I'm on a boat from Montevideo, Uruguay to Buenos Aires, Argentina and life is good. Uruguay truly unforgettable. It's a country that most folks don't know that much about and it's a gem. I'll write more down the line but for now pictures are worth a thousand words and I'm landing soon on a festive Saturday night in hopin' Buenos Aires and in no mood to write much now.
Sooooo, just dig in and enjoy some pics with captions from my trip in Brazil and fresh off the press in Uruguay here:
"Uruguay Fresh Pics: Fresh online is an epic adventure of Uruguay. I had a few ups and downs and all arounds but, as always, it all came out fine and super dandy in the end. Enjoy!
"Peace Pedaling Brazil": The latest photos of my adventures on the tandem in Southern Brazil to Uruguay.
"Living in Brazil": Pictures and captions of 2.5 months living, learning and writing in Brazil from Carnival to Easter
Enjoy!
Jamie
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Last Blog from Brazil: May 6, 2009
Loving the Cambara nature with Lucas
This is the last push folks!I only have a few days left adventuring here in Brazil and I’m going to suck up every second of it!My hosts Renata and Sheila were amazing and teleported me out of the busy streets of Caxias to the lovely mountains and Gaucho country of Cambara.We lived it up with great food, wine, riding and lovely bonding moments in nature.We picked up a great new addition to our crew named Lucas, an Argentinean cat who is too cool for school—we all fell in love with him right away.
My lovely couchsurfing hosts Renata and Shelia. And the new kid on the block Lucas
When the ladies took off I fell into the arms of the arms of the Janilce, Oliver and Lucas who took me in like family.I needed to get my bearings before finally departing and the nurturing, good food and quality quiet time was all I needed.Not only did I finally get back on the road but I managed to get Oliver out of bed and out riding.This is a huge deal since he’s been hurt, sad, depressed and drinking way too much lately due to a broken foot and spirit.The ride would do him well…
Oliver was pumped up with fresh air and positive vibes after our adventures
We took off into the perfect sunshine, tailwinds and nature with a support vessel driven by Lucas as we made our way to out to the Ruta do Sul highway.This would be my last goodbye to my crew and, after some amazing interviews for the cameras, I finally said my farewells.Plenty tears were a falling but when they dried I was pedaling solo from the high mountains of Southern Brazil towards the ocean once again.
Ruta do Sul is a stunner indeed—a legendary highway taking you from the high Gaucho country down to the ocean.On the way I was flagged down by 3 Evangelical guys sitting under a tree and was inspired to ask if I could pitch my tent for the night.We ate, sipped Chimarrão (an herbal tea like Mate), philosophized about Jesus, religion, peace and love…it was epic.They fed me well, prayed loud and passionately for me and my journey and off I went the next day.
My Evangelical Christian hosts cooking up a lovely meal.
Yesterday was a stunner of a ride.I could did not find any Pedalers but I was happily able to enjoy a cycling experience like no other.Riding from 1200 meters to sea level and feeling, seeing and tasting all the changes of temperature, vegetation, food, people—wow.A must do for all you touring folks out there!Took a lovely swim in the ocean before realizing I was dead tired and needed to take a day off the bike ASAP.Hoped a bus to Porto Alegre where I hit the town and enjoyed some nice music and company with the local city folks, charged the batteries, offloaded footage and washed the clothes.Ready for action tomorrow!
The amazing decent from the mountains to the ocean...epic!
Big ups from Caxias do Sul, Brazil! I’m blessed to be in the loving care of my new Brazilian sisters Sheila and Renata. I met them through www.couchsurfing.com which, if you have not done so already, you MUST check out and get involved. It’s just an amazing project. I arrived via bus from my former Brazilian home of Florianopolis where I was fortunate enough to have lived for 2.5 months in total paradise. The roads are horribly under construction on the 101 south and the rains heavy so the bus turned out to be the best option to get me to the dry and less populated state of Rio Grande does Sul.
My Brazilian Sisters Renata and Sheila enjoying some LOVELY Colonial food
The South of Brazil has tons of Italian roots
My last week in Florianopolis, or Floripa for short, was amazing. For some reason Mother Nature decided to rain on most of my plans to go out riding with all my crew and the island was buried in inches of water. But I went with the flow and had some lovely intimate final moments with my amazing crew Gil, Serg, Ulrike, Ben, Victor, Natalia, Irmaooooo (Victor 2), Vincent, Anna, Lulu, Leonardo and Kristina. Caught some epic last waves and finally donated my board to a charity that teaches kids to surf from the favelas. I did some nice rides, caught some live Samba and Capoeira on tape, got my new tattoo of a dolphin on my foot and had a farewell BBQ with everyone. It was a sad goodbye with tears flowing by several folks but the overall feeling at the time of writing is one of total gratitude and awe.
My two best Brazilan buddies Gil and Natalia on my last night in Floripa
Catching some Capoeira on film
My new tatoo :)
My bro Leo enjoying some of Serg's amazing cooking
I did an amazing filmed ride in S. Floripa with Natalia and Vincent
So just a few days before heading out of Floripa on my trip two big things started to happen with Peace Pedalers. One was a call from a well known agent in San Francisco who is interested and optimistic about my book being published. The second is communication with a experienced producer working with MTV in Europe who is now coaching me on my next series of TV and hoping to get me on the map. All good stuff, but the book proposals needed to be dialed in more so I did a 60+ hour computer session in 4 days back to the computer. At 3AM last night I pressed send and it’s now in the hands of my agent who is off to New York on May 2 to hopefully find me a publisher. Say some prayers for it!
Sheila cookin' up the grub for my welcome meal. Yummy!
The book is currently entitled Live Big, Give Big: A 37 Country Karmic Adventure to Balance Pleasure and Contribution. It is the first book of two I plan to write. This book covers my travels in Asia, Oceania and Africa. The sequel book Love Big will cover Europe and the Americas. If all goes as planned I’ll have my book in print by next April in time to share it with folks in North America when I arrive and finish my ride in Canada and USA.
My buddy Gatino Led Zepplin kept my company as I wrote for 4 days non-stop
So its Friday here in Brazil and it’s another holiday, so a three-day weekend is in store. My hosts and I are planning to escape the city and chare into the lovely mountain towns near Cambara. Info on this region is at http://www.cambaraonline.com.br/. From here I will officially be “on the road”—no more major stops to write, learn languages or surf (although I’ve heard Uruguay has some nuggets) until I reach Chile in July. I’m very, very excited about this. My body and mind are dying to get out riding again!
It will be interesting to ride in S. Brazil now since I was just featured in a big article by one of the state’s more respected journalists Carlos. Turns out that Carlos is a fellow Couchsurfer and he was stoked to do a piece on the Peace Pedalers. Check out this video here and see if you can follow my Portuguese.
