The Road to Brazil

Hi all,
Its Kristina. It is about 5 o’clock in the morning, the 11th of October, 2009. We have parked it in a wonderful little fishing village on a little island in Brazil because the road ended. Nothing but the ocean at the end of the road. The GPS does not work here so well anymore, and many times it showed us that there was road where it was not and other way around.

Sometimes we are able to take a ferry to the other side of the bay where the road continues, but not this time. We have decided to stay a couple days since the place is so mesmerizing. Just mountains and the ocean.

It is off season time in Brazil, there is no one except us, a few fishermen, and the best sea food buffet restaurant in the world. It is actually a very cool place called Arante that opened in 1958 by a women named Masmarina Maria Montero. She started cooking fried fish for fishermen that came into the bay. It eventually became a restaurant and in the 1970’s students and surfers started arriving. They began leaving little notes on the walls for friends to find them when they went camping into the mountains. Eventually this place became packed with these notes and the last estimate said that their were 70 000 of them. Here is the picture. There was also a book written about all the notes “ The notes of the world on Arantes walls” by Paolo Alves. There was a note in Czech I spotted as well.

Other then this restaurant not much going on in this town. Everyone goes to bed by 8:00 PM so we do as well, that’s why we are up by 3:15 AM.

The world really has changed since we got to Brazil. Uruguay was OK , beautiful in its own way, especially the coast road we took. Uruguay is 3/4 grassland and in the guidebooks they compared it to Switzerland (except I did not see any mountains). What I saw was , of course the back of Todd’s helmet in front of me, ocean on the right and thousands of cows, sheep, horses and birds (even flamingoes) around us (pretty cool!!!)

Now when it comes to Brazil, they are way more open to diversity. I first noticed it because they do not separate sheep, cows and horses by fences the way Argentineans and Uruguayans do. Brazilians just let them hang out together and be friends. The population is also way more mixed while in Argentina everyone seemed to be pretty much of European descent.

Another thing I noticed is that the language is soooooo different. After I got my Spanish going and was able to understand and communicate ( the beginnings were hard, I ordered a salad in the restaurant and I got a huge chunk of pork) by the time we left Uruguay. Portuguese first sounded like Spanish with a Russian accent to me, then more like French and now pretty much like nothing at all. Every time I am “talking” to someone I am trying to convince myself that it is very similar to Spanish, but holly cow it is not!

Another difference is that Brazilians are so friendly and they just keep talking to you, but we literarily do not understand a word they are saying. Then I say “no entiendo” and they don’t understand what I said because it is in Spanish so they just keep talking some more in Portuguese. I really forget how hard it is when one doesn’t speak the language. Other than that, even though I can’t understand a word I seem to be able to develop friendships with Silvios, Frederikos, Daniels, Eduardos, and Gustavos.

In Brazil food is spectacular, everything is so fresh and tastes great. Fruits, fish, home made pastries are all amazing. They have these “por kilo restaurants” which are usually huge rooms filled with sea food, fish stews, fruits, vegetables, deserts, cheeses, fruit juices(that I have never seen)and of course Brazilian coffee. You put anything you want on a plate and pay by its weight ( not how much you weigh after).

A few words about the culture:
I noticed the things that drive Todd crazy in south America, reminds me of my wonderful childhood and makes my heart itch from these lovely memories. For example, I spent exactly 49 minutes in a checkout line just to get a tweezers. It was wonderful. Huge queues are a part of life just like brushing your teeth. The cash register women takes her time since she has nowhere to be and chit chats with people since they all know each other. Or the little bakery store, you stay in the line to order what you want, they give you a ticket, then you stay in another line to pay for it, and then you go back to the line to get your stuff. Todd often asks me why you can’t just do all of it at once…I am not sure if I know the answer to that one. Also there are those little Fiat cars and old Volkswagens (filled with about 9 kids and three adults with no seatbelts). Just like all my 8 cousins and I in a little Trabant going with my Aunt Veronika to Duchunka lake.

Todd also gets a little frustrated when they don’t have the right motorcycle tool that he wants in the store. He has been looking for a little tool for COCO for about 4 days now. He managed to translate what he wanted in Portuguese but that does not make people have it. He has been in about 40 stores and they all talk to him a lot and tell him that their friends across the street have exactly what he needs. So far no luck. He says his limit is 80 stores then he might have one sent from home. It does not bother me at all, I learn my patience from growing up in a communist country.

We have been trying to connect with UNICEF but the offices are open usually only twice in week, always on the days we are not there. Hopefully soon, maybe at our next destination (Rio) we will be able to hook up with some other organizations\ and start doing some volunteer work.

Miss you all!
Love, Kristi

Buenos Aires

Hello everyone,


It has been a month since we left home, and we are already sitting on the border of Uruguay and Brazil. Buenos Aires was a wonderful city. Even though we initially were faced with illness and some tooth problems, we managed to have a wonderful time in a very beautiful city.Buenos Aires reminded us so much of Italy for its cappuccinos, architecture, cafe society, pedestrian streetscapes, and beautiful people.

We spent the first few week just exploring the city and familiarizing ourselves with the culture. We stayed on the top floor of a beautiful 1925 Spanish tutor home, owned by a women named Cristina her two sons ( Tito and Pablo), and their maid Carmen. Carmen was from Peru and had a very hard time pronouncing my name ( just like many others here) and always called me OTT. She immediately adopted Kristina as her daughter and they became friends. While Kristina helped her with her English homework she definitely helped her improve her Spanish. She even made a huge chocolate cake for her. We definitely felt at home with Crstina´s family.

Once we heard that our motorcycle ( Coco) made it to Buenos Aires we decided to save a few pesos and took a bus instead of a taxi.Three hours later in the rain, we arrived at customs. It was very rainy and cold day and of course there was no heating on the bus. The bus dropped us off on the highway. After crossing 25 lanes of traffic we arrived at the security check point were you had to register to get through more security check points. Of course, we only had my passport with us so they would not let Kristina in ( since her passport was in the US. embassy awaiting a new visa). After an Internet passport copy retrieval they gave her a pass to get in.

Once we were in front of building # 5 we were faced with offices numbered 1,2, and 3. These offices were very small filled with many people speaking Spanish very rapidly. Little did we know at that time that we would be visiting each of those offices no fewer than 5 times each. A stamp here a signature there a hello baby there. But all and all it was very civilized and everyone was very nice and helpful. The entire process took four hours ( plus the 3 hour bus ride) of which only 10 minutes were needed to uncrate COCO and have her standing on her own two wheels. We got her all put together , battery connected and realized that the gas station was 6 blocks away. Faced with pushing the motorcycle to the gas station fully loaded we decided that Kristina´s charms would have to be tried to smuggle the gas into customs with no container in hand. So I sent her off to the gas station. She manged to come back with a container that she found in the garbage and was able to fill it full of bright green benzina. When I asked her what that green stuff was, she answered that it is "benzina ecologica". So the gas arrived to the amazement of the customs officials who I thought were going to applaud her arrival. The gas went in, the motorcycle started and off we went driving in Buenos Aires for the first time. It sure helps having GPS. That doesn´t stand for Great Prices on Steaks.

Just a word about dulce de leche, steaks, mosquitoes and bombons. If you don't know about dulce de leche it is a sweet caramel filling or sauce that you can find in just about everything. I even think i saw it in a toothpaste. Bonbons are indescribable chocolate candy filled with heavenly filing. Steaks range from 6 ounces to 2 pounds from parts of a cow that I never new existed (including its bowels) And last question, how do mosquitoes the size of your fist survive at 40 degree Fahrenheit? That´s it for now, see you next time.

P.S. Check out our spot links. It is our ok/help/emergency locator that positions us when we activate it.