Brasil!!!

So spent a relaxing last few days in Bolivia (despite having to pay 80 dollars to get my camera fixed, after the unknown incident in the potosi mines) hanging out with some really fun Australian girls and Welsh boys. One of the only downfalls were the killer toucans that lived at the hostel, and would literally attack you for no reason, or to try to pluck the food out of your hands, all the time making velocoraptor noises. One actually grabbed hold of my achilles tendon and wouldn-t let go, and Becky, I began to understand your phobia of birds- they were absolutely terrifying. I was literally backed into a corner trying to finish off my strawberry cheesecake so that they would leave me alone, and the boys were only laughing and encouraging them. We decided that they have targeted aggression for females for some reason.

Anyway, had a good few days and then a safe flight to Sao Paulo, where I had to transfer planes to arrive in Salvador a few days ago. After a very long wait for the airport shuttle bus, where this other guy Adam and I were so tired after staying awake all night that we were literally curled up in the fetal position on the concrete sidewalk on top of our backpacks, we finally made the trek into Salvador. My hostel is in the historical centre, called the Pelhourino, and there´s tons of cultural stuff going on. It´s concentrated with mostly the black population, so it has very distinct food (a lot of it sold on the street- very convenient), a ton of great music just happening spontaneously, people walking around in costumes all the time. It-s kind of like the staging area for the big parades during the day, and then in the afternoon all the blocos (groups of bands and dancers) start making their way down to Barra-Ondina, where the main stages and parades are. It is organized chaos on such a huge scale, I can´t even begin to describe it.

The first 2 nights I just stayed in Pelhourino, first with Adam and some of his friends and the second with some New Zealand guys I ran into that I had met in Huacachina. Just tons of little blocos walking around the streets and plazas all night, you can just join in behind them dancing. Sooo much fun. and i have never eaten so much street meat in my life.

And then last night a few girls from my hostel and I cabbed down to Barra to join in the festivities there. And it was CRAZY. Hundreds of thousands of people all singing and dancing and wearing ridiculous outfits, just going nuts. We sort of joined in the parade in between a bloco our friends had paid to be in (Tiesto?? he´s a pretty famous dutch dj, but the trance stuff just wasn´t really working for my idea of carnaval in brasil). So we went inbetween it and the one behind, playing more popular brasilian music, and it was amazing. Dancing like fiends, getting disgustingly sweaty, but having so much fun. The streets are kind of gross from all the people and garbage (aka don-t wear flip flops or your feet will be covered in shit. literally) but around midnight it started to rain and we were just dancing like crazy enjoying the rain cooling us down. Soooo much fun. So probably will head back down that way tonight, but I don´t really have many plans here, things just sort of happen and you go with the flow.

If anyone has facebook though, I´ve managed to upload a lot of my old photos (i prob won´t take many of carnaval for fear of getting the camera stolen, a common occurrence) so feel free to check those out and let me know what you think.

Love you all and happy groundhog day (hehehe). The temperature here is approximately 33.

xo