Brazil trip, the first 48 days

I am in the lobby of a hotel in the city of Foz do Iguaçu, close to the Brazil/Argentina/Paraguay triple-border.

It's Sunday August 05, my 48th day in Brazil.

My trip has been eventful so far:

First, I spent 3 weeks in Salvador da Bahia, a city in the North-East of Brazil. In Salvador, I saw the famous festivities of the Festa de São João, took intensive portuguese classes (agora falo melhor), lived with a host family (grand-mother, mother, daughter, and female dog), regularly played percussion on the streets of Pelourinho, visited the small and rustic island of Boipeba, visited a couple of historic monuments, and did two day-tours with a French tourim agency where I met "F", a nice French guy, 7 years older than I am.

Then, I took the plane from Salvador to Rio. I spent a day visiting some touristy places in Rio, then spent the next 4 days at the house of a friend of my dad. My dad's friend lives in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio. I meant to work on my scientific paper during these four days, but didn't get much done.

Then I spent a week volunteering in favela Rocinha in Rio, one of the largest favelas in Latin America. I volunteered at a daycare center run by a group of women. The kids were not orphans, the parents came to pick them up at 5 PM. The center was clean, and the kids ADORABLE. I got to dress them, feed them, and play with them. The other volunteers and I slept inside the favela, in a clean house next to the daycare center. The streets of the favela were very dirty and stank. The view of the favela, from inside the favela, illuminated at night was amazing. I returned to Niteroi for the weekend.

I was going to do a second week of volunteering, but then I cancelled it to go be with "F" and his son on Ilha Grande, a beautiful big island where no cars are allowed, near Rio. I spent 8 fantastic days there. It was real vacation. The three of us woke up every morning at 8 AM, and decided which little hike to do or which beach to visit. We only had to make sure that we were back on the main part of the island at 5:30 PM, sunset time in the winter on the Brazilian coast. We played mimes and word games, wrote a mini musical, and took crazy pictures.

A few days ago I left "Ilha Grande" because I had booked (back in February 15) a G-adventures tour that starts near Rio and ends in Bolivia. And "F" and his son went back to France. I made my way west, slowly, with the G-adventures group. After "Ilha Grande", we visited "Paraty", then we visited "Foz do Iguaçu" (where I am right now), and tonight we leave on a night bus to visit "Bonito".

To be continued!