At the end of last November, my friend Emma contacted me saying that she was very inspired by my travels and was contemplating the dream of joining me, perhaps around January-February. We didn’t talk about this for a long while, I carried on my journey, and, in January, as I asked her what she had in mind, things were very unclear (would she have holiday? where would she wanna go to? etc) but the desire was still there. On 27 January, Emma booked her flight and less than three weeks later, on 16 February, we met in Buenos Aires! Such spontaneity!
Time to introduce her. Emma is one of my greatest, most special, fabulous and long-lasting travel encounters: while I was living in Jakarta for 6 months, in 2015, and she was teaching English there, we met in Borneo jungle (Kalimantan, one of Indonesia’s archipelagos), where either of us had brought their parents who were visiting for Christmas. Chances we became friends were quite high, starting as we did! We met again several times in Jakarta, where, among others, we danced at a drum’n’bass party, baked some crumble and hand-painted some batik (traditional cloth there). 13 months later, at the beginning of 2016, she came spend the weekend at my place in Zurich: cloudier but still equally as much joie de vivre. Then passed another 13 months, we are in February 2017 and we see each other at Buenos Aires airport, for two weeks of craziness, meetings, colors, music and flowers that we all absolutely loved!!!
We slept a few nights at my friend Rodrigo’s, met in Mendoza, and he served as our guide in the Buenos Aires lesser known to tourists: many hours walking with the sunlight on the streets of beautiful but little visited districts, or in Chinatown, Caballito, or in areas where the street art was more than worth the detour. We loved it! At his place, we organised a reunion meal with several friends met along my way: Gaëtan, my Britton friend met in Amazonia, and his friend Emilie, which I had seen in El Calafate, Emiliano, met in Mendoza, and Julián, that I got to know in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Awesome to see people again, just like that! Evenings starting late in Buenos Aires, we went out dancing at around 2am to go home to sleep only once the day had started already; nothing exceptional to this, this is a usual weekend night for people there…!
To give you an idea of how shifted-forward Argentinian times are, we once went out for dinner with Julián, who was also our host during our several days in the Federal Capital (that’s how many porteños call it). We entered the restaurant no earlier than 11pm!!! Quite trivial there, we were by far not the only ones eating out at this time. And it’s very naturally that we then went out dancing on rock music, to yet again be home at 6am passed. Schedules shift ahead a few hours for sure; having breakfast toward 1-2pm, going out for a walk and then having lunch at around 5pm, you clearly don’t start getting hungry for dinner before evening’s end (well, what to us is evening…!). Really special and fun. And then Julián and his friend offered us a nice tour of Buenos Aires by night (from the car), passing by some of the main highlights, in the calm and empty city. Pretty!
Having but a few days to instil as much Argentinian culture into Emma as possible, we made her drink mates and Fernet (medicine-tasting liquor, which one mixes with Coke, which doesn’t improve the feeling that you’re swallowing a drug… personally I dislike it, but it’s THE alcoholic drink in Argentina), eat empanadas, taste Dulce de Leche (sort of liquid caramel to spread or add to desserts, to be damned for), and of course we taught her several typically Argentinian swearwords in Spanish. Be sure that bus drivers and other improvised friends had to burst out laughing when Emma, smiley and innocent-looking, and deliciously aggressive toward this Argentinian Trump, called the extremely unpopular president all sorts of local bad names (yes yes, she knew what she was saying). We also tasted about an ice-cream a day, compelled as we were to do so by the very Italian roots of the city and country. So many ice-creams during our time together there!
We did go to the Caminito, inevitable stop in the otherwise famously dangerous district of la Boca. It’s an alley where tango and tourism became flagship elements. You go there because everyone does (which isn’t so much to my liking), but also and mostly because of the esthetical appeal of the street: everything is colorful, and if you’ve ever seen a picture of Buenos Aires, chances are it was taken there. Tango dancers and musicians occupy the space, as well as souvenirs vendors and some craft, the atmosphere is nice but seriously quite suffocating with tourists and restaurants.
That’s why, after having explored the streets around for a while, we kept discovering the city a little further by sitting in a park inhabited mostly by mate-drinking Argentinians. There we observed the sunset while catching up for all the months since last time and telling each other all pending stories. Beautiful moments of sharing and closeness, it’s really touching to see how links create and reinforce over time, how people can be important even when you rarely meet, and how you can understand each other, in spite of different cultural backgrounds, when you share values and a certain worldview, as well as an enthusiastic appetite for life and for fully savouring happiness.
We spent our Sunday walking around the charming and picturesque traditional and craft market of San Telmo, one of my favorite district in BA. Clothes, antiques, snacks, craftworks of all sorts, live music by bands on the street (from Afro-inspired rap/reggae to electric cello accompanied by accordion and acoustic guitar), we were fascinated by the size of the market that winds along the unending streets of the district and by the variety of surprises that its sunbathed stands had to offer. We had to restrain ourselves from buying everything there! Actually, during the time spent together, we mostly fell for 1) ice-creams and 2) earrings (some time bracelets too). Let’s say that, more or less every time either one was buying a pair, the other couldn’t resist getting a matching one, as if we were teenagers of 14!
Our last day in BA was dedicated to graffiti hunting. But wait, not any graffiti: a giant turtle that my friend Emmanuel from Ticino had spotted about 2 years ago, when he himself was traveling around the continent. He had explained to me that the area in which this work by famous street artist Martin Ron was painted, Barraca, was so dangerous he couldn’t find a taxi driver who’d accept driving him there, and he had had to convince some friends to go by car. As for ourselves, accompanied as we were by Rodrigo who had lived there, we just had to take the bus and walked around in the summery Argentinian heat (very hot! we looooove it!) to find this relatively isolated and little known street. The amount of little and big works of art we saw that day, such spinning colors and exalted creativity! And we did find our great turtle in the end (see photo). A show for the eyes that we’re not about to forget, after which the day ended in a concert with more than a dozen drums full of energy, dance and madness at the Bomba del Tiempo, in Konex cultural center. Amazing!
The next day, we made the bus to Iguazu our new home, bringing with us a picnic that could probably have fed 5 people (foresighted and foodies, hard to regulate ourselves when we shop together!). Indeed, the journey to Puerto Iguazu was supposed to last 17h, where we ate, slept, watched bad movies, admired a splendid sunset, talked, talked and talked again… What a change, compared to my usual solitary bus trips of the past months! We crossed the flat Pampa and its cattle herds grazing in the meadows and then, driving up along the Uruguayan border, landscapes changed for a more luxurious vegetation and a red and ocher soil. Obviously, the journey lasted way more than expected, and the 17h turned into 20h… luckily we were in no hurry. I had once read an introduction to the country, which I always remembered and applied: “slow down, accept time as a fluid, and then you’ll really enjoy Argentina”. How often I repeated to myself “time as a fluid” and just accepted to soften down the obtuse requirements of my Swiss habits! And thus, really, I could enjoy Argentina.
When you travel, quite unexpected things always happen. You can try and foresee as hard as you want, there are situations you can just not think of, because they are sort of unimaginable. Each traveler faces problems and different events, and each draws their own personal conclusions, which influence their way of traveling and the advice they’ll provide others. One of those unexpected things was the fact that the village to which we arrived was completely out of internet due to a storm on the previous night. Well, ok, no communication with the outside (no internet, no mobile network, no phones, nothing), not so bad. Not possible for the hostel to check that we did book, so they had to trust us and just refuse new customers until the connection was re-established, ok. So far, nothing serious.
On the other hand, when we tried to take out some cash to visit the legendary Iguazu waterfalls, impossible to use the ATMs! And people at the bank counters could be of no help, either. There, we really understood our generalised dependency regarding internet, and we had to improvise. A sunbath, a walk in town with the hostel owners who, to distract us, took us to a terrace where you can see three countries at once: Argentina (where we were), Brazil (our next destination) and Paraguay. Then, they showed us a little hidden waterfall at the foot of which we swam, in spite of the grey weather. We shared a few meals, among which an inevitable asado with its tasty red wine. There I must quote one of them, who at the end of the day said about me: “you eat so much that it would cost less to take you out dancing than eating!” ….oops. When I tell you that I savor life…!
The day after, we finally could go discover the marvelous and so awaited Iguazu waterfalls. They were my last big travel priority, which I knew before going I couldn’t miss and absolutely wanted to see. They are absolutely massive waterfalls, spread between Brazilian (about 20% of the falls but some of the most scenic views) and Argentinian (about 80%, way closer up) territory. Another gift from nature… Let’s try and give you an idea of the breadth of Iguazu: 275 falls across 3km of river, falling from a 80-m high cliff at an average annual flow of 1,746m3/s (sixth-greatest average in the world, with a maximum recorded flow of 45,700 m3/s in 2014). It is the largest waterfall system in the world, has been declared World Humanity Heritage Site by UNESCO, and upon seeing it Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed “Poor Niagara!” (a third shorter, at 50 m high).
The weather was grey on that day, however the numerous falls were no less impressive. It was an entire day’s walk, which to be realised properly could deserve a full two-days. You get so close to some falls that you go away completely soaked, which made the two little girls who live in us very happy. You also walk through the sort of Amazonian forest with the coaties, cute little racoon-like sandwich-thief mammals. And we decided to swim in one of the pools below a fall (in spite of the sign forbidding it), at a 20min walk from the main site where nobody was passing by. Until the moment someone came to scold us, it was very refreshing and fun! And we don’t regret the official reprimand, but sshhh, don’t tell my parents…
Generally, Emma adopted the philosophy I followed during my travel: follow the “onda” (the vibe, the wave). That is, accepting what presents itself to you and adapting to it, rather than trying to determinate and decide how events should unfold. It was nice, because this way you never bother too much, and there’s space for the travel itself to choose what it has to offer to you. We also understood that our intuition hadn’t failed us: we make great travel partners for each other! We didn’t experience a single tension, tended to finish each other’s sentences and have the same desires at the same moments (when to sit, what to eat, where to go or stop for a photo…). Those really were two wonderful weeks that we spent together.
After this closeup zoom that the Argentinian side allows, we were lucky enough to have good weather for the Brazilian part of the falls, which is the one that most requires sun! It’s a way shorter walk but an absolutely stunning one that the lusophone Iguazu offers. The sunrays heat inspired us to get a quite expensive coconut (touristy Brazil isn’t exactly cheap) to savor its water while discovering the fabulous sights we had come to admire, and we even spotted a few monkeys branch-hopping on the trees, among which a mother and its baby. Hard to say much more about the beauty of the surroundings except by telling you to look at the photos and films…
One of our goals of the day, hoping to enjoy the sunlight we had missed on the previous day, was to see one of the constant rainbows that are typical of the Iguazu falls. And not only we could find one, but we even discovered that, under the right conditions of humidity and light, you can even witness a full-circle rainbow! So, so crazy to see that, just like that, live under our own eyes! It means too, that we didn’t avoid the full shower, of course, but we were for sure not really trying to… plus, it would be impossible! Taking the small wooden path leading to the foot of such waterfalls (or, as the day before, to the top from where it starts falling) that one is called the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) means that you have accepted a wet fate. A day colored by the green of a vegetation exploding in all places, the blue of rivers, the white of waterfalls, and by our delighted smiles.
After Iguazu, another very many hours of bus took us to Saõ Paulo! Quite a change for me, after months in Spanish, feeling sort of “at home” everywhere because communication was easy with anyone, to suddenly feel like a stranger and a tourist, because I had no idea what people were saying (to a certain point yes, but still). We left our luggages at the station and spent a first day walking around the center, unfortunately not very attractive (quite empty except for tramps that didn’t inspire much trust). What we immediately adored, though, were the tropical fruits, way more common there than in Buenos Aires. We started the day with a maracuya (passion fruit) and a guava juice, to be damned for!
Saõ Paulo, so densely populated and rich (compared to the rest of the country) that almost all Brazilians you’ll meet outside of their country come from there. Then, as Emma properly summarised in her travel notes: “20 mio inhabitants [in SP], 200 mio in the whole country, 30 mio condoms distributed for Carnival season”. Dimensions are just inimaginable, the social realities that accompany it as well. Where you live in the country obviously also has quite an impact on how you perceive it. I can’t summarize you Brazil, because I simply didn’t spend enough time there and because it is so, so huge! Brazil itself has got more inhabitants than all other Southern American countries taken together! I think that the same conclusion is true if you look at territories in square kilometers. Really, South America is Brazil. That’s how many Brazilians experience it, by the way. Why learn another language when you can communicate with 200 mio people? I’m just repeating a friend’s words, not blaming Brazilians. It’s more of a sort of logical conclusion to draw, which is actually often reproduced by those living in a kind of linguistic hegemony: one of the most-often heard complaints from English and Spanish native speakers is “but why don’t we learn other languages/do we learn them so badly? I feel stupid…”. When it’s actually pretty logical for them not to learn any second language or just little, just as it’s logical, geopolitically, for Europeans to learn one or several (even if they themselves also feel like they’re doing a bad job).
Brazil is large, and extremely varied. If I was telling you about the variety among Colombians and Argentinians, it’s just because I hadn’t gone to Brazil yet. There, and especially in Saõ Paulo or Rio, it’s so varied that you can be black, brown, yellow, white and red-haired, have blue or slanted eyes, and be purely Brazilian. Brazil is a concentration of the entire history and all experiences of South America. Amazonian indigenous tribes. Slave colonies and the warmth of their dances. Christianism tainted with local rites. Mining exploitation. Immigration, among which European and Japanese (SP is the city with the largest Japanese diaspora in the world!). And all, all these millions of people who speak Portuguese. I had never realised it to that extent before; for me Portuguese had always been, first and foremost, the language of Portugal and which they “also speak in former colonies”.
But looking at a map and noticing the size, the massiveness of Brazil, provides you with a sense of proportions and linguistic realities. And, yet again, makes you think at the impact of colonisation on the continent (and the world, of course, but especially the continent). What would South America be if it hadn’t been invaded? Futile question, obviously, the implications being way too numerous and complex to start hypothetical thinkings. But the destruction of the environment, the corruption of politicians, the discrimination against indigenous populations… were they inevitable, are they the obvious conclusion of a worldly globalisation and capitalism, no matter what Europe’s fate would have been? I found these questions sometimes desperating, imagining to what point we are all caught in systemic traps and imagining the responsibility of European people for all the sufferings that many populations in other lands have experienced. And I find it a little too easy to tell the latter that they should take responsibility for their own fates, after having sacked their countries and looted their resources, of which we still take advantage to this day by the way. But I’m digressing.
Avenida Paulista, a big main avenue shut off to traffic on Sundays to allow Paulistas (Saõ Paulo’s inhabitants) to bike, walk and listen to improvised concerts, was meant to become one of our points of reference, to which we came back several times. For instance, that’s where, after a picnic in a park that used to be a botanical garden, and at the sound of an afternoon rock concert, and after an unavoidable and delicious (Italian quality!) ice cream, we met Adriano, our host for these days. I had met Adriano at Machu Picchu, during the Salkantay trek, and it was really great to see him again, in his element! He made us drink caipirinhas (THE Brazilian cocktail, prepared with a local alcohol named cachaça, limes, ice cubes, mint and sugar – as well as lots of other fruit for other variants of the caipifruta), eat coxinhas de frango (drop-shaped chicken and potato fritter), açais (a kind of local berry ice cream with topping and apparently no sugar, appreciated for its stimulating effect), and a few other specialties. And, mainly, he took us partying for Carnival, in the streets of the city because “that’s how real Brazilians party at Carnival, not like wealthy people and tourists who go to the parade”. Because yes, it was Carnival when we went to Brazil… everything had been planned since the beginning!
(video: Adriano saying in Portuguese “we are here in Brazil with our friends Emma and Aurora, and Emma will tell us the longest place name in the world in Welsh” …and she does)
Carnival in SP was fun, over-packed with people (to the point that you sometimes couldn’t make a step forward…), watered with caipirinhas – bought with credit card from people selling them in the middle of the street and indicating it just with a sign and no stand -, colorful and full of stolen kisses that the crazy atmosphere seemed to allow – I’m talking about what I observed, not experienced, I must mention. The atmosphere was electric, and the party begins so early that around midnight people are already exhausted and go home. Which was for us the opportunity for one of our most Brazilian and funniest moments of the holiday: a whole group of jolly paulistas on the train home, with loud music, singing and dancing and attracting always more people, but everyone going quiet and lowered the volume down at every stop to avoid attracting the guards’ attention in the stations. We danced along, sang and laughed with them until they got off, an fantastic improvised party! Adriano says that Brazilians love to be seen as happy people who always like to party, even when they’re clearly not always happy. Whatever you might think of that attitude, for sure it ensures the atmosphere is fun and, this way, any opportunity is good to party. And dear God these people have dancing in their skin, it’s mad!
With Adriano, we celebrated Carnival at several bloquinhos* across the city, and we also visited the Japanese district, as well as Vila Madalena, a quite classy area full of street art, among which the famous few streets called Beco do Batman. We thus could admire many artworks by Kobra (name Eduardo), an artist from SP and famous in the entire world for his huge geometrical and colorful murals mixed with expressive black and white faces. I love it! And I adore the artsy air and lively culture that you can breathe in the whole city, from which Europe could sometimes get some inspiration. In SP, we also visited craft markets and observed talented capoiera dancers: a dance born under the ban on fighting that slaves were under, and they thus reproduced fight movements but without physical contact, along music from traditional instruments. In short, we had a glimpse into Brazil, and Adriano’s point of view was very useful to better understand what we were seeing. He was a great host and friend for these days, really awesome!
*the blocos are semi-spontaneous gatherings of people who march together in a parade with music for Carnival, sometimes around decorated chariots
SP was nice, nicer than I had believed. But Rio, oh Rio… Rio was intense, and there again I was a little surprised, wasn’t expecting that. I start with an anecdote that really makes me laugh: yet another poorly named place thanks to Europeans, who nobody ever thought of changing: in Portuguese, Rio de Janeiro actually means “January’s River”. It is called that because the clever man who discovered the place (a 1st of January…) thought he was standing at a river’s mouth… which later turned out to be a bay! So, after the “lost cities” who aren’t cities (Colombia), the “fortresses” which were actually sacred cities (Peru) and a few others, I really think that anthropologists and discoverers of the time would have better had a second thought on their naming skills… !
Why did I like Rio? Honestly, I was never particularly attracted to neither Brazil, nor Rio, before. But it could seduce me thanks to its natural assets, which I only fully realised after having climbed up, among tiny monkeys, to the summit of a huge rock (Pão de Açucar, the “Sugar Loaf”) and having observed it from above. I had to admit it, Rio is incredible: it’s a big city by the sea, among the mountains and surrounded by the largest urban jungle in the world! The sight is simply unique. I am normally no big fan of cities seen from above, often boring because banal and very similar to each others unless they have something really special. Well, Rio is special, due the geographical features I mentioned. I mean, it’s a city where you can, at the end of a work day, decide to swim in warm waves! So amazing… and not only we saw the sunset over the city, but we also had a splendid natural cloud show over Rio, just before full darkness. Wonderful!
We walked around the city too, of course. But there again we ended up in empty spaces due to Carnival period and holiday, and the desert streets almost looked frightening. It got way more comfortable once we approached a bloquinho and saw tons of people colorfully dressed up. In the end, with the decorated trucks, the popular music and the costumes, I didn’t find Carnival so different in Brazil from the one I know in Fribourg (my hometown)… except perhaps for the 30° gap and how people dress half-naked to avoid being too shiny because of the sweat! Ahah! It’s Carnival in Summer, then, and in a country where people take having fun very, very seriously.
To the point that we once ended up partying in the middle of a park at 2pm, along drums and wind instruments gone mad, tons of people, squeezed but dancing samba, grooving and laughing: one of our best Carnival moments! I love the energy of dancing Brazilians by the way, I find them amazing. Their dancing is so fluid, joyful and intuitive, it’s beautiful to see and… contagious!
A little earlier, at the stairs of Santa Teresa, covered up in mosaic, we spent more than an hour sitting and people watching. They were dressed, taking pictures with all sorts of poses, eating, drinking, laughing. Quite a sociological moment, very interesting. And well what do you expect? We also took our own pictures together of course!
Another legendary and quite unmissable view of Rio is that from Corcovado hill, where the extremely famous statue of Christ Redemptor proudly stands. Yes, it is very touristy and expensive, and yes, there are way too many people. But we had decided and accepted that, in Brazil, we were perfect tourists, thus we fully embraced our condition and climbed up Corcovado… and we don’t regret it! People notwithstanding, the sight is really beautiful and everything is very impressive. And, a bit later, we still had our dose of local experience, because we met Luis, the friend of my friend Sarah, from Fribourg. Luis is a carioca, an inhabitant of Rio, and he could also give us some more contrasted views on his country and city, and talk about them a bit. He also took us for a ride through the forest behind the city, and showed us “alternative” views of the Christ’s statue and the city, and the favelas that creep up in the hills (we didn’t book the “favela tour” that hostels advertise almost as an entertainment).
And he laughed when we told him, later, that we were drinking a caipirinha in Copacabana beach in our new swimsuits (I told you we embraced our identity of tourists!). We also had a picnic on the neighbor beach of Ipanema (and not Empanada, as Emma had first understood) and its soft white sand, in the warm light of the sunset. And, later, we could swim in the moonlight (while keeping an eye on our stuff, because those beaches are famous for night thieves).
Finally, the last step of our holiday together and of our getaway at the end of the world was Ilha Grande, a small paradise island before coming back to our gray home countries. No cars, not even too many tourists, but a very clear and sky-blue water, palm trees and a jungle that covers the mountain, such as it makes you dream even while you’re there. On the bus and boat there, we met Joyjeet, aka Joy, an Indian studying in a French school in Brazil, who was on a weekend off. He soon became our new friend, who accompanied each meal and excursion on the island. What a great person! We swam at a black sanded beach, savored some sacolé (little handmade ice creams that you eat from a thin plastic bag that you pierce at one end to slurp the ice cream, flavors ranging from coconut, mango or mint-strawberry to milk&almond, really delicious, and prepared with fresh fruit!). And we celebrated Emma’s birthday on one evening, drinking caipirinhas and eating cakes and desserts on a pier, the former bought on the way from a street vendor with a dream-like supply of sweets and cute comfort-food just waiting for us.
We also hiked for 2h through the jungle to get to Lopez Mendez beach, on the other side of the island, with Joy and François, a Frenchman met around a tapioca flour crepe, local yummy speciality. It’s surely not the least frequented beach, but it was the most accessible given the time we had and wanted to spend there. And few people actually hike their ways to the beach, many arriving by boat.
As for ourselves, we loved sweating through the beauty of wild nature. We crossed three beaches on the way to our destination, so we could swim in entirely empty ones, which was nice. And, at Lopes Mendez, there weren’t that many people either. We really could enjoy the whiteness of the sand, the heat of the sun, and the transparency of the water, a delight! Right what we needed to charge our batteries before taking the boat back to the village (you can only get there by foot or boat). Once we also swam in the river behind our hostel, by the way! Everything, during the time we spent together, was really perfect, and we created amazing memories together.
And there we were, you never have enough time and it’s just always too short, it was unfortunately already time to say goodbye to Joy and go back to SP for Emma to take her flight to London. On the way, the bus took the path of the Emerald Coast, dotted with pretty beaches where we’d have loved to stop. Actually we’d have loved to spend more time in Buenos Aires, Rio or Ilha Grande, but in the end we were both content with what we did together, it was all worth it! We slept at the place of Italian friends of mine met during my Erasmus in Florence, Irene and Lorenzo, and then it was already time to greet each other goodbye till next time. We’ll probably meet in another 13 months again, if not before, perhaps in London where I’m due to visit my wonderful friend, or anywhere else in the world! We did say that our friendship “love story” would probably make us meet again in Antarctica, if not on the moon, for a next destination always more exotic! What’s for sure is that it’s a friendship that will last, wherever our steps take us, and that we’ll keep dancing, laughing, discovering, savoring, celebrating life together. Perfectly summing it up, Joy wrote that beautiful sentence on Facebook short after parting: “Just so you know, souls recognize one another if they have met in their previous births.” See you next time, my dear friends.
To see more pictures of Buenos Aires and Argentinian Iguazu, click here
For more photos of Brazil: Brazilian Iguazu, Saõ Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ilha Grande; click here
