Duque Center Hotel Porto Alegre

6 December 2009

I made a mistake by uploading the entry of 24.11.09 into my travelpod titled 'The Longest Drive'. It is now installed in its rightful place in ‘North to Alaska’ with the correct date. I have also uploaded some extra photos to this entry.

Please see ‘I didn’t hit a cow today’ on 24.11.09

... the cop put the side stand down again, properly this time, calmly dismounted, took his helmet off and yelled at the top of his voice to the bike. “I’M THE BOSS”.

3.12.09

We were up early ready for our sight-seeing tour around the city. I hadn’t had the best night’s sleep for some reason, so I was a bit cranky.

An open-air bus trip took us all around Porto Alegre a city of about 1.5 million people. It ...

... seriously looking on at his progeny, making sure the girls were performing properly. The girls were all dressed in a calf length purple skirt and a white blouse. It was so moving and tuneful; they were drawing quite a generous crowd.

We booked into the Albert Hotel where the rooms were large and the TV had some English programs. The queen sized bed looked tempting after the long bus trip. I made us a cup of coffee and we headed out into the street again for ...

... It´s a good thing I arrived in Porto Alegre (the state capital) on a Sunday because I got to partake in the regular weekly ritual: every Sunday, everyone in Porto Alegre and their mother gather in Redencao park and drink Chimarrao (or mate as its called in Argentina), while discussing sports, politics and everything else. But the mate drinking is not the only similarity to Argentina and Uruguay. On Tuesday ...

Partindo para Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Foi um tempo muito bom que tive com Marcio e Viviane. Um casal muito abençoado que mora em Porto Alegre. Tive a oportunidade de conhacer um pouco Porto Alegre e a cidade de Farroupilhas.
Aproveitei para ir na unviersidade do Rio Grande do Sul encontrar com os estudantes do movimento Alfa e Omega (um ministério da Cruzada Estudantil e Profissional para ...

... many fascinating statues, and memorials. I went to the Mercado Publico, but it was obviously closed. I decided I would walk a few Km to the Rodoviaria, and buy my bus ticket to my next stop. Let me stop, to impart a lesson, here: Don't walk in industrial areas, on rainy sunday afternoons, in any Brazilian city. Never before have I been so grateful for being 6'4'', and a fast runner, because when that scowling man crossed the ...

... Bruna and being exposed to local Brazilian culture, cuisines and football, our experience would have been completely different and not nearly as memorable. Although we did a tremendous amount of activities that involved travelling, socialising, eating and drinking we did allow ourselves one day of relaxing by immersing ourselves in local Brazilian cinema. We watched the two really great Brazilian movies 'Central do Brasil' and ' Meu Nome nao e Johnny' which come highly recommended ...

... right onto your plate. Beef, pork, chorizo, ribs, every kind of steak imaginable, there was literally not enough time to eat a piece before they came out with two more kinds, each more delicious than the one before. By the time we finished I was in a complete food coma. This weekend we are headed to Foz de Iguazu to see the amazing cataratas (waterfalls). I was there once before with my parents about five years ago, and cannot wait to get back. Atè logo, tchauzinho, y muitos beijinhos xoAva

... German majority' cities in the world. The area is also home to the likes of Giselle Bundchen and three of the last four Miss Brazils. Such information conjured up images of a Munich or Berlin of the south, populated with gorgeous blonde haired, blue eyed vixens. With this in mind I took a 7-hr bus from Florianopolis to Porto Alegre. What I found was not so much Munich/Berlin as Hamburg/Detroit... and for those ...

... praying than doing anything else). Suddenly I realized that, for most of my European season, a piece of paper would be my best friend, one to whom I would be able to talk at anytime. So, when I arrived in São Paulo I bought this small notepad where I could keep track of everything that went on during the travel. This notepad was actually not the only thing I bought in the airport. Mariano, the friend that was going to host me in my first days in France ...