June 22nd, 2009

So I last left you in Buenos Aires. I had a two week vacation and it was awesome. We started out with an overnight bus to Iguazu Falls.

The first night we played some cards, I drank a bottle of rum, then we danced the conga line at a Brasilian dance show. In the morning i had a few apologies to make before we headed to the falls. The main section of the falls, Devil’s Throat, was the most amazing piece of nature i have ever seen.

Then a bus to Rio de Janerio. We stayed at the Santa Teresa Hostel, where we all had a absolutely smashing time, everybody should stay there. We swam at the infamous Copacabana beach.

Then off to Paradise Island, Ilha Grande, there are no cars or banks. We were only planning on staying a couple of days, but ended up staying a whole week. Our Pousada Oriental was only 12 USD a night and was ran by William, french ex-stock broker turned dreadie capoeira hostel owner, his best friend Claude and their two beautiful brasilian girlfriends. William’s story was pretty much the same as all the foreigners I met living in Brasil; fell in love with a brasilian woman and left their old lives behind, its just that simple. We did a 1000 meter grueling hike to the top of the island, Parrot Rock, and, of course, drank a bottle of champagne.

On my hike to one of the top 10 best beaches in the world, I played with some cute monkeys. There are some large monkeys on the island, but they are rarely seen but make crazy werewolf noises at night.

We met this amazing Doctor Dude™, who is a doctor for the US Embassy in Baghdad. I taught him how to shotgun a beer and he gave us all check ups (especially Elena) and it turns out I have had a dislocated wrist for a couple of years. I have to get surgery when I get home. LAME!!

They Brasilian girls at the hostel taught me how to make Brasilian style beans and rice, feijao. They called my version feijao americano, I took it as a complement. I got invited to join in with the local guys in their dance circle at the one dance club in town. Elena and I show them some super shredder moves and they showed us a few. We also hung out on the docks at night with the local teenagers while they all played guitars and all sang along; português is just so damm cool and these kids could all shred on the guitar and would play the backs like bongo drums. Tototally epic last night on the ilha.

We then went to Florianopolis, then a 25hr bus back to Buenos Aires and a flight out that night back to NYC. I have been in NYC for a week now and will write a post about it tonight on the train back to the City from Montauk. Lets just say that I made the Long Island morning news.