torsdag 26 februari 2009

The right to change your mind and hesitate should be a universal human right!

I have lost momentum on this journey once again after having been robbed of my camera. Your camera is essentially the most important stuff that you own when you are a traveller. You record all aspects of your life on the road from many perspectives. Pictures speak more than words..........

I am not the same person after the loss. I try to come over it but I need some time to come to terms with the loss of 750 pictures. Time shall heal all the wounds. I have my pictures in my memory anyway.

I do not want to buy a new one, as it feels right now, I wonder, if I ever would buy any in the future either. I sat on a bus from Rio to Salvador Bahia for 28 hours yesterday! It was an exhausting journey which was full of negative thoughts about the lost pictures and my relationship with first lady.

I am in Salvador Bahia and having a lot of thoughts about where to head from here. Brazil is too big and I am sick and tired of travelling by bus and the whole life of being a backbacker at 37 years old.

I have been on the road for almost 5 months now and I do not know if I really want to continue traveling until the middle of june or go to Sweden earlier than that, may be april or so. I have to pay around 263 dollars to make any changes on the date and destination on my current ticket.

The money is alright and affordable but it is just that I do not feel that you often get an opportunity to travel for a long time as this in the near future at my age ....may be sooner than I think.... There is no reason to impose any will that does not exist.

If I have run out of steam, I shall accept that and recharge/reload the batteries in the Swedish spring or continue traveling without a camera until the middle of June. It is a hard choice but I should do that soon.I have some practical things to sort out in Sweden as well. I will not be 100 % sure whatever decision I make but that is life. There is more time and money even in the future.

By the way, I saw two football matches at Maracana in Rio the other day Macao-Americano and Flamengo-Sender. They were not the best matches that I ever seen and the Brazilian league and crowd was not impressive at all. Flamengo which is one of the biggest teams in the world with more than 50 million fans across the globe lost 1-3 to the crowds dismay and frustration.

söndag 22 februari 2009

No body really cares about Africa......

No body knows my country......

No body knows my name.......

It does not matter where I am from....

What matters is where I am heading to....

I am what I am not.....

I am what I should have been......

and could have been....

This is my usual reply to people when they ask me ,the only question that they think is right to raise to a stranger, :where are you from? People are really suffering from like of fantasy and curiosity. I sometimes wonder how much I have in common with many people......

The Rio carneval is a bit weird and bizzare even if it is a bigger version of Malmofestivalen and Lundakarnevallen.....

I have never seen so many homosexuals and transsexuals at the same place as in here. I am not a fan of batty boys.It is disgusting to see so many men dressed like women and behaving like "photo modells".

Rio and Buenos Aires are having an internal competion about which city is being "the most homo-friendly"in South America.Hallelujah! God is angry, America!

The scene of blackmen together with white western women is sickning as well because I know for sure that it is not based on genuine love. The ladies are here for the carneval and are just trying "to have fun" with the guys from the samba land.

I have become so critical to all this so called "multiculturalism" and "universal love" as it is seldom manifested on the bases of pure love and equality.

I have also given up on a transatlantic solidarity between Africa and LatiAmerica. The knowledge about Africa is shameful in this continent that many people have the same romantic picture of Africa as the white man.They talk about "Tarzan" and "Akuna Matata" when they refer to Africa. The bottom line is that they really do not care that much about Africa.

Detachment from any material thing is a must and the loss of my camera of course still bothers me but I have to accept the things that I can not change and I should strive for less dependency on electronics.

Dematerialization and ephermeralization should be our melody.

Less is better, small is beautiful.

lördag 21 februari 2009

They have robbed my camera!

The most priceless thing that you can lose on the road is your camera and that happened to me yesterday night. I was walking with some friends along the pre-carneval parade when I asked one of the friends to take a picture.

All of a sudden, some boys took the camera from the guy while he was taking pictures of me with the other friends. I held one of the boys but could not find the camera.

It was one of the worst incidents so far because around 750 photos from this journey in six countries are gone for ever. I went to the police and reported it but to no avail.

I have lost the camera but I have my memory and no body can take that from me as long as I am alive. Life as a victim of robbery in Brazil is not fun but I have to find a way to live with it.

fredag 20 februari 2009

Manu Chao in Rio

I like Rio so far and I am having a great time. Brazilian people know how to have a good time. I have visited the hunchback(Jesus statue), sugar loaf and maracana. I lived in Copacaban for a couple of days and I now live in Lapa with its famous stairs.

I was at manu Chao concert here in Rio yesterday and it was such a big disappointment. It was outsold but I managed to get a ticket via some friends. He did not play my sort of music and I found his music to be "a coordinated noise" with one dimensional sound.

But Rio has the carneval, the people, the weather, the food, the beer...................what else do you demand...?

onsdag 18 februari 2009

20 years on the road and still bewildered!

I am in Copacabana, Rio Di Janiero right now, the beach is just 5 minutes walk from my hostel.I went there last night at around 1 p.m. on my own and it was a magnificient feeling to stand there and see the waves and listen to that poweful/natural mystic.

I feel that the negative period that I have had just halfway on my journey has started to diminish and I am gonna have a new and fresh beginning from today.


I have exactly 4 months left before I return to Sweden to make up my mind about the future and sum up my life after almost 20 years on the road across the planet. I may come there earlier or later but as it feels now, I shall be sticking to the original plan unless something unexpected happens...... Things have though been going well or ¨according to my intentions¨ so far, despite the many debacles on the road.


I take a day at time and I do not know how this journey is going to end up or where it is going to take me from here.

It is not a good idea to eat a big pizza late in the evning and try to sleep. I have had a sleepless night. Living in a hostel has its own advantages in terms of getting new friends quite quickly and having a better social life than staying in a hotel on your own but most of the time,it is also noisy and full of young people who party all the night.

I shall be doing the Rio city tour in one of these days and try to watch a football match in the Brazilian league between Flamengo and Vasco at Maracana stadium in Rio on saturday. The Rio Carneval begins officially this weekend and it is very expensive depending on which part you wanna take part in. I hope that I shall be able to see a glimpse of it on one of the neighbourhoods anyway.

So I am back on track again as never before...

måndag 16 februari 2009

I shall be released!

I have run out of steam and lost momentum on this journey right now

but the song by Nina Simone "I shall be realeased" is uplifting me....

"They say everything can be replaced

They say every distance is not near

So I remember every face

Of every man who put me here

I see my light come shining

From the west down to the east

Any day now any day now

I shall be released

They say every man needs protection

They say every man must fall

So I swear I see my reflection

Somewhere inside these walls

I see my light come shining

From the west unto the east

Any day now any day now

I shall be released

yonder stands a man in this lonely crowdman

who swears he's not to blame

All day long I hear him hollering so loud

just crying out that he's not to blame

I see my light come shining

From the west down to the eastAny day now any day now

I shall be released."

torsdag 12 februari 2009

What is the missing link???

I should be more than happy with my life and my whole situation right now but I am other than that.... I do not know what the missing link is..... I spend so much time pondering over the very meaning of life and my journey instead of living life as I should.

I feel that my sense of bewilderment over my staus quo has increased during this adventure in south America. Nothing really impresses me anymore and the excitement I once had........I do not know where it is now......

It is normal to have ups and downs in life but it should not be on a longer term. I may just be exausted or age is taking its toll on me.

Sao Paulo is a rainy city and people who survive by selling umbrellas are doing pretty fine.

I am planning to go to Rio ,for the karneval, next week. I have two options thereafter........1.continue along the Brazilian coast by bus all the way up to the northern city of Belem and from there take a boat to Manaus (takes 4 days in the amazon) and continue to Venezuela by bus....from where I can fly to Cuba or 2. fly to Cuba directly from Rio and even try to visit Jamaica from there.

Option no.1 is very exciting but it takes a lot of energy and time. I do not know if I am ready for another long ....long trip. Option no.2 is probably more expensive but less exausting. I may end up with one of these options or come up with another plan. Time will tell.

måndag 9 februari 2009

I am in Sao Paulo, Brazil now....

I have made it to Sao Paulo without any significant incident this time. It is a rainy day in here and this city is so big......the karneval is around the corner..........

söndag 8 februari 2009

I have been deported from Medianera (Brazil) to Iguazu (Brazil)!!!

I was on my way to Sao Paulo yesterday evening and travelled around 65 kilometers inside Brazil to a place called Medianeira when the federal police asked for my passport and sent me back to Iguazu as I did not have the entrance visa stamp to Brazil.

I thought that they had welcomed me with open arms when they did not ask me anything during my entrance on thursday. They told me that I should have known better and sought the migration authorities myself and asked for a stamp.

I had to get back to paraguay today and get the exit visa from there and an entrance visa to Brazil. My celebration about being welcomed was a bit premature but still feel that they treated me well despite the circumstances.

I met a Swedish couple yesterday in downtown Iguazu and they let me download their music into my MP4. Johnny Cash. MC hammer and pretenders are not my favourites but a nice gesture from them to share their music with me.

I am going to go to Sao Paulo soon and hope that I will not have any problems this time.

lördag 7 februari 2009

It was a big mistake to take my laptop with me on this tour...

My laptop seems to be out of function right now. The screen is broken and the computer mouse has locked itself. I had to have it in my backpacker to avoid being at a risk of robbery which of course caused the damage on the screen.

I can not even listen to my own music from my laptop which makes me feel even more frustrated over the loss of the mp3. My new mp4 is therefore to no use so far. It hurts. Material losses with so much personality in the content are hard to overcome.

I went to the Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side yesterday and was not impressed as much as I was when I was on the Argentinian side. It was a cloudy and rainy day which even made me less motivated to move around and appreciate the beauty of nature. So I left after some hours and started figuring out once again what the purpose or mission of my south America adventure is.....all about.............

The weird and bizzare thing is that I could have bought a plastic raincoat for roughly 4 dollars and protected myself and the important documents like a passport which I had in my little bag but I refused to do that out of a silly principle reason and allowed the rain to rain on me and all the stuff I had with me. I hate feeling indifference and hesitation in many aspects of life.

I do not understand my way of thinking in many situations and travelling exposes one´s own shortcomings and irrationality in different contexts much more clearly than any other situation.

Spending money on unnecessary things at times or spending so much money on this trip, puts me on a moral dilemma to question my own solidarity with other fellow human-beings who have to struggle so much to make ends meet.

Begging children, women with babies and old people or child street vendors...e.t.c... who are having so much difficulity in life, make me wonder if I am doing the right priority in many ways. I question quite often what the hell I am trying to achieve by travelling so much as I do and have done. I am searching for the ¨TRUTH¨.......which one....?

Existential issues of course appear everywhere but when you are on the road, you may confront them on a daily bases as you have neither structure nor routine.........

Argentina and Brazil are pretty expensive and I am now entertaining the idea of using a free ride and CouchSurfing as some people do. I am going to Sao Paulo tonight. 16 hours by bus from Iguazu. Long distance bus journey at night is not fun but it is part and parcel of the whole package and I have accepted it. I still belong to the few privilaged who can travel......unlike most on this planet. Unfortunately!

torsdag 5 februari 2009

A ghost village in Paraguay!!!

I am in Foz de Iguazu on the Brazilian side now and I feel good to have left Argentina for this time. I never got in love with that country and most of its people who I met. I felt as if that country was the land of arrogance and ignorance but the beauty of the country can not be denied.

I took a boat from Argentina to Paraguay this morning and had a fantastic view over the rivers Iguazu and parana. The migration officer at the Paraguayan border was welcoming and some people commented my hair and asked for something which I did not understand.

I went up to the hill then on the other side and waited for the local bus to arrive but to no avail. It was an abondoned area with unfinished houses and a sense of a ghost village. It was an amazing feeling to be in Paraguay at the frontier on my own.

I finally got myself out of the area and met an old woman who told me about the local bus which eventually came and took me to downtown. I went to the shop where I bought my MP4 player yesterday and got the driver for it as it was not in the package yesterday.

My computer is not unfortunately reacting to my MP4 player so far and it is frustrating not be able to download the music I love so much from my own computer. It would be unfortunate and sad if this situation continued like this. I just hope that it will work out itself sooner or later.

I took another local bus to the Brazilian side then and the Brazilians have welcomed me with open arms so far. They neither asked for my passport nor searched for my luggages which they did with all the other passengers. A very good start in deed by all standards!

tisdag 3 februari 2009

MP4 player from Paraguay!

"It sucks to lose things and losing your MP3 player on the road is even worse. My only consolation is that I could have lost my camera with all the pictures."

I felt so yesterday...I went to Paraguay today and bought MP4 player with 4GB for 29 dollars...I feel much better now. I do not know why it is so cheap in Paraguay of all places in this region.....I passed through porto de Iguazu(Argentina),Foz de Iguazu(Brazil) and arrived in Ciudad del este(Paraguay) after roughly 45 minutes by bus.

It is a wonderful feeling to cross three countries in such a short time. I bought a couple of sandals in Paraguay as well and had a good lunch before I returned back to the Argentinian side. I felt the same way in Paraguay as I did when I was in Mauritania, West Africa some years ago.

I got the impression that the people in Mauritania and Paraguay have some things in common: they are not used to foreigners and have an interseting reaction when they see people of my sort.

Brazil is my next destination and it is gonna be very exciting to discover this huge country with its amazing cultural diversity.

Che Guevara, who the f--- is?

I was in Rosario in central Argentina last weekend and visited the hometown of Che Guevara. To my surprise, he does not seem to be that big in his own territory. There was no any enthusiasm among the people when I asked them if they knew where ,the house where he was born, was located.

Many did not know the exact area or have not seen it yet. I eventually got there and took some pictures on behalf of the first lady. I am not a great fan of him for some reasons. There is a square named after him but there is no hype as we normally have in Lund or Uppsala. I like that. He is afterall a revolutionary with some bloody hands which I can not subscribe to even if I am a fannonist.

I am now in Iguazu. This is the place to be. It is a border town where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. The best border view with a fine river separting the countries.The waterfalls in Iguazu are amazing. I have seen the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and the Niagara falls in Canada but this one is in its own class. Words can not express the beauty of it in here. You should come and see it by yourself.

I lost though my MP3 there and nothing comforts me right now.It sucks to lose things and losing your MP3 player on the road is even worse. My only consolation is that I could have lost my camera with all the pictures but yet my MP3 is a special one with all my favourite Reggae songs(756) which I fortunately still have on my laptop.

So if I buy a new one which I shall do in Paraguay soon...I will abe able to recover from my loss pretty soon but for the time being ,I am devastated....