I´m in love

The brazilian coastline is proving to be far better than I had ever hoped for. It is a country I could imagine living in: the colors, the weather, all the beautiful, friendly and happy people, the culture with its rich heritage and of course the never ending beaches. After a few indulging days of lots of splendid veggie food and juices from fruits that I did not even know existed: graviola. caja,caju, macaxeira, twice a day yoga and meditation and plenty of paradisical beaches; I headed for the first town of Brazil which really is the heart of the country: Salvador.

The historic centre of the town is oh so beautiful, in a run down " Pere Lachaise cemetary " kind of way.  Unfortunately as this is Brazil it is quite tricky as you need to be really careful with the camera, I really don´t want to loose it now after all these months, so I could not take all the pictures that I wanted to take. Especially during one of the most memorable nights I have ever had: tuesday night, which is basically a smaller version of carneval. Music is everywhere and as this is is the happiest country I have ever come across: EVERYONE is dancing. We were following a carnival band which had some amazing dancers at the front . All of us trying to copy them whilst we were travelling through the town on its cobbled streets, the group was getting bigger and bigger. What an atmosphere! After several hours of this workout ( Mr M  and my dance partner Fransesco, I  have acquired some new dance moves that I can´t wait to show you) we moved on whilst drinking Caprinha to a samba club( yes, I kind of know the first step of samba but it is sooo hard) then we finished by dancing  Farro.
What a magical night.

( Michael Jackson´s "They don´t really care about us" was filmed in Salvador, watch it to get a small idea of how the town is).

Ashram time

I will be spending some time at the yoga ashram Ecohar eating well, and doing lots of yoga and meditation, so I will not be able to update for a few days. But after that you can follow me again on my brazil beach hopping. Hard life.

Happiness (part 2)

It must be so much harder to feel down in a country like Brazil; Wherever you look there are the brightest and most intense colors: flowering bouganvillea and hibiscus, people dressed in fluorescent colors, nature giving you all the tones between lightblue and darkgreen, all tropical fruits you know of growing on the

trees ready to be picked and wherever you go in late afternoon you hear the music. Music coming out from massive loudspeaker in the back of cars, houses, shops, fruitsellers and even bikes. And somehow everyone seems to smile and dance without any worries at all.

      Just going for a ride on the beach

Olinda

Well first impression did not dissapoint, at all. Quite the contrary. As I have lots of friends from the southern parts of Brazil who look and act the same as northern Europeans I naively expected the whole of the coast of Brazil to be pretty much the same. And how wrong I was. I started in the northern part of Brazil, in Olinda. Which is one of the most beautiful colonial towns of the country with cobbled streets, Baroque fountains, houses in all the rainbow's colors and lots of artists, musicians and other creative people.
Olinda was designated a cultural heritage site by UNESCO in 1982 and rightly deserves it. I was a bit overinspired and took so many pictures at it will be hard to edit it down. Here are just some pics of my first days in this happy country.

Brazil here I come!

So final destination: Brazil, and well, go on; I expect a lot from you, so seduce me!!

But first I can not helpt but cry for you ARGENTINA!
You were far more beautiful, exciting and... well basically you have it ALL, so I will definetely be back very very soon.       

Back again.

How I love this city. I decided to get off the bus in BA again and just spend the days soaking up the magic of Buenos Aires in sunshine.  I stayed in Palermo again and somehow I seemed to bump into different people I knew wherever I went. It felt like I had more friends in BA then in London.
I spent the days writing articles and hanging out with various friends in the amazing cafe, bars and restaurants. In the evenings we went to milongas ( tango class) , a  reggae concert and just had lots of food and fab wine in the barrillas. The town is a mix of Barcelona, Paris and New York but without the stress and irritation.

A la recherche du temps perdu

I was in a shop in the Argentinian town of Salta and was offered a candy. At first I thought to say no, but then decided to be polite and accept it. Later on in the day I was hungry and remembered the candy. Little did I know that candy would taste like my grand father's throat pastils and so in a few seconds I would have a ''Proustian Madeleine cake " moment: All my childhood seemed to pass by in my brain at rapid speed and I had to stop in my way as it was all so real and I wanted to take it all in. A few days later by coincidence?? , I found the wonderful book "How Proust can change your life" by the english author Alain de Botton, and reread it in an instant. I love the fact that what worried Proust most, was the fact that noone seemed genuine and kind anymore....  

I really do think that kindness is the most important trait in us all, in this world, and we can all find it, however hard it sometimes can be to dig back up.