Since I didn't get too much hatemail from my last update, I figure it is safe enough to send out another. As I mentioned before, from Sao Paulo I was going to go to the north of Brazil to scout out what were supposed to be some incredible beaches, and very culturally rich towns.

My first stop in the north was Natal. In Natal I had plans to stay at a Youth Hostel that I had heard about from some other tourists. The hostel was designed like a medievel castle, and of all things had a nightclub underneath of it with live music every night - this sounded to me like a great combination. Unfortunately, the public transport system in the north of Brazil is a little different. Rather than buses, vans drive around the city with someone screaming out the window the general vicinity to where the van is going. If one of the vans appears to be going in your direction, you wave it down, get in, and tell the driver where you want to go. This normally works very well, but when you speak relatively poor Portuguese, and don't really know where it is you are going it gets more complicated. Somehow though with a combination of luck, patience and three vans I arrived...

The hostel really was quite nice, and immediately after checking in I met a fellow Swedish consultant. He was actually someone in a very similiar situation to myself since he was taking an unpaid leave of absence from his company (BCG), to help them in their attempts to weather the economic downturn. The two of us ate dinner, and met up with a crazy Danish guy. Then we all went out, had some drinks and hung out till around 2:00am.

The next day I woke up for a buggy tour that I had signed up for when I arrived at the hostel. The tour was a trip to some of the beaches and places of interest near Natal. My buggy included a driver, an American girl, a Scottish girl, and a Brazilian guy (surprisingly enough). The entire thing was a lot of fun. We went to three different beaches, a few freshwater lakes, and took part in a number of activities including a rope swing, sandboarding, and some daredevil buggy driving through the sand dunes. At the end of the day I met up with the Swedish guy again, and we got some food and afterwords went to the disco underneath the youth hostel. It was a lot of fun with very good music.

From Natal it was then off to a small fishing village called Porto do Galinas (Port of Hens). So as usual, two buses and three vans later I finally arrived in town. In Porto do Galinas I met a friend and coworker from Sweden named Per. We relaxed and caught each other up on our vacations, then in the evening for entertainment we drank some beers while watching the local youths playing soccer on the beach. It was actually quite incredible how good they were. The next morning I woke up very early to go SCUBA diving. After diving I wanted to go kayaking with Per through a nearby Mangrove forest. After walking about 4 kilometers to get to the place with the kayaks we find out the guy who rents them is off working his other job and we should 'come back tomorrow'. The worst part of this is the day before Per had also tried to go kayaking, and they also said to 'come back tomorrow'.

The next stop was Recife, and Olinda. The two cities are right next to each other, but couldn't be more different. Recife is a modern town with a lot of businesses and a fairly good nightlife. Olinda on the other hand is a colonial town that hasn't changed that much since it was colonized. So the two together are really nice since you can do cultural stuff and enjoy the atmosphere of Olinda during the day, and then go out and party in Recife at night. Per and I spent two nights in Recife and I had a great time. We went out both nights till around 4 or 5 in the morning, and the only reason we left that early the second night was to catch a 6am plane to our next destination of Salvadore.

Salvadore was also a colonial town, and it is the third largest city in Brazil. Salvadore is also known as a cultural center of Brazil, and there is a lot of african influence from the slave trade that prospered there for so long. In fact, something like 80% of the people in Salvadore are of African descent, so it is a very different environment than most of Brazil.

After soaking up the atmosphere in Salvadore for several days, it was time to return to reality - at least temporarily. Okay, I'll explain. As some of you know, for the past several months I have been applying to MBA programs. While in Brazil I had heard back from one of the programs (Wharton at U-Penn), and they invited me to an interview. As all the interviews had to be completed before March 9, it was fortunate they were holding interviews in Sao Paulo on March 7 and 8 so I would be able to have one without cancelling my trip. As it was things were quite complicated since I obviously did not pack a suit and dress shoes for my trekking around South America, and I did not think they would appreciate it if I showed up for the interview in hiking boots and a t-shirt. Anyways, everything came together and the interview (actually interviews) went off without any major problems.

So now that that stressful part of my trip is over, it is time to continue with my vacation. I just bought a plane ticket today for Bolivia, and I will be leaving tomorrow morning...

That's it for now...

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know what all I have been doing in these past two weeks here in South America. As you may already know, I arrived in Rio on February 12th. When I left from the US I was unsure if I would be able to find accomodations, because I was to arrive in Rio at when I though was the middle of Carnival. That did not turn out to be a problem though as Rio had its major carnival celebrations on February 10 and 11.

So, I missed much of the big carnival celebrations. But I at least had a bed to sleep in. Fortunately, the following Saturday was the Winners Parade, which is sort of a best of from the Carnival. I decided that since I missed the first part of Carnival, I had to at least stick around for this parade, and so I ended up staying in Rio for the next five days. During that time I did all the typical tourist things in rio, not to mention hanging out on some of the famous beaches (Copacabana, Ipanema, etc.). One of the coolest things I did though was hanggliding over the city.

Eventually Saturday came along and it was time for the Winners Parade. The parade started at around 8:00pm, and went until 4:00am. The entire time huge groups of people made their way down the Sambadrome, which is sort of a long stadium designed to accomodate these processions. The floats were immense, the costumes incredible, overall it was pretty mindblowing. The only real downside was it decided to pour down rain much of the evening, and by the time I got home I was completely soaking wet.

The next day, which was also my last day in Rio, I went to a soccer game in the Maracana stadium (one of the worlds largest), and watched the number one and two teams play each other. The following day it was off to Ilha Grande, a gorgeous tropical island off the coast of Brazil. Once I arrived, I checked into a small hotel on the water with its own private cove. The place was really tranquil and nice. I spent 4 days on the island visiting different beaches and just chilling out.

After that it was off to another beach town called Paraty, and a village outside of it called Trinidade. Both were also really nice, especially Trinidade which had an incredible natural pool with beautiful rock formations and crystal clear water. After the tropical paradise, it was time to re-enter the real world. Last night I took a bus to Sao Paulo where I am right now. I will only be staying here for one day though as I am going to catch a plane to the north of Brazil and visit Natal, Salvadore, and maybe some other cities in between.