New Years adventures along the Brazilian coast

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South America. Yay!!!!

After my 2007 trip, I came back to Korea to teach for another year.. something that wasn't quite in my plans, but figured its way in. One fateful evening in September 2008, I reunited with an aquaintance-- a Brazilian named Eduardo-- whom I hadn't seen in over a year. As we talked over drinks at one of my favorite Izakaya's (Japanese style bar) in Seoul, he started talking about Brasil this and Brasil that. He was going to return back to Sao Paulo after nearly three years of being away in Seoul and Beijing. The more he talked, the more I started to get interested. Two days later, I decided to backpack in South America for as long as my money could stretch.. I'm guessing five months.

I flew into Sao Paulo from Seoul, via LA, via Toronto. Being back in LA was awesome as always..good friends, good weather, and proper Mexican food. Mmmmm....

Guaruja
I arrived into Sao Paulo (SP) on the afternoon of New Years Eve, as Edu said NYE in Brasil is one of those things you have to experience.

We dropped off our stuff at his home in SP and drove to Guaruja, a beach town just an hour or so outside of Sao Paulo. Because it was NYE, the traffic was predicted to be a nightmare. I drove a part of the way and almost hit a motorcyclist. I was driving along fine and when I began to switched lanes.. Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiipppp went a motorcyclist. Then came a bunch of honking, swearing in Portuguese and hand waving (or cursing?). If I were to write about the style of driving here.. it would be another blog!

His family had a beautiful vacation home there with stunning views of the beach and more. I met his sister, Sandra, her boyfriend, Marceio, parents and family friends during my initial arrival-- which was a tad overwhelming considering that I just landed off of a long ass flight. But they quickly made me feel right at home--extremely warm and friendly, with an underlying humorous tone, that just makes them really chilled and easy to be around.

For dinner, we went out to a place that's considered the best restaurant in Guaruja, with an abundant amount of fresh seafood, risotto, pasta and strong caipirinhas (a national drink in Brasil). It was a feast that left me in food coma for hours after the dinner.

The tradition here with New Years is that you have to wear white. Luckily, Sandra brought a few extra white outfits and I settled on a summery white dress. An hour before midnight, we all got decked out in white and headed out to the beach to join in on all the revelry taking place.. laughing, drinking, fireworking-- and wow, there was a whole lot of fireworks going on, from both the beach goers to the ones hosted by the city. The firework show must have lasted for nearly half and hour from all along the shore, some far more impressive than others.

The countdown wasn't like the ''TEN! NINE! EIGHT!...THREE! TWO! ONE! WOOOOOOOO'' style I was used to from the States. But suddenly, I knew it was 2009, and WOW! Another year has passed, and a new one has started. Why does it seem like these New Years celebrations are happening faster and faster?

We walked over to the shore and did the traditional ''Seven jumps over seven wave''.. in which each jump signifies one wish for the new year. I like this idea of wishes, rather than resolutions.. sort of takes away from the responsibility of breaking a resolution. Hrmmm.. I like!!!


Bahia- Arraial d'Ajuda (Bahia is the name of the state, and Arraial is the name of the town)
Our trip to Bahia started off funny (or disastrous?). First, while we (Marcio, Sandra, Edu and I) were driving to the airport, I realized that I didn't have any form of ID. So we had to speed back home to get my documents. I felt really lame. Then when we arrived at the airport, we were told that the check-in for our flight was finished. FINISHED! So we meekly walked over to the Gol counter and had to rebook new tickets, which were not cheap and which were not direct and which were not soon. We had about six hours to kill..and o what fun it was!

(1) I had a mini Portuguese lesson from Edu on all the important greetings:
Oi / T'Chau : Hi / Bye
bom dia / tarde/ noite : good morning / afternoon / evening
com licença : excuse me (may I pass through?, for example)
desculpa : excuse me/ I'm sorry (for bumping into you? OR what time is it? for example)
tudo bem : how are you
beleza : beautiful (could be like a question or an answer, Beautiful? Beautiful!)
esta com fome : are you hungry?
sim, estou morrendo de fome : yes, I'm dying of hunger
(2) We had a nice, gluttenous Mc Donald's meal (American McDs is waaaay better)
(3) We played this awesome card game called Truco. TRUCO! It's sooooo fun, but it's one of those games that takes forever to learn because it is truly a complicated game. But when you learn it.. it's a barrel of fun fun fUN!!! Sandra and I kept winning and we won massages from the guys.. hahaa 😊

After our flight and connecting flight, we arrived into Puerto Seguro around 1 a.m., from where we had to drive and ride a ferry to get to Arraial d'Ajuda. We checked into our beautiful hotel, url=http://www.maitei.com.br/] Hotel Maitei , that had a hilltop panoramic view of the beaches below. This hotel had a wonderful, hearty breakfast (with plump mangos and papayas.. Mmmmm!!!) and an extremely friendly staff. And as far as the amenities go, there were two pools, a sauna, a pool table, and a gym. Plus, this hotel is located right between the cobble-stone path that leads from the qaint village (with tons of shops and restaurants) on top of the hill to the beaches and beach bars at the foot of the hill. Yeah yeah, I know.. I'm not really backpacking right now.. more like on holiday!

We spent many days bumming at the beach bars littered across the coast while indulging in great Bahian dishes, caiprinias and cervejas (beer). The best thing is the service.. slow as turtles! It's quite funny.. I love this Bahian lifestyle.. shanti shanti. Aside from this, there were several highlights from the week spent in this magical hilltop bohemian village:

-Caiprinias :: A traditional Brazilian drink I am in love with, made from spoonsfuls of sugar, crushed lime (or other fruits) and cachaça, a strong Brasilian rum
-Boi nos Aires :: Steak place that Edu and I ate at twice bc it was so good! We had amazing picanha (best cut of beef in Brasil) and sausage, with rice, feijoada (bean stew), salsa vinegrete and farofa (powdered ground root). One time, we got a huge slab of grilled gouda cheese as an appetizer. It's like a heart attack meal.. I know... but it's so good!!!
-Street food :: Pastel (fritter filled with meat, cheese, or whatever you want) and crepes on a stick (crepes with cheese or sausage)
-Paradise Water Park :: Like a mini Raging Waters, complete with a slow flowing circular river that you float on tubes and steep water slides that give you wedgies

We also rented a car and took two side trips to Trancoso and Playa do Espelho (Mirror Beach). Edu and Sandra's cousins (Deuk and Sonia) were at Trancoso with friends so we went over to visit them at a fairly ritzy, upscale beach front resort. It was filled with young, beautiful and wealthy Brazilians, flashy and fun.. this is also what Trancoso is known for. We spent the whole day at the beach, ate really good food and drank plenty of caiprinas. In the evening, we went to the popular town square, Quadrado, that used to be a fishermen's village, but is now a quaint shopping and eating area facing one of the oldest churches in Brasil. We had a filling dinner with a big group of Duke and Sonia's friends and danced for a bit at an outdoor club until we were about to pass out, since Marcio, Edu, Sandra and I still had to make the hour drive back to Arraial d'Ajuda.

The next day, we went to Playa do Espelho, which is translated into Mirror Beach. It was sort of a rough and bumpy drive, but we did get to witness quite an amazing spectacle of water buffalos being rounded to cross the road. When we arrived to the beach, we bumped into Maria (Korean-American) and Christina (Brasilian).. Maria is a famous cellist from the Ahn Trio and Christina is... drum roll... a fellow Trojan!! She went to USC back in the day as a architect major.

Our days in Arraial d'Ajuda passed by really quick, all fun things always do. I was lucky to pass the days with three fun Brasilians.. and even luckier that I didn't have to know a word of Portuguese to survive... bc Brasilians really don't speak English.. like the Chinese.


Sao Paulo
The day we arrived back into Sao Paulo promised great fun. Sandra had organized a BBQ and karaoke night at their home with childhood friends that she hadn't seen in a long time. Several of them had moved to the U.S. or Japan for job obligations, so this was quite a night for Sandra. We sang until 3 a.m. or so.. I was dead tired from the past week of fiestas, but this night was great fun and I guess anyone can muster up some energy for karaoke night!!

The next night, Edu's son came over for a visit and we spent time with him all day. Kenzo can be a baby model.. he is incredibly adorable. We colored, played with a guitar, played with his beloved Snoopy toy and tried to put him to sleep. He was pretty excited all day, so it was a lot of playing and playing. I had to play with Kenzo with murmurs rather than words since I don't speak Portuguese and didn't want to confuse him by rambling off in English.

That evening, I went out with a friend, Priscilla, who I had known since 7th grade but hadn't seen in years. Edu dropped me off to meet her, and as soon as I got in her car, it felt like I had just seen her last week. We talked nonstop catching up about everything. She came back to Brasil after she met her husband and started a successful clothing company in Sao Paulo. It was really great to see her doing so well with everything in her life.

We met up with her girlfriends at a karaoke and sang tons of "men are dogs" songs for one of the girls who had a really bad breakup with her boyfriend (a cheater). We drank that much whiskey as well, or perhaps more. Then we went to a club called Heaven and danced our asses off with the hundreds of other Paulistas (people from Sao Paulo) stuffed in there. We finished the night off at 6 a.m. eating a seriously enormous hamburger that took two bites to bite through the length of the burger.

A few days later, Edu's cousin, Yoohong came for a visit to Sao Paulo. He is a lawyer from Hong Kong who was backpacking from Patagonia to Brasil. The next morning, Yoohong and I went to a tattoo parlor in Sao Paulo to get him a big sailors tattoo. I thought he was joking at first, but after the artist drew the design and imprinted the ink outline onto his arm, I knew it was for real. The tattoo took 5 hours to complete and it was quite elaborate with bright splashes of color.

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