Beautiful Horizont

Finally I got to see why the city is called Belo Horizonte...

Travelling through time and stuff...

In São Paulo everybody has a tatoo, but this one is the coolest!

Yesterday I arrived at São Paulo and was immediately won by this city. Contrary to my expectations it didn’t feel too crowded, violent and menacing. Well, I am also lucky because I stay in the center where I can most of the things on foot and yesterday we only went to really cool, relaxed places: the Museo do Arte do São Paulo, a little street fair with good old live Samba music and after some caipirinhas with different cachaças we walked to a great samba funk dance club only three blocks away. Perfect and long day!
While enjoying our Caipirinhas at Kiki’s place, I felt glad to be with so smart international students again because several interesting discussions arouse... I learned about the complex political situation in Columbia (despite the Colombian parapolitics scandal president Uribe is still popular), we were discussing the ideal government term (are 4 years enough to make a change but if not how many years should a political leader run a country?) and finally touched down at the number one topic: globalization. No new insights but I got the hint to watch a good little educative movie about the story of stuff. If you haven`t seen it yet, check it out! I learned some new things for example that in the US 99% of the purchased products become trash after 6 months. Even if the numbers aren´t totally correct, this is really scary. And then I reflected my present trip and realized that my stuff comes and goes. I have already broken one camera, lost a cell phone (after 3 days!), have been stolen a bike, trashed one pair of shoes, given away three books and received three books in return, bought 5 shirts and lost 2 and so on and so on. It is really not easy to limit your stuff yet be prepared for all kinds of different situations while travelling for 6 months. Well, it´s easy if your are very disciplined... By the way, this reminds me of a great Brazilian movie I saw this week: The man who defeated the devil is a poetic film about a fearleass man travelling through northeast Brazil. He is riding on his horse with nothing more than what he´s wearing experiencing the most amazing adventures. This guy is definitely my hero!

Ouro Preto & Mariana

ALthough it was rainy it was so beautiful!

Florianopolis & Ilha do Mel

Beautiful, awesome, adorable landscapes...

Jonville & Blumenau

This is the (Southern) Brazilian view of their German ancestors

Curitiba

Being surrounded by Brazilians who don't like samba

After a looooooong bus ride - 2 1/2 days - I finally arrived in Curitiba and spent some time at Rodrigos couch. It was full of activity, riding bikes and drinking good beer. The South of Brazil feels like a different country. At the beginning I had to remember that I am still in Brazil. And it was freezing cold: 14 - 20 degrees!

Ótimo 2009!

My favourite "Brazilian" car!

Pretty spontaneously and unprepared, Kiki and I went to Praia do Forte (close to Salvador) to spend New Year's Eve there. It turned out to be a very long and fun night, since we didn't find a place to sleep...