Asuncion

After crossing the bridge to Paraguay at Ciudad del Este it got more fucked up as I was hoping for. Near the bus terminal was a field full of people in tents out of plastic. It looked like a refugee camp from Africa. In the bus there was a Jean Claude van Damm movie with a scratch, so we had to see half of the movie 4 times in a row. It was already getting dark when I arrived at one of the main plazas of Asuncion. And also this place was full of tents, kids running around and people cooking in the park. Later on I found out that these people were indigenous people protesting some kind of land reform.

Asuncion is not spectacular, but it has some features that make it special anyway. There are a lot of Koreans and Japanese people which also influence the dishes your getting served (Sushi,...). The presidents HQ is a very nice colonial palace and is situated only 40m from the slum. Security is tight in the center and military police is at every corner. In the evening the street fill up with whores standing next to the officers and the playing children.

I had the perfect hotel on the plaza Uruguay with a view over the indigenous people camping in the park. At night you could see children playing hide and seek and fires in front of all the tents. After travelling that fast down the South American east coast I needed some rest. So I chilled in front of the TV, did some writing and slept a lot. In five days of Asuncion I saw 5 other turists.

All in all a really rewarding city.

Foz do Iguazu

Finally almost out of expensive Brazil, I had to check out the world famous Foz de Iguazu Falls. They are more or less like every other fall that you know but much bigger. It has become a very turistic place and a money machine for the local economy, because people are flying in from all over the world. The Itaipu dam is more spectacular for me (maybe because of my backround) and got it's last generater in 2008. Now it produces enough energy for the needs of 90% of Paraguay and 25% of Brazil (14GW). Thats like 20 normal nuclear plants combined.
At the hostel I had a huge discussion with a weird, dutch scientist who claimed all sort of controversial things. Evolution doesn't exsist, there is no overpopulation problem, you can smoke as much as you want - if you get cancer you just have to smoke less - and much, much more. But one thing turned out to be right: overpopulation doesn't seem to be a problem forever. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population)

Rio de Janeiro

31 hours in the bus from Salvador took it's toll. Grumpily I took the bus to the Cocacabana and found my hostel right away. 20 beds in one room for 15$. Rio is the place where you loose money without noticeing. I wen't to the famous "pan de azucar" and walked all over downtown - for hours. The views are amazing and exactly like the picture of Rio which out of some reason hung in my childhood bedroom all my life. I also spent a day with some travellers at the Cocacabana and notice the very different type of bikini they wear there - less textils more strings and sometimes to much skin. But a lively atmosphere of playing and fun.
Going out was of course part of the experience. Just next to the hostel was a corner shop which is a hybrid between a tienda and a bar. Prices are low and people alnost allways local and they offer some nice talks. But the real deal is in the Lapa district, where everybody seem to go. It's packed, and alcohol is omnipresent. There are even venders who stroll the streets with salt, lemon and Tequilla to sell to the crowd. So I did the whole dancing thing, even though it dosen't fit me to much.
The next day I wen't to a match between Fluminense and Curibati. Fluminense got cooked. Interestingly Fluminense had two fan corners in their favor, but one seemed to be responsible for the strikers and one for the goalie. So each time one of them screwed up, the other fan block were dissing the stupid other fanclub - as far as "Scharmuetzel". The Samba drums are giving the beat during the whole game and people laugh all the time and enjoy what they like most - besides of women.

Salvador

Salvador, the african heart of Brazil, is a big city on the Atlantic. The bay area is scattered with hills and beaches in front of high rise buildings. The ethnics are really diverse, but the African branch is dominating. Crime is a serious issue. Just in four days, I eyewitnessed I robbery by daylight, a good friends friend got hit on the head and had to spent the night in hospital, an argentinian turist of the hostel was robbed with a knife and also with a knife some Austrialians at the beach. So it truly is the city to play it save. The beach front is similar like the one in malibu probably is. Joggers, soccerplayers, bicycles, etc. Almost all males are bodybuilders and taller than Europeans. A big change compared with the Andean countries, where I usually was the tallest. The hostel was pretty cool and had a great TV room and kitchen. I used both extensivly. My roommates were from Berkeley University and typiclly westcost style chilled out. They had there own car, so we were able to check out the city easily. The Pelorinio district is the historic part with great views over town and the bay with all the international cargo ships. When we left this district with the car, it only took 3 blocks and you could see the mind striking poverty. People on the cardboard boxes on the side of noisy streets, with bad clothes and even open wounds, that probably should have been taking care of weeks ago.
The coolest night out was also at the Pelorinio, where the african Brazilians danced through the narrow roads, with really loud drums. The same street Michael Jackson used as a set for "They Don’t Care About Us". I'm obviously not a good dancer, but in that moment I felt the music running through me and I danced for several hours behind the drums and I think I was good - cool experience.

Olinda

Olinda, the sister city of Recife is an old colonial town with narrow passages and over 20 churches. Recife is the ugly sister with awful high rising buildings and one of the highest crime rates in Brazil. I checked into a hostel with swimming pool and a nice garden. A brazilian Turist, who is a medic was sort of part of the hostel because he allways there. He was drinking from dawn till late after dusk and smoking weed and crack. Sometimes he was funny, most of the time he was on his planet. In my dorm was a girl, which works for the UN and a brazilian who works for a canadian circus. We had a lot of fun hanging out in the garden in the hammocks. During the day we drank at the pool, after doing some alibi sightseeing. And in the night we went out without pulling trees out of the soil.
But Olinda is truly a nice city with a lot of caracter, which I strongly recommend.

Jericoacoara

After another bumby ride through the desert and on a long strech of beach we arrived in Jeri. We found a cool place with private kitchen, bathroom and balcony. The most comfortable place I stayed at so far. It seemed so good that I almost couldn't leave the place. Jeri is pretty turisty with a lot of brazilian rednecks on winter vacation. It is on a bay between a hill and a huge sanddune, from where everybody watches the sun set. After claping everybody heads back to town. Since it was a hippy village a while ago, you can see cabuera, horses and musicians at the beach. But also the modern sports are visible at all times: Kite surfing, surfing and so on.
We didn't do a lot mentionable. The only excursion was to a nearby cliff which has a huge hole. Actually the way to get there was more impressive. With green hills, cows, donkeys, cactuses and nice views over the ocean.
We ate pretty good and drank in the evenings, just as it supposed to be.

Camocim

After the bumby ride through the night from Atins to Barreirinhas and the ferry at the end we took another 4x4 to get to Vehlo Paulino which got stuck only once in the sand. Than from Vehlo Paulino to Tutoya with yet another Jeep and a ferry. Than from Tutoya to Parnaibo with bus and since all the connections to Camocim were sold out we took a cab for the last strech. 16 hours after starting the trip we arrived in the unspectacular town. It is just the last stop before getting to the famous village of Jericoacoara. A village that used to be famous for fishing, than hippies and now sort of both with the image of a party place.

Atins

A four hour boat trip along the river Preguicas took us to the Atlanic Ocean. Atins is a small fisher village which doesn't see a lot of turists. The reason we got there was to visit the sand dunes which are similiar to the ones in Barreirinhas, but you don't need a tour a there are almost no other people around which spoil the impression of being alone in a sand desert. So we did that and encountered the views and lagoons we were hoping for. We walked around for about five hours in the burning sun. The last strech takes you along the green flatlands along the river delta, which offers a lot of sureal views with the dunes in the back.

In the evenings we grilled some fish at the posada.
To get back to Barreireinhas we had to take a Jeep at 4 o'clock in the night, which got stuck in the mud three times and we had to pull and push it out.

Barreirinhas

The five of us travelled to Barreirinhas to visit the Lencois National Park. One of the main attractions are the sand dunes. Since it was a saturday during the high season, we were not alone. Brazilian turists were all over. So expectations for the tour dropped fastly. But the bumby ride through the savannah style landscape with all the waterpools made up for the shortcommings at the ferry spot at the beginning. When we arrived we told the 15 year old tour guide that we will do it by ourself. The huge lagoons in the middle of those up to 40 meters high dunes is truly an amazing place. The water clean and refreshing - a highlight of my whole trip.

The next day we were ready to go to Atins, but after waiting for hours with all our backpacks next to us, we had to admit that there was no chance of getting out of that town.
But Barreirinhas is not as bad as the first impression implies. There is a huge sand dune in the middle of town at the river. Brazilians are playing football, volleyball, sliding down the dunes with sledges, swimming and enjoying the way to loud music.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FREDDY (my brother)

Sao Luis

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Belem

Sam from England and Declan from Scottland accompanied me to look for a hostel. After getting rid of a tail while walking along the harbor we found a cool hostel.

Belem has a lot of nice parks where streetvendors sell their goods. At the port is a huge market where you can eat and get drunk like the locals so passionatly do. There is also an old fortress which is their prime turist attraction. The buildings in the old part of town, and more or less also in the new part, are in a very bad shape.
I hung around with Declan and Sam most of the time. They are the youngest people I travelled with so far. They worked in separate jungle villages in Guyana for their whole gap year as English and math teachers. So they always had good stories to tell.
Declan turned 19 while staying in Belem. So we baked a surprisingly good cake in a cooking pan - the oven didn't work. With candles and everything.
The next day we went to see a zoo, which was amazingly quite in the middle of this noisy city. Afterwards we checked out the botanic garden, which also had crocodiles and other exotic animals.
At the last day we decided to go on our own to the "Parque Ambient de Belem" which is in the north of the peninsula. Since we only had a basic map of the city which was drawn in a perspective, we didn't really know how far the distances will be. So we ended up walking for a long time. People started to tell us that it wouldn't be secure to walk around there. A 15 year old girl had the half hour time and patience to walk us to the entrance of the park. The guy at the entrance didn't really care. So we walked along a wide road without cars for another hour until we came to a turist information center. Police and military welcomed us and told us not to go any further because the park is not safe. So we chilled at the lake and played cards. Than an other guy from the military arrived and told us, that also the road we took to get there was unsafe. He suggested that we should wear military clothes so the thives wouldn't attack us. The british boys liked the idea more than I did. After a while a private citizen came who claimed to be the boss of the military - hmmm. But he had a car and the weather had changed to rain. So we drove of with him. He even showed us some nice spots of Belem, such as the university. Then he drove us home to the hostel and afterwards me to the terminial. I think this guy is just a genuinly a nice guy.

Amazon IV

Dimitri, Declan, Sam and me went to the harbor a found the biggest passenger boat I saw so far. Now there were a lot of gringos visible and brasilian turists. Hammocks were as close as always, but there was also a whole deck with suites for the wealthy. People got drunk most of the time. The Amazon was now extremely wide. Thats why we were not able to see a lot of trees. At the end of the Amazon their is a little island of the size of Switzerland.

We mostly played cards all day. Thats also when I got to know the beautifull Liane from Romania. We had a really nice chat and I suppose we would of travelled on together if she wouldn't had to go on so fast to Rio.
The next morning we arrived in Belem. That meant that my month long journey along the river came to it's end. I enjoyed it a lot - the good and the bad parts - and was able to refresh my batteries while reflecting on the journey behind me and thinking of the adventures that are still to come.

Santarem

After arriving in the middle of the night, me and the Australians decided to spent the rest of the night in the hammock at the port. In the morning we checked into one of these hostels, that have huge rooms with high cealings. We pretty much went on for a daytrip to the small village called Altar do Chau which is famous for white sandbeaches along the river. But since the water was much higher than usual, we saw a lot of flooded houses and no beaches. Thats why are visit was fairly short. (2 beers)

Santarem is the major port up the Amazon river beside of Manaus. Taking into account it's size, Santarem is pretty sleepy. The riverfront is pitoresque and offers space to the hunderds of small and big boats. The Australians didn't have enough patience to wait for the boat that would have left in 5 days. So they took a ridiculous 72 hours bus from Santarem all the way to Sao Luis. Those 72 hours depend on good weather a generally luck.
A "perfect storm" diarreha screwed up my plans to go to the nearby jungle. So it was all about killing time with books, Internet and whatching other people living their daily lives at the harbor and the market.