Porto Alegre, Brasil

We left the Ilha da Santa Catarina yesterday, poor weather keeps us moving, no surf lessons, but a nice long walk on the beach, and we didn´t make it to the end, at least five miles long. The bus ride was just like all bus rides, long, smelly and arriving in a daze trying to figure out where we are and where we need to go. The land we traveled over seems very fertile in places with vineyards and cattle farms, and there must be lots of clay because there were a number of tile factories along the way.

Porto Alegre itself is a dirty port town, apparetly a fresh water port as five rivers meet at it´s confluence before draining into the ocean. But there isn´t much tourism, which is nice because the locals don´t have much of a preconceived stigma of tourists (or Americans). Though the I see just as many American flags on clothing as I do see signs of anti-War propaganda (which is essentially just Anti-Bush, and, unfortunaely, Anti-American. Though I can´t say I´m pro Bush, but I´m definitely pro-home). And I understand Portuguese well enough to know when people´s comments are sarcastic, or just ignorantly serious, and enough to give them my two cents if the mood strikes me, but I mostly stay quiet since they´ll never understand the irony in their ignorance. Now, I´m looking forward to Uraguay, though they say it´s more expensive there and Brasil has been very inexpensive. We eat very well, and sleep for cheap. For lunch today I had a whole (2-3lbs) fish, rice, salad, beans, potato salad, soda for two dollars. Though the region is more known for its steaks, but I think I´ll wait ´till Argentina. The places we stay in usually give us "café da manha" (morning coffee), which is breakfast consisting of bread, cheese, ham, fruit, juice and coffee.

And it was just a couple days ago when I figured out why I´ve been disoriented so frequently recently, the noon shadow points SOUTH! the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west, but, I don´t know exactly when it switched, but my compass is the opposite too (the white end of the needle, which usually points south, now points north, and the red end south).

We´ll probably be taking a night bus to Montevideo, a nice 10 hour ride over a windy, flat country, I´m told. We´ll be there for a couple days, taking excursions to "experience" a bit of Uraguay before crossing the river by ferry to Buenos Aires, to which I´m very much looking forward.