of Teijuana. Bars and clubs all up and down the streets, with vendors and crowds all over the place.

For most of the clubs, there were absurdly long lines to get in (found out the next day that the wait was over 2 hours!). So we skipped those and found a couple smaller places that had live Samba music and strong drinks. I don’t remember everything, but I’m pretty sure I drank caipirinihas all night long (local Brazilian drink made with a sugar liquor).

After a few drinks and some good conversations, we haggled with the cabbies for a ride back to the hostel. Thankfully, Gaz spoke enough Portuguese to get by. When we got back to the hostel, Nicole and Lex crashed out, so Gaz and I went around the corner to grab a few drinks from the newspaper stand and we finished off our evening on the porch of the hostel talking about who-knows-what. All in all, a much better night than yesterday!

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Our bus arrived in Santiago sometime around 8:30 in the morning. When we unloaded, we spent a good half hour searching for a restroom to freshen up and change before we jumped on another bus that was to take us to the airport for our flight to Rio De Janeiro.

Our original plan seemed simple enough, take the bus back from Pucon, then a bus back from Valdivia, then a bus to the airport, flight to Rio De Janeiro, then a cab to the hostel. Well, today’s first hang-up would be that the bus back from Valdivia dropped us off at a different bus terminal than the one it left from. Also, where there isn’t a bus to the airport. So we exited the terminal, got our bearings, and then headed for the nearest subway station. From there we knew how to get to the proper bus terminal. When we arrived at the proper terminal, we only had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus to the airport which was nice. Checking in for our flight was fairly simple, and we had a couple hours to kill, so we stopped into Ruby Tuesday’s (?!) for some lunch. They had the idea down, but the food wasn’t so hot. I got the alfredo pasta with grilled chicken and broccoli. I’m not sure how they managed it, but everything tasted exactly the same. Bland. I added a bunch of pepper and salt, but then all I could taste was the pepper and salt.

After lunch we found a place that had Internet access for sale and I jumped online to figure out which hostels we would be staying at. I say ‘hostels’ because I wound up booking two different ones. Our first night would be off of the Copacobana beach and then the next three nights would be off of the Ipanema beach. I also read online that the cab far to the hostel should be around R$50, so I was ready to go.

We boarded our plane, and was off.

The flight was a little over 5 hours long, but was fairly comfortable. They even gave us a meal with metal utensils (amazing!).

When we landed, it was around 8pm (time-zone difference). We exited the plane and then went down stairs to grab out bags that we had to check. Lan (the airline) is a little more strict on size of bags you’re allowed to carry on. The line to get through customs was ridiculous, but the guy that checked out our passports was awesome. He stamped my passport and then threw the horns \m/ and said “Pantera!” I was beginning to like Brazil.

The next stop was to get a taxi. As soon as you leave customs, there’s a hoard of taxi people and stands trying to get your business. I went to one cab company (figured it was safer than haggling with some independent cab driver), and asked how much to Copacobana. They quoted me R$72. In the end, they agreed to my R$50 and we jumped in the cab to head to the hostel. As we got closer and closer to Copacobana, the city became more and more dodgy. By the time we got to the hostel, it was safe to say that Copacobana at night is a bad neighborhood. Reminds me of walking around Detroit at night, or riding through BedStuy, not too much fun. We checked into our room and went upstairs to drop off our things. The room was crazy. Felt like a giant dorm room filled with Freshmen.

Here is the beginning of where I thought I actually felt I had a chance of not leaving Rio. Not because of the neighborhood, but because of my heart.

As I was helping Nicole make the bed, I stared to feel a sharp pain in my chest, where my heart it. I couldn’t take full breaths, as it would intensify the pain. I’ve had this happen before, but normally it goes away after a couple minutes of relaxing. So after making the bed, we walk to a lounge area and I just sit down for a while. After a few minutes, I notice the things weren’t getting better, in fact, they were getting worse. I became very light headed, dizzy, and tunnel vision. I gave myself about 60 seconds before I was to pass out. So I quickly told Nicole what was going on, and we walked down 6 flights of stairs to the entrance area to call for an ambulance. Things were bad, and I seriously felt like I was about to have a heart attack, and in Rio of all places…not so cool. They called me a cab, and was taken to a local private care doctor that spoke english. Took the cabbie about 10 minutes to show up, and while we were in the car he sat there bickering with the hostel lady for another couple. I was out of energy, so I couldn’t yell at them. I just had to wait. When we got dropped off at the private care place, the guy wouldn’t let us inside the building. Nicole had to negotiate with the guy for about 10 minutes just to get inside. Once inside, we had to wait for the doctor to show up. So I pleasantly waiting in the waiting area in a place where there weren’t any sharp objects around, and made sure Nicole had all the contact information of people back home, my health history, and that she needed to try to catch my head, and not my body, to keep it from hitting the floor if I were to pass out. Then I just waited and watched Seinfeld. I was pretty proud of myself for how calm and collective I was considering I felt there was a good possibility I was about to die.

The doctor finally showed up, and after a brief once-over, he suggested a cardiograph to check out my heart. I was expecting the little white pads with wires, but nope… not here. He used these things that looked like jumper cables, and attached them to my ankles and writes. Then he used this little suction cup thing and placed it on different places around my heart. When her was done, we went into his office for a review. Turns out that my heart is fine. The culprit, an inflamed muscle that is in the same area as the heart. It’s from straining while trying to carry my backpack and Nicole’s back pack all on my right shoulder. He wrote up a prescription that was to help bring everything back to normal. A wave of relief washed over me. I was fine =).

The next fun task was to get the drugs from a 24 hour pharmacy around the corner. Lets just say, that walking around Rio (Copacabana area) sometime around midnight, not being able to breath or move quickly, and having Nicole with me, wasn’t the best of situations. The neighborhood reminded me of Harpo’s at night, except without the concert crowd around. After a little bit of wondering, I found the pharmacy, got the drugs, and then jumped in a cab to head back to the hostel. When I arrived, I took the drugs, and then added a bit of Zanax to the mix to calm the nerves. After that, I don’t remember too much.

Tags: Travels by .: Adam
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