Here’s Karina “enjoying” a traditional Colombian dessert, Brevas con Arequipe.

Guys: There are only 3 days and 1 city left of our trip. I am sad. It’s like the Sunday blues I have every weekend- but times 10. Soooo I applied us for a dog adoption place (Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue), and we have been browsing pups on the wifis. I am contractually bound to wait til May. But that’s close. And I think I have to actively think of this as the next adventure so it’s not such a bummer getting back into a routine and the cold cold greyness of life in the city. PUPPYTIME!!! KP
View Separately

Guys: There are only 3 days and 1 city left of our trip. I am sad. It’s like the Sunday blues I have every weekend- but times 10. Soooo I applied us for a dog adoption place (Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue), and we have been browsing pups on the wifis. I am contractually bound to wait til May. But that’s close. And I think I have to actively think of this as the next adventure so it’s not such a bummer getting back into a routine and the cold cold greyness of life in the city.

PUPPYTIME!!!

KP

Oh man oh man oh man oh man. My coffee addiction is pretty recent (thanks, Karina), and it is now magnified thanks to my love of seeing how things work.

In this video, the head campesino at Finca Don Eduardo (a farm owned by the same folks who own the hostel where we stayed) is roasting coffee beans that grew right over ——> there and were washed and dried right over ——> there. Then he blows out a few remaining skins and grinds them while they’re still hot.

Hey. Shut up for a second. These beans were from their least amazing variety of coffee plants, a modern (lab-created hybrid but not GMO or anything) variety, but the coffee was sooooooo gooooood. We bought a bag of Bourbon coffee, which is one of their two traditional varieties. Can’t wait to GET IT IN MY VEINS.

So glad we took this tour. Another highlight.

-TN

So, la Candelaria area in Bogotá is the trendiest little spot. Who knew?

We had the best giant plates of food (rice and plantains!) and the
most delicious cafe helados.

We decided to forgo the 5 hour day trip to Cathedral of Salt to just
have a relaxing walking around town day. So far it was the right
decision.

KP

One of the most well-known sights in Rio is the Cristo Redentor statue. It watches over Rio (everything east, anyway), as well as Verona Beach in that Romeo and Juliet movie that doesn’t really hold up (I’ll still watch it again with Karina, who hasn’t seen it). It’s in loads of other movies and music videos, too.

At 125 feet tall, it’s the 5th largest Jesus in the world.

So anyway, we got up ‘early’ on our last day in Rio and took a bus to the base of the mountain. Then we took a train to the top, climbed a few flights, and there he, er, He, was.

It was infinity degrees and loaded with tourists up there, but we managed to get some good pictures and not pass out. Go us.

-TN

Carnaval in Rio. Holy cow. Intensity. Brazilians have the most energy of any people I have met. I don’t know if it’s all the acai or what. We spent 5 days in Rio with Marianna and 4 or 5 other Brazilians. These people - even without coffee or alcohol they’re all WOOOOOOO AHHHKELEKELEKE! It’s impressive. So. The deal is you wake up and go to a bloco, big block parties on the street that consist of a truck playing music as hundreds of people dancing and singing. Some of them have themes, like Sergeant Pepper (all Beatles songs played to Brazilian beats) or Mario (yeah!) Then because it’s 100 degrees you HAVE to go in the ocean after a while. Luckily the beach is right there. Then, MORE blocos or a party at a bar or a parade or just walking down the mosaic sidewalks and witnessing all the spontaneous dance parties. All you really need is anything that makes noise and people will follow you dancing. The last night was the big Samba School competition - an overnight 15 hour parade in the Sambadrome. Guys, the Sambadrome is a stadium type situation that is built specifically for this dancing parade. COOL, right?! Marianna was in a parade for Beija Flor, the Yale of Samba Schools. This made the whole parade experience so awesome because we got to be her entourage and find out all about the behind the scenes stuff. Each school picks a theme (hers was horses) and creates about a dozen huge floats, hundreds of costumes and an original song to tell their story over the course of 1.5 hours. There are 12 schools. People stay screaming and dancing and cheering til well after sunset to see these. Passion, man. Passion. We met the nicest group of people that took us into their area and shared beers. We couldn’t understand each other but we were all besties. I’ve got tons of float pictures that don’t do them justice (fountains, fireworks, fire breathing dragons, animatronics, giant TV screens) that’ll go up in a couple weeks. KP PS: Oh, also. The thighs of these Samba women. I have never seen anything like it. Wait- I think I need a separate post so you guys can see.
Pop-upView Separately

Carnaval in Rio.

Holy cow. Intensity.

Brazilians have the most energy of any people I have met. I don’t know if it’s all the acai or what. We spent 5 days in Rio with Marianna and 4 or 5 other Brazilians. These people - even without coffee or alcohol they’re all WOOOOOOO AHHHKELEKELEKE! It’s impressive.

So. The deal is you wake up and go to a bloco, big block parties on the street that consist of a truck playing music as hundreds of people dancing and singing. Some of them have themes, like Sergeant Pepper (all Beatles songs played to Brazilian beats) or Mario (yeah!)

Then because it’s 100 degrees you HAVE to go in the ocean after a while. Luckily the beach is right there.

Then, MORE blocos or a party at a bar or a parade or just walking down the mosaic sidewalks and witnessing all the spontaneous dance parties. All you really need is anything that makes noise and people will follow you dancing.

The last night was the big Samba School competition - an overnight 15 hour parade in the Sambadrome. Guys, the Sambadrome is a stadium type situation that is built specifically for this dancing parade. COOL, right?!

Marianna was in a parade for Beija Flor, the Yale of Samba Schools. This made the whole parade experience so awesome because we got to be her entourage and find out all about the behind the scenes stuff. Each school picks a theme (hers was horses) and creates about a dozen huge floats, hundreds of costumes and an original song to tell their story over the course of 1.5 hours. There are 12 schools. People stay screaming and dancing and cheering til well after sunset to see these. Passion, man. Passion.

We met the nicest group of people that took us into their area and shared beers. We couldn’t understand each other but we were all besties.

I’ve got tons of float pictures that don’t do them justice (fountains, fireworks, fire breathing dragons, animatronics, giant TV screens) that’ll go up in a couple weeks.

KP

PS: Oh, also. The thighs of these Samba women. I have never seen anything like it. Wait- I think I need a separate post so you guys can see.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!! G-G-G-G-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!

Top