How many different ways are there to eat crab?

Well, to answer that question, I would say quite a few. We all went out to this awesome seafood restaurant right on the beach last night and Mom- you would have been so jealous. Not to rub it in or anything, but I ate a lot of delicious crab in a lot of delicious ways. Paula's brother and his new wife came to join us, and they were both very nice and so very cute! I tried a few caipivoshkas made with fruit that I have never heard of before, and of course now I can't remember the names of those fruits, but I will reobtain that info and get back to you. We called it a night around 12, and headed back home. We looked like a bunch of bumbly bear-sloths walking in, as we were all so tired. I woke up this morning bright and early and ready for action because I couldn't contain my excitement anymore!! We are going to an all day music festival today and I LOVE MUSIC FESTIVALS!!!!!!!!!! I am going to go wake up everybody now because it is almost time to start our Pitu pre-party. (Paula has a special Pitu caipirinha machine, and we are going to try that baby out!!) Whoohooooooooooooooooooooo Chicletes Com Bananas here we come!!!!! :) AAAAALLLRIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!

VIP in Recife

So, after another 16 hours on the bus (which, by the way, did end up smelling like poop), we finally made it to Recife!!!! Did we get there at 8am like the bus people said we would? No, of course not. Do I know what time we actually did get there? No, of course not.... every clock in the terminal was different, and they ranged from 10am-1pm. I am guessing we were closer to ten due to the position of the sun, but there is no way to prove that.

So, I got out my little Brasilian Oi phone card and attempted to call Francisco.... about 78 times.... because I didn't think it was working.... No one ever said using a Brasilian pay phone was easy. Little did I know, that apparently it was working, and he was just in a meeting and I made his phone go off for like an hour.... hahahaha sorry about that one Chicão..... anyways, he called me back on the payphone (that is right, I answered the phone in the terminal and just said, "Hello?" like I was at home. I got a few weird looks on that one....) and arranged for Paula to come pick us up! I love her!!!!!! She is so awesome!!!!

Paula took us to a really cool place for lunch and right off the bat we ordered up some Caipirinhas. What more could we ask for? We ate some delicious food and had a wonderful lunch getting to know the newest addition to the South American branch of the family. It was great. So, then she took us to Olinda, where there are signs everywhere that say "beware of shark attacks".... I am now missing a leg, but it was just my left one, so no problem. We had a few Skols there on the beach while Paula ran across the street and to do some quick cachaça business deal, and then she came back and we ate the freshest crab ever. I mean it was literally crawling in my hand one second and the next it was on my plate..... pobrecito. It got revenge on me when it clawed my thumb though, and now I have a huge war wound. Crab ghosts are the worst kind of ghosts. Anyways, after the carageijo (sp??) we went up to this square and tried some tapioca, a strange little beady substance that they fry and then it kind of turns into a crepe type thing and there was queijo and coco in it. Delicious.

Then, Francisco finally got out of work and met us up in the square! Reunion! We had some more Skol, chatted about memories past, and then headed back to Paulas to get ready for the evening. I am pretty sure we googled the lyrics to Total Eclipse of the Heart so that Francisco could refresh his memory for the upcoming drunk dials. After taking a much needed shower, we went on our way. We stopped by Franciscos house and I got to see Iaci (sorry I know I am spelling that wrong!!) She is such an amiguinha!! She poured us a shot of cachaça and then we went out for a night on the town. Now, we arrived at this club.... red rope surrounding the door.. and we got straight in. No waiting in line for us because Paula got our name on "the list." We then proceed to the super-airconditioned dance floor, only to notice that all the tables are reserved. No problem. Paula manages to get us prime real estate somehow, so we were seated right away. Then, we tried some "snakes" :) aka snacks, and had some cervejas. The pre-party music was awesome, 1980s USA all the way. Then.... the band came on. They are from Recife, and loved by all. So cool. We put our dancing shoes on and rocked the night away. We had an absolute blast and stayed out quite late, even though they both had to work this morning!! Such good directors of fun!!!!

So, this morning, we woke up at Paula's and had a leisurely morning. She came to scoop us up around noon and took us to the beach. We sat there under and umbrella, and every time someone walked by selling all sorts of strange food, we would buy it. I ate whole shrimp (ripped their heads off and threw them at Ashley), whole fish with some delicious side dishes, a strange soupy concoction of seafood, beans, cuero, olives, and corn (really good actually!!), some nuts, some BBQed cheese on a stick, some coco, and who really knows what else. It was really cool trying so many new foods from the comfort of my own beach chair. Then, we headed back here to our new penthouse suite (yes, she also lives in one- amazing view of the city, and yes there was a gorgeous sunset). Paula had to go to work for a bit, so I watched Ice Age 3 with her sister while Ashley loaded up 9billion pics on faaaaacebook.

Side note- she has a really awesome camera, and mine is held together by tape and the battery only works for about 30 seconds before dying, so I am relying on her for pics. I will get the web address for them and put them on my blog to share. For now, they are on facebook.

Anyways, I love cartoons, and now we are getting ready for the night. I am not sure what is on the agenda, but Francisco and Paula should be getting home from work soon. I am so stoked for tomorrow- there is a huge outdoor music festival with like 10 of the most awesome Brasilian bands ever and of course Paula is getting us in VIP style once again. Why would you have it any other way? It will be awesome.

Day 22: get made fun of by parrot.

soooooo.... we spent most of the day trying to get a darn bus ticket up to Recife. unlucky for us, the people that work for the bus company would much rather surf than actually sell bus tickets. so, after trying literally everything in our power to get these tickets, we had to form a few more plans.

plan a: steal 2 donkeys and head north.

plan b: make a run for it.

plan c: take a bus to salvador and then catch one from there to recife.

Obviously, we opted for the donkeys.

So, after a morning of sitting on bus company steps and spending $22 on postcard stamps, we decided to meet up with our drum circle friends once again for some good old fashioned relaxation time. so, we headed up to the local tattoo parlor and found our dreadlocked pals in their camo pants. They were their usual hilarious selves, and so were we, so a good time was had by all. One of our amiguinhos had a parrot. I have not laughed this hard in I don't know how long. The parrot fake charged me, and then started laughing at me in a human voice. If I had not been staring at this parrot with my own eyes, I would have thought it was a small child laughing hysterically. It was the absolute funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. The parrot was making fun of me. He was screaming he was laughing so hard. I am never getting over that. We then ate dinner at a place where you can draw on the tables with crayons. That is of course why we picked the restaurant, what more could you ask for? We invited our new Israeli friend Shai and made him guess our top 5 (maybe 6) fave animals. It is our favorite game. I hate to brag, but my javelina turned out swimmingly.... well I have probably drawn at least 8,754 in my lifetime. It is my best skill. The crab moqueca thing I ate was good too. We tried to show Shai the parrot, but as soon as Ashley got the camera out, the parrot looked straight at us and would not say another word. Bastard.

(2 days later....) We hit the sack early that night because we had not slept in days. No, we did not take up crack to fit in with the locals. We were just having far too much fun. So, the next morning we once again tried to leave this town, but due to the aforementioned problems with the bus system in Itacare, we were not able to. So, we went on to plan z.... we made the best of it and went to the beach with 2 English girls, a German, a Hollander, an Israeli, and our local amiguinhos. I picked out a nice shady spot under a rather tropical looking tree and set to work doing the usual. The English girls were really cool, and we had a great time chatting about how crazy the Ecua-bus system is. Let's just say we could write a series of books about it and they would not be even close to boring. After we got back to the hostel, we realized that we had some misinformation about bus times once again (BIG SURPRISE), so we ran to the bank twice, packed up our packs, paid the bill, and ran through the cobblestone streets frantically trying to find the correct bus station. We finally found it right in the nick of time and got on the bus to Ilheus. Unfortunately, we had to leave without saying goodbye to our amiguinhos. Coincidence though- one of our band friends was on the bus, and we made him promise to make a facebook, which he did that very night. We also ended up leaving before those damn Germans paid us back for dinner..... scammed again. Damn. Always by Germans, never the locals.

Two hours later we were there, and then climbed onto another bus to Salvador. This one was sweet- the seats went all the way down, ac, blankets, headphones with a Jackie Chen movie, and a bathroom that didn't have human and/or chicken feces covering the floor. Nice. We got to Salvador this morning at about 6am. Of course the bus to Recife that is supposed to leave in the morning is non-existent today, so we had to buy a ticket that doesn't leave until 7pm tonight. So, we made the best of yet another transportation disaster and made our way to the town. We took a bus and ended up at the extremely large elevator that takes you up to the old town, which overlooks the ocean, the marina, and the old fort out in the water. Very picturesque. We made some friends with some capoeira dancers and watched them do their thing in the streets. So awesome, one of these days I am going to take one of them up on their offer to teach it to me. Then, some tourists from Sao Paulo, who apparently had a problem with Bahians, told the police that they were being accosted for money, and so there was a big uproar in the streets about how they were trying to preserve their culture and whatnot. We took this as our cue to get another Skol and find some lunch. We ate some rather spicy food at a kilo spot, and then got lost in the streets for a while. Luckily, we found our way back just in time to stop the dehydration with some delicious coco juice and I was able to get a rather nice sun hat to protect my fragile face and its fastly growing "beard." haha. Thank you Ashley for haggling the price down, you always got my back. Anywho, we made our way back here to the bus station with time to spare. We are finally going to Recife, and should be there by tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see Francisco and meet Paulinha!! I have a feeling a few people will soon be recieving drunk dials from Brasil. You know who you are. Alright, time to get on the next 12 hour bus ride. I hope this one has no chicken feces. Ooh I smell batatas fritas.

WTF?

So.... last night did turn into quite the extravaganzaaaaa..... we went out to this bar on the main strip for Victoria's birthday and I am pretty sure that at least one representative from each of the world's countries was there. I stood in for Thailand. I couldn't really afford to spend 10 reales per drink due to the fact that I am as broke as a joke, so luckily I found one of our new Chilean drum circle amiguinhos and he showed me where the gas station was (take a left at the dark alley and then a right at the kids drinking cachaça on the front porch) so that I could use my mastercard (the supermercado closes at 11pm, and lets face it, it was probably about 3am....) Thank you American credit system for making this possible. Just kidding Dad..... Anyways, Pingo the posauda dog followed us all the way, and I just want to say that he is just about the cutest Brasilian dog I have ever seen. He is always trying to put his paw on you. Kind of like Cath does when we sleep in the same bed. Just likes to know you are there. Definitely cooler than Pinche.... no offense Pinche. Somehow, we ended up going to an after party at the band's house where we played music and this tiny old crazy man kept kissing us on the top of the head and telling us about how he spends 11 hours a day climbing coconut trees. He then proceeded to try to braid my hair.... Next thing we know, it was light outside, so we headed back home. Our new Canadian friend tried to order us some 6am Brahmas, but even we were too tired for this kind of behavior, and so we opted out and went to sleep. About 20 minutes later, we woke up because we had to go to the bus station AGAIN to try to buy tickets to Recife. There are many things wrong with this bus station:
1. The only bus that goes to Recife is Sao Geraldo.
2. The Sao Geraldo office where you buy the tickets is not at the bus station, it is somewhere that is hard to find.
3. The Sao Geraldo office is never open when we get there.
4. The Sao Geraldo website doesn't work.
5. The Sao Geraldo phone number to the Itacare office is pointless because they are never there to answer the phone.
6. Sacanagem.
So, we will try again at 1:30pm, as they posted a sign swearing they would be back at this time..... So, after trying to figure out the bus dilemma, (only to decide that we can't do a damn thing about it until 1:30) I mosied on down to the local supermercado to get something to drink. On my way there, I saw one of our band friends. He was drinking a Skol (10am) and somehow I accidently knocked it on the ground, spilling beer and glass everywhere. They said no problem, and then bought me a beer. That about sums this town up in a nutshell. I went to get Ashley and we then proceeded to hang out with our band friends for a bit as we are just killing time until the bus place opens. Let's just say we opted out of their 11am activity and decided to blog instead. Let's add that bit of information to the nutshell. We don't know what we are doing today because our life decisions are currently dependent on this pinche bus, but hey the world is our oyster and we just a couple of pearls.

Chapter 3: Sun:1, Margaret: 5.

casakatura.com.... seriously, that is where we were living.... shout out to Rick who is such a badass that he had a gate opener straight out of "Men In Black." So, we did end up staying in our cliffside mansion a couple days longer than previously planned, but can you really blame us? We decide to spend another day at the beach, so we hopped on our mototaxis and sped over to Mucage, an awesome beach with white cabanas and Brahma for miles. We spent the day there meeting random beach hippies who shared their coconuts and their jewelry and whatever else they may have had up their sleeves with us. We somehow managed to convince our new friend Julio to take us home on his own motorcycle, and I am pretty sure Ashley videotaped the entire ride.... we may or may not have threatened him with our pocket knives when he took a "short cut" through the woods, and I most definitely assured him that our livers would be worth nothing on the black market, so he would be wasting his time if that was his modus operandi. So, we had him drop us off at the mercado where we purchased a large bag of dried beans and a large bottle of vodka.... it seemed like a good idea at the time. We headed back home where I learned the hard way that if you make kool-aid without the correct sugar to water ratio, you can get shot. I then accidently ate a spoonful of ants due to the fact that they had infiltrated my kool-aid spoon (how many times is this going to happen to me in my life?) and of course they tasted like coconuts. I do think, however, that the protein is helping my anemia, because everytime I eat ants, I don't bruise quite so easily for a few days. Ashley then announced that "what she does to me in my sleep is her own damn business," and I don't really know what to make of that. Maybe that explains some of the bruises. So we attended yet another red carpet event, as a friend was opening up a new posauda. There was dancing, Brahma, chapagne, glittery stars, Bob Marley, food, Brasilians, and I may or may not have challenged a local man to a rap battle using a Lauren Hill beat...... needless to say I shot that sucker down. "Oh turn the lights down low.... and we certainly dont drink beer out of small plastic cups..." Something along those lines.... so there you have it. We finally left the next day. It was hard, but we had to do it seeing as how we keep shaving off plans because we end up staying in one place for too long. The thing is, Arraial cast a spell on us. I seriously think it is a magical palce. Fairy dust in the water or something. But we somehow broke free of the haze, hopped on the balsa, rode across to Porto Seguro, found ourselves some mototaxis, and went on our merry way. There is also something about a mototaxi. Regardless of how terrified one might be, you cannot help but smile when riding on one. 9 hours later, we arrvied in Itacare. We met a German girl on the bus, so the 3 of us found a hostel for the night. Unfortunately, there are no couchsurfers listed here; it was late, and we were tired, and we didnt feel like scouring the streets for a kindly drum circle to take us in, so we actually had to pay for a hostel. We aren't fond of this concept, but we are coping with vinho. The night was filled with mosquitoes, and I may or may not have malaria now. Damn, just as the post nasal drip had subsided. It's one thing after another around here. We spent yesterday at the beach, and scoped out some good surfing spots. Unfortunately I had to cancel my surfing plans this time around.... You see, I finally shoved all of my insecurities deep down into their dark shadows where they belong, I stuck on my lime green rash guard, I took a shot of maracuja caipivoshka, and I ran straight into the ocean. It was all fun and well splashing about, but somehow despite my 100 helio spf/waterproof sunscreen, I still managed to get a couple of 3rd degree burns on my pinche spots. Sacanagem. So, alas, I am staying out of the sun today and will learn to surf another time. If I get taken out on this trip, it better be due to an anaconda swallowing me whole or a great white biting my head off or something. I will be damned if I let that bastard of a sun take me down. So, on another note, we found a Chilean drum circle on the beach last night at about 4am. We may or may not have joined it and acquired their protection. (Beach mafia? I am just saying..) Oh, and I lost Ashley becuase she jumped on the back of some moto and so I then had to make this German guy scour the beaches with me until we found her.... lets just say we almost stole the moto at that point.... we thought a night ride to Boliva would be exciting.... Spent today in a hammock with my music and my book and my journal. There may or may not have been a glass of wine present as well. Rather relaxing. It is our German friend Victoria's birthday today, so chances are we will turn tonight into some kind of extravaganzaa!! Anywho, off to Recife soon!! Cannot wait to see my Brasilian cousins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And now it is time for some vinho to counter this self-induced heat rash. You really can't beat self-induced heat rash with a stick. Or can you? Ciao.....

we made a mexican feast

things are blurry as bees here in the luxurious lives of ash and marg. the moon is full and so are our bellies. we made a delicous mexican feast with variouos items that we found at the market and then watched the presidential address via internet tv. seriouosly, we are in the jungle and hooked up. ashley is currently placing a free long distance phone call to thailand. no big deal. we may or may not venture into the night right now to go on a very important missiion. mission macohna, if we choose to accept it. I have also gained an afinity towards grape koolaid. the coastal jungle is a funny, yet glorious place.

Chapter 2: Blink once if you want Brahma

Day 16:
-Went to the beach at 7am
-Saw lots of cool shells and coral
-Stopped at Munda`s house where Ash had to have a cafe.....
-Stop for some acai
-Stop to pack up some stuff
-Stop for gas
-Wait for the balsa
-Rick misses his plane.....
-Ash and Marg do not get on the bus to Itacare......
-We return to our cliffside mansion
-We see a 5 foot lizard with a blue stripe run across the patio
-I know wayyyyyy too much about barnacles because they are Ashley's fave animal.... they are kind of cool because they stand on their heads.....
-Arraial has inspired me to tattoo my entire body, so I may do that later tonight
-I love coconut juice
-We are going to make guacamole