Graveyard Frolicking

The Recoleta Cemetery is awesome slash creepy. It reminds me of the Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet (still swooning over the fish tank scene, sigh). We only had 5 minutes till they closed so we ran around trying to avoid the guards.Some of it was beautiful and some was just legit-a-creepy and they're still burying people there.

We saw dead people.

Nothing makes me happier than an inappropriate frolic.

And then the Gods struck me down. The end.

Someone send us Lipitor, you can find us in Buenos Aires

Two bottles into the evening, and the wife and I are tres romantico. I took her out for a side of beef. Don't ever say I don't do anything nice for you.

Everyone, meet Nathan. Nathan was one of our party soulmates from Rio, so naturally, we had a Buenos Aires reunion. We went out for a steak dinner, Nathan had no idea what he was in for.

Everyone, let me introduce you to Drisa (Drunk Marisa). The romance ended and the giggle fits began.

This is almost 1 serving of side of beef. Selin only remembered to take a picture after she had eaten one of the medallions, there were 4. Each the size of a fist. After eating each one, Selin proclaimed, "Oh my god, I think I'm having a food orgasm." She was exhausted by the end of the meal.
Everyone, this is Drelin. She's given up.

Creepy Lurker

I am a creepy lurker. There have been some unbelievably hot people walking around in nothing but speedos, but I never seem to have a camera handy. Plus, I don't want to embarrass the wife by openly being a creeper. For the record, in the 2nd pic, the woman had a busted face, but her dude was hot from both sides. I love Brazil.

I now pronounce you Wife and Wife

Selin and I shared a "matrimonial" bed on Ilha Grande. It was muy romantico. Don't worry, we practiced safe bed sharing and I slept in my silken body condom. At night, I took her out to a candlelit dinner on the beach where we shared mocaqua (Brazilian seafood stew), drinks, and our blood with the sand flies. Selin has leper leg from those beasts. I still love you, wife.

Advanced Tourism 301

Oi! from Rio. We have been MIA, not because we've been mugged, but because we're a little surprised that we love the city so much. We've been busy pretty much from sun-up to sun-up. We're at the point in the trip where work and home feel like a distant memory. The cellphone withdrawal shakes have finally subsided and I'm jealous of all the folks we meet who are traveling indefinitely.

Our hostel is sick. 1 block from the beach in a really nice (safe) part of Ipanema and the people here are incredibly friendly, even by hostel standards. We had a big group of new friends literally within an hour of arriving. In the mornings, we roll out of bed and get a group together for lunch or a tour or the beach. There's always an afternoon siesta and then we all hang out again starting at our hostel's happy hour and into the evening's fiestas. Last night for New Year's, we rolled 20 deep down to Copacabana and managed not to lose anyone, but that's another post.

A couple days ago, 3 of us, Selin, myself, and Chris, otherwise known as the Giant German, arranged for a private tour of a neighborhood called Santa Tereza. We met our guide early in the morning, but she showed up to tell us that she had to cancel because her mom was very ill. Completely unprepared, we decided that it would be fun to try to do it ourselves. Since were were expecting a guide, we hadn't done any reading on what to see or how to get there, let alone brought a map. Therefore, it was dubbed Advanced Tourism 301. Selin found a bootleg map at a hotel and we navigated the public transportation, including a rickety old tram that locals think is a Disneyland ride, and made it to Santa Tereza. We stumbled into a few of the sights, most importantly, the stairs featured in Snoop's "Beautiful" music video. Naturally, I booty shaked in his honor while Selin sang.

Feeling confidant about our super awesome navigation skillz, we decided to hit up the nearby downtown. Much sketchier. Thank god for the Giant German. We identified 3 sights to see, and hit up the first 2, aqueducts and a cathedral without any issues. We thought were were sailing through the course and then it started to pour-- crazy, mudslide inducing, road washing out, wet t-shirt contest, bone soaking, rain. Oh, and we had no idea what we were looking for. Sambodrome f-ed us. It was on our not-to-scale bootleg map and looked like it was close. We must have stopped to ask oh, 5 people where to go and they all said different things. After wandering around in the downpour for, I don't know, 2 hours, we finally found the damn thing and had a good laugh at ourselves. We looked ridiculous, cabs wouldn't even stop, but so much fun.

Ciao for now!

Barf-a-saurus Rex Boat Tour

There are approximately 1 jillion beaches in Buzios so we thought it would be a good idea to take a day long boat tour to see a few more than we are able to walk to. It sounded good, caipirinhas and lunch were included, and you know how we feel about booze cruises (AwesomeTown). The boat departed from Cabos Frio and the hour long bus ride left Selin with a touch of motion sickness.

Other than the 2 of us, the crowd was exclusively Argentinians and Chileans. There were all kinds of synchronized dance-offs and clapping. Lots of clapping.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Selin´s motion sickness didn´t improve with dramamine and not too long after departure, she realized that it wasn´t motion sickness at all. Imagine this: 100+ people on a boat. 1 head (boat bathroom) with a pump action flusher that was marginally effective. 1 Barf-A-Saurus Rex. Disaster. She spent most of the trip down below fending off advice for how to deal with heat stroke in Spanish. ´No esta del calor, estoy enferma en estomago.´

This is how Barf-A-Saurus Rex spent her day, sleeping in the shade under the life jackets.

Despite her pukiness, we went snorkeling at the reputed 2nd most popular snorkel site in Brazil. Interesting because we saw approximately 3 fish and they were minnows. The exciting find of the day was a lost earring. Woohoo!


Selin`s on some good drugs now and recovering just in time for our bus ride to Rio this afternoon. Our skin is singed, we`re both a little burnt but had a great time in Buzios and looking forward to not getting mugged in Rio. (We broke international treaties and brought pepper spray)

Uh-Oh

Selin is sick. Bad sick. Travel sick. And to add insult to injury, it hit her at the beginning of an all day boat tour. Nugget, this one is for you:

Lovely lunch, noontime

Questionable lettuce, *bite*

Violently ill

Don`t worry, we got her drugs and she`s napping so hopefully tomorrow, she`ll feel better.