Lemmings, bombers, and Crocodile Dundee
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
28
126
Trip End
Ongoing
Morro de Sao Paulo, Brazil
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Observation: nothing is more important to Brazilians than friendship. At least that is what I gather from an outside perspective. If someone is walking and he or she sees someone he or she knows, they will have a 10 minute conversation at the minimum - this is practically guranteed. Most of the time much longer. I donīt know how anything gets accomplished here. But it is quite refreshing to see actually. I think of how in America you see someone you know and most of the time you say Hi and say Howīs it going and that is about it (especially during workday hours). Here, it doesnīt matter, it could be 2pm on a Tuesday or 2am on a Saturday, if you see someone you know, you talk talk. If you didnīt have a conversation with them I think it would be considered quite rude and you would probably be ostracized from the community. Brazilians are also very affectionate towards each other. Everyone kisses each other on the side of the face twice here when greeting each other (not men with men though, thank god). At first I felt a little weird doing it, but Iīve become quite accustomed to it by now. I have to remember though when I go, in Argentina you only kiss once on the side of the face. I met some Argentinians on this bus and upon departing one of the girls gave me a kiss on the cheek and I went to kiss the other side, but she didnīt. Oops, ok, good to know. But even men will hug each other all the time. I was sitting at this table in Fortaleza outside at a bar and there were about 7 old dudes chilling and drinking and every once in awhile one would get up and go to the bathroom or whatever and upon returning would hug his friend as he stood behind his chair. Itīs awesome to see all the affection between people here. I tell people that if you just randomly started hugging your friends in the US they would call you a fag. I mean, I would. If I was sober and B just came up to me and hugged me, the first thing I would say would be "get off me fag" and if I was drunk I would be like "geff ov me fug muta futa sutslje lfjsouslf flasjflk etc etc. Iīm not trying to demean American culture, just pointing out a drastic difference that I found intriguing.
Ok, back to Morro. So I guess there is this awesome lookout point to watch the sunset at here called Por do Sol. I try to find it by climbing all these random stairs but I never do find it. Suck me. Why do me and stairs not get along in this country? Meet up with everyone at the beach later on for a few drinks. This one local girl starts talking to me and she tells me she wants to rub my pecs, ok, cool, but I tell her if she gets to rub mine then I get to rub hers and she totally agrees to it. I think I got a pretty good deal from this arrangement as she had pretty nice cannons. All the other locals standing around crack up at this scene and me and the girl get a pretty good chuckle out of it as well.
Me and the Swedes decided earlier on in the day that I should pretend Iīm Australian since people in general donīt really like Americans. These two brazilian chicks on holiday start talking to me that night which gives me the perfect opportunity to try out my new nationality. They ask me where Iīm from and I say Estados Unidos but then Malin shoots me this awkward glance (shit I forgot) and then I correct myself and tell them I am actually Australian. For some reason the two girls didnīt find it odd that I couldnīt remember what country I was from. Itīs possible I look just stupid enough not to know. They ask me my name and I say "Crocodile Dundee" and we (me, swedes and Pablo) all start smirking under our breath. Itīs obvious that girls have not seen the movie. They look a little confused though and I tell them just to call me Croc as that is my nickname. Then later on at the bar they see me and I swear to good they introduce me to one of their friends as Croc, it was one of the funniest things yet.
We decide to head to Pulsar (da club) and as we are walking we notice that we are out in front of like 40 other people who are all obviously going to Pulsar as well. Iīm like - dude I feel like the pied piper and shit. I say that we should totally walk the wrong direction and see if anyone follows us. Christian chimes back that we should lead them up to the cliffs, stand on the edge with a sign that says Por Do Sol and watch everyone just tumble off the rockface to their deaths like lemmings. And the back of the sign (which they canīt see) would say Dangerous Cliff. I seriously had to lay down on some steps because I was laughing so hard. I know, you had to be there. We actually try to lead the group behind us the wrong way by taking an incorrect route and saying "Pulsar" quite loudly but one of the stupid workers for Pulsar actually gets out in the lead and directs people the right direction. Man, always ruining our fun. The worst part is I know that at least some people would have followed us and I would have died laughing for sure. Which would be a good way to go.
