March 31, 2007

One Day in Rio de Janeiro then off to Lima,Peru


Pictured: Rio de Janeiro, the “City of God”

Well, John is gone. We had almost a full month of traveling together and now he is off to work in a big law firm and to get married. All in all, I think he is really looking forward to it. He is going back to a good job and a great girl. Looking back, we had a fantastic time. We enjoyed  steaks and cigars in BA,  leisure and relaxation in Florianapolis, and a beach front honeymoon getaway in Bahia together.  I hope this trip was just what he needed to blow of some steam after the bar exam and before the official start of the real world.

In the last month we took relaxation to a whole new level. Although, physically we covered quite a bit of ground.


We spent our last day in Rio de Janeiro. Sadly, we both had food poisoning that we picked up somewhere in Bahia. I am not really sure what happened. It could have been bad food, or maybe we drank the water by accident. Nonetheless, in Rio I was waiting for an alien to jump out of John’s belly at any second. Early on, he was doubled over in pain, and much worse off than I.  At least the food poisoning waited until our last day to rear its ugly head.


PICTURED: When you only have one day to see all of Rio De Janeiro

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March 27, 2007

The Beaches of Bahia, Brazil- Arrial D’Ajuda, Trancoso, Espello, and Caraiva


View from the top of the hill in Trancoso

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After Salvador, John and I took off for the beaches of Bahia. We jumped on a 35 minute flight from Salvador to Porto Seguro. From there, we ended up taking a ferry from Porto Seguro with a Peruvian girl named Aralyn (more on her later) to a quaint little beach town called Arrial D’Ajuda.

Sidenote: I have realized that I am completely inept at pronouncing and remembering the names of any and all Brazilian towns. John has been consistently laughing at me since we got down here.

So, we arrived in the off season. On the 21st it turned to Autumn. Its been dead everywhere we have been in Brazil thus far. On the bright side, its been nice as we have been able to negotiate really good fairs in the hostels/hotels.

In Arrial D’Ajuda, we stayed at a nice hostel with a pool and air conditioning–which is very rare– and we were hanging out with this Peruvian girl that we initially thought was really cool. After a few hours, we learned that she was far from cool. In fact, we nicknamed her the fun vacuum. She vacuumed up every bit of the fun that we had. The problem, was that ¨the Hoover¨ would not go away. She would knock on our door every morning to go to the beach. Furthermore, whenever we would go out with her over the course of about a day and a half she would bitch about how much everything cost.

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March 24, 2007

Salvador de Bahia, Brazil: The Poor Mans New Orleans

Salvador de Bahia feels so much like New Orleans its scary. I have spent a few weeks in the Big Easy and John went to school at Tulane. We are in complete agreement that Salvador is the poor mans New Orleans. Salvador comes with a distinct Afro Brazilian flair, music in the cobblestone streets, and petty theft. Florianapolis is to Miami as Salvador is to New Orleans (This should be an SAT question). The drum beats never stop, there is dancing everywhere, and you never stop getting approached by the locals trying to sell you anything and everything.  I bought my parents a huge hammock and have no idea where they are going to hang it up. We stayed for two days in the historic district called Pelourinho.

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March 18, 2007

“The Life” in Florianapolis

At this point in time, I am as relaxed as I have ever been. Without a doubt, this is the first post I have ever written while laying in a hammock.

You know things are going well in life when you find you need a “vacation from a vacation”. That is pretty much what I am doing here in Floripa (slang for Florianapolis) with Regis and Carol–my Brazilian friends that I met in Antarctica. For the first time in two months I have been able to slow down, relax,  and not worry about whether my stuff is locked up. I do not have to worry about when the next bus is heading out of town. Before I got here, I did not know it but I needed some time to just relax and chill in a really bad way.

Florianapolis is a beautiful island off of the coast of southern Brazil. This place is crawling with surfers and beautiful women. It feels a lot like Hawaii to me. Its almost as if we are stuck inside a never ending Jack Johnson song.

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March 16, 2007

The “Devil’s Throat” at Iguazu Falls, Argentina

After consulting Wikipedia to find out just what the 7 wonders of the world actually are, and after telling people for months that Iguazu Falls is indeed a wonder of the world, I was disappointed to find that it does not appear on any list. Although, I was very pleased to find that the Falls did appear in a few episodes of Miami Vice in the 1980′s.

So, in accordance with my findings, I have decided to start Dave Ford’s 8 wonders of the world. As of now I have four (this list can change at any time, and at no time promises to be reasonable). There is no criteria or restrictions. I can pick a person, place, or whatever else I deem worthy.

DF’s 8 Wonders of the World
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1. The Continent of Antarctica
2. The Steaks of Buenos Aires
3. Torres Del Paine
4. Iguazu Falls
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?

The story of a rather large waterfall…..

John and I took a bus from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls in the northernmost corner of Argentina. When I say bus, what I really mean is the sweetest mode of transportation on the entire planet! We took a Cama Suite model. For a couple of extra bones you get a bed that reclines almost all the way back, a really good meal, and a few nightcaps right before bed. You also get the standard medley of 80′s songs right before bedtime. We were blessed with the likes of Lionel Richie, Celine Dion, and Tony Braxton. Thank God for the nightcaps or it might have turned ugly.

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