ON THE ROAD IN BRAZIL

This is to every person who gave me a ride in Brazil, especially to Gabiru, Joce and Marcelo, to Patricia, Katya and Sensei of the Japanese Culture Center in Sao Paolo, to the Russian students of USP I never met, to Emilia, Paco and Juliani, to Vagner and Rodolfo, to the kind people who on two occasions (once in Amazon and once on the highway of Porto Alegre) invited me to have breakfast, but then disappeared before I could really thank them, to one nice woman, an owner of a hotel, I have no idea where exactly, who after I asked her if I could use the bathroom, opened a bufet and gave me food, and to so many more once strangers but now an inseparable part of my family which is humanity in my home which is the world.

Actually it is quite true that she is not waiting for anyone

since she has not made any appointment

but the very fact that she´s adopting this ultra-receptive posture

means that by this she wants to help chance along,

how should I say,

to put herself in state of grace with chance,

so that something may happen,

so that someone might drop in...

ANDRÉ BRETON

MY AMAZON LOOK

Skirt - a gift from Cirrus I got two years ago in Alaska, has gone through a lot of mending and last (not least) Michaela my Rumanian friend also a volunteer in our Yellow House in Bolivia sewed it inside out...Live on skirt!; Sandals- I got in Colombia this February just for 9 US

$, quite long lasting, though started falling apart in Bolivia and I had to repair them four times; Shirt -found in May in the cupboard in our Yellow House, probably someone had donated it - hard chance that any of the elderly gentelmen living there would put it on thogh...; Hat - a present from Guayaramirin; Staff - travelling with me from Alaska, has been lost and found on three occasions if my memory does not fail me; Backpack - German Army, my best backpack yet...I´ve had it and not been too shy using it for four years now - has gone throuh minor repairs, but is still in a very good shape, considering...

THE BEGINNING: THE ROAD IN GUAYARAMERIN

I started here in Guayaramerin on Bolivian-Brazilian border September 17th. That night it rained so hard that I woke up literally in a swimming pool - my sandals and staff floating away from the tent. It was about 4 AM. I think that was the only time I was cold during my trip in the Amazon, where the regular daily temperature is beyond 40 degrees centigrate.

DRYING THE TENT

Hitchhiking was easy - got several long rides with kind truck drivers: 17.09: travelled 82 km, started late; 18.09: got better - 560 km, continued on 19.09 with the same driver, other 800 km on the road record, the next day; 20.09, after coming to Cuiaba (a 300 km trip) got a ride with three young truck dirvers (in three separate trucks) on their way to Sao Paolo: journeyed with them for three fun days and crossed 1700 km of Brazilian roads.

HERE THEY ARE: Gabiru (my ride no 500 counting from Estonia), Joce, Marcelo... and again Marcelo (my ride no 501)

CAMPING CLASSIC - IN FRONT OF A TRUCK BY THE SIDE OF A GAS STATION

At night I pitched up my tent by the trucks, but had to be ready to leave on the hour. When it was 5.30, then I was getting up at 4.30. On that trip I learned appreciate the dawn:

THE DAWN

I also learned that in these twelve years of travels by hitchhiking the feeling had not changed: I still loved the road and the unknown and the horizon, it felt, was like a magnet drawing me to it.

I reached Sao Paolo on September 23rd - the only place in Brazil I knew someone in: I had met Patricia three years ago when studying in Japan, had told her a year ago that I was coming... but that time the road went otherwise and instead of going South it took me North. So this time I told Patricia nothing, at least not too much in advance. Marcelo kindly allowed me to use his phone two days before I was to arrive and I sent message. Not too long after we received a reply. All of a sudden I knew where I was going: my destination was the Sao Paulo University Town and the Japanese Culture Center where Patricia worked in a library.

Finding a place to stay in Sao Paolo, which is the fourth largest city in the world was another adventure.

¨Do not worry about it, I never know where I am staying before the nightfall. Something will come up...,¨ I told Patricia who in these three years I had not seen her had got married and was pregnant living with her husband´s family... bringing home a stranger was just not an option.

Well, to say the truth I ment it rather to calm her and not make herself feel bad not being able to accomodate me, hoping that the ¨something¨that had to come up would still be through her or her friend Katya I met at the library. So it was quite unexpected when after lunch (which btw was a very nice lunch) Patricia gave me a map of the University Town and told me to walk around the dormitories and see if ¨something¨would come up.

All of a sudden my brain started working very fast and I directed my steps to the international student board. If there would be any Estonians living there, I was sure to get a place, I thought... Well too bad - the only one had left last semester. - How about Russians? They had four. Tracking them without success I spent almost all day running around different university buildings, asking around. My closest call was a lecture two of them were having that night at 7.30 PM. I could not have waited for so long - I had to bring at least some news to Patricia before the end of her work day which was at 5 PM.

I walked to the dormitory and asked one girl I crossed paths with if there was a hostel of some sort near by.

¨Do you need a room?¨

¨Yes...¨

¨Well you can stay at my place¨ she said and just like that I had a place to stay.

Later Emilia (that was the name of my saviour) explained that she herself was coming from the South and knows the situation of not having a place to stay in Sao Paolo too well. I brought my stuff over (not mentioning how surprised was Patricia when I told her), washed my things and started learning about my new friends.

PACO, EMILIA, ME AND JULIANI

Paco was 20 studying violin, his sister Emilia, 27, studied cello. Their little rooms were next to each other. Sometimes Juliani who worked in a night shift in one farmacy would stay over. With me it became four people in two beds. Still they wanted nothing to hear of my matress and sleeping bag option - Paco slept in one bed with Emilia and Juliani came in the morning, so that was solved - I had my own room. I left my new friends two nights later - I had some sheet music from Estonia with me and some songs on a USB that I could share with them. In turn Emilia gave me a small present of an MP3 with Brazilian music on it to take along. Paco made sandwiches. Juliani gave me a ride to a good hitchhiking spot out of town. I was so happy...

Truth, I did not feel like I wanted to get to know Sao Paolo and do any sight seeing at all - I just wanted to stay in one place, not communicate with anyone and read. For a change...

So the next day after visiting one modern art museum (could not resist...) I went to Patricia´s library to read Gibran. I love his works, yet the book is heavy to carry. I hoped to finish it and donate it to the library.

But it was not to happen... Patricia introduced me to one 12th century Japanese poet Kamono Chomei who had exchanged his life of fame and glory for a humble life of a monk living in a small hut in the mountains of Oohara.

This is what he wrote:

The flowing river never stops

and the water never stays the same

foam floats upon the pools

scattering, reforming,

never lingering long.

So it is with man

and all his dwelling places here on earth.

/.../

The hermit crab prefers a tiny shell

aware of its needs.

Ospreys live by the rocky coast

fearing the world of men.

And so with me.

I know my needs

and know the world.

I wish for nothing

and do not work

to acquire things.

Quiet is my only wish,

to be free from worry

happiness enough.

/.../

Reality depends

upon your mind alone.

If your mind is not at peace

what use are riches?

The grandest hall will never satisfy.

I love my lonely dwelling,

this one room hut.

/.../

If you doubt my words,

consider the fish and birds.

/.../None can know

the happiness of the fish

unless he is one.

Birds love the woods.

If you are not a bird

you will not know its truths.

A quiet life is much the same.

How would anyone know it

without living it.

from HOJOKI by KAMONO CHOMEI (1155-1216)

Patricia invited me to have lunch in one very homey Japanese place. The food was great. I wondered where I would have my next Japanese food experience. It had also been a while since I last got to hear and speak Japanese. That day I said good-bye to Patricia - the clothes I had washed were dry - the next day I was to leave Sao Paolo.

¨So how are you going to get food tonight?¨ asked Patricia.

¨Do not worry about it, it always comes when I need it,¨I said mysteriously, but in truth also wondered.

It was six PM when I came ¨home¨. I was hungry. It had been a long while since I had opened my food bag. I thing the potatoe mash in powder I had with me since Canada - July 2008 , no wonder it looked yellowish, and the soup powder had Japanese instructions on it - did I not get it in Hokkaido in May 2008? It looked black. I closed an eye to the sight and warmed the water in the microwave. It was then that I met Vagner and not long later his friend Rodolfo who after questioning me for five minutes invited me for dinner. Perhaps they saved me from food-poisoning, I would never find out because after dinner I poured out the yellowish potatoe mash.

ME, VAGNER AND RODOLFO, RODOLFO, ME AND VAGNER

Dinner was fun. The dining room was students only and ticket only... I was neither a student nor had a ticket. The guys brought me an empty tray and told me to wait. Then they filled their trays abundantly and both gave me food from their trays after which they started taking food from each-others´trays.

After dinner Vagner and Ropdolfo took me to the street and got me little pin-signs as souveniers to take along. One of them said: IME USP. Which means the mathematic department of University of Sao Paolo. IME also means a miracle in Estonian, which I very much considered my experience in Sao Paolo University.

Then Rodolfo got me a book by Tim Vicary ¨The Coldest Place on Earth¨which tells about Amundsen and Scott racing each other to be the first man on South Pole; I read it the same night... and to be honest, wondered if I could make it.

MY ROADS IN BRAZIL

NOW I am in a small town called Rio Grande. It is spring here and the rain forced me to take a break from my road. I am 200 km from Uruguayan border, wearing warm socks, two sweaters, a jacket... what a change from the tropical Amazon.

NOW the rain has stopped, so I shall let the road continue to somewhere-nowhere-anywhere.