Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

For Carnival, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

From Carnival at Rio de Janeiro

From Carnival at Rio de Janeiro

From Carnival at Rio de Janeiro

From Carnival at Rio de Janeiro

You can also check out the rest of the Carnival pictures.

Carnival in Rio tomorrow

I will be in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow for Carnival! I know that I've been really bad about keep up on the blog, but I plan to get back into it for Carnival. I'll also try to go back and write some stuff about Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.

Pics are uploading now so you can see what I've been up to before you hear about it.

Salvador and Morro de São Paulo, Brazil

Salvador is considered Brazil’s cultural capital. It’s up in the north so it has a much more tropical feel. The population is mostly black, and even Brazilians from São Paulo can look like gringos here. The music here is more African and the Carnival here is knows as the craziest and wildest of Brazil.

I check out some of the Carnival bands in the pre-Carnival shows and take a Samba class.

From Salvador, Brazil

Afterwards I head to Morro de São Paulo – a beach town two hours away by catamaran.

The most striking thing about Morro de São Paulo for me was that over 50% of the people there are Israeli. The locals reflexively answer in Hebrew even if you don’t say you’re Israeli. Israeli snacks are available everyone and the Internet café keyboards are in Hebrew. It’s my first brush with the Israeli South American backpacking phenomenon.

From Morro Sao Paulo, Brazil

I meet two Israelis that plant seeds about Patagonia in my head. But I’ll have to head there soon before the Patagonian winter sets in…

São Paulo, Brazil

My first stop in South America is São Paulo, Brazil. It’s an overwhelming city. At around 20 million inhabitants it’s one of the largest cities in the world. Just the ride from the airport takes a couple hours.

São Paulo is Brazil’s working city. Even in the heat, you see people in suits and business clothes everywhere. The people are beautiful. I have amazing sushi and the nightlife is fantastic.

From Sao Paulo, Brazil

From Sao Paulo, Brazil

From Sao Paulo, Brazil

However, São Paulo is a city of two worlds. There is a lot of poverty in the favelas in the city. In São Paulo, it seems like ever house is behind a wall of some kind. It’s the kind of city where you drive everywhere because of distance and safety. However even cars aren’t safe. Running red lights at night is encouraged to prevent carjackings. In fact, São Paulo has more helipads than any other city in the world. The super rich avoid the traffic and crime by flying over the city.

My next stop is Salvador in the north!

Israel

For the beginning of my Israel trip I spend a lot of time with my family. I don’t get to come to Israel often so it’s nice to catch up. I meet my 2nd cousins Tom and Daniel for the first time!

From Israel and Petra, Jordan

From the moment I arrive in Israel, the war in Gaza was flaring. Most of the time I stay in Tel-Aviv, but there are missiles falling in Israel only 20 minutes south of where I am. I always feel safe, but the tension is in the air. When there is news that a solder has been killed, everyone listens just in case they recognize the name. The war is on TV 24/7. Generally the opinion of most Israelis I talked to is that Israel has no choice when it comes to the war in Gaza. Israel withdrew unilaterally a few years ago and the response was thousands of missiles launched from Gaza into Israel. I meet lots of people from the right and left who debate how effective the war would be. But very few people are against it outright.

My cousins tell me about a pro-Palestinian protest happening in Tel-Aviv. This is a pretty big deal because it’s the first time that Palestinian flags are being included in a Tel-Aviv protest. They go to participate in the counter-protest and I come along. The counter-protest was lead by the right wing Likud party – which made me a little uncomfortable. There was no middle ground there.

From Israel and Petra, Jordan

From Israel and Petra, Jordan

I meet some cool CouchSurfers in Israel that go hiking every weekend in a cool place. I come along a few times. I never realized how many beautiful places there in Israel to explore.

From Israel and Petra, Jordan

From Israel and Petra, Jordan

While CouchSurfing in Haifa, my host mentions that someone in her building was doing a Masters in Computer Science at the prestigious Technion in Haifa. I have been considering doing a Masters for a while now. I discuss the issue with him and he invites me to join him at the Technion the next day. I end up applying for fall of 2009.

Thanks to CouchSurfing, I travel all over Israel – Yodfat in the North, Eilat, Sde Boker, and Beersheva.