How to Tell Whether or Not You Are in Paraguay

Wait . . . are we in Paraguay?

In case you are ever in a situation in which you find yourself asking, "Wait . . . are we in Paraguay?" here are four surefire signs to help you discern the appropriate conclusion.

The Top 4 Ways to Tell Whether or Not You Are in Paraguay:

1. The streets are lined with vendors selling towering stacks of Pringles

2. All of the people are speaking Spanish.

3. There is a huge sign that reads: "Bienvenidos a Paraguay"

4. When you ask strangers, "Is this Paraguay?" they say, "si."

So, on Tuesday morning we woke up early with a plan to go see the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls before catching a 2:30pm bus to Rio de Janeiro. I walked up to the hostel reception desk and pointed toward the huge 4' by 5' laminated sign that held the schedule for the numersou buses heading toward Rio.

"Can we buy tickets for the 2:30 bus here?"

"No, no no," said the lady, "these ones," and pulled out a folded and faded printer page with a list of four buses departing the falls for Rio. Out of these four, two left at noon and two left at 6.

Since our sole plan for Rio was to beg for a church to let us sleep on their floor, and the bus ride would last 22 hours, we decided that the safest (see, mom and dad) option would be to skip the falls and take the earlier bus to Rio (giving us plenty of time to search for friendly churches before night fall).

We left the hostel at 10am, giving us two full hours to get across town to the bus station. We were directed to stand across the street from the McDonald's and catch a bus to the "Rodoviaria." A bus came. "Rodoviaria?" we ask. "Rodoviaria!?" exclaims the bus driver and motions toward the other side of the street. We crossed the street and wait for the next bus. "Rodoviaria?" we inquire. Multiple people nod. Feeling confident we board the bus and settle in for what we expect to be a 10 minute ride.

Twenty minutes pass and we begin noticing some unfamiliar scenery. Alisa tapped the woman in front of her, "Rodoviaria?" The woman nods.

We then cross a wide river and on the other side find ourselves surrounded by tables holding towering stacks of every type of Pringles can. We found that slightly odd considering multiple people had told us that Pringles in Brazil are really expensive (like 12 US dollars a can).

Suddenly we pass through some kind of barricade with "POLICIA" written all over it in huge letters. That's weird . . .

We continued to chat until Alisa says, "Uh, Tessa, I think this is Paraguay." Outside the window is a huge billboard reading, "Bienvenidos a Paraguay."

At this point we begin to wonder whether or not we are still in Brazil. Tessa asks the people around her, "Wait, are we in Paraguay?" They all say yes. Whoops.

Long story short, we had a wonderful time in Paraguay and made it to our bus with 9 minutes to spare. We still had know idea what we would do when we arrived in Rio the next day but we did say a little prayer: "May the opportunities we need present themselves."

This story is TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Our sole photo of Paraguay. The prompt: Look like you're Paraguayan.

Iguazu Falls

Beautiful friends we met at Iguazu Falls, Julia and Melissa.

There must be 10,000 ways to kneel and kiss the earth.

-Rumi

Another example of Life Lesson #1.

Life Lesson #1: Humans Cannot Control Nature

Last Thursday, we set out into the mighty Atlantic Ocean for what we thought would be a relaxing little jaunt. Splish splashing around- everything seemed quite jolly. We even practiced our surfing. All of a sudden, we realized we were much further from the sand than we thought.

"Älisa, we're out really far!"

The waves became bigger and bigger and every time we came up for air, another one crashed into our faces. From a distance, we heard Hugo, our surfing instructor, shout.

"Girlssssss! Come back, it's dangerous!"

We tried to swim toward shore but the waves kept beating us down. The harder we swam the more it felt like we were drifting to sea.

Suddenly a rope was thrown toward Alisa. She used all her might to grab on to it.

"Tessa, grab the rope!"

It seemed as if she would never reach it. It seemed as if she was not even trying.

Finally, she grabbed hold and Hugo pulled us safely ashore, delivering mouth to mouth resuscitation as he paddled inward. (Just kidding....did we fool any of you?)

Never had we been so close to death, and it might have been the end had not Hugo saved our lives.

Hence, Life Lesson #1: Humans cannot control nature (unless you're Hugo).

Hugo, our life saver.

Hilarious T-Shirt of the Week: January 30, 2008

"Who killed fashion? Rape or sex murder."

This beautiful shirt was discovered at a charismatic evangelical church in Rio de Janeiro.


This is the first edition of "Hilarious T-Shirt of the Week." Hopefully it will become a weekly installment (hence, the "of the week"). This is also the first event in Tessa and Alisa's Global Competition Extravaganza. We would like to invite everyone to enter their hilarious t-shirt sitings (either through words or photos) into the running and we will pick the most hilarious each week. Post them or email us! Just think, this week the winner was us, but next week it could be you!

We love Sao Paulo

A huge meat dinner with our first Servas host, Juba, and Audrey (that's right, Alisa and Tessa both ate millions of different kinds of meat - we are really pushing ourselves). Juba might be the kindest host anyone has ever encountered. On our first night, we locked him out of his own apartment and he graciously dismissed it as a learning experience. Incredible.

A spontaneous street encounter led to a delicious pizza dinner and rousing conversation (their treat!). Andrea, Davi, and Paulo.

Our first acai bowls! Thanks, Gabe and Lily!

Our future career. In Brazilian Walmarts employees wear roller blades. What more could you ask for?

A business card making party that produced some truly beautiful works of art.

O mundo esta ficando melhor = The world is getting better. One business card at a time.

Follow these bands

The next two bands to break in Sao Paulo:

Shed: http://www.tramavirtual.com/shedband
Ludovic : http://www.ludovic.com.br

Ludovic on stage - unbelievable stage presence...the most mosh pitting and crowd surfing we have ever seen our lives!

Gabe (in black shirt): Crazy crowd surfer and star of Shed
Lily (in white): bass guitar player, handbag extraordinaire, and most supportive wife of crowd surfer ever

Sarah, Eduardo (bass guitar), Fabio (designer of Eduardo's shirt and Avery look-a-like), and Tessa

Oh, where the subway encounters will take you . . .

So, yesterday Alisa and I decided to try to make our way to a public market in another part of Sao Paulo. As we waited for the subway, Alisa saw a boy who she was convinced was an American. I didn't think so and thought it would be awkward to ask him. The boy and us happened to switch onto the same next subway and get off at the same stop, so Alisa felt she had to ask him if he spoke English. He did! Turns out Stephen is from Sao Paulo but spent a year living in South Africa and so does indeed have really good English.

Wouldnt you know that Stephen is the one and the only producer of Sao Paulo's up and coming underground rock and roll bands. He is absolutely hilarious, with the most emphatic yes' and no's that I have ever heard.

Before we knew it, it started pouring rain...so we quickly headed undercover and began to drink. Stephen bought us our first capirinhia (as well as six other drinks and a variety of food).


His story will be included later. Briefly though: He was dating a girl for the past five years. He moved to South Africa to be with her and she ended up having to come back to Brazil after a few months. Through one of his producing endeavours he was paid with two huge diamonds. He sent them to his girlfriend (remember, five years!) as a wedding proposal. She in turn sold the diamonds and bought a car. They are no longer together.

Within minutes, the two Brazilian men next to us offered us their first bites of food (feeding us with their forks)! People here are truly the most generous people I have ever encountered. We proceeded to move our tables together and share life stories...discussing everything from levitation and energy to powerful, mind-altering plants and Brazilian politics (one of our friends was tortured in the 1970's here in Brazil).


Later that night we met at Stephen's house to prepare for an underground rock show that would feature the bands of Stephen's friends. We thought we were going to a concert that would begin at 11 pm and end at 1 am. Little did we know that their bands would not begin performing until 2:30am. We did our part of being "with the band" by carrying the majority of their equipment (Okay, fine. We each carried one drumstick.). We got on a special list because we were "with the band" and got to cut in front of a huge line of tried and true rock fans. Downside of being "with the band" is we had to wait until the band packed up all of their equipment and didn't get home until 7:30am.

The concert was phenomenal and now we can call half of Sao Paulo's rock crowd our best friends. Really these band members and their entourage are some of the most generous and kind-spirited people we have ever met (we're now sleeping on their floor).

The Best Website Ever

This is the website of a band we met today and here are some words from the band members. You should definitely check out their website because they are amazing.

http://www.hierofantepurpura.com

Banda de Mogi das Cruzes - SP Brazil

Gabriel disse: Vejam so....conheci duas gringas malucas aqui no Estudio do Dani Dani, estavamos fazendo um som e do nada elas apareceram, parece mentira mas eu diria que elas sao muito simpaticas !!
Danilo disse: Grateful Dead, futebol, falhas de comunicacao e muita alegria. Espero velas em breve em nova orleans!! Hierofante purpura vive pra sempre.
Diogo disse: Fomos juntos ao show do shed/ludovic... essas gringas sao muito divertidas, gente bacana, espero estar juntos delas em breve, em algum lugar, em alguma outra trip maluca. Tchau.

Translation by the English extraordinary Zeek:

Band from Mogi das Cruzes - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Gabriel says: Well . . . I met two crazy foreign girls here at Dani Dani's studio, we were playing and out of the blue they showed up, it looked unreal but I would say that they are very kind!!
Danilo says: Grateful Dead, soccer, lack of communication, and a lot of joy. I hope to see her soon in New Orleans! Hierofante Purpura lives forever.
Diogo says: We went together to the Ludovic/Shed show . . . these foreign girls are very fun, nice people, I hope to be together with them soon, somewhere, in another crazy ride. Ciao.

Flying to Sao Paulo - an adventure in itself

Here are the highlights:

Arriving in SF airport, Alisa discovers that her shoes have two right inserts. We make cardboard signs to beg for cell phone use.

Delicious Mexican farewell dinner with Audrey and Meghan in which they try to give us everything they have on them because they think we´re not fully prepared . . .

Sit next to Peruvian grandpa on flight to San Salvador who joins us in finger painting 50 business cards.

Four hour lay over in San Salvador. We decide to surprise Ms. Lynch and Ms. Raimondi - if all goes right we have exactly one hour to see them and no idea where in El Salvador they are. Lucky we hitched a ride to the CASA and they were there. Bliss.

In the San Salvador airport discover that we finally have a host in Sao Paulo and that he is leaving his key for us at the front desk of his apartment building.

Layover in Lima - this is the "SP (Sao Paulo) Team" (as coined by Luis):

Raphael: "Ha-phael." Our new best friend. Sat next to him on the flight from San Salvador to Rio. Professional freelance photographer from Belo Horizonte who´s been living in NY City for the past two years. Married at city hall last month. Hasn´t slept in over 70 hours (and, therefore, legally insane).
Anji: Graduated in June from Georgetown. Visiting friend she studied abroad with in China. Works for an anti-smoking campaign in DC (we were, of course, sitting across from the smoking bar).
Luis: Lives in suburb of Sao Paulo. Is from the Dominican Republic. Going to dental school. Showed us photos of bloody mouth surgery. Was transporting his friend´s dog to Sao Paulo, and, yes, the tiny dog was definitely dressed in a santa suit.
Julia: From Sao Paulo. Studied in London for 4 years. Just visited geologist boyfriend in El Salvador. Hitch-hiked from London to Prague without spending a dime. Wore bunny ears for 3 weeks while traveling in Europe - sees a girl in the tube who is also wearing bunny ears, they switch ears and part ways.

During this layover we still had no idea how to get from the airport to our host´s apartment but luckily Julia offers to take us with her to her house. Her mom, Carmen, picks all of us up and we go back to their flat for much needed showers and a traditional Brazilian breakfast of fresh bread, meat, and cheese. Increible.

Then Carmen says, "It´s time to enter the real world," and drops us at the subway station, packs on our backs.

Here is some Brazilian money:

Preparing to Leave

This is our travel agent, Danielle!


Our farewell dinner with our parents



This is us.

Frequently Asked Questions

(This is from December 14)

It is now just over a month until Alisa and I leave on a trip that will take us, quite literally, around the world. We've noticed that when we tell friends, family, and strangers about what we're doing we get the same questions over and over, so we thought we would share them here and give you our best answers. (Spoiler alert: most of our answers are "we don't know")

#1: Where are you going?
We realize that it's hard to retain anything when we list about 20 countries as fast as we can. Here is a list of our destinations . . . though, we expect and hope that this list will change over the year!

In roughly this order:
Brazil
Bolivia
Peru
Panama
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Honduras
Guatemala
El Salvador
South Africa
Botswana
Malawi
Ethiopia
Egypt
Jordan
Turkey
Iran
India
Nepal
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Philippines

I tried to make a map so you can see the plane tickets (black lines) that we've bought so far. We'll be buying the rest of our tickets later. The red lines show overland travel and I tried to outline the places we'll have more than a layover in.


#2: Why are you going to ***?/Why aren't you going to ***?
Long story short, we don't know. A couple years ago, Alisa told me we were going to travel for a year after I graduated. I said okay. A couple months ago we sat down with a blank piece of paper and a pen and said, okay, where should we go? We took about 10 minutes and wrote down a random list of countries we thought sounded interesting. We gave that list to our travel agent. There are places we're going because we have friends there (El Salvador, India), other places that just sounded interesting (Botswana, Laos), and still other places that happened to be the names on the scraps of paper thrown on the floor and chosen by Alisa's dog (Brazil, Bolivia). A lot of the places we really wanted to go to simply didn't make the cut due to issues of time and money.

All in all, we feel strongly that every part of the world is fascinating and wonderful if approached from the right angle, and we think we'll find out why we're there once we get there.

#3: But, what are you going to be doing?
No clue. Hopefully it will include a lot of exploring, adventuring, eating, dancing, seeing the sights, and making new friends. Probably it will include a lot of long rides on planes, trains, and buses, zillions of bug bites, and plenty of mysterious stomach and bowel problems.

We do have some specific projects in the works that we will try to share on the blog. Some of them involve getting our hair done in the fanciest local style, learning popular songs, going to worship, and collecting political propaganda. If you have more ideas of things we can do and questions we can ask, let us know!

#4: Can you afford that?
We have no idea. We've been saving up our money as best we can and we're just going to make it last as long as possible. To give you some idea of the cost, our plane tickets alone will cost about $6,000.

#5: What do your parents think?
They support us :)

P.S. You can expect special guest appearances from Cole Grube, Billie Parish, Megan Raimondi, Emory Lynch, Audrey Kim, Christian Terrett, Katy Lackey, Omid Faghiri, Ellis Ballard, Ted Power, the very special Ashlee Bright, and possibly Nicole Brand-Cousy and Katie Lent!

Also, we leave January 16.