First Weekend in Olimpia

I went with my host mom and brother to the hot springs/ water park which is the main attraction in this town and is claimed to be the nicest “club” in South America. We tried out the hot pools, the wave pool, the big bubble slide thingy, the river and the water slides – and that was just a part of it, there’s an exercise gym and lap pool, sauna, beach chairs, cafes, go karts, peddle boats and even a little zoo! You could seriously spend all day there.
Friday night, the exchange students invited me out with their friends to an event at a local bar. The main band didn’t come on until 1:00ish and then everyone started dancing. By the time we were ready to leave at 3:00am, I had somewhat learned the basic samba step!
Saturday I met up with Miriam, the host sister of a fellow Nelsonite who was here on an exchange about 9 years ago. We hung out with her family at their house, visited her sister’s beauty salon and took a drive around the town to visit the Açai restaurant where I’ve decided that my favourite thing ever here is iced açai, topped with vanilla ice cream, butterscotch sauce, bananas and granola :)
Saturday night, I went to a surprise birthday party where I tried to learn Truco, a popular card game that is crazy complicated! It may have been a language thing, but it seemed so illogical and the Brazilians who were playing kept debating things too.
Today, Sunday, we went out to the house on the family sugar cane farm to have a churrasco (BBQ), swim in the pool and generally relax! It was a beautiful, sunny day and the farm is very peaceful. I feel refreshed and ready to start the next week here in Olimpia…

Small Town Brazil

Ok, everything Brazilian and a little Canadian... I arrived in Olimpia, a small town of 40 000 in the rolling hills and endless sugar cane fields east of Sao Paulo, on February 28th just in time to meet one of my host families and sit down to watch the Olimpic gold medal men’s hockey game! And was it ever exciting – yay Canada!
Before coming here, I had been in contact with Antonio, a Rotarian who participated in a group exchange to Nelson last year and who owns a language school here in town. He arranged a host family for my first week and when his wife is less busy, I will go to live with them. I started studying Portuguese at his school along with an exchange student from the US and soon I’ll start helping out with his English classes and possibly the French and Spanish classes too.
This week I am living with Christina and David Berti and their 10-year old son, Guilherme. Their other son, David, is on a Rotary exchange in Germany. I’ve been living completely in Portuguese and loving it! Every day I learn so much just from listening and expressing myself. I am also learning a lot about the culture, which I wrongly assumed would be closer to that of Ecuador than that of Canada. But actually, that city is very clean and safe and the tap water is drinkable!!! There’s at least one Volkswagen Beetle parked on every block!
My first day here, I went to the post office, bank and a few shops with Christina. We had lunch at a buffet restaurant where you pay $1.00 per 100g for the meat dishes and then $2.00 to fill your plate with rice, beans and salad fixings – so cool! For dinner, we had two of the exchange students over for feijoada, Brazil’s national dish. It was developed when the slaves at the slaughter houses would make a black bean stew and add all the meat scraps to it. I ate mostly the beans and it was quite tasty!
That night, I went with Antonio, his wife and 2 kids to the town party at the rodeo grounds. I hung out with the exchange students and some local school teachers they knew. There were fire works at midnight and then a good concert until 2:00am. We all got a ride home with one of the teachers, but not without stopping at a burger shop, so by the time I got home it was after 4:00am!
The next day was a municipal holiday, so I went with my host family and the grandpa to Sao Jose do Rio Preto, a city of 450 000 about 40mins from here. There we tried to extend my visa, but I was missing some paperwork. Then we went to the mall where I bought Havaianas (flip flops), capris and a Brazil t-shirt – necessities in this climate! That afternoon, I met up with Anieli, a girl who did an exchange to Nelson about 7 years ago. We hung out at the science museum where she works 6-days a week.
Yesterday I ran some more errands during the day and in the evening, we all went to the monthly Rotary meeting. There Gregorio, an exchange student from Mexico, did a presentation about his country. I also got up to present myself and gave a Canada flag pin to each of the Rotarians. Everyone is very friendly here and always surprised that I can understand and kind of speak Portuguese.
Today I went with the secretary of the language school to one of the public schools here to visit the classes. I introduced myself in Portuguese and then the students asked me questions or got me to speak different languages. The secretary gave away some discounts and pencil cases. It’s been really rainy lately, but today it’s sunny and very hot!

Tudo bem em São Paulo

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too great during my last few days in Quito, so on my last night, I went up to Quito with Chavez and Marga to go out dancing, but by the time we visited with Denise and Jorge (who were also in Quito for Denise's flight back to Canada the next day), it was fairly late and we headed home. I left there feeling like I was leaving many things unfinished which means I'll have to go back in the near future ;)
Meanwhile, I arrived here in Sao Paulo Thursday evening after a full day of flights. It was muggy, but has since been overcast and pleasantly cool! Out of coincidence, it was my friend Gus's birthday the day I arrived! I had no idea when I booked the flight and didn't know until a few weeks ago that I would be staying these few days with his family. They hired a chef for a family party in their condo and we ate fabulous Japanese food!
Friday, I found myself walking around downtown Sao Paulo with my Portuguese instructor from Japan and speaking Japanese all day! She is travelling around the country for a month or so and just happened to be in Sao Paulo for the day! I fell in love with Açai na Tigela (an iced dish made with açai berries and topped with banana and granola). Later on, Larissa, Gus's sister met me there and we went with her friends to a university street party with a drum band that was wandering around the downtown streets. In the evening, I went with the whole family to an aunt's 50th birthday party. We arrived shortly before 1:00am! I tried a caipirinha and danced to almost every imaginable type of music - so much fun!
Saturday, we went with the Isrealean cousins who are here for a visit to a fruit and veggie market, out for pastel (which doesn't mean cake as it does in Spanish, it's more like empanadas) and sugar cane juice with lime. Then we rented bikes and biked around a small park and finished the day off with a 4:00 lunch and exotic fruit ice cream. Gus and Larissa have gone to a masquerade party and I'm just going to finish off this post and get some rest as I'm taking a bus in the morning to Olimpia where I will live for a month or so. I've decided that despite my doubts about big city Sao Paulo, I'm definitely coming back through here before leaving Brazil.

Reconnecting and Rafting

I must say it's nice to be back in Quito! The weather is quite nice, not too hot, but mostly sunny. The air condition isn't as bad as I remember and the mountains are beautiful! I'm staying with my first host family this week. When I got here on Wednesday, other than a few new houses in the area, the only big change was that my host brother, who we call "Peque" meaning "Little", has grown into a tall 14-year-old! That night, my classmate, Chavez came to visit me and catch up.
On Thursday, I hung out with my second host family and on Friday, I met up with a bunch of my classmates at my favourite restaurant, El Rincon Amazonico which has great food and batidos (fruit milkshakes) in a cool, natural wood, jungle-like setting with hammocks strung between trees. Although it has been 4 years, my friends haven't changed very much except that they're all in their 3rd or 4th year of university.
Some other things haven't changed either... on Saturday, I got a visit from some friends I wasn't looking forward to seeing... parasites! I've been eating very little since and I hope the medication I got from the pharmacy today it takes care of them.
On Sunday, I went rafting with my friend Diego's adventure company and Chavez and George came along too. We went for several hours on the Toachi River (about 3 hours from here). The water was pretty strong and we hit some great waves, including one that we hit a little to hard, causing one guy to fall out of the boat and me to smash my face against someone's helmet. I now have a nice bruise on my chin and a swollen lip. But it was well worth it and I got lots of pictures with my new waterproof camera :)

Carnaval

Carnaval is pretty much a 4-day long water fight and huge party during the rainy season in February. Things here started on Friday night, when we were hanging out in a beach hut with a few friends and got eggs smashed on our heads by some other people we knew. Saturday, it was time for revenge! Jorge, Denise and I walked along the beach in the afternoon, armed with colourful foam spray and ended up swimming in the ocean in our clothes. That evening, we went down to the boardwalk armed with the foam and 2 dozen eggs :) In between playing Carnaval, we fit in some dancing and by the time we wandered home around 3:00am we were covered in foam spray, eggs and flour - yum!
Sunday, I made a point of staying in the house so that I wouldn’t get wet/ egged. In the evening, we made chocolate fondue at Denise and Jorge’s place and watched a movie. I stayed over there so that at 4:45am Jorge and I could walk down the road to buy Guantanamera. It’s a rich wild boar stew type dish with a peanut plantain sauce that a lady sells early every Monday morning for the fishermen. That night, we went on the Ferris wheel with Jorge’s sister Vanessa and then out dancing.
This morning I went paragliding! We went to the top of a sea cliff with Jorge’s friend who is a paraglider. Once we were all strapped in, the sail lifted off the ground and we had to run off the side of the mountain. Once airborne, we just sat back and relaxed :) It’s such a beautiful sensation of just gliding in the open air, over the seaside hills and beautiful white sand beaches. Definitely a must do!
I just finished packing my pack and luckily everything fits in! I leave Puerto Lopez this evening. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Ecuador for more than 3 weeks. Time just flies! I’m taking an overnight bus (10+ hours) to Quito, where I will spend a week with my host families and friends before flying to Brazil.

Beach Life

Things are so laid back here, that being a very logical, punctual, type A person, it can be slightly frustrating when nothing ever seems to get done. On the other hand, I admire that it just doesn’t bother them that much, they don’t get so worked up over the details.
The other night as I was sitting in Jorge’s mom’s craft stand with her, his dad brought over a coconut that I drank the water right out of. Apparently it has a great balance of glucose and electrolytes to make it one of the best rehydration drinks.
On Saturday, Denise and I took a day to ourselves and went to Ayampe (a little village South of here that’s famous for Corviche), walked an hour down the highway to Las Tunas then a ways along the beach. Along the way, we stopped at a nice little restaurant on the beach to have Bolones de Verde and Patacones. On Sunday, the 3 of us went down to the little aquarium/ rescue centre at Valdivia and then for a bit to Montanita (the hippie town).
Saturday night, I attended the fire department’s weekly meeting and I participated in their aquatic rescue practice on Monday and rope rescue practice yesterday (we rode on top of the fire truck to get to a trail leading down to a beautiful beach where we rappelled down a 30m sea cliff then jogged for 45minutes back to town!).
On Tuesday, Denise and Jorge and I all went to a little town up in the cloud forest to paint the school there and give the students some school supplies and gifts that our aunt had sent down with me. With help from the locals, we painted one of the buildings salmon pink on the outside and inside, which really brightened it up! That evening, we went back to Las Tunas to make a campfire and roast marshmallows :) Some people we had met from Penticton also joined us for smores.
Last night a bunch of people came over for sushi which proved difficult to make, but definitely delicious!

Puerto Lopez

After our trip down the coast and a brief visit with a good friend in Portoviejo, we finally arrived in Puerto Lopez where my sister has been living for the past few months. I live in a tent under a shelter beside my sister’s boyfriend’s parent’s house. The abundance of bugs and other creatures don’t bother me so much, but the lack of sanitation is kind of getting to me. Otherwise, it’s a cool place, small town with a nice beach.
On Tuesday, Jorge prepared us some delicious lobster in a peanut sauce. Yesterday we went by boat to Salango Island where we snorkelled. Later, while fishing, I caught a puffer fish! Today we did a type of purge by drinking a powder made with 7 types of seeds that is supposed to get rid of all the bad stuff in our digestive systems.