are you my mommy? by Laura

A successful tactic that we have established on our travels thus far is to cling to a mother figure during the more complicated and/or illogical maneuvers of life. Nasayers may think that this re-establishes our status as novice travelers, but , oh no, it is instead surely the sign of the savvy and efficient backpacker (with our packs this heavy, we cannot afford too many missteps). So in Floripa Edith made our experience not only memorable but possible in many ways, then on the not-so-easy border crossing between Brazil and Argentina another mother figure emerged in a worldly, post-military Israeli woman, and finally an Aussie on our bus into Buenos Aires helped to orient us in this very new city, although he was our age and a male, his mother-like actions were greatly appreciated. This computer is creating issues so the photos, map update, and a high quality post must be suspended for the time being. Today we leave Buenos Aires, of which we have gotten just the smallest taste, to go farming for two weeks at a permaculture farm on the outskirts of this fine city -- we are unsure of the accomodations and thus may be incommunicado for a while, but once we have the chance, we will let you all know what permaculture is, as we are equally curious.

And So Begins Week Two! By: Katy Jane

Today marks not only the 14th day of our trip, but also the birth of Katie Bunny (a new nickname for Katie CA Katie, in order to differentiate her from me, Katy Jane). This morning we arrived in Buenos Aires via overnight bus from Puerto Iguazu. We are staying in a nice hotel for the occasion, plan to go out for dinner, and might even be putting on a little make up. We are joined here by Katie Bunny´s friend Justin, who has also been traveling around South America.

So much has happened since the last post, I´m not even sure where to begin the update! We spent a bit more time in Florianopolis after the last post, the highlights of which were meeting some very fun Brazilian frat boys, hearing an awesome DJ at an awesome club, and meeting our Brazilian grandma, Edith. Florianopolis is a city on an island called Santa Catarina, and has some of the best beaches in Brazil. The boys we met took us to one of them, and it was gorgeous, in spite of the fog and drizzle (which has been following us around until recently). Despite being unable to surf or sun bathe but we were glad to be in a nice, low key beach town.

On our second or third day in Floripa (which is what the locals call Florianopolis), we were at the grocery store shopping for our dinner, when we realized that we were getting side ways looks from an older lady, dressed all in blue. Oh no, we thought. We´re being the loud americans taking up all the space in the vegatable aisle, and we´re making this woman very, very angry. As we go to move and mumble apologies in Portuguese, we hear (with a slight southern twang), "Oh don´t wory about it girls, I´m just interested in hearing you speak English." This is how we met Edith, a smart, savy, worldly, generous and endlessly intersting woman who brought us a ton of sunshine in the middle of a literal rainstorm. In the veggie section, Editth told us of her education, and we of ours. Born in Brazil, but educated in the states, Edith came back to Brazil with a degres in Thanatology (the study of Grief) and a vision to start a church and eventually to open a home for the eldery. Towards the end of our grocery store discussion with Edith, after exchanging hugs and condensed life stories, we were invited to said home for lunch the next day.

Fast forward a bit, Edith picks us up and gives us a little tour of Floripa and takes us to the nursing home, where we are introduced to a ton of lovely, older Brazilians. We eat lunch with Edith and her friend Georgia, an America who followed her destiny, and her husband, to Brazil over forty years before. Lunch was great! Georgia told us all about her world travels, and we shared our travel plans with her. Edith intoduced us to all of her friends at the nursing home, all of whom were so excited to talk and include us in not only lunch, but also their city and to some extent, their lives.

After lunch, Edith invited us back to see her home, a gorgeous converted Azurean cabin (From the Azores, the islands of Portugal. Many came to Brazil and built these funny, sturdy little homes with no windows. Edith and her husband fixed theirs up and put in a TON of windows). We talked about politics in the US and Brazil, travel, Edith´s and her husbands work as missionaries, and ate delicious coffee flavored candies. We were so lucky to be able to sit around a darling living room and talk with smart, eloquent grownups with excelent opinions and wonderful insight. It was very refreshing after the frat boys, and reassuring in general that there are exceptional people in the world that the universe sometimes throws in one´s path. All day we spent with Edith, I kept säying "oh, we´re just the luckiest girls in the wholeworld. " And we are. Aswe finished out political discussion, and Georgia left to go home, Edtih offered not only to take us back to where we were staying, but insisted that we bring our laundry (now soaked after having been left out to dry.. in the rain) back to her house and use her dryer. The sggestion of which made us cry. Actually. There were tears in our eyes! How could someone be so graciosu and kind to 4 strangers! This was a lesson for us all to learn in pay-it-forward, and as Edith drid our wet clothes, she brought out a schmorgasboard of tea, and cookies, and hot choolate, and meat and cheese. And then we really were the luckiest girls in the world.

This serendipitious tea party marked the end out our time in Floripa. Edith helped us call the bus station to make arrangments to get to Iguazu Falls AND THEN she took us to the bus station after having made us a snack pack for the 14 hours overnight bus. Meeting and then leaving Edith were two of the happiest and saddest moments to far on the trip for us collectively. We had more adventures in Floripa, including an epic night at a night club (got in for free, danced all night, met the mayor, got into the VIP section, made some nice funny friends), but encounterng Edith really trumped evertying, in terms of life expereince.

Oh, I just realized I am short on time. We have some museum exploring to do today in Buenos Aires, so I will have to end this post here. We areall happy and healthy and so so so excited to be in the land of yerba mate, delicious breakfast croissants, and the best dulce de leche ever. I apologize for my spelling and typing errors - there is no spell check and I also can´t go back and edit for some reason, so all my mistakes have to stay. Please don´t thinkthat my four years of ocllege are in vain! Hope everyone is well well well!

Love and hugs and kisses,

j,k,k,l, and j

ps for marcus - world 4,us 10

Life Lessons Atop Death Mountain By: Jess

Hello and Ciao to all.

This post has been a long time coming, but for a good portion of the last week we were sitting on buses, shuttling around Brazil. Buses here are actually quite nice - makes Greyhound look like traveling via dumpster.

Our last blog was from Rio de Janeiro the night before the epic party that was supposedly going to happen right outside the door of our hostel. The people at the hostel were not exaggerating. Literally RIGHT outside the hostel doors were probably 2000 people mingling and dancing and eating and drinking and just generally having a good time. They know how to party in Rio.



There was a group of guys on drums and a big dance circle formed around them. I am proud to say that I was the first of our group to jump in on the dancing, and I managed to pull the rest of the girls behind me. We also met two very nice British boys (John and John) , who joined in on the fun and served as excellent bodyguards throughout the night.

I think the cultural highlight of the time spent in Rio was seeing an art project called THE GREAT MADNESS. An artist decided to decorate a staircase with pieces of tile from all around the world. It is very much a living piece of art, because people send the artist tiles and he works them into the stairs. I found a tile from Los Angeles, Katy found one from Texas. Most of the countries from around the world were represented. I thought that the stairs looked familiar and it was driving me crazy where I had seen them before. We walked all the way up the stairs, and on the way down met the artist himself. My mystery deja-vu was solved when he showed us pictured of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell rapping on the stairs, and I remembered the scene from a music video.

I am proud to say that since then we have managed to make it most of the way across the country moving South and have seen two more Brazilian cities. After Rio we took a bus and then boat to the small island of Ilha Grande. The island is so small, there are no cars allowed and boats are the main form of transportation. Now, when Laura Fox (whom I love dearly) initially suggested visiting this quaint island, she mentioned that the main form of activity was "walking" to various beaches around the island. Me, the girl from LA, pictured a 15 minute walk through the sand, letting the waves spalsh on our feet, and then multiple hours of relaxing on the sand with bottles of beer, followed by a walk back to our hostel while watching the sunset.

Well. First of all the weather was not that great when we got to the island. It was misty and foggy and pouring rain, and anyone who knows me also knows that this is not ideal Jess weather, to say the least. Given the weather, I assumed that the plans for the walk and beach would be scrapped, and instead I could look forward to a day spent sleeping in and reading my Che Guevara. Imagine my surprise when Fox jumped out of bed at 8 AM and after a quick breakfast suggested that we get started on our day. We managed to talk her into a few more hours of sleep, but around 1030 she was suggesting activity again. It was decided that the weather was perfect for "trekking."

I would like to take a pause and again emphasize that I am from Los Angeles, CA. I do not use the word "trekking." Ever. Walking up the street to the Coffee Bean near my house is a pretty intense experience in the land of LA where most people would hop in their cars to drive up the block. I would also like to add that though I do a lot of yoga and consider myself fit, I am nowhere near the rowing, lifting weights, running and erging for miles machine that is the wonderful Laura Fox. I also had a serious injury in highschool that limits my ability to run, climb, jump, etc.

So here I am, wearing my brand-new, shiny "trekking" sandals, excited about the possibility of completing such a "trek" early on a misty, rainy morning in Ilha Grande, blindly following my leaders like a lemming. It became clear to me 10 minutes into this experience that perhaps, I was in over my head. The hills were steep and slippery. I was covered in mud and unidentifiable green gunk. I was hot and sweaty until the wind started blowing, then I was freezing. The entire purpose of the trek was to reach a waterfall that everyone on the island had told us was wonderful and worth the walk. After an hour or so of painful toiling, we reached a fork in the road. One arrow pointed up an almost sheer cliff and said "cachoeira" meaning waterfall. The other arrow pointed downhill and said "praia" meaning beach. To her credit, Laura did turn around and ask me if I was ok. In an effort not to be the loser I assured here that I could get up the hill, but it would take me twice as long to get down. We climbed up. I mean REAL climbing - like grasping at roots, scraping your knees, digging your fingernails into the mud for dear life, climbing. We made it to the top of what we dubbed Death Mountain. After continuing maybe another half hour we found the waterfall and after leaving the waterfall the immensity of the problem of getting down became real. It was getting later in the afternoon and the mist was rolling and the air was more damp. My calves were still quivering from the climb up. I was thirsty and hungry and tired. I tentatively took a step down Death Mountain, and nearly toppled over. It was just too steep and I was too top-heavy and it just wasn´t going to happen. But the girls encouraged me, so I decided to turn around and go rump-first down the mountain (feel free to insert any other word to substitute for rump, we already have and trust me the pictures are priceless but they are on a different camera without a proper USB cord unfortch). Things got worse before they got better. There was a moment when I was grabbing a vine with one hand, digging my hand into the ground with the other hand, stepping very close to a hole with TONS of spiders going in and out with one foot and blindly dangling my other foot backward down the slippery side of Death Mountain, there was this moment when I thought that the easier option would be to stay in the jungle forever, build myself a little hut, and eat berries for the rest of my life. But no. Laura Fox stayed no further than 3 feet away from me at all times. And every time I let out an expletive in pure terror, she said something encouraging. If it took 30 minutes to climb up Death Mountain, it took close to an hour to climb down Death Mountain. But, I did it. My parents and no one who knows me will ever believe it, but I really did it. And though I could hardly move the rest of the night, the experience was incredible. The views were amazing. I did some yoga moves on the very top of the waterfall. We saw monkeys, birds, and the tallest bamboo ever. The experience was so positive overall that I told Laura Fox she could force me into one near death "trekking" experience ever two months.

After leaving Ilha Grande (right when the sun came out) we rode buses FOREVER and overnight and got to Florianopolis, Brazil. Personally it reminds me of home. It is a very lively beach town (actually on an island) and the people are all laid back and friendly. We met a fun group of Brazilian boys and they promise to show us the nightlife. We also made friends with a 78 year old woman in the grocery store named Edith who was born in Brazil, raised in Virginia and Oklahoma and moved back to Brazil after college. She has invited us for lunch on Saturday and we are very much loo9king forward to it.

We will leave Sunday-ish for Iguassu Falls, and then bid Brazil goodbye for Agentina.

Hugs and kisses to all.


PS. For Marcus - JCA 7, WORLD 3 - i'm winning!
PSS. Perhaps we should be contacting our manager first, but we would like to pitch our idea to you for a reality game show inspired by the kitchen at our hostel on Ilha Grande. It will be referred to from here on out as "Apokatchen" due to its post-Apocalyptic amenities, ambiance, stench, and overall appearance (please reference photos below). So in this game show, teams will be assigned to a kitchen in such a style as this and will be forced to buy cooking supplies at a local market that consists mainly of mystery foods in a foreign language while only spending roughly 2 US dollars per team member to cook a nutritious, delicious, and filling meal. This game show would clearly pit teams against each other to create the best and most frugal meal possible while keeping their supplies from contracting any air-borne illnesses due to the preceding nuclear fall out. The show will clearly be most riveting when team members turn on each other while buckling under the pressures of accidentally purchasing the salted, rotting, unpackaged meat that is so alluring and omnipresent in Brazilian supermarkets when that weeks challenge was clearly to make a vegan stir fry! Alas, we are hoping to make enough money from this show idea to finance us staying at places not like this -- any takers? -- Laura

actually here!

Yes, we have really started our adventures! we are on our third or fourth day of travel, depending who you ask, and thus far the count of world versus us is in our favor. Being here is surreal-- because the travels have truly happened but also because Rio de Janeiro is like nothing we have collectively known before. It has the touches and tastes of Miami, Italy, Mexico, etc but it is a singularly unique place. The people could not be more friendly -- very willing to help and respond to our mix of Spanish, Italian, and hand gestures. The landscape is beautiful with great beaches and little islands and jutting hills covered in rain forests.
We spent our first two nights on the beach trying to create a bit more of a vision for our time in Brazil and also enjoying the quieter beach neighborhood of Ipanema/Leblon, but today we have haphazardly decided to jump in head-first to Brazilian night life. Our hostel tonight is in Lapa which is in this funny quasi-gentrified neighborhood with decrepit art nouveau buildings directly next to the most unique looking church ever (we spent hours looking for the cathedral and discovered that it was the funny coned shape building just a few blocks away from our hostel -- it is shaped like a ziggarut and is very tall and imposing but inside it is dark and very reflective with brilliantly colored stained glass windows that rose the length of the interior) and filled with people from all different walks of life. So the big event tonight is an outdoor party that may reach 15,000 people, certainly a legitimate form of cultural immersion! There will surely be much to report on. Until then, Laura et al

PS -- we found Jesus yesterday! He is made of reinforced concrete and sits atop the tallest point in Rio

Field Test: Light Saber aka SteriPen By: Katy

As seen in the last post, Jess came to visit me in Texas this past week. We did a lot of list making, trouble shooting, stressing/crying in inappropriate places, and adventure gear shopping. We also watched some cinematic gems, including Hugh Grant's stunning performance in About a Boy. Let me assure you - it was life changing! Also life changing, I filled up my backpack with a test run of the clothes I'm planning to bring and strapped it on and really looked like a for real traveler. Jess and I got all excited, jumped up and down and then promptly got really anxious. We also ate a TON of cheese and made some giant cookies. Good times...

I think the conceptual highlight (well, maybe most considered and perhaps belabored issue) of the week will be the focus of this post. It came to our attention this week that we, Jess, Fox, and I, are not totally invincible 20-somethings with stomachs of steel and super intestines to enable us utter gastric safety during the course of our travels in developing countries. The issue of water purification became paramount. After much internet research and discussion with the dudes at REI, Jess and I decided to forgo both filtration and chemical sterilization (we though bulk, bad taste, and the need for extra filters were all cons). We decided on a UV water purifier called the SteriPen, here after known as "the Light Saber," this little UV light gadget that you stick in any clearish water and turn on. In 90 seconds, it zaps all the creepy crawlies and then you can drink it and it works wonders. 

Sounds like magic, huh? Too good to be true? In spite of our recent mortal revelations, Jess and I could not quash our ideas of invincibility and decided to temp a) fate, b) the warranty of our Light Saber, and c) our own constitution by promptly deciding to zap and drink a liter of purified lake water.  The pictures and a video follow:

Here is Jess's newly purchased water bottle... and the lake.

This is my newly purchase water bottle (notice how they match..cute!) freshly filled with lake water (see the lake?).  Note my feet in the water. And the dock. And the lovely tinge of the LAKE WATER we're about to consume... In addition to the fish that poop in this lake, my mom and her triathlete friends train/sweat/spit in it on a daily basis. YUM!

After an interlude in which we couldn't find any batteries AND learned of the potential stock market crash, Jess and I can finally use the Light Saber. Here, Jess is looking skeptical and/or idealistic.

MAGIC KILLS GERMS!!!11!11!

Here Jess just looks skeptical...

And here is the video of Jess making ME drink the water. 

So, it tasted like lake water. It made Jess's teeth feel gross. It made my stomach all gurgly. I don't think, however, that I have contracted giardia. After this video, we tried very diligently to drink the rest of the water as we ate dinner, but ultimately decided that we didn't want to (not that we couldn't...). So we dumped that shit out and then drank some wine.

All in all, I think we're both pretty satisfied with the Light Saber. No sickness yet, so cross your fingers. 14 days until we land in Rio de Janeiro and so much to attend to! 

More soon, 

xoxoKatyJane