Peregrine

Vancouver, Canada

This is the last entry in this log.

I arrived back in Vancouver three weeks ago now. Seven flights inside 24 hours brought me from Salvador back to Mexico City where this trip started. I had a last day to hang around there before returning to Vancouver.

Maybe it's time to come home when...

• You sleep better on a bus then in a bed
• More than two changes of clothing seems extravagant.
• A three-day beard is well groomed.
• Diesel fumes no longer choke you
• At 25 degrees you need a sweater.
• You no longer care if movies are subtitled
• You have trouble typing on an American keyboard
• 56kbs is fast.
• Webmail is fine.
• Viruses spread by email don't concern you, viruses spread by mosquitos do.
• You no longer bother with bug repellant or sunblock.
• Your English is getting rusty
• Locals ask you for directions
• You don't stop for red lights either.
• You can drink the water.

Salvador da Bahia, Brasil

Drums, music, sweat, rhythm, dancing. This is what I wanted Carnaval to be. This is what I found in Salvador.

As elsewhere in Brazil, all week huge bloccos composed of sound trucks, musicians and hundreds of dancers wind their way through thick crowds in the streets. Smaller groups of dancers and musicians wind through the steep and narrow cobblestone of old town Salvador. Tribal drummers, capoieristas, brass bands, costumed dancers and spectators all squeeze together and move about the city as one concerted yet chaotic sea of people. Music and dance surrounds always.

Yesterday was Mardi Gras - the climax of Carnaval. This morning, exhausted, I watched the sun come up on Lent signaling the end of the festivities and starting the second half of the world's biggest binge/purge celebration. The city will be a lot quieter now, though not the solemn observance I was expecting.

This won't be my last Carnaval here.