Spain >> Portugal >> Recife >> Wedding >> Amazon >> Rio >> Brasilia

Wow, so much has happened in the last 15 days that it is hard to believe I lived through all of it. Sooooo much has happened! Fasten your seat belt, here goes a very rough summary of the recent events:

After I left Sweeden I went to Vigo, Spain to meet my great friend Adrian (pic). As always, the fun is guaranteed with Adrian... we went to Portugal for a music festival and the next two days we relaxed in nice restaurants by the beach and what not (mostly recovering from the night Portugal). It was great to see Adrian and the rest of the gang in Vigo. I wished I could've stayed longer...



The one day and a half that I spent in Lisbon was just enough to get a feel for the Portuguese capital. Lisbon was the only city that I didn't hit on my 2004 trip so it was good to see it this time. From there I went to Recife in the northeast of Brazil (paradize area for me) where I spent one marvelous night. Great meal and walk by the beach, killer breakfast and I was off to home sweet home Brasilia!
I arrived in Brasilia and I hit the groud running. Tons of little stuff to do for the wedding, renting tux, driving and translating around town and what not. I had to do lots of stuff before the wedding, it was very enjoyable. I got to spend a lot of time with the Pattersons (now the inlaws) and show them Brasilia. It was great.



My sister married Preston Patterson on August 26th and the wedding was AMAZING!!! Perfect!!! Outside, around 5pm, no clouds, great spring weather, she looked beautiful - it was like a dream. My mom was so happy with everything :) Me too. The party afterwards was great too. I got to see sooooo many people that I hadn't seen in a long time (just about all my family and friends ;) ).


The next day after the wedding the Patterson's and I flew to Manaus to explore the Amazon forest and river. We got to see lots of cool stuff, great boat trips on the Amazon and Negro river, and a super nice/fun hotel by the river. We had a very full time in Manaus! From there we went to Rio de Janeiro - the wonderful city- to catch some more of the Brazilian culture. Rio was fantastic. Great weather, amazing beaches and views. It was soooo enjoyable! The Corcovado (where the big statue of the Christ is) is spetacular! One of the most beuatiful/ special places in the world for sure! The Maracana was also lots of fun. From Rio the Pattersons went back to Colorado and I returned to Brasilia to finally be at home for a bit... ;)


This trip accross Brazil was really special. It was fun to be with the inlaws and help them with all the menus in Portuguese and the small (sometimes BIG) problems in airports and what not. We sure experienced lots of adeventures in these 5 days. God was all over our trip! It was amazing :) Thanks again Rick, for letting me come with you guys! I loved it!

Now I am just waiting on my papers to be able to come back to the States. Please pray about this because it's been more than 4 months and I still have no answer! Hopefully I'll be able to return to GA in October. In the meantime I'll try to stay on solid ground for more than a week and enjoy my family :)

>> Marilyn, Karol, Cailey, Rick Patterson



Em Portugues
Estou no Brasil! Depois da Suecia passei pela Espanha, Portugal, Recife, casamento da Luisa, Manaus, Rio de Janeiro e agora estou em Brasilia. Me liga ou passa la' em casa que te conta todas as historias ;) Valheu?! ;)

Sweeden/ Suecia

Thomas, JP, Margareta, Folke

My time is Sweeden has been great. I've spent most of my time with Thomas and his family hanging out in Lund and Malmo. We had a delicous dinner with Thomas' parents (Folke and Margareta) on Sunday night and on Monday I got to hang with Peter (Thomas' older brother). This was the third time we've met and I really like to spend time with this family. We've become good friends. It was also very nice to meet Thomas' girlfriend, Ida. Cool girl. Staying in the dorms and cooking with Thomas brought back many good memories from High Point ;) Today I am off to Spain and in 4 days I'll be in Brazil!

>>Peter + JP

Em Portugues
Minha passagem aqui pela Suecia foi joia. Foi bem legal rever o Thomas e sua famila, e tambem conhecer a namorada dele (Ida). Domingo a noite jantamos com os pais dele e segunda feira passei o dia com o irmao mais velho (Peter) em Malmo. Fiquei hospedado no dormitorio da universidade, no quarto visinho ao do Thomas. Foi muito bem divertido estar com o Thomas mais uma vez nos dormitorios, e cozhinhar juntos e tal. Hoje estou de saida para a Espanha para rever meu amigo Adrian. E depois, em 4 dias estarei no Brasil!

Acknowledgement / Recochecimento

I must take a minute to acknowledge how real, present and good God is in my life. This past week I've been contacting many different airlines trying to book a flight to Brazil (Varig went bankrupt so now all the other companies are overbooked and there are no flights from Europe to Brazil). On my last day in Thailand after fasting and prayer I call United Airlines one more time and got connected with a very helpful agent. After 2.5 hours on the phone we found a flight from Lisbon to Recife on the exact date that I wanted! It was really amazing how all this worked out. Immediately after that phone call I went to the Chiang Mai airport to catch my flight to Bangkok so I could come to Copenhagen.
About a month ago I called from NZ to book my flight from Bangkok to Copenhagen and the agent told me that there were no seats available for that route in the month of August! So we changed the route to Bangkok - Frankfurt - Copenhagen. So I called Lufthansa in Bangkok to confirm that I was on the flight, and the agent said, "yes, you are confirmed and it will be 33000 baht (about US$1000)." I had no time to talk because I had to board the plane in Chiang Mai, so I told the agent that I would be there in an hour to discuss this problem. During the whole flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok I was praying about this matter, because I had already paid for this ticket and an extra $1000 was not on my budget. So I got there and met a good agent and the Lufthansa office and after much explaining and calculations (1.5 hours) she was able to reissue my ticket with all my new routes all the way back to Atlanta and I only had to pay the standard $125 fee for reissuing a ticket plus the airport tax for stopping in Frankfurt. It was very intense hour and a half at the airport office in Bangkok, but God provided in an amazing way, and everything that could've and needed to happen for the reissuing of the ticket to work out happened in perfect timing.
I was soooooo relieved and thankful when I boarded the plane. Now I am in Sweden (Lund) with my good friend Thomas and it's great to be here. God is very real and very good. You just have to trust him and go for it.


Em Portugues
Tenho que escrever pelo menos um paragrafo aqui para reconhecer o quanto Deus e' real, presente e bom na minha vida. Nos ultimos 10 dias eu tenho ligado para varias companhias aereas tentando marcar minha passagem da Europa para o Brasil. Como Varig faliu todas as outras companhias estao super lotadas e nao tem mais vagas para voar da Europa para o Brasil no mes de agosto. Depois de um tempo de jejum e oracao liguei mais uma vez para a United e foi atendido por uma agente muito boa e depois de duas horas e meia de pesquisas e tentativas achamos um voo de Lisboa a Recife justamente na data que eu queria! Gloria a Deus. Logo depois do telefonema foi direto para o aeroporto de Chiang Mai para pegar meu voo para Bangkok, para seguir com minha viagem rumo a Europa.
A um mes atras quando eu estava na NZ eu liguei para a United para maracar meu voo Bangkok- Copenhagen mas nao haviam mais vagas no mes de agosto. Entao tivemos que mudar o trajeto para Bangkok- Frankfurt - Copenhagen. Logo antes de embarcar em Chiang Mai liguei para o aeroporto de Bangkok para confirmar que eu estava no voo para Copenhagen mais tarde naquela mesma noite. A agente da Lufthansa confirmou minha reserva e disse que custaria 3000 baht ($1000)! Bom eu falei pra tia que em uma hora estaria em Bangkok para resolver esse questao. Esse voo ja' estava incluso na minha passagem e nao tinha $1000 no banco sobrando para pagar mais essa passagem. Bom passei o voo inteiro de Chiang Mai a Bangkok orando sobre mais esse problema e quando cheguei la' Deus me deu uma paz no coracao que ajudou bastante. Fui atendido por uma agente boa e depois de muitas explicacoes e contagem de milhas (mais uma hora e meia) a moca emitiu meu bilhete novo com minhas novas tragetorias ate' Atlanta. So' tive que pagar a tarifa normal de $125 para a emissao da passagem nova e mais a taxa do aeroporto. Que luta meu.
Foi o maior alivio finalmente embarcar no aviao saindo de Bangkok. Agora estou na Suecia com meu grande amigo Thomas. Bom de mais estar aqui. Deus e' bom de mais, o lance e' confiar nele e bola pra frente.

3 day treking/ 3 dias na trilha - Chiang Mai

The three day treking expedition was certainly my favorite adventure so far in Thailnad. On the first day we got on a truck and headed out of Chai Maing into the mountains and jungle of north Thailand. Ou first stop was an awsome waterfall, with cool (very slipery) natural slides :) Afteer that a quick stop at a temple up in the mountains and then a good 2 hour walk to a very small local village for our first camp sight. You should check the pics of the village to see our accomodations. This was a very cultural experience. So different from the Western world. After dinner we sang songs around the fire until late at night. I sang a song with made up words about Thailand and our group and the guides and everybody had a good laugh... The second day was full good hikes and waterfalls. By the end of the day the trek got tougher and tougher and it was lots of fun. We had a group of 10 (2 french guys, 3 Israeli, a French family of 4 and I). The Israeli guys (Alex, Bendov, Dori) were a lot of fun and I spent most of my time with them. After dinner on the second night I had my first original full body Thai massage. It was wonderfull! On the third day we jumped off a 10m waterfall (several times... + a 3m back flip), then went bamboo rafting (no seat belts or handles on this thing) and lastly we got to ride on elephants! Off course I asked to sit on the head of the elephant and be the driver :) Loads of fun, not so easy to stay balanced...
In addition to all that, we got to play lots of Thai football (which is smiliar to Foot-volley, but with a smaller/plastic ball), eat loads of different fruits along the way and learn some cool tricks that our guides would teach us. These guys knew a LOT of tricks :) They were like the Thai version of Macguiver.
I am back in Chaing Mai now for two days and then I am off to Sweeden. I am still having troubles booking my ticket to Brazil. Please pray about that. Thanks!
(Bendov, Alex, Dori)


Em Portugues Com certeza o melhor programa que fiz ate' agora na Tailandia foi a trilha de 3 dias aqui perto de Chai Miang. No primeiro dia saimos da cidade de caminhonete rumo as montanhas e florestas do norte de Tailandia. Nossa primeira parada foi numa cachoeira sensacinal e depois do almoco visitamos um templo no topo de uma montanha com uma vista bem legal. Logo depois deixamos a caminhonete e seguimos a pe' (2 horas) ate' uma pequena aldeia local onde nos acampamos. Vale a pena ver as fotos da aldeia. Vida totalmente diferente da nossa. Depois da janta sentamos em volta da fogueira com o violao. Inventei uma musica la' na hora sobre a Tailandia e os nossos companheiros de viagem o todo mundo rio pra caramba :). Eramos 10 no nosso grupo, 2 franceses, 3 israelenses, e mais uma familia de 4 franceses. Os israelenses (Alex, Dori, Bendov) eram muito gente fina e passamos a maioria do tempo juntos. No segundo dia caminhamos muito no meio da selva, vimos muitas canhoeiras e nadamos varias vezes - muito show de bola! No ultimo dia pulamos de uma cachoeira de 10m (vairas vezes) e depois decemos o rio numa jangada de bamboo - que foi bem mais divertido do que o esperado :) E para acabar o passeio montamos nos elefantes e fizemos um passeio pela selva. E' claro que montei logo na cabeca do bicho e de vez em quando tinha que segurar nas orelhas de fera' para manter o equilibrio. Bem legal.
Agora estou de volta em Chaing Mai (em um hotel 5 estrelas -pq aqui tudo e' barato entao to podendo, hehehehe ) e em 2 dias estarei na Suecia visitando meu amigo Thomas. Orem pela minha passagem para o Brasil. Valeu!

Bangkok .- Thailand

Eitcha, cheguei sufrido ontem a noite viu... mas
cheguei bem, achei o albergue e estou bem acomodado. O
aeroporto era meio que mal sinalizado e tudo que podia
acontecer para atrasar minha saido do aeroporto e vir
para cidade aconteceu. Caramba meu, a paciencia tava
no limite. Primeiro entrei na fila mais lenta do
mundo... todas as filas do guiche da imigracao
passaram e pegaram suas malas e minha fila ainda tinha
uns 8. Claro que eu pulei para o caixa ao lado para
ser o proximo a ser atendido. Quando finalmente era
minha vez a mocinha falou, ah nao - brasileiro tem que
passar la' no outro caixa para ver o medico. Oh diaxo,
depois de esperar esse tempo todo, sai da fila e vai
la' pro outro lado do salao pegar outra fila. A
senhora que me antendeu nao tinha a minima cara de ser
medica, e com um ingles bem quebrado ela me deu uns
formularios que eu assinei. Voltei de novo para o
guiche com meu passaporte e cai logo na fila de um
individuo que estava em treinamento. Meu, devia ser o
primeiro dia do cara. Demorou um tempao, uma duzia de
pessoas da fila ao lado passaram e finalmente eu
passei. Cheguei la' na estera e todas as malas ja'
haviam sido tiradas, mas logo depois eu encontrei
minha bag. Demorei uns 10 minutos para achar a saido
do aeroporto meu! Nao tem placa... depois tive que
desviar um batalhao de taxistas que queriam me vender
uma promocao, tive que passar por 3 maquinas para
finalmente consiguir sacar um cash. Depois sai, e
peguei o taxi normal (que era a metade do preco - bem
como o meu livro disse). O motorista nao falava nada
de ingles, mas cheguei na rua certa e logo achei meu
albergue. Morto, 12 horas de voo, mais 5 horas de
fusohorario atrasado, meu quarto era justamente no
sexto andar (sem elevador). Dormi bem pra caramba.
Cama dura que nem chao. Banho frio de manha (nao tem
agua quente - mas nem precisa). Bastante quente aqui, mas um calor suportavel.

Hoje fui visitar uma pancada de tempos budistas, e varios outros pontos turisticos. Eu cheguei muito cedo la' no templo e cai na armacao do "amigo" que tava la' que me arrumou um tuk tuk (moto sobre 3 rodas com motorista doido) para me levar em outros lugares e me trazer de volta. Na verdade o lance foi genial, e rodei Bangkok e passei por varias atracoes com motorista particular por um dollar. As coisas aqui sao muito baratas. Mas andar de moto e tuk tuk (esse e' o nome mesmo do trem) aqui e' atividade radical. Muito mais louco que pular de bungy ou paraquedas. Aparentemente as faixas nas pistas nao servem pra nada, cada um vai pra onde quer, um cortando o outro, maior confusao... e so' para no sinal se nao der pra ir meeeesmo. Bom sobrevivi. Deopis fui a Chinatown ver o bairro chines e outra anarquia de loucura total. Um tumulto de gente em lugares que nao tem espaco nem pra andar, e tem moto e carrinho de cachorro quente tentando passar na sua frente. Meu coisa de louco mesmo. Amanha vou fazer umas compras e depois ja' estou saindo daqui para ir para o norte pegar umas trilhas, ver cachoeiras e andar de elefante :)


>> tuk tuk

In English
Jus before leaving NZ I went up the Sky tower (highest building in the souther hemisphere by the way) to take a look at Auckland. I thought it was pretty big, but compared to Bangkok let me tell you... it's not very big at all. Bangkok is HUGE, extremely busy, things here are very different. The arrival last night was a bit rough, because it took me forever to go through immigration. This morning I woke up way too early (at 5am due to the time difference of 5h from NZ) and had a killer breakfast at the hostel (it was so good I orded it twice - big breaky today) and headed to town. Traffic here is insane! Like in NZ and Australia they also drive on the left side, well actually they drive on both sides... wait a minute there are no sides here. Honestly I don't think the lanes painted on the street mean anything, and WAIT! The light is red... oh I guess that doesn't mean anything either because we just kept on going. Today I did something far more eXtreme than bungy jumping or skydiving. I got on a tuk tuk (three wheel motorcile driven by crazy Thais) and this guy took me for a spin around town. I got to the buddist temple too early so a "friend" arranged this tuk tuk to take me around some other sites and bring me back around 1pm. The whole thing was set up, but it worked out really well actually. This guy drove me around for 2 hours to some of the attractions and the TAT (tourist authority t? / travel agency). It was fun, but insane! Driving on the wrong side, cutting people left and right... the works.
After that I spent a few hours wandering around the Buddah capital of south east Asia. It's called Wat Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha) and it has many temples of different shapes and sizes with hundreds of Buddha's everywhere. Very shinny and bright, with lots of details on the outside, but the inside of the simpler temples were a bit dull. The big/important ones were quite impressive. Nonetheless I didn't really feel any peace or serenity in there. Very hot in busy inside. Unlike the European old cathedrals that somehow stay cool and quite (even in the summers with many visitors). After that I got on the boat again and headed to Chinatown. More insanity, motorcicles on sidewalks, people selling/eating/drinking stuff only God knows where it came from. Most of it looks weird and smells weird. I got to see a lot of new things today. That's for sure! After an exausting sightseeing day I went to one of the malls and was glad to see some familiar things like Burger King and what not.
I am hoping to do lots of shoping tomorrow! I am a little disapointed that things are not as cheap as I expected (as far as clothes - everything else like food/transportation/lodging is dirt cheap). But tomorrow is Saturday so I am going to the BIG market. Should find some good deals there. Then I'll go to the biggest mall in southeast asia, which should be quite good also.
In two days I'll be headed north to Mai Chai to do some trekking on the hills and forest. 3 days/2nights and many trails, waterfalls and elephants coming up. should be fun!

Report / observacao

I've been reading the book, The World is Flat, by Thomas Freedman which was recommended by my good friend/mentor Dr Wray, and this book talks a lot about blogging and the power of uploading and I feel compelled to write down some of my findings of the Land Down Under (this will be very brief).

I have noticed that the Kiwis (New Zealander) is very proud of their country and their roots (Maori culture) and they take very good care of their land - a lot more than any other country I've seen. They are proud to be nuclear free. They seem to be spiritually asleep. Australia is more industrialized and has more big cities, where as NZ only has Auckland. As one of the guides here said, NZ is like the rest of the world was 5 years ago (and that's true).
Australia has no typical or stereotype looking people or food. The country seems to be so young in its roots and has so much international flavor that it doesn't have a flavor of its own (yet). In NZ is easy to spot the Maori's where as in NZ the Aboriginals are nonexistent in society (at least on the east coast). Australians were very cool, into surfing stuff to look cool, laid back, almost slow. I found more Christians in Australia then NZ.
I found both countries similar to Brazil and Europe and different from America (as I expected). Aus and NZ are culturally closer to Brazil then Europe. The Europeans that I've met here confirm what I learned two years ago on my tour of Europe. The Spanish are a lot of fun, they party their life away and seem to be happy at the moment but they are clearly missing something that is not of this world. The Sweeds are extremely polite and the role model for world citizens. The German guy that I met here was different then the typical. He was a Christian and was usually late. We became good friends. In a nut shell that's my take on the people and the Land Down Under.

Em Portugues
No momento estou lendo o livro "O Mundo e' Plano" escrito por Thomas Freedman, que e' sobre a globalizacao do mundo. O livre menciona que uma das maiores razoes da rapida globalizacao e' justamente esse mundo dos blogs e tudo que eles passem de informacao e tecnologia de um para o outro. Entao ai vai minha contribuicao sobre o que eu ja' observei enquanto desse lado do globo.

Os Kiwis (povo da Nova Zelandia) tem muito orgulho da terra deles e por sinal cuidao MUITO BEM do seu meio ambiente. Impressionante o tanto que eles se importam com a natureza. Eles tambem estao bem vinculados a sua cultura (Maori), ja' os Australianos quase nao tem contato com sua cultura original (Aboriginais). Na NZ tambem se nota facilmente os individuos de decendencia Maori, ja' na Australia todo mundo parece ser gringo. Eles nao tem uma aparencia ou comida tipica. A Austalia parece mais uma salada de Asia e Europa com influencia americana. O pais ainda e' muito novo e ainda tem sua propria identidade. A costa leste da Australia e bem desenvolvida com varias cidades grandes, ja' a NZ so' tem Auckland (que nao e' tao grande assim, 1.4 milhoes de hab). A NZ esta' 5 anos atras do mundo (em termos de civilizacao, nao tecnologia) mas eles nao estao nem ai, pq a NZ e' show de bola e eles amam a natureza. Espiritualmente a NZ parece estar adormecida e sem interece. A Australia ja' esta' mais na frente, com pinta de reavivamento nacional (pelo menos foi o que eu vi e ouvi enquanto na JOCUM de la').

Auckland. summary/ retrospectiva NZ

Wow, this is my last night in NZ. The last two weeks have been unbelievable! I arrived in Auckland yesterday and tomorrow I am off to Bangkok, Thailand. Auckland is by far the biggest city in NZ (2 out of 3 Kiwi's live in Auckland). Very cool town. Today I spent the day at Waiheke Island doing some awsome hikes. These trails were amazing! I got to go through bush, mountains, beaches, and cool little villages (pic 2). The views are spectacular. For sure one of the coolest islands in the world. The hike got quite technical in the end and I had some exciting slip ups (close to the edge of the mountains!). It was all good at the end. On my way back into town I stopped by Devonport which is a lovely neighborhood/beach. Very nice sunset and atmosphere there (pic 1). Great day!
For the last few days, I've been hanging out a lot with team Spain (Bruno, Nuria, Bibiane, Gabriela). We had loads of fun in Kaikoura and Wellington. Wellington is notorious for nice restaurants, and we had a nice italian meal on our last night together there... good times.
here goes a brief summary of my travels in NZ (for my own record) - Day 1 arrive in Wellington, stay in an awsome YHA hostel and catch the ferry to the South Island the next day. This is was a very nice cruise. Big ship, the works, great views too (3h trip). Day 2 join the Kiwi Experience bus in Picton, spent the night in Nelson, nice hostel, met the friends I would travel with for the next 10 days. From Nelson to Westport was a nice drive, checked out a cool lake (crazy English guys went for a swim) and then a walk through tropical forest. Next day we had an amazing walk by the beach, another scenic drive till lake Mahinapua. Checked out the sunset at the beach, went for a run on the beach with Dan (English guy) and at night we had our trash bag costum party (we all had to make outfits out of trashbags. I was a rugby player on steriods- great costumes that night). Day 4 walk through forest to a nice lookout point where we could see beach, mountains, forest, river and lakes. Eat lunch at the beach, check out Franz Joseph glaciers. Day 5 at 6:45am skydive over Fox glaciers, then an all day hike on Franz Joseph glaciers and watch the All Blacks beat South Africa at night. Day 6 we went to lake Wanaka. Amazing views, including lake Hawea too. In this town Anders and I checked out the old fashion cinema where they served us dinner in the middle of the movie (cool place, we watched the daVinci Code- I thought it was pretty good). Day 7 as we were leaving Wanaka we went to puzzling world. They had lots of cool interective visual effects there, plus a maze that took me a while to find the exit! The first thing we did when we arrived in Queenstown was the bungy at the legendary Kawarau bridge (highlight!!!) I spent 5 nights in queenstown doing snowboarding, bungy, watching my friends jump and riding on the luge. Very fun town! On day 11 we went to Christchurch with a very crazy driver (Dave). We saw Mt Cook (biggest mountain in NZ) one more time, watched a couple of movies and headed to the east coast. Loooong drive. All Blacks beat Australia that night. Day 12 we headed to kaikoura where we went whale watching. Only got to see two, but it was fun, they are huge! Saw many seals as well. Day 13 get the ferry to the North Island and back in Wellington (capital). Nice dinner with the Spanish team in downtown. Day 14 check out the national museum Te Papa with the Lord of the Rings exibition. Very cool displays of the original miniatures, clothes and weapons. And finally the last two days I've been exploring Auckland and Waiheke islands. Could've not gone better. Very full time. Thank you Lord for letting me see so much of your beauty :) 100's of pics coming up... :)


Em Portugues
Bom, agora estou em Auckland (a maior cidade na NZ) e passei o dia na ilha Waiheke. Peguei umas trilhas muito feras la', com vistas fantasticas. Na volta passei por Devonport que e' uma praia bem legal tambem. Amanha estarie indo para Tailandia e vou passar 10 dias por la' . Ai vai o roteiro que fiz na NZ nas ultimas duas semanas: Wellington - Picton - Nelson - Westport - Lago Mahinpua (festa a fantasia com sacos de lixo), Montanhas glacias em Franz Joseph (paraquedas) - lago Wanaka- Queenstown (bungy e snowboard) - Christchurch - Kaikoura (baleias) - Wellington - Auckland. A versao em ingles a cima tem mais detalhes das aventuras... fotos em breve.

spanish team