Do these guys know how to party or what?

Ok, so this post is a little summation of our past week here in Recife. Here's Carnaval in a nutshell. But first, a little vocab.

Trio electrico - huge semi thats hollowed out and filled with speakers. If you pay the right price or know the right people, you ride on top. theres usually a band playing on top as well
These huge trucks go very slowly through the streets playing music insanely loud and people follow them, dancing and drinking.

The family we're staying with always has a party at their house the saturday before official Carnaval starts. Thats the day that trios electricos pass in front of their house so as a result, so does everyone else in town. Heres a trio electrico:


Heres their house:
The dad, Laedson, is known around town for spraying the crowd the day of the party and after walking around for hours in the 100 degree heat, you better believe people were begging for some water.The crowd grew and grew. it was pretty amazing. Everyone kept telling us that this was going to be the smallest party of the week.
From that day on, there was partying every day. People would go to Olinda, which isnt too far away, during the day then go to downtown recife at night.
Downtown Recife

This pics for Tracy. theres your portguese teacher.
One of the nights, we got to ride on one of the trios. It was for Laedsons work, Detran, which is the regional department of transportation and he's the president.
There would be guys wearing huge gloves to push up wires whenever we'd go underneath them. When youre on a trio, youre treated like a king. there are servers walking around with trays of beer, coke, whiskey, and little appetizers.

During Carnaval, all of the gas stations are a huge party too.
Heres us with the parents, Laedson and Elizabete these two are unbelieveable partyers! Brett and i could barely keep up. (We're sortve relieved that Carnaval is over.)
This past saturday marked the official starting day for Carnaval. Here in Recife the name of that party is Galo do Madrugado. Im sure i spelled that wrong. Anyway, about a million people get together for that. Oh, and it starts at 7am. The parents were there bright and early but brett and i got there around 1030.

On sunday we drove about an hour away to a town called Bezerros so we could see a different kind of carnaval. The town is in more of a moutainous area. Made for a nice setting.
These guys reminded us of the good ol kkk
Gay guys here LOVE brett Unfortuntely, we didnt get that many pictures of the festivities because the parents wouldnt let us take the camera very often. they were worried about pickpocketers. Actually Laedsons cell phone got stolen and one of the friends got some money taken too. sucks.

Funny little sidenotes: The crowds sometimes are unbearable. If youre not used to it (like us) you get a bit annoyed. So you try and plow through so that everyone stays together. Well, one day, i was plowing through and i thought, dammit, whats that on my leg? i look down and i had just taken out a toddler. knocked him right on his butt. he was fine but it was pretty funny to think i just kicked a baby.
In olinda, they sell a drink called Pau do Indio, which means Indians dick. gross. well, its really strong and we kinda like it. so the next day, we're out to lunch with the parents, a son, and two of their friends. bretts talking to Laedson and its kinda loud in the restaurant so the dad asks him to speak up. brett just keeps saying, have you heard of pau do indio. its really good. we like it. do you like it? geez, didnt realize til later that he was asking him if he liked indians dick.

we'll be leaving here shortly, but now that the carnaval partying is over, the parents have a few last minute plans for us.

1 month down, 6 more to go

Ok, so we've moved on. We're now in Recife, but let me back up just a minute. We ended up staying in Jericoacoara for a little longer than expected, 10 days. It was just too sweet to leave. The pousada we stayed in for most of our time there ended up being even cheaper because the owner was so nice. On our last day there, i go to pay her and she says, '8 nights? Lets just make it 50 reales a night instead of 55.' umm...ok. Heres our place: We spent the week with much of the same previously mentioned: beach, eating, kite surfing (for brett), a little sanddune jumping, and meeting some people. That sanddune in the background of the picture made for a great location to watch the sunset, which bizarrely enough faced westwards.
Turns out that one of bretts sister's previous roommates was living there (very coincidental since Jeri is a tiny fishing village) and brett ran into him one day while walking around town. we went out with him (nick - far left) and his girlfriend, alini, for dinner then met up with some friends later on (thats hugh jass on the far right). More so at night rather than during the day, animals roamed the sandy roads and i got a kick out of that. Brett and i went on a walk down the beach a little outside of town and found tons of rocks near the water covered in tiny mussels. Brett also did more sanddune jumping. On one of our last nights there, i gave brett a haircut. Sorry schneider, but this one turned out pretty good. After spending over $100 US trying to withdraw money from an ATM very very far away via dune buggy, motorcycle, and vw-type bus (dont ask, its a sore subject), we left Jeri for Canoa Quebrada on Tuesday. It was a very romantic 6 hour bus ride on good ol valentines day. Our v-day dinner was very good and cheap (only $30US for 2 apps, entrees, 4 drinks, waters, and dessert) and i was lucky enough to be serenaded by a U2 album for most of it. Awesome. Luckily, they also threw in a little barry white and jack johnson to really round out the evening. Canoa's beach was very nice and was made up of shallow pools for us to lie in, as well as large enough waves to ride in. The 2nd day we were there, we were able to watch these fisherman haul in and gut their catch of the day. It was a 200 lb fish called Kamaru Pim and they also brought in some rather large sting rays. Of course this was the day we failed to bring a camera so we took a scale back with us and took a picture of that. Kel this pic's for you. If the drink didnt have an umbrella in it, i threw it back in the waiters face. So we stayed in Canoa for 3 days and today made our way down to Recife. It was another lovely 11 hour bus ride. We're staying with Tracy's boyfriend's family (bretts sister) and after just a few hours, it already feels so good to be in a home again. The family is super nice and when we got back to the house with the dad from the bus station, the mom was sporting a little feather headdress for the party they were going to. Apparently carnaval festivities began in january, but for us, day 1 is tomorrow.

Jericoacoacoacoara

We're still in the beach town, Jericoacoara, and we're loving it. We moved from our first pousada to another thats on the beach. Since there arent many people here and there are tons of pousadas and hotels, lots of them are empty which has given us great bargaining power. With the help of our new australian friend, Hugh, I was able to bargain our way from 100 reales a night to 55. What a deal! Thats less than $20 a night. For the last three days, this has been our routine. Wake up around 930. Eat breakfast. Head to the beach around 11. Swim/lay out then instead of lunch (due to our budget) drink some fresh mango shakes with vodka and caipiroskas (basically a margarita with vodka instead of tequila) then swim some more. Go back to the hotel around 530. shower. read/listen to cds/play solitaire for an hour or so. Go out to eat. Go to sleep. Last night, we're heading out for dinner with hugh and he stops us to say something. "Right, well, before you say anything let me finish what i want to say. Ok, well, heres the thing.."
Right away my mind rushes to think, is this guy a weirdo? Are we about to get an indecent proposal or something?? Nope, he just wanted to tell us that its his birthday and wants to take us out without worrying over the prices of things since he knows we're on a budget. Very nice of him and we had a delightful evening. I felt pretty bad because about 10 minutes before he had said anything, we were talking about how it would be nice if we could get a night to ourselves and how we'd have to stay after he left this town because thatd probably be our only alone time. yeah, we're jerks.

Bretts going to do some kite surfing and one of these days we're going to go out on a dune buggy and jump sand dunes. Our aussie friend has warned us that this will probably be the best beach we go to in brazil because all the others are packed...umbrella to umbrella. So now we really dont want to leave. We'll probably be here the rest of the week. Next stop: Canoa Quebrada..the ol broken canoe beach.

Lions and tigers and bears

Well i started this post a while ago and havent had the time/patience to finish it. it takes forever to upload the pictures to the blog. Right now (sunday night) we're in our first beach town in brazil called Jericoacoara. Its beautiful and id have to say ive never been to a place quite like it. i guess, according to brett, if youve been to the beaches of the caribbean, its similar...except without the abundance of tourists. the roads are all made of sand, we're surrounded by huge sand dunes and the water is clear and warm. ill post pics of all this soon as well. we're thinking of staying here for about a week which would be the longest we've stayed in a place since we gotten here. We have the time for the next couple weeks or so to take our time because our next committment is carnaval and that doesnt start til the 24th. ok, so here are the pics from our amazon trip. i have a couple of good pictures that i didnt upload because of technical difficulties so ill try to at a later time...


Nope. Boas, sloths, and gators! We just got back from our mini amazon excursion. It was a treat.
Day one: Meeting of the waters (where two rivers become the Amazon river), Piranha fishing and alligator spotting. Brett and a frenchy were the only ones to catch one.

Not a very good pic because the piranha wouldnt stop flopping around
here it is again
little gator and me
Day 2: walk in the jungle and canoe paddling through a floating forest full of insects
On the way to where we were to start our walk, our guides spotted a 3-toed sloth and a boa constrictor in the trees. There were 3 norwegians in our group and were extremely adamant about catching a piranha so our guide let us go out alone to try again.....then i was the only one to catch one. ha ha. of course we didnt have a camera. americans - 2 norwegians - 0. Later that night, our guide took us to hang with some locals.
3-toed sloth! one of the guides saw him at the top of a tree and when he tried to get him down, the sloth fell in the water
most unique/bizarre animal ive ever seen up close
he moved hilariously slow as the name implies

Boa
Outer shell of a spider that was shed and left in a tree
Played pool with some locals..these kids were little hustlers!
Floating camp
Day 3: We were supposed to get up at 530 and watch the sunrise. That didnt happen. Ate breakfast then visited this old couple at their house.
I chased some ducks. There should be some more pictures but i dont have the cd write now an im sick of saving this post as a draft. ill post more pictures when i have time.