Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

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

We did manage, through the pain, to hang glide from one of the mountaintops overlooking the city. What a great way to end our travels! However, as soon as we hit the ground and the adrenaline rush slowed down, John promptly vomited in the sand. We both started popping Cipro–medicine that crushes any and all bacteria known to man. Currently, I am just starting to get back to normal.

After moving so much for the last few weeks, I find myself a little tired. These last few days in Lima I have been taking it easy in my hostel–Loki–which is one of the best I have stayed in. Today we sat around and watched Life Aquatic starring Bill Murray (great movie). Two more of my best friends Chris and Don arrive tomorrow night to take on Machu Picchu. We have a day or two here in Lima, then we take off for Cusco and the Inca trail. I would compare my excitement to what I felt right when I secured the Antarctica trip. This is going to be a blast. Many of the people in my hostel are fresh off the Inca trail. They are raving about the nightlife in Cusco and the Machu Picchu experience.

In summary, I am not doing a whole hell of a lot until Don and Chris show up. I have spent a lot of time in a nice little cafe next to the hostel that has wireless access. Today I have eaten all three meals here. I feel like I am Norm from Cheers when I walk through the doors. Although I only can only understand about half of what my new friends are saying. Thank God Im out of Brazil and back into the Spanish speaking world. They all smile and wave at me every time I step foot in the place.

Peru is CHEAP. Brazil is EXPENSIVE. I think I am heading to Bolivia next where it is rumored that its so cheap its “free”.

Some thoughts on Brazil:

A Tale of Two Cities: From Ipanama Beach…..To the Favelas

I was scared shitless to go to Rio de Janerio. The combination of the extremely negative coverage in the press, and nightmare stories from people I have met along the way painted a horrific picture in the back of my mind. In contrast to my expectations, I found Rio to be beautiful city, with an overwhelmingly positive vibe. Nonetheless, the site of the Hilltop Favelas (shantytowns) gave me the chills. Located right next to the wealthiest areas in Rio, are the ominous slums run by drug cartels. The biggest favela houses 250,000 people. After talking to some people who toured them, apparently this particular favela is run by a 23 year old drug lord. There are 12 year olds on the street corners with automatic weapons. Brazil, with the eighth largest gross domestic products in the entire world, has no control of a neighborhood inside one of its biggest cities and tourist attractions. Although this is disturbing, I found myself completely fascinated with the favelas. If we had another day John and I would have taken the tour.

Sidenote: So far this year–By April 1st– there have been 560 murders in the state of Rio de Janerio.

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Notes:

> My waitress in the cafe I am sitting in right now is either laughing at me or flirting with me in some sort of hard core Peruvian manner of which I am unaware of. I am going to go with laughing.  Although, I am not sure why. Hmm….

> I have been getting consistently destroyed in Ping Pong by other people in the hostel and I am really, really not happy about it. I am making way to many easy mistakes. DAMN IT!

> I might need to rant a little bit. See, heres the deal, I bought a video camera before Antarctica to capture my experience. That was a month ago. I still cannot get this FING thing to work with my Mac. I need to buy software but they wont let me buy it because I am out of the country –I think. First of all, why should I have to buy additional software. Second of all, I have been trying to do this for a month and I have a lot of good video and I amPISSED.

> Loki is filled to the brim with Irish and English people. Good times.

> Don, Chris, and I fly to Cusco on Tuesday Morning. I think we get on the 4 day trail on Thursday.

> To answer any questions..No, I did not take the picture at the top of this page. However, I did rip it off of the internet.

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