electrical outlets in brasil may be the best i’ve seen on my trip, since they’re a hybrid of the two types used in the americas. apparently, they’re also convenient for jamming wires into if you’re missing the plug.

another exciting day today — brasil is much cooler than i had expected. i started off by checking out a small exhibition of saint etienne, then checked out the cool modern art museum in curitiba (oscar niemeyer museum). both had very cool pieces of art…and the latter was housed in a beautiful piece of architecture (designed by mr niemeyer himself).

from there, we stopped by nissan hq again, where i met some more very cool marketing people. they were very enthusiastic about the trip….it sounds like some exciting things might happen.

afterwards, a 5hr drive to sorocaba (outside of sao paulo), where we met up with some folks who were at the pantanal with us. Sol and Lily have a beautiful house and took us out for an awesome evening. Most of the night was spent at a crowded/fun local bar with a very good live band. i didn’t realize that brazilians have a different dance for almost every song….i sorta learned a few of them.

what a fun day!

after returning from nissan, adrian and i….

-LAUNDRY: laundry here is insanely expensive. one place wanted $25 to wash/dry one load, another few wanted $15 (and it would take about 36 hrs).

-BRAZILIANS ARE NICE (TAKE 1): after giving up on the laundry, we visited the IPPUC (curitiba’s center for innovative urban planning initiatives). the staff there was very friendly….offering us a stack of books from their library, pamphlets/brochures to take home, internet, coffee, etc.

-OPERA HOUSE: the curitiba opera house is very cool. surrounded by a small pond and trees, the structure is made of a metal wire-frame with glass in-between. it kind of looks like a birdcage in a beautiful little park (isolated from the busy city life).

-LIGHTHOUSE OF KNOWLEDGE: just up the road is one of the famous lighthouses. they’re small public libraries with computers and other services. this one actually had an authentic lighthouse (the motor used to turn the light-reflector was in disrepair, though). the idea is that the building is easy to see and can cast the light of knowledge over the city.

-BRAZILIANS ARE NICE (TAKE 2): from there, we hiked a couple kilometers to the free university for the environment. the road is a bit confusing, so a 3rd grader led us to the park — she was really mature. the cool wood building is nestled in another beautiful landscape with a cliff face, pond and trees. the building was closed, but from my understanding, it is more of a hippie community center, where everyone is both a teacher and student.

-BRAZILIANS ARE NICE (TAKE 3): next, we checked out the federal university (first one in brasil), then walked to the theater across the street. there was a concert about to start featuring elba ramalho. we decided to try to get tickets to see him (we later learned elba was a woman). while in line, a man walked up and offered us 2 free tickets! apparently he got them for free from work and couldn’t go. the audience at the concert was really enthusiastic: clapping at the start of the songs (before the band told them to), waving their hands (literally everyone raised their hands when elba told us to), singing, etc. it was a fun experience.

coincidence or fate? for several years i’ve wanted to visit curitiba because of its world-renowned progressive urban planning initiatives. adrian also heard about curitiba, although was more interested in their environmental programs (they have tons of parks, good recycling, etc). last night, after arriving here, i got an email from carlos (a family friend) who said that brasil’s main plant for nissan was here! so, this morning, i drove out to nissan (which, thanks to the urban design, is actually surprisingly close and easy to access from the center of curitiba).

after a little bit of resistance, the staff at nissan/renault was incredibly friendly (and i’m not just saying that because they might be reading this). Raylson (from renault), came out to see ushi and told me that there are 4 potential options for getting rid of the sentra:

1) destroy the vehicle (what a waste!);

2) sell the vehicle (i’d probably lose money in the transaction, since importing the vehicle will cost ~$4k);

3) donate the vehicle; or

4) use the vehicle for nissan marketing.

Raylson said he’d look into those options and get back to me tomorrow — i’m hoping for #3 or #4.

some thoughts from today:

this morning we walked around a huge park in maringa (3km circumference). unfortunately, the park is closed for another few months because (apparently) the monkeys have yellow fever.

the cone-shaped cathedral in maringa is really cool. it’s all cement and has very cool art work painted on the walls.

near the bigger cities, they have radar/camera combos to catch people speeding. however, they put several signs warning drivers about 500m before….so instead, you get mini traffic jams at the cameras.

tonight in curitiba, there was only one radio station (out of about 20) that played music…the rest were all talk.

they love that song ‘tonight’s gonna be a good night’ (black eyed peas)….it’s played everywhere and all the time.

it seems like brazilians may be more keen to speak english than spanish? the brazilians i met in santiago preferred speaking english to the chileans working at the hostel. and, on the radio today, we heard several english songs and no spanish ones. for instance, (twice) they played the new shakira song…but the english version instead of the spanish one. when they play english songs, they sometimes will play half of the original song then half of it in portuguese….it’s an interesting mix.

tonight we got stuck in a traffic jam in the center of curitiba. so much for their revolutionary urban planning system.

adrian made an interesting comment today — here, people expect him to speak portuguese…whereas in other countries (i.e.-argentina), they knew (expected) that he was a foreigner. brazil is pretty diverse. also, mixed-race couples seems more common here(?)

tonight we saw a really cool guitar/harmonica duo playing at a small joint here in curitiba (jokers). they were really good.

after a late start in campo grande, we were on the road to curitiba. so far, roads in brasil are pretty decent. the worst roads we’ve been on are paved ones with tons of pot holes. some also have giant bulges in the center of the lane. a few times i think the bottom of the sentra came very very close to hitting those (most of the time, i drive on the side of the road, when i see them). the country side out here is really beautiful. it’s mostly large green fields of sugar cane or pasture land with trees lining the roads and/or dotting the fields (why do the farmers leave some of those trees there? …i also imagine much of these areas were once forested with trees). sunsets are also very pretty.

we also had two incidents (at the same time). the first was another flat on the front left tire. the tire is starting to wear thin, but we couldn’t see any holes, so we just popped on one of the extra tires (it’s so awesome having extra tires/wheels at your disposal…thanks vince!) and threw the busted one in the trunk. when i tried to close the trunk, for some reason it didn’t latch. so i tried it again…and the same thing happened. then, i looked at the fixed part of the latch inside the trunk and it had fallen off! apparently the two screws holding it on had some how come loose (…sounds like the sentra might be a lemon….just kidding). luckily, i found them and now ushi’s trunk is better than ever.

we’re now in maringa, which seems like a nice little city in the state of parana. tomorrow we’ll get to explore the parks/cathedral in daylight.

just got back from the pantanal — the largest fresh water wetland in the world. right now, it’s pretty dry, though. also, it’s huge, so we only saw a very small part of it. maybe because of that, it felt a bit underwhelming. we still saw some macaw’s and boars and caymen and monkeys….but, none of the giant lily pads or anacondas. most of the time, it felt more like a nice (and more or less ordinary) national park, instead of the incredible preserve shown on planet earth. so what were some of the highlights?

pedro, our guide, was a bit of a superman. he drank river water (the same brown river we were motor boating through, fishing for piranhas in, etc). he walks barefoot everywhere. he goes out in the middle of the night with shorts and a flashlight to hunt caymen and anaconda. he can smell when monkeys are around.

when the water dries up, the caymen are forced to live in concentrated pools. in those pools, you can find piles of these reptiles….all sitting motionless. also, there eyes reflect a red light in the dark…it’s a cool thing to see at night.

piranha fishing was pretty interesting. with just a bamboo stick, hook, string and some meat, you can catch piranhas pretty easily. they don’t devour the meat like in some areas, but instead one or two will pick at it. even so, they’re so concentrated that you’ll get a bite within 30 seconds. at one point, a piranha even jumped into the boat while we were moving and hit a girl in the head!

it was cool to see and hear wild toucans. because they have such a large beak, it looks awkward (and exhausting) when they fly.

the sentra is still ok and safe. on account of the water, it smells a bit inside — kinda like the old yellow oldsmobile my grandparents used to have in cape cod. hopefully some febreeze and a long drive tomorrow will air it out some more.

another longish day of driving (from foz do iguacu to campo grande) — tomorrow, we will hopefully embark on a 3 night tour in the pantanal (ushi will stay behind in campo grande). a couple things:

earth, water, air and fire: on monday, ushi almost got swallowed up by the sandy road leaving parque ibera (a ton of red dust entered the car too). on wednesday, ushi almost drowned in a pool of water at foz do iguacu. today, on the drive to campo grande, ushi got air when i misjudged one of the speed bumps (all wheels were off the ground). i’m a bit worried about what will come next.

traffic lights: so far, i’ve seen 4 different traffic light styles in brasil. foz do iguacu had a strange signal that had about 11 lights. 5 vertical red, 5 vertical green and one yellow in the middle. the red/green lights then counted down so you knew how much time was left. on the drive up, i saw another one that was similar, but had a green light in the middle. in campo grande, they have the traditional 3 vertical lights, plus the same arrangement horizontally, plus just red/green lights. this place must be really confusing for colorblind people.

the sentra still smells a bit….we tried to air it out and get rid of the water….but i’m afraid it’s going to stink when we return from the pantanal.

wow. as we were leaving the dam, it began to rain. hard. we proceeded slowly. then a car stopped in front of us. after a couple minutes (i thought they were waiting for someone), i passed the car. about 10 seconds later, there was a shallow pool of water under my feet (yes, in the car). i pulled to the side of the road. i heard a loud scraping sound as the car tried overcome a large curb (which was invisible to us because of the water level). i stopped for a bit. backed up. realized it was stupid to sit in a pool of water and drove onto the sidewalk — with the engine sputtering, wheels skidding and the bottom of the car scraping against the concrete.

across the street, one car was almost completely flooded (water from the window down). most cars made it. some gave up. some died. we waited. 30 minutes later, the water level was down again. we saw that we accidentally drove over the drain on the road (and thus, the lowest part of the road). the car made it to the hostel without any issues. although, it’s now noisier than usual and i think something may be broken underneath. according to some locals, they’ve never seen the road get flooded like that. it’s by far the worst stretch of road i’ve driven on yet. maybe the sentra isn’t ready to sail to antarctica after all.

after iguacu, we drove over to the itaipu hydroelectric power plant. the dam is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world (energy production) and is one of the 7 modern wonders of the world (according to the american society of mechanical engineers). the plant only has 20 turbines, but produces all of paraguay’s electricity plus 20% of brazil’s. a few other interesting facts:

the water flow going through each turbine is equivalent to about half of the water passing through iguacu (under normal conditions).

paraguay only needs about 1.5 turbines to power the entire country!

the flooded area used to house the tallest waterfall in the world (7 falls?), but (according to the guide) since brazil and paraguay could never agree on ownership, they decided to just destroy it.

paraguay and brazil split everything from the dam 50/50. there are 50% brazilians working there and 50% paraguayans (according to the guide, they speak portanol). at the main control center, there are 2 paraguayans and 2 brazilians….plus a manager, who switches between brazilian and paraguayan every 6 hours. even the power leaving the plant is split evenly: 50% goes to brazil (60hz) and 50% to paraguay (50hz). since paraguay only uses 14% of their allotted energy, they resell the remaining 86% to brazil, who then needs to convert it to 60hz. the list of inefficiencies caused by their ridiculous arrangement goes on and on.