Foray to Buenos Aires, Argentina

I went to Buenos Aires mainly to visit my friend Dylan who, after quitting his job, is living there for 5 months to learn Spanish and play tennis. 

Buenos Aires seems very European - it has wide tree-lined avenues, lots of cafes, museums, book shops and theatres. Dogs are also very popular and when you are walking you have to watch out for dog poo.

The food here is great. I've eaten a lot of lomo (filet steak) and ice cream - the dulce de leche (caramel) flavour in particular is really good (if you like sweet things!). 

Buenos Aires is easy to navigate as most of the streets are in a grid arrangement. I've walked around a lot as well as used the tube, buses and taxis. 

Palermo Woods after the rain...

Tulip art in Recoleta.

With Dylan at a monument in Recoleta

Obelisk in stormy weather.

View of the obelisk along Avenida Corrientes (very famous avenue with lots of theatres and book shops along it).

 San Telmo

Jardim Botanico

 Cemeterio  - where Evita is buried.

 Jesuit church

 Malvinas (Falklands) memorial in the Recoleta Cultural Centre.

 Cultural Centre in Recoleta

 Puerto Madero

 Caminito, La Boca

Church on Plaza Mayo in the centre of town.

March of the Madres, the mothers of adult children who went missing during the military dictatorship. The mother's march in the square every Thursday afternoon at 3.30pm demanding information on the whereabouts of their children.

Congresso Nacional

 Casa Rosada, where the government sits.

Pisco sours and dinner at Peru Deli - delicious!

Milonga on Scalabrini Ortiz, in Palermo

Sao Paulo with my Dad

Spent a few days in Sao Paulo with my Dad - the first day at Monte Azul, the second sightseeing in the centre of Sao Paulo, and the third at the airport!

On the way to Peinha, one of the three 'nuclei' of Monte Azul...The other two are Monte Azul, which is a 10 minute walk away from Peinha, and Horizonte Azul, which is in the countryside outside Sao Paulo and takes about an hour and a half to get to.

Some of the children at Peinha. So cute!

With Douglas and Taty in Sao Paulo.

Coffee at the airport - Dad going to London, me going to Buenos Aires.

Northeast coast of Brazil

Spending a couple of weeks travelling with my Dad through five of the states in the Northeast of Brazil (Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Alagoas and Bahia). Brazil has 26 states in total, so plenty more to visit at some point! The Northeast is a very popular tourist destination as it has some of the best beaches in a Brazil and lots of the towns are known for their music and party atmosphere. 

Rio Grande do Norte 

Natal (Ponta Negra) 

Natal is famous for its beaches and sand dunes. We stayed in Ponta Negra, a lovely beach resort just outside the town. We found an English bar, Carumbar, so my Dad was happy (he likes talking but can't speak Portuguese!). Met lots of nice people, swam in the pool, walked around, went to the bar, ate 'prato feitos' (rice, beans and meat). We stayed an extra night so that we could hear Arni, the owner of the guesthouse where my Dad was staying, play in his band at Carumbar. One of the songs was an Irish tune which Arni's wife and I danced to - it was a lot of fun and everyone in the bar seemed to love it (not sure if it was the music or our dancing...). 

Praia da Pipa (and trip to Sibaume)

Praia da Pipa is a very cool place - it's small, with one main cobbled street, lots of little shops, restaurants and bars. We stayed in a great hostel which was spacious and had a swimming pool. We met lots of people there and I spent one day with some new Brazilian friends going to the beach at Sibaume and a night out at a forro club. So much fun! I want to go again...

Pernambuco

Recife 

We spent 3 nights based in Recife, with one day in Olinda and one day in Porto de Galinhas. Recife has lots of canals, but we learned that canals in Brazil are not the same as in the UK - they're generally sewage canals! 

Olinda

Olinda is 'beautiful' in Portuguese and the town really is beautiful, even if not all that well maintained in places. It was my Dad's 60th birthday when we went to Olinda and we had a nice leisurely day walking around, drinking coffee and eating cake at periodic intervals! 

Porto de Galinhas

Known as one of the nicest beaches in the Northeast of Brazil. The water is amazingly clear, the beach is beautiful and the town is nice to walk around, a bit like Pipa. There are lots of crazy looking chickens dotted about (galinha = chicken). The name of the port actually comes from the ships which smuggled in slaves after the slave trade was banned in Brazil - the slaves were hidden by crates of chickens. Pretty grim.

Alagoas

Maceio 

Maceio is the capital of Alagoas state and I thought it would be good to stop here on our journey Southwards towards Salvador. The beach is a bit like the one in Santos, with a cycle track running along it and then the road next to that. One thing of note was the ice cream cafe Sorvetaria Bali - you can help yourself to whatever ice cream and topping you want and then you pay by the weight of it. Great stuff! 

Penedo 

Lovely colonial town, full of interesting buildings. It's very easy to walk around the historical part of town, which is by the Rio Sao Francisco - the third largest river in Brazil. We stayed in the Pousada Colonial, a converted colonial mansion house, which I loved.  

Sergipe

Aracaju 

Capital of Sergipe and another stopping place on our way to Salvador. The state government building was impressive, looking out onto the main square. We stayed in the Centro which is quite a way from the beaches. We were a bit beached out by this point, so decided not to make the trip to see the beaches. Went instead to the markets just North of the centre - there's a local craft market and a food market. 

Bahia

Salvador 

Last stop - Salvador! Salvador is a great city, with the Pelourinho historical centre, lots of churches, music and artwork, and beaches nearby just outside the city centre. The one slightly annoying thing is that tourists get hassled all the time by people wanting money - usually they try to do something for the money eg. one guy went off to find some ice for me when the bar I was in had run out and then proceeded to try to rip us off by demanding ridiculous amounts of money for the ice...You live and learn! 

It was a whirlwind couple of weeks and we packed lots in, with great variety in the types of places we visited, where we stayed, what we ate and who we met. A really good experience!

Carnaval break in Santos, Sao Vicente, Casqueiro and Cubatao

Santos and Sao Vicente are towns next to each other on the coast - they each have a section of the same stretch of beach. Sao Vicente (where I spent New Year with my mum) is the oldest town in Brazil, founded by the Portuguese in 1532. A bit further inland you get to Casquerio, a small town where Adriano's friend Douglas lives, and further still you reach Cubatao, where Adriano, his sister and mother live. Cubatao is a very industrial town with lots of factories, gas bottling plants etc and it used to be known for being polluted but it's now much cleaner (luckily!). 

Santos and Sao Vicente - the red monument jutting out into the sea is the dividing line

My Dad arrived in Sao Paulo early in the morning on Sunday 19 February and I met him at the airport - I didn't get much sleep as I arrived back from Carnaval celebrations in SP at 5am and had to leave Dona Lindalva's house at 7am! We got the bus straight from the airport to Santos to stay with Adriano's friend Douglas for a couple of days. Douglas picked us up from the rodoviaria (bus station) and we went to his house in Casqueiro for lunch (cannelloni made with pancake rather than pasta). We spent the afternoon with Douglas and his wife Tati in Sao Vicente where there were people were paragliding - Douglas knew quite a few of the people working there as he used to have his own paraglide.

We had pizza with egg and cheese on top (common in Brazil) for dinner at Douglas's house when Adriano came over after he finished work. Douglas had the day off work the next day for Carnaval (though Adriano and Tati had to work) so we spent the day with him on the beach at Santos. It took us about half an hour to park - Santos is a popular place during holiday times.  We went up to the independence monument (Brazil was declared independent from Portugal in 1822) and on the bonde (tram) around the historical parts of Santos. 

We also tried aqua do coco (coconut milk drunk straight from the coconut) and caldo da cana (sugarcane juice). Adriano came over in the evening and we watched the Carnaval celebrations on TV and chatted. Adriano had the day off the next day and we went to visit his mum, sister and nephew in Cubatao for an hour or so before we drove to the airport in Adriano's new car. 

Life in Sao Paulo

I'm now travelling along the Northeast coast of Brazil with my Dad since leaving Monte Azul on 19 Feb, but wanted to post something about what I got up to in Sao Paulo when I wasn't doing my 8-5 job in the office at Monte Azul.

Generally I spent weekday evenings chatting to Dona Lindalva's family and the other volunteers, on facebook and skype and looking into travelling around Brazil and Argentina. Apart from my first weekend in Sao Paulo, every weekend was very busy - even though very little was planned in advance!

Here's a run down of my weekend (and some weekday) activities...

Sun 15 Jan – Parque Villa-Lobos - in the rain! - with Raphael and Sophia; we had an interesting discussion about prisons in Brazil (they are horrendous).

Fri-Sun 20-22 – Ilhabela with Jeremy, friends and family

Tues 24 – lunchtime meeting with Darrin at FK partners in Vila Olimpia to discuss CFA teaching, which I want to do every now and again so that I don't forget what I learned!

Weds 25 – anniversary of Sao Paulo (established 1554) – 458 years old; we all got the day off work (it's a 'feriado', or public holiday). There was a midnight tour of the historical centre of SP on the Tuesday night, which was followed by a film showing in an old cinema in the city centre at 3am. Don't think this kind of thing would ever happen in the UK!

Thurs 26 – lunch with Sergio, who leads the Valuations team at EY which I'll be joining in April, and Otavio, one of the senior managers in the team. We went to a steakhouse near the office which served excellent steak.  In the evening I had a skype chat about the culture of Brazil with Christine, a student in the UK who is making a documentary about the cultural differences between the UK and Brasil (more on this below).

Sat 28 – Pinocoteca do Estado with Tharsi, who Silvia, my Brazilian friend at the BoE, put me in touch with. The Pinocoteca is an art gallery with mostly Brazilian art. Really enjoyed it. 

Sun 29 – 'Churrasco' (BBQ) for Lindalva's oldest son's 35th birthday. After the churrasco, Jeremy took me and two other volunteers (Jose and Leo) cycling in Ipirapeura Parque followed by drinks in Vila Madalena – a bohemian part of Sao Paulo with lots of bars and samba schools.

Fri 3 Feb – Integracao meeting at Monte Azul. This is a monthly meeting with everyone who works for Monte Azul – about 250 people in total. The day started with breakfast and people were split into groups to discuss the ideas of Rudolf Steiner before presenting back to others on what they had discussed. I was in the 'Arte' group and our presentation was VERY improvised.

Sat 4 – Tom Ze (well known Brazilian singer and comedian) concert at Villa-Lobos Parque followed by Acaraje (food from Bahia) at Benedito Calixto market near Faria Lima. Dinner with Jeremy, Tom and Olivia at a very nice Italian restaurant called Othello, followed by drinks in a dodgy part of town at a bar called Barra Funda ('deep bar'!).

Sun 5 – Lindalva taught me how to make her bread, with lots of grains and seeds.

Tues 7 – Discussion on Waldorf things at Ute's house (Ute founded Monte Azul in the 1970s).

Weds 8 – Went to a lecture at the Anthroposophical Institute in Santo Amaro (15 mins away by bus).

Thurs 8 – A mini 'festa da despedida' (leaving party) for me at a bar near to my boss's house. Arranged at very short notice (the same day!) as my boss was going to her home in Bahia and wasn't going to be back before I left Monte Azul).

Sat 11 – Went to the Weleda shop in Santo Amaro (next to the Anthroposophical Institute) in the morning. Burns night at the British Council; really enjoyed this - lots of Scottish country dancing, speeches, toasts and conversation with other Britishers.

Sun 12 – went to see Adriano and family in Santos. 

There was very heavy rain in the afternoon and a lot of flooding on the roads. I stayed the night at Adriano's sister's house and went back to Monte Azul on Monday morning.

During my last week at Monte Azul I got out of the office and did a 'Rodizio' or rotation around the different areas in which Monte Azul works.

Monday 13 – Infancia Querida at Peinha. I joined the group of children aged about one year and they were so cute – there were only 5 of them – Agathe (who really liked to sit on my knee), Kelly, Gustavo, Daniel and Bruno. Adorable! If I'd been working at Monte Azul for longer I would have helped in this area.

Tues 14 – day trip with other volunteers to Horizonte Azul – this is similar to Monte Azul but in the countryside south of Sao Paulo, and it has two farm gardens.

Weds 15 – Cozinha (kitchen) in the morning – I peeled many carrots and a lot of garlic; Nossa Ciranda with children aged 7-8 in the afternoon – we had lunch, a snack, and the children played, drew and walked round on stilts. They were extremely noisy – I've never heard anything like it and I don't think I could have worked with them for long!

Thurs 16 – Cozinha (in Peinha) – they had a very good cubing machine, which I used to cut quite a few different vegetables; Caminhando Juntos with special needs adults in the afternoon.

Fri 17 – Paderia in the morning – just cleaning really, as they weren't making much bread due to Monte Azul being closed for the next few days for the Carnaval weekend. Infancia Querida with 3-4 year olds in the afternoon. Some very cute children again!

Sat 18 - My 'festa da despida' at Casa Lindalva. About 10 people came - volunteers, Ute and Lindalva's family and everyone brought food from different countries.



Went to a Carnaval procession in the evening (a whole story in itself - it involved a lot of waiting for things to happen).

Some observations on things that have made an impression on me...

• People are much more spontaneous – I didn't plan my weekends generally but was always busy as things just came up. This has pros and cons of course!
• In my experience, groups of people are very inclusive of everyone – I got invited along to things and I was made to feel included even though I didn't know most of the people there.
• There's generally a lot of rubbish on the streets; Adriano's nephew told me that if he was President of Brazil he would clear the rubbish from the streets!
• The pavements have lots of obstructions (uneven paving or no paving, posts) – it's often easier to walk on the road.
• Dishes are washed in cold water
• Lettuce is cleaned with chlorine (do we do this in the UK?)
• Electricity is very expensive; all of the cookers are gas
• The boys in the class I went to in Monte Azul were much more disruptive than the girls; they also drew figures with guns and people being shot which I thought was interesting.
• Valentines day is not celebrated on 14 Feb – in Brazil they have Dia dos Namorados, which is on 12 June
• Name tags seem to be more acceptable than in the UK – I saw a guy in the supermarket with 'deficiente' on a name tag around his neck, and Adriano's nephew said he needed to wear a name tag at school so that teachers didn't forget his name 9a bit worrying!).
• The rain causes many more problems here – children leave school early if it looks like it'll rain; sometimes school is cancelled (eg.due to leaks) 

One final picture...

Ilhabela - Jan 20th-22nd

Ilhabela (Beautiful Island) is about 4 hours South East of Sao Paulo. It has lots of mountains, waterfalls and beautiful beaches and about 85% of the island is a national park. Building is only allowed on the West Coast, facing into the mainland. There's a beach on the eastern side of the island which you can only get to by boat or by 4-wheel drive car along a track that goes through the centre of the island. Ilhabela is very popular as a weekend and holiday place for Paulistanos (people from Sao Paulo), like my friend's family who I went to stay with. 

We left Sao Paulo on Friday afternoon and came back on Sunday.  There was a lot of traffic leaving SP, so we arrived quite late on Friday night, but we had a full day on Saturday and the weather was great. We went to small (and quiet!) Veloso beach first for swimming and kayaking, then to Curral beach for Lula (squid) and cerveja (beer) at Papagaia bar. The options were squid with garlic or deep fried - I tried both but thought deep fried was best!

We played a couple of games of badminton when we got back to the house. You have to watch out when you're on the grass as there are these horrible bugs called 'borrachudos' which live there and bite you if you don't put on copious amounts of insect repellant (I had none on when I started playing badminton and it didn't take long for me to get a good few bites on my feet and legs!). 

My friend's family is English-Brazilian and it was nice to do some British things eg. drink tea in the afternoon, mixed up with other traditions - we had brownies (in true American fashion) with the tea and, in keeping with Brazilian tradition, we had a 'churrasco' (barbecue) in the evening.    We were invaded by bugs partway through the barbecue, which turned out to be quite funny - particularly when trying to get rid of the bugs with a tennis racket type thing which fried them on contact (not sure about the morality of this). 

We went snorkelling in the morning on the Sunday – there were a couple of turtles but I wasn't fast enough to see them sadly. Couldn't flip the flippers fast enough. Then we headed back to Sao Paulo, stopping for lunch at a restaurant which served traditional food from Minas - heavy food with lots of meat, beans, rice, mandioca but perfect given that I was really hungry following the snorkelling.