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November 03 It was just about time to update my blog...Hmm... more than 4 months since the last time I have posted a real message on my blog… and a lot of stuff happened.
I would really like to be able to write more often, shorter messages… it would help a lot with keeping up with all the nice/crazy things happening here…but hell!! It’s impossible… Normally at work I barely have the time to read the news on the internet, during the first half hour before starting work… then… with God’s help I’ll get out of the office before 10 PM… if not…later J
And then, in the weekends I don’t have a computer – nor internet access… and with these high-tech area we are living in, it has been a time since I wrote something on a paper and then pass it to computer… excepting the slides for projects (at work), which are always better if you get to build them first on paper… and then put them into PowerPoint J…
What I will do now is to briefly comment on the main events that happened (and that I can still remember) during the last four months:
Lula L
Aaaand.. the most recent one:
Skydiving!!!!!!!!!!! In two series: 30th of September and 22nd of October. That was because the first time we went there (everybody in the group) we only got to jump 3 of us (me, a Colombian and his girlfriend) and then it started to rain, which makes the conditions for skydiving improper… so the others had to wait for another opportunity.
We have developed a tradition here, that I really like: when a person has a birthday, he/she can choose where they want to spend it or what they (and the group, of course) could do… that’s how we have been to quite a few places in Brazil and did some interesting activities… This time, it was the turn of Gaudhy, our Peruvian ‘bastard’ – this is an internal joke, she will not mind for being called like this, as none of us would – to choose something to do… and she choused… Skydiving.
I must say that it was one of the most “adrenaline-intensive” things I ever did!!! Soooo cool!!! We jumped from 4000m (+/- 12.000ft), 50 seconds of free falling and about 3 minutes of parachute-falling (in my case there were 5 minutes or more, as my instructor let me drive the parachute, he “showed me around” and as I was really enjoying he made it last longer J ).
It cost R$250 (about USD$115) and if I would have done the video… another additional R$150… but I was not feeling that rich at the moment so I did not have the film done… now I’m kind of regretting it… but I’m also planning to do it again, so it should be fine…
Another detail… when the 3 of us jumped (three weeks before the others ppl in the group) it was cloudy… so I had about 45 seconds of the 50 – of free falling – passing from one layer of white clouds to another… reaaaaaly nice… and I think it helped me also not to die of heart attack when we jumped J
Just to explain how this goes: when you do the amateur skydiving, as it was our case, (you did not participate in a special training course) you must always jump with an instructor. He is connected to you with 4 connectors, each of them being able to support 180kg.. so even with one of them you should be safe.
Then you fly in a small airplane with various other ppl jumping. First jump the pro’s… the ones that can jump alone. Then jump the ‘freshies’, us, together with the instructors (and the cameraman if you film it).
In my case, as I was the last one to jump, the plane had to do a 3 minutes tour to come back to the optimal jumping position… In this short period, I had all the time in the world to panic J … kidding… did not totally panic, but I was really scared. I had just seen the others simply disappearing in the clouds… “brrrrr” and “cool” in the same time J. We also did the back flip when we jumped J.
Loved it! Loved it!!!!
Then, on the 22nd of October, we went again, so that the majority of the group should have the chance to jump. This time, the weather was just great! Shiny and warm/hot… I had the chance to take various picture with all my friends jumping. This time, almost everybody had the film done… cool!!!
2. Iguaçu Falls (12-15 October)
Together with Laura (UK), Gerardo (ME), Adrián (ME) and Vladi (CO), with a rented car (really good idea!!), after about 12 hours driving, crossing the south of Brazil, we got to Foz de Iguaçú, the region with one of the most famous waterfalls in the world (about 30 m higher than Niagara Falls – Iguaçu measure 80m height) and one of the most beautiful views I ever saw…
The “cataratas” (waterfalls) are shared between Brazil and Argentina (about 1.200 m length being on the Argentinian side, and 800m on the Brazilian side).
The cool thing is, that, being in that area, you can go with no trouble in Argentina (none of us needed a visa to enter… yuppiiiiiiiiii) or in Paraguay… In Paraguay actually there was not even a frontier point.. we didn’t even get our passports stamped… that’s everything you might need to know in order to understand why the large majority of pirate products, illegal merchandise, drugs and stuff that enter in Brazil enter at the frontier with Paraguay…
Well… coming back to Argentina… having a car in that area is just perfect! Imagine that besides going by car in Argentina (about 20 minutes drive from our hostel in Brazil) in order to visit the Waterfalls, we actually went there sometimes just to have dinner J. I really loved that J…
My opinion about all this experience: AMAZING!!!! This is one place you have to go… it’s so beautiful…
As I learned from one of my bosses at Kaiser, the Iguaçu falls are actually an ancient cemetery… as it was used for this purpose by the Indians living there before the colonization. That’s why it is said that it has a lot of energy… and this is also why people go there many times and make wishes… you have to go there with positive thoughts, as every thought, sensation you live there it is said to be very much amplified by the energy present there…
We have also done the “trip adventure” – meaning: we went by boat under some of the waterfalls, until we got soaking wet and totally hilarious J… I actually have a movie to prove it J. Really cool J.
And besides the fact that in that specific day we all got wet because of the boat trip, I also had the “pleasure” of taking another bath, this time in the fountain in front of the Argentinean restaurant in the park… and this was a forced bath.. my nice Mexican friends “helped” me … a lot.. One of them (Gerardo) actually took a picture with me (again soaking wet) after the nice escapadeJ. If I’ll get the picture and post it here, you might notice the frustrated look on my face :P.
And as this wouldn’t have been enough… the following day, during a hot evening, coming back from a day trip on the Brazilian side of the Waterfalls (another marvelous view) me and Laura had another forced bath… this time in the swimming pool in front of our room in the hostel… of course.. fully dressed (I had my jeans on!!! L ). Off course that guys joined us… but – bastards!!! – only after they meticulously changed into their swimming shorts… Well… in the end, it was really cool J we had a lot of fun and a lot of water fighting…
The way back “only” took us about 13 hours… we were tired (we actually did not go out any of the nights in disco’s, only one night stayed until 1am in a bar, drinking and speaking… but walking so much during the day was very tiring), but really satisfied with the excellent experience we had had.
3. My trip to Northeast – Holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (2-18th of September 2006)
One thing is bad about not writing immediately about events that you really loved: is that you loose the motivation, and the explosion of thousand words and gestures you used to describe the event (in my case – my holidays) in the first days after it happened… And now, after about 12 hours of work (this is the 4th time I am opening this draft and I hope I’ll get to finish it this time… so I can finally post it) I don’t really feel able to describe it as it deserves L nevertheless… I will try J
Having a 16-17 days holidays on the Brazilian seaside didn’t actually mean that I got to change my color (to dark brown) as I was hoping L.
Thing is that I had a pretty full schedule, and I only had about 2 days to actually stay on the beach, taking sunbath…
My schedule and plan have proved to be pretty busy, but I got to see everything I wanted (almost). My itinerary was the following:
I know that for the ones that do not know Brazil these are going to be just some names… but trust me – they are reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy cool places worth going!!
Got to go now but I want to post the message… in order to get a grasp of what these beaches are, take a look at the Album “Holidays on the North-Eastern Coast of Brazil”.
Kissssssseeeeeeeeeesssssssssss 2 all! |
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