המסע המופלא

Yesterday I crossed the boreder from Brazil to Bolivia (I got to the border with a moto-taxi, a cool experiance by itself). When I came to Quijero, the Bolivian town border, all tickets for the train were sold out. However, there was a women outside reselling her ticket (for a higher price, of course). Unfortunately, it wasn´t the best possible compartment, which everyone recomended, but the second one (called for some reason 1st class). I didn´t want to stay in Quijero (a really slummish town), so I bought it.
I still haven´t decided it this train voyage was an adventure or a nightmare. The train was over crowded, and everybody brought along a lot of cargo (I had to put my bag in the corridor, but it was filled anyway with people and stuff). There was an odor of sweat and occasionally pee from the bathroom (whose door opened all the time). The seats, which were for two squezzed people couldn´t recline, and naturally I had no place for the legs, as someone was sitting in front of me (actually it was a nice brazilian familly, the grandmother, the mother and the daughter, and the mother was going to a hospital in Santa Cruz).
I thought to myself: "I can handle the over-crowdness, I have been in the train from Haifa to Tel-Aviv on Sundays", however, I didn´t take into account this was an 18 hour train trip and not one hour...
All the time there were venors going by in the train offering soda, limonade, meat, cellphone calls and other stuff. When the train stopped, people were selling the same things from the station via the windows. Unluckily, I didn`t have any change, so I managed only to buy a limonade with a brazilian coin.
However, I was really tired (I was in a party the night before in Corumba), so I did manage to fall a sleep for some hours. Still, when the train reached its destination (two hours too late), I was really glad!
Now I am in Santa Cruz. I walked a bit in the market, which is a typical one. It is quite a big city, and from here I am still pondering about where to continue.

// posted by Ariel @ 01:25 |

Three and a half days I was in the Pantanal, but that was enough to see a whole bunch of animals (as it is written in the guide book: "The Pantanal is the best place to spot wildlife in the continent").
The first day (after a day of transport on a truck) was very rainy. It just didn't stop raining. Still, we (the group I was in and the guide Pepinio) went out for two hikes in sandals, shorts and rain coats, as all the area was quite damp and we had to go in water from time to time (the pantanal is actually a great swamp area in the winter, same size as France). Although the bad weather we managed to spot some apes, coatis (dvivonim!), wild pigs, makaus (a kind of parrot) and a lot of other birds with funny names like tuiuius and emus.
The next day (after a night of sleeping in a hammock, an interesting experiance by itself) the weather improved, so we went piranha fishing. This wasn't so easy (although the Dutch in the group showed a lot of agility), but still I managed to catch two piranhas. However, they were too small for eating, so I throwed them back in the water again.
Later that day our guide catched an aligator! Of course, he realesed him later after explaining some interesing feuters in the aligators body (did you know, for instance, that aligators don't have a tongue?). The most odd part was that before he realeased him he put the aligator on his back, carressed his belly, and the aligator falled asleep and began snorking...
On the afternoon we rode on horses, and also then our guide showed his savoir-faire by spotting an armadilo in the grass from the horse and catching him.
The next day we were really lucky. We saw an ocelot (a kind of wild cat) and an anteater! The funny part was that we were chasing the anteater in an attempt to get a good photo of him. That was quite an odd experiance. Suprisingly, although it eats very small animals, the anteater himself is quite big.
Here are some pictures from the Pantanal.
We had quite a lot of free time to rest in the camp, so in that time I got inspired to write this haiku while laying on my hammock:

לצליל הגשם
גג שיבולים מעליו
מתנודד ערסל

// posted by Ariel @ 04:14 |

This morning I arrived to Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul. This region, so a fellow passenger on the bus told me, contains more cows than people. Although this is presumably a big city (700,000 persons) it gives an impression of a small and somewhat remote town. Add this to fact that almost everything was closed today (Sunday), and you can understand my feeling of being like the sherif arriving to an abandoned town in a wild west film...
The way here took 22 hours on a bus (this qualifies is as my longest bus ride of my life till now). Most of the way was by night, but I still could notice the clear differance between the Rio de Janeiro state (mountains and big otastrades) and this state, which seemed from the road quite flat with a lot of farms on the way (one with the name "Jerusalem") and not too dense trees and vegetation.
By the way, did you know that in Rio there is a Yitshak Rabin park and a David Ben Gurion place? Even more astonishgly, when I got out of one of its metro stations there was a big facade with the following names of cities: Brussels, Stockholm, Lisbon, Berin, Rio and... Haifa! When I asked someone to tranlate for me the portoguese, it turned out that this is a tribute for other modern metros in the world... (You have to live in Haifa to understand why this is funny).
A devoted reader aksed me about the Brazilian people. Well, besides the children who rob you, the people are moslty very nice and helpful, although it is a bit hard for to commincate with them in portoguesse. Brasil seems like quite a cosmopolitic society with a lot of diffrent looks of people (still, nobody mistakes me to be a local). Another thing that is striking (at least in Rio) is the poverty of a lot of people.
Tomorrow I'll probably do a tour of the city, and on Tuesday hopefully I will go to a tour of the Pantanal.

// posted by Ariel @ 22:05 |

I am still in Rio, but not for long. In the last days I had real fun. One day we (Lior and I) went up the Sugar Loaf, which is a mountain of 370m in Rio with quite splendid views. To reach there we had to take a bus via some lovely coastal neigberhoods. The way down was with two cable cars, but on the way down I descended half of the way by foot. It's quite amazing as you feel totally isolated from the city while wandering in a tropical forest with the sea in the background.
On the evening we looked for some night club. It was pouring rain, and we got totally wet, but we couldn't find any place on Ipanema beach (we thought that the beach should be full of samba clubs, but it turned out otherwise). Luckily, I had Eitan's aunt number on me (thank you Eitan!) so I called her and we got some recomendation. On the way to the Pizaria she recomended we just got into a bar-restaurant with jazz music... Estonishingly, one of the players was a russian jew called Yuri Aharonivtz.
We also went to see a football match in the Maracana stadium (the biggest in the world). This was my first time to go to such an event, and I found it quite boaring. The result was 0-0 between the local team Flamengo and Germio from Rio Grande de Sul. And the stadium doesn`t look so big from within.
Yesterday we met an Irish girl called Michelle while buying juice. So we began talking and later we went together to a music bar on Lapa (we got there quite by chance as Lior followed his instincts). The music was really amazing (it didn't sound particurally brazilian but was very intersting). Too bad that Lior got robbed again on the way back at 4 am... I showed some resistence so again I kept my money.
Lior decided to continue today on his own, so I went instead with Michel to the Cordovado, which is a mountain (710m) with a big statue of Jesus on it. The view on the way up is great, but on the summit it was quite foggy.
It seems to me that I'll continue tomorrow on my own to Campo Grande in the west, but I'll decide only tomorrow morning.

// posted by Ariel @ 01:03 |

Yesterday I met my partner, Lior, and we walked a bit in Centrad Rio. Rio is quite interesting: a curious mix between european styled buildings and sometimes a third world atmosphere. It's really crowded and there is a lot of traffic. Suprisingly, the metro is really good and doesn't feel unsafe at all.
We went to the state of Rio parliament, where we got a free guided tour. The guide knew a lot, including European and world history, so we got a brief introduction to Brazilian history.
Later, we got robbed by a gang of children in Flamengo parc. It was really pissing, especially that it happend in our the first day in Rio. Luckily for me, I had my money in an internal pocket, so they didn't take anything from me, but they took some money and the watch of my friend.
Tomorrow or so we may go to Ilha Grande, a tropical island, as we got a really good recomendation about it from two Isrealis who were in our hotel.

// posted by Ariel @ 18:02 |

This morning I went to the Copacabana beach and took a short dip in the Atlantic (I think it`s my first time, actually). The view from the beach is amazing. The sea was quite stormy, and all along the horizon there are high green mountaings, even in the side of the city. It reminds a bit of the Carmel and the sea, just much more majestic. The water was just the right temprature and the sun was not too strong, but neither was it cold. As it was early, there where just few people on the beach, and some locals taking out their fishing boats. In one word, perfect! Indeed, this beach deservs it`s reputation.

// posted by Ariel @ 17:19 |

I landed in Brazil very tired after a very very long flight. Unluckily, I couldn´t find the hotel in which I was supposed to meet my trip partnet, but I hope tomorrow I´ll find him. Well, I will go to sleep now.

// posted by Ariel @ 22:24 |

In ten minutes I'll leave to the airport and take the flight to Rio. Paris is such a wonderful city, that it is a bit hard.
What did I do in Paris lately? Well, I went to Eurodisney, but it was quite disappointing, and I went to the Louvre and Champs-Elisées (There is a very good view from L'arc de triumphe), and yesterday I went to Bois de Vincennes (a parc outside the city) and rowed on a boat with my relatives. Now I have a bubble on my hand :) Conclusion: Paris is highly recomended, but now comes the more adventerous part of the trip...

// posted by Ariel @ 11:19 |

Today I just did what tourists do at Paris: I went up the Eiffel tower (by foot until possible), and then I went to the Versailles gardens and castle. Actually, I didn't like the gardens too much - they were too organised for my taste. I was in other gardesn yesterday, in a castle called Dampierre, and I liked it much more.

Anyway, I uploaded two new photos to the album:

267 - I in the Eiffel tower (I think it's the first floor, a nice canadian jewish girl took the photo, actually, but she wouldn't tell me her name)
280 - Part of the Versailles gardens.

On the ferry to Danmark (just before I flyed to Paris) I bought a packet of licorice, which had on it this quote:

Den , der tærsker langhalm, trækker sjældent det længste strå.

I just wonder what it means. Can anyone translate this for me?

// posted by Ariel @ 20:32 |

Here I am in Paris. I arrived just yesterday evening. Maybe tomorrow I'll go to the Eiffel tower. I'll write more when something exiting happens :)

// posted by Ariel @ 21:33 |

1, 2
hoppa på
3, 4
titta en myra
5, 6
et ett kex
7, 8
lilla potta
9, 10
flyg till Rio

(en dikt jag läsde hos Moa i Göteborg)

// posted by Ariel @ 13:22 |

So here's the summary of what I did the last week or so. First, some of my deeds at Stockholm.
On Thursday evening went to a bar with the girl I met and a friend of her. It was quite interesting - they told me about the Polish Jewish community in Stockholm and ther alienation to the rest of the community.
On Friday Evening I coordinated to meet a friend I knew in Stockhom (from Glämsta). So I talked with him and he said to me to come to some place with bus and call him. When I arrived I discovered to my agony that there was not even one public phone in all the area. So I began asking people if I can call from there mobile phone, but somehow, although 97% of the swedes have mobile phone (the reason why they don't put any public phones...) a lot of the ones I asked didn't have one, or just hurried to train, or didn't have any money in the mobile, or the battery was just exhausted... At last I did find one good soul, and I met with my friend and my friends and we went to some lousy dance bar called "Mera" (more). We could have gone to a good place but they prefferd "good looking girls" over "good music" (I actually voted for the good music place, suprisingly enough). And indeed, after a while they got tired and went home. I stayed a bit more to see if the music gets any better, but it didn't happen...
On Sunday I went with my cousins to the zoo (we saw some bears and other nordic animals) Gröna Lund, Stockhom's tivoli. It was really fun, we did all the things, including the mighy Free Fall...
As you know, On Tuesday I came here, to Göteborg, where people are much nicer (the first person I asked about a public phone offered me her mobile phone). I went to the maritime centre, with all kind of ships, and today I did a tour of the city by water with the paddan boats, very shallow boats who can pass under small bridges
Tomorrow I continue to Höganäs again. Next week I'm in paris, and in two weeks I'm in Rio...

I added some photos to my album:
136 - I in Stockholm, near the modern art museum
157 - A child bear in the zoo
176 - I in Göteborg, near Kungsporstplatsen

// posted by Ariel @ 23:54 |

This morning I took the train from Stockholm to Göteborg (after I spilled some swedish kaviar on my pijama :). Currently I'm staying at a friend's house. I am quite tired now, so I'll write more in the following days, and I hope to upload some new photos.

// posted by Ariel @ 00:20 |