TheJake

NYC
2004-09-06
New York city is amazing. The buildings are of course massive and even though I got lost a few times I felt like I knew uptown rather well just from so many movies. It was quite crazy. My original quest for NY pizza turned into a White Castle binge.. 13 cheeseburgers and large fry. It was amazing!
Sao Paulo
2004-09-07
My buddy Evandro and his fiance luciani picked me up from the airport tuesday morning at 9am. They drove me around Sao Paulo for a couple hours showing me the sites... I dont think Sao Paulo is a city i want to spend much time in. They took me to the bus station at noon and I bought a ticket to Foz do Iguazu about a 16 hour overnight bus trip. I met Jack a 21 yr old irish bloke on the bus and we have become pretty good pals.


Foz do Iguazu/Buenos Aires
2004-09-08 to 2004-09-10
The waterfalls on the brazilian side on wednesday were a bit disapointing but the gathering at the hostel for some laughs more than made up for it. On thursday a group of us from the hostel went to the argentinian side of the falls they were AMAZING. I hope i can get my pictures loaded soon so you can see. Jack and I caught a 5:45 bus to Buenos Aires. I know I wasnt planning on argentina but it sounded like a good time and other than the bus ride (which was only supposed to be 18 hours) well lets just say it was almost 24 hours on the bus. Policia decided to do background checks on all of us at midnight and didnt let us go till 4am. so we arrived in buenos aires around 5pm. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. If i didnt know better i would think i was in western europe. Jack and I went to a all you can eat buffet for 25 pesos each (about 7 dollars) and it was basically all meat... really really good meat. We arrived at the restaraunt at 7:50pm and they still werent opening for another 10 minutes... Just an idea of how different life is down here. So we will see how the night shapes up. tchau


buenos aires
2004-09-10 to 2004-09-13
The three days i spent in buenos aires have been crazy! This city never sleeps... I went to a club the other night and things didnt get started till well after midnight then i heard about an after party that started around 8am which i didnt go to then at 2pm i was walking back from the bakery and a couple doors down there was an after after party that started around noon and went until dark.

So like i said this place is nuts.... farewell buenos aires... Hello florianopolis... 26 hour bus ride...ugh
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florianopolis
2004-09-14 to 2004-09-17
Ilha Santa Catarina is a the place for brazilian holidays. It was a very very clean city with some incredible beaches... Very nice place check it out for sure.... sorry my computer time is limited today...
Ponta Negra
2004-09-19
Yesterday i left salvador by bus at 5pm and arrived in Natal somewhere around noon i think. I caught a cold in Salvador and got fleeced 50 reals... Needless to say salvador de Bahia didnot leave a good impression. Natal and surrounding area though is very nice. Ponta Negra is located about 14 km south of Natal and is situated on a very nice bay beach thing. I am crazy glad to finally be out of the cities and near the water. Now i just need a hammock, some more hemp around my neck and ankles and wrists and a coconut in my hand and i can fit right in. Just for the record dad hammocks cost about 30-50 reals here... so between 10-15 dollars... so who wants one?

I think i will stay here in ponta negra for at least 3 days if not longer and then maybe relocate to Fernado de Norhano <---bad spelling apparently its an incredibly beautiful island.

I traveled from Florianopolis by plane to Salvador with an american named Sam but he wanted to spend another night in salvador. So i am on my own for the first time really and i must say its exhilerating and terribly lonely at the same time. While i enjoy companions i am in desperate need of some serious relaxation so i am searching for the happy medium. The hostel I checked into here in ponta negra is very hip... has a castle theme to it and i think it will be a good place to relax.

TheJake

one more night in ponta negra
2004-09-22
Tomorrow i am heading for fortaleza before the money runs out. I was waiting for sam to show up here in natal but if he´s not hear today then im off and running again. Ponta Negra has been very relaxing. i really have no idea what day i arrived and honestly i am not even sure what day it is today. Time seems to have lost all meaning here in northeastern brasil. If someone says they will meet you in half an hour expect to wait three. Its just the way of life here. It might have something to do with the extreme poverity of the area but i am not a student of such deep thoughts.
Today the plan is simple.. same as yesterday... which means sleep and then some more sleep. I am like the three puppies the hostel has. I just move from one spot to another. its bliss. So with a coconut in my hand and sleep on my eyelids i bid you all a very pleasant day or two...
fortaleza
2004-09-24
Fortaleza at first glance out of the hostel is not the most beautiful city in brasil. (sorry samila) But where it lacks in at a glance beauty you can find more than enough in its culture and the beautiful people that live there. I am off to jericocaora in the morning but within the week i will be back hopefully to an apartment in fortaleza and a job teaching english. And possibly life in brasil is muito bom.
i learned how to windsurf today as well... not as easy as they make it look but fun once you get the hang of it.
back to the fort!
2004-09-26 to 2004-09-28
Well im back in fortaleza... Today i am spending deep in research about apartments and jobs... I am really starting to like this city... I think the next couple months will be very rewarding.

Update... I went to jericoacoara and came back the next day. Jeri was a cool little beach town with animals everywhere and whatnot and all the streets were sand. It´s like hippy central for northern brasil... well outside of salvador.

trip to date
2004-09-28
5 hrs plane AZ-NY
10 hrs plane NY-SAO PAULO
16hrs bus SAO-FOZ DO IGUAÇU
23hrs bus FOZ-BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA
26hrs bus BUENOS AIRES-FLORIANOPOLIS
5hrs plane FLO-SALVADOR
17hrs bus SALVADOR-NATAL/PONTA NEGRA
8hrs buggy PONTA NEGRA-PRAIA DE PIPA (and back)
8hrs bus NATAL-FORTALEZA
7hrs bus FORTALEZA-JERI
7hrs bus JERI-FORTALEZA

making a grand total of 5 1/2 days on a bus, plane or buggy in the 22 days!
ibis
2004-09-30
Ibis hotel... not exactly the cheapest way to spend a couple nights but definitly comfortable and centrally located. SO tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow i move into my very own very first apartment. I am sooo excited.
Kinda cool that i will have my own apartment... Even cooler that it is in a different country!
aparmento and beyond
2004-10-06
OK so I now have my very own very first apartment. And it is awesome. If i wasnt so incredibly lazy i would walk back get my camera and find an internet joint with computers that arent from 1890... Well that might be a little stretch but they are old school.

Moving on to other news it would appear that good ol Sam from idaho is going to move into the spare room so jake will have a roomie. That would be fantastic. Although I am happy alone as well its always cool to have another person around. I´ve taken a ton of pics since last time i plugged my camera in... man i should really load some new ones.... hm maybe tomorrow...

That kind of the attitude for everything here in north eastern brazil... No Stress... its a motto... or Xo Stress whatever that means... its on shirts and whatnot and i still havent figured out why its cool to replace the N with an X things i will never understand i guess.

Pleasant Valley Sunday hey....
2004-10-10
OK so sam has moved in. I have a television now which means one thing MUSIC!!! I am very excited about this cause else sam and i would be walking around the apartment wearing headphones and carrying walkmans.
Anyway today is sunday and it would seem that everything except the restaurants... internet cafes and pharmacies are closed. Its pretty refreshing to know that there are places in the world that still observe one day a week off. Although all the churches that i`ve walked past today were locked up tight too soooo im not really sure what the deal is. Today we set out to get sam a cheap guitar and me a set of congos but since everything is closed I dont think we will be accomplishing this already difficult feat. Since sam doesnt want to pay more than 90 reals for a guitar and I dont want to pay more than 60 reals for congos... that is 30us and 20us respectively.
FARTHER UP AND FURTHER IN!!!
2004-10-14
Well i woke up this morning with the all too familiar tugging at my chest. The feeling of knowing that I need to move on again soon. I mentioned this to sam and he was thinking the along the same lines. We decided to do a couple small trips to local beaches and then one big trip to the amazon before heading south again to Rio and Sao Paulo and whatnot. Probably in a couple weeks time. My money situation is getting increasingly difficult to deal with but it will all work out in the end.

goodbye sweet ceara
2004-10-17 to 2004-10-20
Well on sunday i said goodbye to my dear ceara and my friends there and ventured south to the capital Brasilia (50 hours on the bus)... Upon arrival I promptly changed my mind and after hanging my hammock up in the airport for a couple hours I bought a ticket to Sao Paulo. I love flying... its so much faster. Amazing. Anyway now I am staying with Evandro´s father in a very quaint apartment that while is very comfortable it makes me miss my beachfront villa de Iracema. Man that place was sweet. Ah well I guess I will just have to find one similiar in cali right? I am sure I can find one for the same price (250 a month) RIGHT.... So I went three days without a shower.. I am sure that is a record for me and now I am past tired and my body is yearning for the bed that is prepared for me.

Last Call
2004-10-25
Well here i sit in Sao Paulo... It´s raining outside and it looks beautiful.. I am going to go play in it in a little while cause i need to get some more stuff before deciding to go home. I think I gained 5-10 pounds the last couple days in evandros dads house. It is absolutely insane. At meal times i cannot look away from my plate for a minute without having more food heaped on to it. So when I get back to Phoenix I think some very long bike rides will be in order.
And this is Last Call people if you want something from brasil speak up now or hold your piece for another trip. I went to an Offspring show the other night. It was hilarious. I seriously think maybe 30-40 of the 800 some people there new any of the right words and good actually sing along in intelligible english. I bought some pirated FORRO cds so we can all have a big FORRO party when i get home. The reason i bought pirated cds is cause i need to support the local community ya know!

And soon after I flew home...

TheJake

Many trips
2005-06-22

At the end of April I went to LA to meet a bunch of crazy people from the travelpunk.com message boards. I had just recently acquired a new job with a pro baseball team that had me working a ton of hours so getting away for that weekend was pure bliss. I drove into Fullerton on wednesday night and the next morning drove around for a bit until hooking up with eveyone at my buddys apartment in Hollywood. We all went out that night and had a good time on the town and crashed out at the pad. On Friday some more people flew in and once again we hit the town ending up in Santa Monica on the promenade and ending the night again in Fullerton. The next morning I drove home and worked my tail off for another month for that baseball team before I had to call it quits. Those 3 days were the only three I had off the entire time I worked for them.



The day after I quit I grabbed my friend steve and headed to Rocky Point Mexico. After we crossed the border we decided that Rocky Point would be too touristy and we wanted some real mexico, we drove straight to the west coast of the Baja Peninsula and spent the night at a best western in Ensenada. The next morning we awoke to find ourselves still trapped in a tourist hole so we started to drive south. About an hour and a half down the road I saw a sign for a youth hostel that claimed to be right on the beach. It was and it was gorgeous. We spent two nights there driving up and down the beach and generally having a good time. The second night we were there we met a couple of girls and invited them to the sunset on the beach with us. Came to find out that they were headed to Muluge the next morning and asked for a ride to the bus station.

Now steve and I having nothing better to do decided to drive these lovely ladies down to muluge ourselves thus saving them a long and agonizing bus ride and giving us a chance to see the rest of baja. So saturday morning we packed up and drove south to muluge. 10 hours later we pulled into this delightful little bungalow village thing called Ecomundo. The place is straight out of a movie. Little bamboo bungalows right on the beach. Ecomundo is located on Bahia de Concepcion, which is a large bay off the sea of cortez. We arrived around 11 that night and went walking in the surf. My second step landed my on a stingray which decided to leave it`s mark on the top of my foot.

Sunday morning came to find the three girls asleep on their cots in the hut and steve and I crashed outside on the hammocks. Turns out Ecomundo is run by a couple in their late twenties from colorado. Gary and Tracy were fantastic hosts. Gary got us set-up with a pair of kayaks and we proceeded to spend the rest of the day out in the bay soakin up the rays and getting some exercise. The entire location is amazing and I cannot wait to return. The huts have no running water or electricty and yet somehow that doesnt matter. It is perfect.


Late sunday night steve and I decided we had to get back and one of the girls needed to head back to san diego anyway so we took off from Ecomundo after some tears and left two of the girls there. Steve, Davina and I pulled into San Diego around 12 on monday where steve and I left Davina and continued our drive back to this oven known as Phoenix.

Last weekend I drove up to Payson to hang out with some guys from my church for a men`s camping trip. That also was much fun.

And yesterday afternoon my buddy tyler and I with our friend amber drove up to prescott and found a sweet little creek to swim in and skip some rocks on. Good times all around.

And that was my Fall of 2004 and Spring of 2005!

goyincognito

Nice pics Major!

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TheJake

thanks for reading it all the through goy... you're the coolest man.

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lauren313

Wow, that all looks so great, you have some awesome photos.

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TheJake

Tanks! I do what i can! my camera was recently stolen though so i need to save my pennies for a new one so i can get back at takin awesome shots again.

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lauren313

I'm going on a trip in September for 3 months and I don't even have a camera! I really had better get one!

That's awful about your camera getting pinched, people are so horrible!

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TheJake

They are definitly essential to every travelers life!

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my retro career

great stuff jake....nice narration and superb pics....nice composition...

of course, the one with you catching a cat nap along the corridor really captured the whole moment - and made it truly a travel adventure....

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