“What is your favourite place you travelled?”
This one question always seems to be standing out. At first it seemed hard to answer as I liked so many places and each one for its own reason, however on a bit more thought, the same winner is always crowned: More than 2 blissful months in the land of football and samba made me a lifelong fan.

In the beginning, on the contrary, I was ridiculously cautious. I’ve been fed with so many stories of violence and crime by other travellers so when I landed in Rio de Jenerio few days before New years eve, I checked every single face and held my backpack tight on my way out of the airport terminal. It was quite late and my taxi driver left me on the far side of the road of my hostel, situated in famous Ipanema beach suburb. There was no one else on the streets beside 3 Brazilian guys who kept staring at me. I crossed the road as fast as I can and rang the hostel’s door bell. When I turned my head again those 3 guys were still staring at me. The door was finally opened.

“Ipanema seems like a dangerous spot at night” I pointed out to the hostel’s receptionist.
“Why, what happened?” he calmly replied.
“3 guys across the street have kept staring me since my taxi left” I answered.
“Oh…” he laughed. “They were probably checking you out. Ipanema is Rio’s largest gay area…”

As funny as it was, I still didn’t know what to expect. I vividly remembered a story my friend told me of how someone robbed his clothes in broad day light. That was 10 years ago but somehow my mind kept bringing up those stories.

The next day I went to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, Rio’s famous and breathtaking beauty landmarks. I was holding my camera so no one can see and took some quick photos, looking around to see if anyone was staring at me.

Yes, this is how ridiculous I was… if you ever visited brazil in the last few years you’re probably shaking your head right now in disbelief.
8 weeks later, in comparison, while celebrating Rio’s carnival, I was wrapping one hand around strangers, while the other was taking photos of both of us. I had zero fear and no doubts: Brazilians are surely one of the friendliest and most fun-loving people on earth.

The beauty of staying in one country for more than a month is that familiarity starts to breed and take over of doubts and uncertainty. In Brasil, this breeding process started for me almost immediately.

New Years Eve, Rio de Janeiro. Around two million people, all in white, crammed Copacabana Beach in Rio to celebrate the New Year with probably the same number of champagne bottles.
My new year’s resolution was one: Not to get too drunk and actually remember the whole night. Free caipirinhas at my hostel, full of Vodka and a bit of sugar, made this challenge quite challenging already from the beginning. An hour later, 20 of us were all marching toward the beach with big smiles on our faces and champagne bottles in our hands. Two hours later I was totally wet and not from water, dancing barefoot in the sand to a Brazilian beat. Everyone had the same huge beaming grin on their face that just wouldn’t go away. At the end of the night I was walking home, blissfully tired, still barefoot, carrying only one shoe with me. A night to remember and a great start for what would be one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever had.

Rio’s New Year’s Eve fun-loving spirit kept me energized for the next 2 months which were all about beaches and nature. Surfing & partying in Florianopolis, the Ibiza of brasil. Breathing nature in Ilha Grande, a paradise island with no cars, roads or airports. Swimming & chilling out in Buzios, the playground of famous Brazilians, with its wealth of secluded beaches, bars and surf. Taking lessons in Capoeira on the beach fo beautiful Jericoacoara, a small hippie mecca on the north coast of brazil. Hiking in the amazon Rainforest where exotic animals and amazing plants are everywhere. Exploring tiny indigenous communities along the river and relaxing on the pristine white sands of Alter De Chao, the Caribbean of the Amazon.

Nothing could prepare me, though, for experiencing Brazil’s one week carnival celebrations at the end of February. The biggest party in the world they say – And they are right. Where else can you find millions of people dancing in the streets of every Brazilian city to the sounds of non-stop samba from early morning till late at night, every day for 6 days in a row?

I decided to spend most of my carnival time in Rio where literally hundreds of local bands (blocos) took over the streets in different sections of the city. They have been rehearsing intensively for months for this one moment and you could see the excitement hanging in the air before the drums started to kick in and the street exploded.

Surprisingly enough, the official samba schools parade in the Sambadrome (a special stadium built just for this march) which is still a fantastic visual spectacle but is not even close to the sheer enjoyment I got from the local blocos spread all over the city. If you really want to participate and dance you have to join the street parades!

A typical carnival day:
6:30 – Recovering from last night with a cold shower and a strong coffee
7:30 – Drinking an Acai juice.
8:00 – Joining hundreds of thousands of people in downtown Rio for a mad colourful 4 hours street party.
12:00 – Catching a packed subway to Copacabana beach for lunch and a “bloco” march all the way to Ipanema beach
15:30 – Acai
16:00 – Ipanema beach street party dancing until exhaustion or starvation or both.
19:00 – Food & Acai.
20:30 – Night party in St Teresa or Lapa or Copacabana or Sambadrome.

On the last day of carnival I flew to Salvador de Bahía to experience a bit of the madness over there. I could only join some small street parades and enjoy last day of perfect sounding drums in my ear. My body was tired though so I left Salvador rather early and spent my last days in Brazil in amazing Chapada Diamantina national park surrounded only by the sound of nature.

Live your dreams.

A bit late but here it is, my Patagonia experience:

After spending a month in busy, humid and crowded Buenos Aires, arriving to deserted El Calafate, An Argentinean town in the middle of nowhere with lots of cool, clean fresh air, felt so right.

El Calafate is the main gateway into Patagonia and Glaciers National Park with its famous Perito Moreno Glacier. The only word that came into my mind when I first saw this impressive glacier was: WOW.
The word stayed with me for a very long time and echoed stronger within when we started our trek on the glacier. The bluest glacial ice I’ve ever seen with cliffs rising straight out of the water everywhere you look. Walking on the ice with its huge cracks and beautiful soft colours was nothing but amazing. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Patagonia Chile

My greatest South American adventure took place in Torres Del Paine national park on the Chilean side of Patagonia. We crossed the border from Argentina to the sleepy town of Puerto Natales, one of southernmost city in the world, passing snow capped mountains on the way and amazing views of wild nature.

The night before our planned trek we had fierce storm coming through. It was freezing cold with strong wind and heavy rain but we were all determined to stick to our plan and start trekking the next day.
I still had fresh memories of getting caught unprepared in heavy snow while trekking in New Zealand few years ago so I decided not to rely on lady luck and hired the best (but heavy) snow gear available.

My backpack was super heavy and within the first climb, experiencing strong front winds, I knew I had just set myself a real challenge. I felt quite heavy however each and every step, both my Spanish companion and I, grew stronger. With so much nature around, my heart was light and my mind completely at rest, making the physical challenge enjoyable and fun.

Somewhere in the middle of the trek we decided to leave our heavy bags unguarded and climb to one of the peaks. We actually decided to run it so for few hours we ran up the mountain free of cares and worries. The view was spectacular all the way up with powerful Waterfalls and huge green trees.

Just before we reached the peak we stopped for a rest near one of the rivers. It was starting to get dark so my friend hurried me up so we can get to the peak together. To my surprise, the only words that came from my mouth were: “You go”. I knew a shift was going on in me. I was the guy who never left a summit unconquered but this time I just felt free and peaceful and so incredibly happy that it didn’t matter anymore..

The rest of trek was everything I had hoped for and more with different landscapes and diverse flora. Again, I’ll let the photos speak for themselves

Into the wild
After the great experience of Torres Del Paine I decided to head north and go on another independent trek in Patagonia.
Mount Fitzroy is a mountain trek with a visually dramatic peak that starts in the small town of El Chalten (meaning “smoking mountain” for being surrounded by smoke-like clouds)

On the first night I met a young Israeli guy who invited me to trek with him the next day. He turned to be one of the most inspiring travellers I’ve ever met who had traveled in isolated areas around the globe since he was 17.

We decided to go off trek and climb along one of the many rivers in the area, getting deep into the wild where no other travelers can be found. My new travelling companion took off his shoes and jumped from rock to rock totally immersing himself with nature. He lengthily explained how shoes separate us from the earth not allowing us to connect with the ground. My new friend was truly special a guy and the trip quickly became one as well!

After so much trekking I allowed my legs to rest in the beautiful Lake District region and continued to explore Argentina in other ways than intense hiking.

Live your (biggest) dreams!

This is an inspiring story of how one thought and a single email with good intentions can be the spark of collective energy that ignites people’s hearts from every corner of the globe.

Sometimes the worst situations in ones life turn to be the best opportunities in the long run. This was the case of Serapio Huaman, A local Peruvian who lost his house in tragic mudslides events.

I still remember the first time I saw Serpio’s tough but smiling face when I got to his destroyed house. His face was beaming with gratitude and humility. When his eyes welled with tears and my heart started to sink I knew I’ll see him again. However, I have never dreamt of what was to going to happen. The universe has its own way of taking care of things I guess.

Up until this point, the small and isolated town of Ocotuan had probably never been visited by foreigners, but Serapio’s seemingly bad luck turned out to be a blessing and travellers from all around the world visited the house.

The whole idea started to form when Serpio’s image crying on my shoulder kept popping up in my mind every time I went to help clearing the wreckage. After a quick chat with a friend I decided to take a video of Serpio requesting for help and also to build a special website where photos can be published. It had proven to be a very powerful way of delivering the emotions behind the senseless flooding disaster.

When the first donation arrived I got very excited. I felt so much gratitude and appreciation. When the donation pool reached two thousand dollars in less than 48 hours I knew that something amazing has just happened. A new house can be built I thought, and amazingly enough it did.
The universe has conspired to help me and I met the right people on the right time, who gave so much of their free travelling time for the task. The rebuilding story had its own power which had touched the hearts and minds of random travellers I met in Cusco.

More than 100 people have been involved in this little random 2 months project. The before and after photos can be seen below. Huge thanks to anyone who has helped out. Serpio and his family were in tears of happiness last time I Visited.
Thank you.

Travelling in South America has always been at the top of my list, not only for its extraordinary nature but also because of its many colourful cultures. It’s a trip that many young Israelis do, almost religiously after the army. A trip that I haven’t done in my twenties due to my long term flirtation with the Australian continent, but a one that I wasn’t going to miss out.

I didn’t know much about Argentina before I chose it to be my gateway to South America but one thing I knew, actually two: 1. it’s a Spanish speaking country 2. It was summer in Buenos Aires.
So, my flight got booked and a plan was quickly formed: Spending a month in the Argentinean capital, primarily to learn Spanish. At first I was thinking of sharing an apartment with Spanish speaking people, something which could defiantly help my non-existent Spanish, but then I thought Buenos Aires might be a good place to live on my own for a bit, especially after so many months of moving around.

Paris of South America?

During my search for accommodation I found out many resources nicknaming Buenos as the “Paris of South America”. In reality, B.A looks like a huge concrete jungle with a bit of European personality, a mixture of Bangkok and Paris I would say.
Quite a lot of buildings are, how to say it nicely, unimaginatively designed. It felt like some people just wanted to make quick profit by tearing the old European style houses neighbourhoods and instead building tall condo-apartments as quickly as possible. The “Parisian” architecture, however, still resonate into the present day in some affluent pockets of the city;

The analogy to Paris is, however, a very accurate fit in the similar lifestyle both cities share. Restaurants and coffee shops are crowded with people till the very late hours of the night and it’s quite common to see people dress smartly for dinner and other nightly occasions. Similarly to Europe, nothing really starts until late. Restaurants get filled only around 10-11pm and nightclubs begin to function only at 2-3am.

Adapting

As far as the Argentinean nightlife lifestyle, I had no real difficulties to adapt, especially after spending a summer in Europe & Israel. The best part for me was Buenos Aires dinner scene. Restaurants selection is so wide and inexpensive that it is hard not to have a dine-out experience almost every night. The Argentinean meat is so tasty that even few travellers I’ve met took a break from their vegetarian regime. I remember asking my beautiful Argentinean friend Evelyn if she ever dated a vegetarian guy and her answer was definite and quick: “There is not such a thing in Argentina!”.

This lifestyle setting meant that social circles were quite easily formed. I rented myself a comfortable studio apartment in the trendy suburb of Palermo and within a week I met some of the best people on my trip.

Few culture shock moments however waited for me. Here is a quick list:
- The challenge of finding Pepper in supermarkets.
- The challenge of walking on a flat, even, safe pavement.
- The challenge of finding a seat in a morning/noon/evening subway
- The challenge of kissing a guy goodbye…

Learning Spanish

Perhaps the biggest challenge was to understand the Argentinean Spanish. The Locals speak it like they drive their cars: Very Fast.
Armed with a vocabulary of only few words in Espaniol my only chance was to spend a big chunk of my time learning the language so I registered myself to an intense 3 weeks course.
The course was great; especially the social side of it but too slow for my taste so I’ve added few hours a week of private lessons.
I can honestly say that my trip in Argentina wouldn’t be the same without those few first weeks. I might not speak Spanish very well now but I can understand many conversations which is a big part of experiencing the South American culture.

Few weeks later I felt its time to leave the big city for some fresh mountain air and I decided to head south to the amazing Patagonia.
Write soon
Tal