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Sat 2/13/16 Connection Rio + Paraty + Happy Hammock 

Since the last update, I moved from Jabanga Hostel in Botafogo because it got sold out for Carnaval. Also, RFT was going to be closed too, at least partially, for Carnaval, so I accepted this. Also, I was curious to check out Connection Rio, as well, which is where I was headed.

Saturday I moved to Connection Rio in Barra Da Tijuca. It is a neat concept hostel which is focused on Brazilian jiu jitsu. The hostel’s COMMON ROOM is a jiu jitsu gym, with mats spread out all over the floor. How cool is that??

 

Unfortunately, although I had paid for an AC room, they had fully booked all those rooms, and instead had to provide me a non-AC room (of course refunding me the difference). It was shitty, though. Some of you who know me, may know that in some ways I am a sensitive creature. I get really hot really easily and start sweating profusely. For me, staying in a really hot climate, with no AC, was terrible. All night long I tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, a layer of sweat drenching me, feeling itchy and bitten by bugs. It sucked. Also, the refrigerator situation definitely needed improvement. There was only ONE working refrigerator, for about twenty of us.

Anyway, I was excited to stay at the premiere jiu jitsu hostel in the world. I somehow thought that because we weren’t in the center of Rio, that we wouldn’t be subject to Carnaval shutdowns. I was wrong. All the jiu jitsu academies were closed. So no jiu jitsu for me. Ironically, I came to Connection Rio when there was no jiu jitsu. There was, however, a little jiu jitsu in that people did open mats. So, I didn’t learn techniques, but just practiced (sucking). I did no gi once,

AND one time I even did gi! Someone GAVE me their gi! That’s so nice, huh? So, add that to my overly stuffed backpack!

So what did I end up doing over Carnaval? I did Carnaval things. It was cool, though, to have the peeps at Connection Rio to do stuff with. We went to some blocos and basically it was a bunch of young kids getting drunk. I was a little sad, because I thought Carnaval was going to be women in feathery outfits doing samba on the streets! Well, it turns out that that is mostly at the Sambadrome (a special parade inside a closed venue). Blocos (parties) are everyday, at different times and locations, sporadically for the week before and after Carnaval, but intensely during the 5 days of carnaval. (postnote: I think it depends on where you are. I heard that in Bahia, there is more samba in the streets during blocos.) 

Carnaval ended on Wednesday, Feb 10th, and that’s the day I met up with Sally. We are on the same email list for people doing work exchange at Source Temple Feb 15-29. We decided to link up early to go to Paraty. We took around a 5 hour bus ride to Paraty, and arrived at this cute little town with the historic district with fully cobblestoned streets.

I mostly did a lot of walking around. One day I tried to find a jiu jitsu gym there was an incomplete website for, and I spent two hours walking around until I finally found it, but when I got there, I opened the door and there were jiu jitsu mats, but the lights were off, and no one was there, so I couldn’t ask what times the classes were 🙁 (btw their website didn’t show times, and I tried calling the phone number listed multiple times but didn’t get through. I didn’t email them yet but I am leaving today so darn)

Today Sally and I took a “caipboat” which was basically a boat that stops at 3-4 locations, and serves unlimited caipirinhas. (I had 3.)

The weather was amazing, being on the boat with the breeze surrounding you was awesome. Although most of the girls were pretty young, they were all pretty chill.

The first place we stopped, we just swum around and it was nice.

The second place we stopped was AWESOME. Off the top deck of the boat, I did front flips, aerials, and back flips!!! YES I DID!!!! And they were perfect too 😉 It’s been a lonngggggg time. And I also scurried barefoot up a hill to do the 5 meter waterfall jump, it was fun too! After Bali’s 12 meter high waterfall jump, this was nothing 😉

The third place was more flips.

Then Sally and I raced to go back to hostel, collect our stuff, then go back to the pier to catch our boat to our new hostel for two nights, Happy Hammock Eco. It’s a charming little hostel, with ZERO wifi, and only electricity for two hours every day.

 

4 Swiss people run the hostel, and there were 9 guests last night, including us. We chilled for a while before dinner, which was served family style and was indeed home made. Although it lacked meat, I was still really happy to have real home made food with vegetables, instead of all the fried foods that are ubiquitous here. We had tomato gnocci, and a cheesy gnocci, and some lentils, sauteed veg, and lettuce salad. Afterwards, the guests stayed at the table, an international mix of Germans, Dutch, British, Flemish, Swiss, New Zealander, and American (me). The hostel owners sometimes came by and asked if we wanted drinks or anything (which would be added to each guest’s tab). It was like being part of some exclusive dinner party. But you have to fly to Paraty, Brazil, first, then take a private boat to the location first 😉

 

Sun 2/14/16 Hike to the Beach + Hospital 

Last night I passed out early, and had a wonderful sleep to the sounds of the turning, crashing waves, and no other noise besides that.

This morning the sun shined in and nudged me awake. I took a hike in the morning to a beautiful beach. The hike there and back was magical.

Just perfection. Sun shone in, as we ducked under branches, stepped on large stones, were brushed by plants, protected by trees, and accompanied by butterflies. The trail was mostly covered, so it wasn’t scorching hot. It was about 20-30 minutes each way. Along the way, you could see the turquoise waters of the ocean awaiting you from below. I relished the hike on the way back especially, imagining myself as a tiny pin on a globe, like my own rendition of “Where in the world is Carmen San Diego”? And sometimes in these moments we are lost so far in another world, and we come across a blessed, lucky little piece of paradise.

9:14 PM

So, I went to the hospital today for this rash this has been really hurting me. The hospital wasn’t as bad as I was told. (post note: the doctor did not give me helpful medication, so I will have to go to another hospital.) The wait wasn’t long, and although the doctor did not speak amazing English, he spoke it enough.

I tried to contact the hostel to let them know I was done early, but I was unsuccessful. So, for about an hour or so, I laid down on the grass by the pier, waiting for the boat. I was feeling a little meh about being “sick” and not being able to contact the hostel, but then I realized the answer to the question of “What are you doing right now?” is the answer: I AM WAITING FOR MY PERSONAL BOAT TO PICK ME UP…I actually felt a little giddy and amused. Sure, I only had to insist on going to the hospital today to get my own private boat, but still. Pretty cool, right?!

So they picked me up, and we rode the boat, face toward the wind like dogs with our faces out the window. We arrived back to the hostel and had another wonderful home cooked meal of beet salad, tomato salad, sausage, potatoes, and garlic bread. While others are swimming in the plankton, I am chilling out.

 

Tues 2/16/16 Source Temple

Sally and I met up with another person from Source Temple, Josh from Australia, and we three shared a taxi to Source Temple. It tooks about an hour and 15 min. We went through mountains and rural areas and passed by cows and horses and immense, amazing green valleys on terrible “roads” and finally arrived at Source Temple. It is gorrgeeoouusss. Green fields, lakes, nature, horses wandering around, beautiful signs everywhere with interesting quotes. It’s much more beautiful than I anticipated.

We had inductions yesterday, and one of things they were discussing was about non judgment and an alternative spirituality. When one of the volunteers said he was drawn here because he wanted to go someplace spiritual and calm and quiet, the whole room burst into raucous laughter and people shouted merrily “This is not the place!” It’s maybe SUPPOSED to be a silent sanctuary, but definitely the air is punctuated with conversations and laughter. Which is awesome. They really value LOVE, authenticity, persistence, respect, honesty, and humor.

This morning I woke up early to take the 6:15 AM Qi Gong class. It was great. My first one. Reminded me of a mix of yoga and tai chi.

Then I worked for 4 hours cleaning. Literally. 4 hours straight. Scrubbing toilets. Spraying, wiping, sweeping, mopping. No cleaning gloves 🙁 I had to pick nasty dustballs out of brooms. After sweeping up a dead frog. EW. Picking up trash, dishes, etc. Meh. But it was ok.

Gratefully, they have a clear policy that the only thing expected of us is working from 830 AM-1230 PM. With a meeting prior to working. And helping clean up after lunch. Beyond that, everything is optional. Of course everyone comes here to be part of a spiritual community. But as far as the work-exchange is concerned, they are not requiring us to act a certain way or do certain things. It’s up to us if we want to be more involved. And I appreciate their transparency here, communicating their expectations, and that they are very organized.

In the afternoon, we had an awesome session that was a mix of meditation, yoga, acro-yoga, trust exercises, etc. My favorite part was The Angel Walk. We arranged ourselves in parallel lines. One person stood in between the two lines, and was to close their eyes, and walk slowly down the center of the lines. As that person slowly stepped through, the other participants were to shower that person with only positive energy, and give hugs, massages, love, kind words, a kind caress, or something similar. So, as that person walked through the center, they were being showered with love from everyone. It was so cool. When it was my turn to walk through the center, I felt kind touches, Alice whispered “I love you,” felt inundated by positive, kind energy, and it ended with a great hug. A few tears drizzled down my cheeks. After we had all walked through, we were all smiling and cheesing like idiots.

random animal sighting: horses,  2 goats, chickens, frogs, HUGE FUCKING SPIDER

 

Thurs 2/18/16 Mountain Hike and Dance Party

Today we were in the middle of our work schedule when James announced that we would be stopping working and instead have a day of silence. I heard it was to focus positive juju on some energy that was apparently amiss at Source Temple. So, we stopped working and chilled out. After lunch, I downed some coffee and was ready to hike up the mountain. Four other volunteers and I made our way up the mountain (it was about 2.5 hour up and down, with some breaks to chat and dance). It was CRAZY BEAUTIFUL. There was NO PATH in many places. We were seriously climbing the side of a mountain. Matt brought his music and a portable speaker so at the top of the mountain was the most MAGNIFICENT VIEW. Innumerable rolling green hills. Some closer ones littered with cows. Some farther ones probably sooo far away.

Absolute silence. Except for our music. Matt bumped the EDM and we had a dance party overlooking this exquisite site. It was so much fun.

Once we had our fill after a few songs, we made our way back down the mountain. This is no easy feat, because like I said, in many places there was NO TRAIL. I was literally sliding down the mountainsides. I would have never done that solo, because I would think I was batshit crazy. But I was following David, our fearless leader, and he miraculously led us straight back to Source Temple.

 

Sat 2/20/16 Fuck this rash

rash update:

still is uncomfortable today. Because it’s the weekend, the group went on a 2 hour long walk (roundtrip) to frolick in some waterfalls but I had to pass 🙁 UGH. I want to go to the hospital today or sunday or monday. I talked to Emily about arranging a ride into Cunha so I can visit a hospital, and she can interpret, since she speaks Portuguese. She will get back to me. 

 

I miss you guys. If you read this, and feel inspired to reach out and update me on what’s been going on with you, or just shoot over a quick “hello,” please email me! I would love to hear from you. Sending love <3 <3 <3

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