Cooking the planet.

So I just checked my hotmail and you know how it automatically brings up the msn homepage? (yes I still have a hotmail account, I know) Well for once they actually have a poll that isn´t based on government scare mongering, pop stars or sports. The topic: "Do you think Global Warming is to blame for Australia´s unpredictable weather?"

How about the whole damn planet? This was something that I was going to write about once I had been to another 3 countries and got home. But the thing is everyone has been saying the weather has been extra hot/cold/dry/crazy/odd, *everywhere* I have been. And it´s supposed to be a La Niña year too (which hopefully means no flooding in Peru when I´m there *crosses fingers*).

In New Zealand, it was a dry winter, Kay was compaining about it affecting the soil when we were transplanting blackberries. In Bangkok, Nevryn & I were there for the hottest day in 10 years. In London, it was an unusually wet October with prediction of snow. In Rome it was a warm autumn. And to quote Mo (who runs the nice hostel in Rio and who I was discussing the weather with yesterday morning) "This weather is crazy. It never used to be like this." Becuase over the past 5 years the weather in Rio has become more unpredictable, hotter than normal and raining at odd times. Like now.

I am in Salvador. The 30 hour bus ride was moderately evil, because it was 30 hours on a bus and despite all possible comforts you still notice every single pothole. Saw the most amazing lighting storm from the bus as well as some funky scenery. In many ways the rolling hills and the greenery remind me of New Zealand- except it´s hot. To Recefe tommorrow night!

Those of you who were kind enough to email, I will reply properly later.

Answers to Questions.

Because lots of people have been asking about these things of late and quite frankly it´s ticking me off at the moment:

1) What I am going to do when I get home? It is in four months time. Short of "finding work and going to Swancon" I have no idea. This is a 8 month holiday because my I worked my arse off and had no social life for the past two years. (Remember the 16 hour days, the double shifts and working every Saturday night?) Let me bloody well enjoy it!

2) Am I getting it on with lots of cute, fabulous, international (vegan) boys? Quite frankly it isn´t any of your business. (Though if you know any feel free about passing on my email ;P )

3) Will Nevryn and I get back together when I get home? This is also in four months time. This is also isn´t any of your business. Why doesn´t someone contantly bug him about it? He´s in the same city as most of you, I´m on the other side of the planet. Basic geography people!

That is all.

We will return you to my usual ramblings on shiney travelling things shortly...

The little things.

So I´ve hit the half way point, or there abouts I´ll be home in just under 4 months. And right now I am noticing the little things most of all.

Yesterday morning I also got the chance to do ironing. I haven´t done any form of ironing in four months, so this is a major thing. It was sort of surreal standing on the top of a building at 0730 in the middle of downtown São Paulo listening to the traffic in my pj´s doing the ironing.

Today when I was walking through the market and the craft shops here in Paratay it wasn´t the cost, the suitability or the detail of the work that got me. It was the size. I look at everything and go "that´s far too big to lug around for the next 4 months." Totally takes the fun out of shopping, which is probably good given my financial situation.

Last night when packing I have realised how much stuff I am carrying that I am not using right at this moment. Sure I will need my jacket when I get to the mountains (I sure as hell did in London). But that´s not for another 2 and a half months and it´s taking up space in my bag until then. There´s the grammar books which get ditched gleefully RSN. And the medication, though I need it I probably shouldn´t have taken two boxes of ventolin. Of course I would have needed it if I didn´t. And then there´s the sleeping bag...

*glares at my pack*

Actually I have gotten packing down to a fine art (having to do it at least once, usually more times a week). I still don´t like it. Am looking forward to teaching where I can unpack for a whole 6 weeks. Six weeks with no packing or major bus journeys, I can´t wait!

Eating it up in São Paulo.

WARNING: this post contains lots of references to food.

So on Monday I caught the bus from Curitiba to São Paulo. São Paulo is big. There are somewhere between 12 and 20 million people living in this city (it blends into all the surrounding cities so it´s hard to come up with a exact place where it stops). But big can be good. The hostel is nice and located in the porn store/cinema district, so very convienient. If I have a urge to look at porn that is.

Alan, one of the UK vegans I met at the conf changed his flight so we got to catch up. Hung out on Monday afternoon, eventually found a place for dinner and tried to meet up with Alex (who runs VeggieGuides) but didn´t due to flights. On Tuesday we made it out to the cafe where Lucas (vegan online friend, general fantastic person) works and chatted to him over lunch before going for a walk and trying to find a park with grass that we could sit on. Failed, but still had a good time before he had to leave to go back to London.

Spent Wednesday again with Lucas for lunch. Vegethus rocks and they have great chocolate truffles that rival Constant Cravings and vegan caramel pudding. Oh and some healthy stuff like the vegan pizza with tofu topping. Generally speaking here most restaurants offer a buffet for lunch (and sometimes dinner if they are open) which is either all you can eat or pay by weight. So I´m not going hungry- they all have salad, rice and beans (and that´s the non veg places). So much for starving on the road- at this rate you´ll have to roll me off the plane! Checked out the Lotus for lunch today, which was less vegan friendly but still very good, a few of the mock meat asian dishes that remind me of just about every place in Perth. Also went out to a ice cream place that does a big range of soya ice cream this afternoon. If you were the kid that loved the dessert bar at Sizzler, this is the place for you. It is essentially make your own ice cream sundae with half a dozen toppings plus nuts, sprinkles, fruit etc plus a range of over 20 flavours of ice cream (vegan and dairy for those of you who haven´t been weaned). And they had vegan chocolate mousse.

To combat the large amounts of chocolate consumed I took a local dance class this evening which was great fun. I even managed to get a few of the steps correct!

On Tuesday evening I went to see a play with one of the girls I am sharing a room with. It was really good. I couldn´t understand most of it, but since when have I let something like language get in the way of a good time? Took a formal Portugese class yesterday evening to help with my pronounciation and feel I am butchering the language a little less.

Off to Paratay tommorrow for a couple of days. Pronounced par-a-chee, rather than par-a-tay. Hopefully will be doing a little partaying there.

In other food related news some of the pictures from the conference are up. So for all you philistines who wonder what vegans eat, and all you vegans who I want to make envious have a look here for the answer.

I see trees of green...

Curitiba has the largest green space to people ratio of any city in Brazil so have spent most of the day hanging out in various parks. It is a fairly walkable city (as long as it isn´t too hot) and the public transport is pretty cool. The bus stops look like giant clear pipes that people can stand in. Essentally the bus service works like a train metro, but above ground, with buses having their own lanes on most roads and different coloured buses taking different routes.

Yesterday I took the train ride to Morretes which is a three and a half hour journey mostly through Atlantic Rain Forest. The railway hugs the mountains for the most part. Pretty? You bet. With mountains up to the clouds, lush forest as far as the eye can see and the ocean off in the distance I was most impressed. The sound of the train scares away alot of the larger wildlife but still got to see lots of different birds (including a sparrow sort of creature that was a brilliant blue with a black face) and a few butterflies as well. We also went past the lakes that feed Rio Iguaçu and some smaller towns.

Morretes is a bit of a tourist town, but is rather pretty, spent a few hours walking around looking at craft shops and chatting to a girl I met at the hostel. Then caught the train home again. Also made it out to Rua 24 Horas (24 Hour Street) which is more like a mall and mostly places to eat, but still pretty neat.

Off to catch up with vegans in Sao Paulo tommorrow.

Don't go chasing waterfalls...

Of course you'd have a fairly boring life if you did that...

I am currently at the bus station in Foz do Iguacu waiting to catch the bus in a few hours to Curitiba.

After spending my last evening in Florinopolis in the company of a delightful vegan who I met at the con (soy ice cream, pizza and walks along the beach) and then being dragged out clubbing by people at the hostel (including a Canadian who is born within a few hours of I), I caught the bus to Foz.

The reason to be here is Iguacu Falls between Brazil and Argentina which are one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. Spent Tuesday walking around the Brazillian side of the falls- it was overcast and a bit rainy- but you got wet walking near the falls anyhow, regardless of the amount of rain gear you had. It ment a slightly uncomfortable ride back (four of us squeezed in the back of a taxi may have had something to do with it), but it was worth it.

Yesterday a group of us went to the Argentinian side which was even more beautiful. The bus from the hostel stopped so we could wave across the rivers to Brazil and Paraguay. The weather was warmer, fairly hot actually and there was lots of wildlife too. Saw a coatis (a creature that looks a bit like a numbat, thylacine, raccoon crossed), one of those big rodent creatures (the name of which I forget), heaps of birds (including humming birds and eagles), four different types of lizard and butterflies of every colour of the rainbow. There were lots of walking trails and areas where you could walk over the falls which were pretty spectacular. My pictures won't do it justice so you will all just have to visit one day yourselves.

This morning I went out to see the Itaipu Hydro Electric Power Station on the boarder of Paraguay and Brazil. It is the largest such station in the world. A joint project it supplies 90% of Paraguay's power and a quater of Brazil's. The spillway by itself was huge as was the whole dam. They have a big conservation area around it and a Workers Woods where staff plant trees after 15 years of service. The station is neutral land, but the offical boarder is between turbines 9 and 10.

So technically three countries in two days- Land boarder crossings are such a novelty!

So still alive, still having fun.

Where have all the vegans gone?

I am back in the Real World (tm). A world where I have to cook. A world where I have to read labels. A world where everything needs to be viewed with suspect before consumption. A world where there are people who eat animals. A world where people don´t give a damn about themselves, the earth or our non human animal friends.

On the upside I now know other people who aren´t like this and also have to live in the Real World (tm). I have names and addresses. And I have invited lots of them to visit Australia.

The 36th International Vegetarian Union Congress was absolutely wonderful. I cannot describe how much fun I had. The food was excellent, the talks were informative, the cooking workshops were great (I may inflict some of you with my cooking skills when I get home) and the people were beautiful. Of course there were things that needed to be run a little smoother, but that happens with any convention. The organising committee and Marly in particular need to be congratulated on a job well done.

Some more highlights (becauase I can´t write down everything that happened):

* Cooking demos (which involved alot of love in the cooking process).
* T shirts made out of recycled PET bottles.
* Dancing (we had demonstrations of Brazillian and Latin American dancing, as well as everyone dancing).
* People jumping in the pool fully clothed after the Gala Dinner and then hugging everyone who wasn´t wet.
* The birds.
* Seeing dolphins in the harbour.
* The beach on a good day (which didn´t happen as often as I would have liked).
* The beach on a clear night (star gazing vegans).
* Watching people try to convert the tour guide to plant based food.
* Chatting and working and hanging and socialising with heaps of other veg*ans.
* Different activist/vegie t-shirts that people were waring.
* Having the full intention to go to 7am yoga, only to party late every night so that you sleep in.
* Meeting and bonding with like minded souls.
* Finding out lots of cool stuff people have done for vegetarianism and why they have worked, thereby having ideas for heaps of stuff for home when I get there.
* Chocolate crepes for dessert.

Some quotes (attributed to many people):

"So what do vegans eat?" (said at any meal where everyone had huge plates piled high with yummy food)

"Tofu is scary." (why one group won´t promote tofu to meat eaters)

"If you want to get osteoperosis, remember, drink at least 2 litres of milk a day!" (said loudly, in a German accent on the bus to the non vegan tour guide- it was funny at the time okay!)

"Go vegan, you cow sucking pervert." (a button)

"The great vegan in the sky will send people to you." (how the great vegan in the sky will help when you are doing vegan friendly work)

"They´re GMO´s you know." (on the really thin and good looking models at the fashion show)

"There is nothing vegan food can´t fix." (because it will, you know)

"Peixe enosso amigo nao e comida" (fish are friends, not food)

There are people in this world who have open eyes and hearts and they actually get it.

See you in Goa, 2006!

Keep my things they´ve come to take me home...

I am at the 36th IVU Congress in Florinoplis, Brazil. In the first two hours of being here on Monday afternoon I met more vegans than I ever have in the entriely of the previous part of my life. There are two cooking streams and five talks at any oen time, so I am totally spoilt for choice. The food is excellent- I have to cut back on the three helpings at every meal! The venue is lovely- there are these cute little owls that nest in a burrow in the ground and I can see the Atlantic from my window. The weather is crap, but you can´t have everything. So many interesting people. Here are some highlights so far:

* This morning over breakfast I had a discussion about the chemistry behind folate and B12.
* There were children from a vegetarian school who did a performance at the opening ceremony.
* Going to the beach with a Spanish raw fooder and two American vegans.
* Having two London vegans spend most of lunch yesterday trying to convince me that I should move to London to live with them and work in the local vegan co-op.
* Learning more about vegetarian food relief (where the Red Cross have pulled out Food For Life has stayed)
* Staying up last night til 2am chatting to people, including a 17 year old raw fooder.
* Meeting online friends in person. I am dubbed "the fish girl" because of my email sign off.
* Cooking workshops with lots of garlic.
* Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!

People who you can have a sane conversation with. People who will only be offering you vegan food because that´s only what they eat. People who are fun and enthusiastic. People who are happy to share knowledge and love.

There are people who actually get it!

The wheels on the bus...

In Florinapolis, IVU starts tommorrow.

The 17 and a half hour bus trip from Rio was alot nicer than I expected. Given I usually get bus travel sickness I was very impressed. The buses are really nice they have leg room (for tall people, not just short people like me) and reclining seats (and I don´t mean 5 degree recline you get on plane seats). Pillows and blankets. Snacks and frequent stops. And they are alot cheaper and nicer than flying. And I ended sitting next to a nice local lady who spoke english, thought I was 16, who was nursing a pot plant (and explained all about different plants), looks after the local stray dogs and gave me her number just in case anything happens and I need help.

Staying at the YHA for tonight. I may go out to a sXe concert if I can get in contact with vegan cohorts. Then off to where the conference is tommorrow. It´s Sunday and not alot seems open.

Also got some bad news abotu the health of a friend this week which has upset me a fair bit too.

The city by the bay...

Rio de Janeiro translated to English means January River, because some old sailor who found the place thought that it was the mouth of a river (he should have paid more attention to his geography teacher). It´s not. It´s a bay. Actually it´s a settlement on a stretch of land containing several bays, headlands and beaches. There are mountains covered in lush green tropical rainforest, granite peaks and lots of little islands. It´s pretty damn spectacular. Especially when viewed from a height.

So that´s what I have been doing. Viewing things from a height.

Yesterday later afternoon I headed up to Pao de Açucar (the Sugar Loaf) with two Canadian guys who are staying at the hostel. It´s about a half an hour walk to the bottom and then you have to get two cable cars to the summit. The view up is pretty impressive (and your ears pop- it´s 396m asl!) and you can see all the different landmarks of Rio. Watching the sunset (behind Cristo Redentor) and then all the lights come on was amazing and the breeze really helped with the temperature. We then went back down and decided to go to a little beach we had spotted and seemed nice. It was a nice little beach with a Samba band playing (with singing, percussion and those really big drums) who were really, really good. So we sat and listened to them for a bit with the beach and the palm trees and I danced with a lady who was selling coconuts for a bit too.

This morning I went up to Corcovado (meaning hunchback) where Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) with some other people from the hostel. For a group it was cheaper to book a taxi to take us all rather than trying to battle the buses and wait in line for the trains. Corcovado is a peak to the west of the coast so gives you a totally different perspective on the city and beaches. Cristo Redentor is a really, really big granite statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched as if he is blessing the city. It´s pretty impressive (not as impressive as the Big Buddha in Hong Kong though- that was covered in gold and had a vegetarian restaurant) and there were lots of different birds flying around too. The statue is lit up at night and because most of Corcovado is dense, lush rainforest it appears as though the statue is floating over the city.

I have used almost an entire roll of film on Rio and the pictures are never going to do it justice.

In other less peak related things I went out to Ipanema yesterday during the day. From a beach perspective it seems to be a better place to swim in/lay on, but most of the surrounding area is housing (it´s a very ritzy suburb and about as densely populated as Copacabana), places to eat and the shopping is a bit more upper class. Still good for a sorbet and a wander though.

I also made it out to the bus station to book my bus ticket to Florinapolis tomorrow. The bus ride appears to be over 24hours. I am not looking forward to it. The bus station is in a somewhat dodgey area. It is interesting here, unlike lots of other places I have been to, the difference between the have´s and have not´s seems more extreme because you can see it directly contrasted. You can see people begging in the streets and fancy clothing shops within a mere 5 minute walk. From the Sugar Loaf you can see the favelas (slums) and the ritzy apartments of Ipanema it makes it a interesting thing to note. I am currently reading Hope´s Edge (the 30 year follow up to Diet For A Small Planet which you should all read) and found out that one of the cities in Brazil makes food a right of citzenship (in the same way we have free education, they have government subsided places to eat, all local grown and all healthy) so that noone goes hungry and apparently it only cost about 1% of the city budget- how cool is that?

Oh and it got to over 40°C today. You should try mango sushi. And for those who want to get in contact with me I have a local number, email me and I´ll let you know.

IVU in a few days! *bounce*

At the Copa...

Spent today at Copacabana. Aside from being a suburb surrounded by mountains on three sides and the Atlantic on the other it is also one of the most densely populated places on the planet. So there is apartments galore as well as a lively shopping area, street vendors and of course the beach.

A hand full of palm trees, but about 4kms of sandy beach and the beautiful blue ocean. There are lots of little stalls where you can buy drinks including coconuts (yes Simon, even served in the fruit) which being a favourite I had to try. And Brazillian coconuts are damn fine. High twenties, slight breeze- perfect costal weather. All good.

Finally in Rio de Janerio.

So I am in Rio, I am staying near the beautiful Botafogo beach (it is the beach immediately north of Copacabana) in a hostel where the staff are insanely friendly and helpful (and somewhat disapointed I won´t be here for Carnaval). I just had a belated World Vegan Day lunch at a place called VeganVegan so am content and have a full belly. Oh and did I mention it is warm? And I have Reals in my pocket. And IVU Congress looks to be great (400 delagates from 35 countries!).

But yesterday wasn´t like that. No, yesterday was sadness and badness. This is what happened... (it involves the use of the word fuck alot)

Yesterday morning after breakfast I packed up (pack is down to 15kg now- yay!) and caught the metro out to Madrid Airport, not too many people around due to a public holiday (for All Souls Day), and eventually found the Iberia check in desks. Walking past I saw two desks that had really big lines and avoided them. As none of the desks seemed to have flight numbers above them I walked up to one where there wasn´t a line and tried to check in. The nice man said he couldn´t issue me my seat at the moment, printed out a form and told to go wait at desks 226 or 227.

Of course, 226 and 227 were the two desks with really long lines that I had just walked past. Thinking "just my luck" I got in the line and realised they weren´t moving all that quickly, people seemed to be going to the start of the line and then back to talk to their travelling partners. After about 5 minutes I asked the nice man in the line ahead of me if he spoke english and when he said yes (with an London accent, I might add) I asked what was happening. It turned out we were all on Standby.

You see Iberia Airlines for some reason belives that if you book a ticket with them and pay them large amounts of money it means that you will probably not want to actually travel to the desination you have paid for on the day that you have selected. No. That would just make sense. They belive that you might like to travel within the week to some place that may be near where you booked to go. So I was standing in a line with alot of people trying to get to Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Brazil. Most of them were not happy. Pretty fucking pissed off would be a more accurate description.

On the upside I got to talk to the nice English man who was trying to go to Peru with his wife. They had come from the Canary Islands a day earlier and that flight had been over booked as well. He also had been a vegetarian for 30 years and travelled quiet a bit so at least the wait had enjoyable conversation. During this conversation it should be noted that the flight they had booked actually left. Without them and several other people (including a couple who´s luggage had gone but they hadn´t).

When I finally made it to the front counter I was told I had two options (I might add no explaination or apology, I worked out the overbooking thing from one of the pieces of paper I was given). A flight in just over an hour on another carrier (Varig) that was via Sao Paulo or a flight with Iberia that would get me to Rio on Thursday. I took the flight in just over an hour. To do this I had to take paperwork to the Varig counter to get a ticket. Then wait in the line to check in my luggage. Then to the Iberia counter to claim my renumberation for them fucking me about. Then through customs and passport control.

Of course the lines for each of these things were at least 15 minutes each. And full of mostly fucking pissed off former Iberia passengers trying to make flights in a short amount of time. Met four really nice Irish people who were in the same boat as me, though about two steps behind. After checking everything in I had 15mins to get through the passport and security line which looked to be half an hour wait at minimum, not the line was that orderly. I also figured I could pick up my renumberation at another office (it did say it was valid at any office and I really didn´t have time to stuff about with it then as the line for that was huge and full of angry people). So I followed the lead of a couple of other ladies and went straight to the front.

You see for the last month I have had people push in front of me at every possible chance. The line in the supermarket, the line to get on the bus, the line to buy a train ticket, you name it in Europe you can cut line for it. I figured I at least had a legitimate excuse. But still after fighting my way through I got to the x ray scanners and realised I had 2 minutes to get to my gate. So I grabbed my bag as soon as it came through the x ray, almost left my jacket behind (they threw it too me) and ran.

I can tell you I have never been happier to be physically on a plane in my life. I can also say I am fairly unfit. Of course then we had to wait on the plane for no less than 45 minutes. So I really didn´t have to run. Was also nice to see the Irish people made it on the plane as well and I ended up chatting to them for a few hours of the flight. Turns out they were also supposed to take a flight that got them into Rio early in the morning but it had been cancelled as well and their flight from Dublin was also fucked about.

So it was a lovely almost 10 hour flight to Sao Paulo (which is west of Rio so we actually flew over where we wanted to be). With bugger all food because of the flight switch. Spiderman 2 wasn´t too bad though. And and I managed to get a look at the Brazilian coastline (in the dark- though the lights were pretty) as we flew over it. Then a wait at the airport (where after 20 minutes the girl still couldn´t figure out what to do with travellers cheques so I gave up) then a 50 minute flight to Rio de Janerio. Where I got less of a grilling by immigration than I did at Heathrow. Of course by this time there wasn´t a money changer open at the airport so I took the taxi becuase they accepted credit to the hostel and arrive there just before midnight. I mean 1am, daylight savings just kicked in.

So the morals of the story:
* Iberia are the most fucking hopeless airline, never book anything with them if you plan to get there on time.
* Vegetarians are everywhere.
* Make sure you have digestive biscuits with you when travelling and dried fruit.
* Nothing is really a major problem- I am in one piece, I have a full belly, I am in a really friendly hostel, I didn´t loose important paperwork...

And I have a really funny (in retrospect) story about trying to get to Rio :P

Did I mention it is warm? And there´s a beach? And tropical fruit?