Backpacking Brazil

You know what always sounds like a good idea? Packing a backpack with a few tanktops and bikinis and heading to a foreign country with one of your best friends. My concept of a ‘good idea’ and everyone elses’ are apparently at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Do you even speak Portuguese? No, but I brushed up on my pointing and obscure hand motions before boarding the plane, so I’m feeling pretty solid.

Isn’t Brazil dangerous?  Have you even read my naked hobo story? Pretty sure I can handle it. 

Have you seen Taken? Fact: If there is anything scary movies have taught us, its ‘don’t be a tramp’. I’ve got that trash on lockdown

Besides one brief moment of panic in streets dealing with yet another barely dressed hobo (they dig me), Brazil made most vacations look like chump change. Spending my days jumping off stuff, meeting incredible people and getting 3^rd degree burns on my precious pale Gringa skin, the ten days melted into one another, forming an amalgamation of memories and life lessons that the states will never contain. 

Sleeping and sharing a bathroom with 12 strangers is a life lesson in and of itself. It’s what Real World would look like if it weren’t so scripted. You know what doesn’t happen in coed bathrooms? Anything cool. You know what does? A ton of pooping. Look, after eating several meals at a buffet that, though delicious, looks like it was cooked in a trailer park, things get real in the ol’ hostel lavatory. Add to the mix several large and drunk Argentinean men and you’ve got yourself one really rank party.

Brazil is not known for its modesty. Me being the incredibly awkward person that I am, would giggle every time a guy walked by in a speedo and blush for the women in thongs. Ma’am, I’m not sure you are aware of this, but your hiney is out in public. So consider me embarrassed when the Polish dude in front of us decided that he was so over the sunbathing and would like to do a quick change into his jorts. Who knew I was getting a tan and a peep show? Sir, sir, sir! You just dropped your drawers in front of ladies! Your man parts are you business, not mine. And now I feel like I owe you at least $2 Reals for the show.

I knew I would get funny stories and adventures while abroad, but what I didn’t expect was to meet people that would teach me more about myself than years of self-help books ever can. From the Argentinean hostel owners who gave us safety and comfort when all we asked for was a bed, to the Brit who taught us the ‘Queen’s English’, each person we encountered gave us a piece of their story. Each story, unique, broken, bruised and beautiful, was a glimpse into the world we tend to forget exists. Outside of our borders is a whole world that functions, thrives and loves, sometimes, I think, in ways we can’t begin to understand.  

Unplugging for ten days put me in a minor panic mode. No emails, no texts, no way to know if my work world was up in flames (as if I’m so important that my absence would cause even a ripple). Others were traveling for months at a time, a career not even on the radar until they finished accomplishing the things they wanted to. We live out opposite lives, basing our accomplishments on our careers and not on the experiences we have. Others view jobs as a means to an end.

When asked my priorities, I have to be honest with myself. I spend majority of my time in the office and the gym, coming home only to eat and sleep. In essence, this girl prides herself on success and vanity. Awesome. I committed the first five years of my post-graduate life to my career, putting other things on the back burner unless they just happen to stumble across my lap. What am I missing in those five years? Brazil, I did not miss. Though it was a ruthless lover, eating away my health and pushing me to my limits, it was a relationship I would not trade in for a casual 3 month fling with an all-inclusive resort filled with mindless entertainment. 

Every day I get faced with a choice: take the same path, or forge a new one. Meeting new people, hearing new stories, learning new lessons. It doesn’t take a 12 hour plane ride and a communal bathroom to find moments worth reliving, and stories worth retelling, and yet that is what I required to be reminded of the delight that can be found around the corner. Maybe, you and I should take the time to peek around the corner and see what adventures lie ahead?