17 July 2010

Despite the Cosmos´ Conspiracies, I Get Home

Since I last wrote, my social and work re-entry back into Bolivian life and my routine have been almost as busy and frenzied as my literal entry of the country. When I last wrote I´d just arrived in Brazil, where the plan was to see the sites, i.e. beaches, with my friend Leah and quickly/easily get my next Bolivia visa. The first part of the plan worked swimmingly while the second turned into a multi-day nightmare of consular madness.

So when I arrived in Rio de Janeiro I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite never having spoken a word of Portuguese, I could speak Spanish with a nasal twang and fake my way through the essentials. I met up with Leah and while I have yet to feel homesick (which is different than missing people, which I do), seeing an old friend felt really, really good. We caught up on our times abroad, she´s been living in Argentina and Brazil for the past 10 months, and began planning the route of our three weeks together.

First she showed me around Rio and while I wasn´t really feeling the standard tourist sites, visiting the distinct neighborhoods (and their street food) of the city was tasty and educational. People also comment on the world-famous conditions of the favelas and while the disorder and violence inside these drug dealer-run city-states is unlike anything you´d find in Bolivia, I had to agree with one of Leah´s friends who said, "I don´t see what the big deal is, they mostly just remind me of walking around La Paz." My first night was spend in the decidedly upscale and correspondingly overpriced neighborhood of Ipanema (yes, the Ipanema of "The Girl From" fame, though to show my true colors, neighboring Copacabana Beach is named after the small Bolivian town of the same name). The next day we moved to Leah´s neighborhood of Santa Teresa, a place with a much more welcoming and homey feel. Whenever I return to Rio in the future I´ll definitely make my base there.

After a couple days of exploring we set off for Ilha Grande, a beautiful island only three hours south of the city. Unfortunately winter happens even in Brazil, at least parts of it, and the chilly wind and cloudy skies conspired against our plans for sun-tanning (Leah) and patiently waiting for said sun-bathers from shaded areas (me). We did take a nice hike across the island despite Leah´s snake phobia and our guidebook´s warning that the place was covered in serpents. We arrived at a beach often cited as one of the world´s most beautiful (Lopes Mendes if you find yourself in the area) only to find menacing clouds spitting rain and really rough surf. Our day of beach cruises the next day was a bit more successful.

From Ilha Grande we headed back to Rio to see Brazil´s first World Cup game. The US really has no parallel to the completely unanimous, literally traffic-stopping soccer hysteria we encountered there. We decided against standing in the sun with tens of thousands of other people on Copacabana Beach and opted instead for a more subdued viewing in a neighborhood bar. I also visited the Bolivian consulate in Rio and when they rejected my visa application, we nonchalantly decided to move on to the next city with a consulate (FORESHADOWING!)

Finally we started on the last leg of my trip: a quick jaunt through the Pantanal and what we´d hoped would be a similarly quick visit to a consulate. We arrived in Campo Grande and immediately trekked to the Bolivian consulate where I asked in my most patient and down-trodden way for my Bolivian visa. The answer was, of course, no. Thus began one of the more tramatizing and stressful experience of my life thus far. I´ll do my best not to be melodramatic, but it´s a constant struggle. So the consul told us I´d have to a. wait for an official letter from the foreign ministry in La Paz that I´d never heard of (2+ weeks) or b. stay in Brazil forever. Leah and I decided that an optimistic option c. must have been possible...but we decided this after wasting 3 days in the least mention-worthy city in Brazil. If you visit Campo Grande, leave it before you get your hopes up.

Next we arrived in Corumbá on the border with Bolivia, the end of the road and literally my last chance to encounter a visa. First we spent two days in the Pantanal and saw a life´s worth of caiman (little alligators) in addition to capybara (the world´s largest rodent and NOT a pet, despite this picture´s helpful scale aid), plenty of tropical birds our fellow tourists just loved, and river otters that our guide insisted on chasing up and down the river. As much as we both enjoyed it, that last sentence was maybe only 50% more sarcastic than it should have been. When we returned to Corumbá I went immediately to the consulate and received a healthy wallop of emotional abuse. For 8 hours straight. I had to wipe the consul´s spittle off my glasses. In the end, mostly because I´d had the patience not to punch this man in the face, I got my visa (after another 5 hours). I´m still not sure if it was worth it.

After planes, trains, and automobiles we arrived safe, sound, and very happy to be home in La Paz. Leah stayed for about a week and we got to hang out with my friends and visit my favorite monkey filled locale in Bolivia/South America. Leah, sadly, departed for more adventures in the north of the continent and since then life has been more or less normal for me. Even though I think of myself as someone who thrives on novelty and adventure (which I still maintain), being back in a homey place feels super.

I PROMISE, promise that I´ll post more updates (read: even more than one) in the next few days. The next month will be filled with either visitors from home (hey Jackie, Jess, and Justin!) or a visit will family (hey fam!) so I´ll try to squeeze in some interesting updates before then. Also look forward to my second picture update of the year. This should all be pretty epic in terms of my previous commitment to this blog. Abrazos a todos!

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