Argentina

This last weekend we went to Piracicaba to visit Alexandre and Bruna; and Bea and Reynaldo from 2011. The trip from Assis to Pircacicaba was about 8 hours as Sao Paulo still doesn't have a vast interstate connecting its cities in the same way that the United States does. Luckily, the landscape is beautiful with endless sugarcane fields planted in the signature red soil of São Paulo. Sugar Cane dominates São Paulo as it competes with oil for fuel for cars. Ethanol is about $1.80 reais per liter and gasoline is about $2.80 reais per liter. Recently, the government started subsidizing gasoline as a way to control inflation and boost government popularity. This is making the sugar cane ethanol industry hugely unprofitable as it does not receive subsidies (unlike the US where corn ethanol receives significant subsidies). It remains to be seen what will happen to Brazil's great sugar cane ethanol industry. If it is competing against subsidized oil, it will likely fail in the long te...

We went to Iguaçu Falls two weeks ago. I had gone in 2008 with my mom and sister, but only on the Argentinian side as the Brazilian side required a visa, which I did not have at the time. In 2014, I did have the visa to Brazil; however, upon speaking with people at the hostel, Argentina has a newly implemented visa requirement for Americans of $150. Hardly worth forking over $150 plus park entrance fees to see the Argentinian side for one day. Plus Sandra didn't have her immigration papers. So, my situation was exactly reversed between 2008 and 2014 in terms of having the right visas for two bordering countries. A bit unusual in my opinion. Here are the pictures from 2008 of what Iguazu normally looks like.  Beautiful right? That's not how Iguazu looks right now. Brazil is experiencing extremely unusual weather patterns that many believe are due to Climate Change. There is a huge drought in Sao Paulo as a pocket of hot air is sitting above the state caus...

When we landed in São Paulo, Brazil we immediately left the city of 20 million people and headed 434 km to the "interior," or inner part of Sao Paulo state. Our destination was Assis, SP with a population of 120,000 and feel of Shelton, WA, or a town of about 30,000. The reason we went to Assis, or Center of the World as the locals like to joke, is because of the university of UNESP, which has an unofficial connection to Georgetown University. In exchange for teaching a three hour class for three weeks, Sandra and I were given free room and board at one of the professor's houses, João (Ja-Wow). I am teaching English and she is teaching Spanish. Pretty sweet gig if you ask me. 9 hours of teaching for a month of free accommodation in Brazil during the World Cup when the average cost per day for tourists in Rio and Sao Paulo is north of $500. Here's a map of Assis, SP.  My first class I didn't really know what to expect. I'm not a teacher by vocation, I stud...

Being in Brazil for the World Cup is different than I thought it was going to be. You think Brazil and you think World Cup and you immediately assume that they country that embodies o Jogo Bonito (The Beautiful Game) is going to love to be the host of the world's greatest sports spectacle. This is the idea I went to Brazil with. When I first arrived, everything seemed to be fitting in with this idea superficially. There are Brazilian flags everywhere, Brazilian jerseys and horns are in every market and store front, and people are wearing Brazilian jerseys. But when you start to talk to people about the World Cup, you realize that it is a much more complicated issue. While Brazilians mostly like soccer, or futebol, many are extremely upset over the quantity of money spent in preparation for the World Cup, mainly stadiums. The most obvious example is Manaus which is remotely located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest and hardly accessible by car. The Brazilian...