Dia 147 - Thursday May 5, 2011: Flying Home & Reflections

No one hesitated when the alarm and wake up calls alerted us at 4AM. With the continuing failure of the hotel’s air-conditioning system, we had to open the windows and suffered many bug bites. It was hard to sleep peacefully.

The first leg of the flight to Sao Paulo took 2-½ hrs. The second leg to LAS was a 14hr. non-stop Korean Air flight. Each of us managed to fit our possessions in a golf body bag and one large bag. I put almost all my clothes, mostly mildewed, in the golf bag.

Reflections:

This is a good time to reflect on the totality of my LatAm adventure of 5 months and 20,000 miles. The scope and beauty of Latin America simply have to be experienced, as no description would be sufficient. My favorite segments were the Mundo Maya (with Carol, Anisa and Julia,) and the Andes, (mostly with Carol and 3 weeks when Justin joined). These had the richness of living non-European cultures, archaeology, history and fabulous locales. The people were great everywhere we went and we never felt unsafe & there was no theft. We made several wonderful friends with whom we hope to maintain contact. Colombia was a party. The indigenous people tended to be reserved, yet hospitable, unless they didn’t like their jobs. Most of the time the food was excellent. The accommodations ranged from the Finca Filidelfia and Relaix & Chateaus to roadside hotels and indigenous digs that didn’t have any hot water. I am glad to say that the local water was almost always safe to drink and that sanitary conditions, and awareness of a litter-less environment are improving. We were able to get excellent service for the Porsche in major cities. Mostly, we had fun and laughs.

On the negative side, I did not like dealing with the bureaucracy, particularly in Central America. In fact, the unnecessary timewasting hassles of crossing 9 Central American borders and the horrors of shipping to get around the Darien Gap in Panama were enough to dissuade me from making a complete round trip. Shipping the car out of Salvador just took a lot of money. I paid willingly to get around the harbor and government strikes and timewasting. How can things like this help the competitiveness of LatAm? It is the system and procedures and not the people. This really hurts tourism and business generally. The footprints of American extraction and military activities make me shudder. Thankfully the population seems to distinguish between ordinary American citizens and their government & corporations. The US seems to be getting pushed out of South America already. The road conditions were world class in some places, but were horrible in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Brazil with fields of potholes on major highways. This is really bad for economic development. Bugs and humidity in the more tropical locations were unpleasant.

I am still trying to come to terms with the social order in LatAm and how such strong caste systems are maintained. It is no surprise considering that the Catholic Church did not consider the indigenous people as having souls till the 19th Century and the slaves were not even considered human. The minority rich communities live behind gates and guards, presumably living the good life. An ambitious and coping middle class of varying proportions existed in each country. The vast majority is poor to dirt poor. I would rather be a subsistence farmer, even in some remote location, than live in some of the favellas or barrios. I see more social disharmony in the future. The limited educational opportunities and closed doors to the poor are a legitimate flash point. The power structure makes a big mistake for their children and grandchildren by not mobilizing all their people and having an open door for the talented. I did not run into a single lazy population when opportunity presented itself. I suppose that if I was a slave or indentured, I too would do as little as possible to get by.

In sum, this has been a magnificent adventure. I will gladly repeat many parts of it and in far more depth.

Note: Why a Porsche not a Toyota

1. Fun & comfortable to drive

2. 450 hp & performance at all elevations made for confident passing

3. Prop to show that we are “Serious People” on an epic adventure

- Better services at higher cost

- Drivers gave it more respect as something unusual, particularly more room

4. Porsche services are superb, though available only in major cities

5. Not likely to be stolen or have parts stolen since the car is so rare in LatAm

Why a Toyota

1. Lot less expensive all the way around

2. Parts & services are more readily available

Dia 146 - Wednesday May 4th, 2011: Shipping Arrangements for the Cayenne

The car is now in an indoor warehouse awaiting its container. We asked for a smooth transition and we got it even though Government workers were on strike. There were several possible choke-holds, but our representatives miraculously got us through with smiles. The service was worth the premium we paid. We even got a ride back from the harbor and a chance to visit with the boss who spoke excellent English. I am so glad that it didn’t turn into a hassle like Panama to Colombia.

It was sad to say goodbye to the Cayenne. It started its life in Leipzig, Germany with me and Anisa for the first 3 weeks in what grew into a 10,000 mile epic 3 month Western European and 1 ½ month US road trip. After an epic 20,000 mile LatAm road trip, it is ending its time with the Westwood Shahins in Salvador, Brazil. It is fitting that Anisa was part of its last 3 weeks with us. The turnover of the car key to brother Steve ceremony took place over single malts at the Hotel Villa Bahia. I have had a lot of fun and adventure with the Cayenne.

We revisited Alaide for more of her delicious fejouada cooking. We had fish moqueca, carne del sol and franga frita. The house hot sauce was excellent and intense. We could not see the Ballet Folklorico program because the theater was without electricity. People started drifting away after a half hour. We visited some more with Silvio.Our 4AM wake up is early, but we will be happy to return to the comforts of home without bug bites and humidity.

Dia 145 - Tuesday May 3rd, 2011: African Experience in Bahia

Our tour guide, Marco, is a “Baba”, “father”. He is a priest of one of the 3 major African groups that were brought to Brazil. He organized the Afro/BR experience through religious practices, particularly synchronicity. We started at the AfroBR museum. It tied up the differences and similarities of the Ghana & Benin spiritual practices – sometimes different names, substantially similar ideas. The idols are not the 27 gods themselves, but rather vehicles to help reach their Spirits. Voodoo is one of the names given to one of these practices. Healing & spirituality are their objectives, not evil, except in the eyes of the Catholic Church & Hollywood. The sun spirit represented women and the moon and men. The Catholic Church forced a reversal and the African religions to go behind the Christian symbols. We went to a spiritual house as well as a synchronicity church. We went through AfroBR parts of this great city, the Afro markets and the high rent district. Apparently, the richer you are the whiter you become.

The shirt I wore today smelled like mildew. It never fully dried since the Country Inn after Rio. Anisa tried to be upwind. Never mind that I didn’t like the smell either. Once outside the tranquility of the hotel, like other poor parts of the third world, vendors and beggars accosted us. The Sao Francisco Church across the street has over 600lbs of gold. It is surrealistic and all about wealth. There is a big religious festival in our area this evening. We dined at a local fejouada restaurant that is run by a Brazilian national treasure (Alaide do Feijao). It was the tastiest we have had so far. We attended a festival with a live band at Pelourinho Square after dinner.

There is no scholarship system in Brazil for the underprivileged. Silvio, the concierge and all around guy at the hotel has tremendous drive and intelligence. We are looking into arranging a tuition scholarship for him to complete the last 2 years of university. It looks like all the car arrangements will be finalized tomorrow and hopefully we fly out of Salvador Thursday morning arriving in LAX at 9PM. We are looking forward to playing golf in LA this weekend!

Dia 144 - Monday May 2, 2011: Itacare to Salvador, Bahia

We drove through a deluge for 2 hours this morning and then it rained on and off. Naturally, the countryside was scenic. The potholes were terrible. Traffic was light. The little towns did not inspire us to stop. We were the last car on the 1:00 ferry to Salvador. It was a pleasant 30-minute voyage by sea with easy on, easy off. However, it took us 1-½ hours to cover 2.5KM to get from the harbor to the old part of town. In fact it took us ½ hr. when we were within 4 blocks of the hotel. The one-way streets and narrow alley like roads made it hard to find the way. We are staying in a pleasant 17 room historical hotel. Dinner was delicious. Steve and I took a short walk around the old neighborhood that is being revived.

We are taking an academic 4 hr. tour of Salvador from the African Diaspora’s perspective rather than the European perspective. At 2:00 we meet with prospective agents for shipping the car to LA. We hope that we can get the job done in a couple of hours. If so, dinner will be a celebration and we will play golf the next day.

Dia 143 - Sunday May 1, 2011: Itacare Beach Resort

The resort is in an Atlantic rain forest. The water yoga teacher was not available today so swimming in the Atlantic in an idyllic cove and lolling around were our best bets. Steve & I swam out into the waves. The cove funneled the waves so they crashed in a V. We were warned that there were sharks patrolling past the wave line. We stayed safely within the surf line. We had a hearty threesome visit. Later we had a pleasant dinner at the resort.

Our plan for Monday is to take the new road and ferry to Salvador for about a 5-hour driving day. We will try to find a shipping agent that handles everything after we just pay, sign papers and turn over the car key. If we can accomplish this on Tuesday, maybe even by Wednesday afternoon, we will be on our way home on Thursday having spent 3 nights in Salvador. Anisa came to bring me home, but after throwing herself to the bugs, I have to save her by taking her home. That must have been “Tina of the Amazon’s” strategy all along. She is tricky with golf matches too.

Brazil observations: Brazilians are as nice as the people of the rest of LatAm. Excellent food and accommodations are available. The setting is generally attractive, particularly Rio and the Atlantic coast. However, some of the industrial and poor areas lack charm. Seeing where the layers of society live is a big benefit of a road trip. There are plenty of gas stations and all have flush toilets. We never felt unsafe. The bugs and humidity are the worst aspects of the visit, followed by the poor road conditions. Marco & Claudia of Sao say they don’t drive much out of Sao because of the poor and dangerous road conditions. Everything costs about twice as much as I feel appropriate. Tourism generally and golf tourism in particular are underdeveloped.

Carol asked me if I would leave the car here for a month, then take the TransAmazonia Hwy to Cusco to re-do the Andes in more detail. She also wants a redo of Mundo Maya. She must have enjoyed herself.

Dia 142 - Saturday April 30, 2011: Trancoso to Itacare

We drove from Estrella d’Agua, a Relaix & Chateau, to Itacare Eco Resort. We had an interesting drive here highlighted by a highway blockage by local citizens. They were demonstrating for better education. They blocked BR101 with debris and burning tires. The Policia and Militar just looked on. The blockage in Chiapas and the Grand Taco in Vitoria came to mind. Anisa saw on her i phone that there was another way to Itacare. We hightailed it out fast by a quick U turn and aggressively driving over a log that was being rolled to block all the ways out. This was a Silverback Moment, as we did not want to arrive at the Eco Resort after dark. In general, the poor rural people living along our route were as poor as any we saw in Central America or Peru. They could just as easily protest the poor road conditions that hamper their economic development by isolating them. Lets keep in mind that the people here are very nice and helpful. They have problems with their circumstances. The pictures tell a lot.

We have learned a few words to get us by: Gasolina; Completa; credito; baneo; abrigado(a); ciao; ta; sim; nao & hola. Of course a lot of words as close to Spanish but pronounced & spelled differently, e.g., izquerda, derecha & adelante or directo. We understand the street signs and directions.

The digs here target the Brazil market and are nice. Very little English is spoken here. We all had fish with octopus sauce for the main dinner plate. We ate every bit of the starters, rice, fish and desert. I guess that we were hungry and liked the food.

Dia 141 - Friday April 29, 2011: Golf at Terravista & R&C Resort

Exploring Brazil resort opportunities agrees with our golfing threesome. The digs and food at the Relaix & Chateau are in a wild and scenic environment, yet quite civilized. This means that the food is great to this theree-some that travels on its stomach. The jungle ride to Terravista was 5KM on a pitted dirt road. The Terravista golf course is fantastic. We had the entire course to ourselves, as we were lucky to catch a break in the rain. The first 9 holes go through jungle and ravines with mountain backdrops. Then there are several holes right at the edge of dramatic beachside red cliffs. See pictures. We were so happy just to be in such a beautiful environment. Humidity and bugs be damned, our spirits are back up. We had late snacks & drinks on the beach back at the resort. We had an animated dinner with a lively couple in their 40s from Sao Paulo, Marcos & Claudia.

Julia has asked that we ship the Cayenne directly to LA/Long Beach Harbor rather than Miami. If I were the Cayenne, I would start dreaming about life back in West Los Angeles where life is good, even for cars. That also means that we should be back in LA in 10-14 days.

The golf mission part of the LatAm adventure continues. We have played 3 out of the 7 top rated courses in Brazil so far. We are likely to play 2 more of the great Brazil golf courses going NE: Costa do Sauipe and Iberostar Praia Doforte, just NE of Salvador. So far we feel that golf tourism is underdeveloped in Brazil. The climate is like that of our Gulf States, which are far more developed for golf tourism.

We will be staying in the historic center of Salvador. Number 1 job is to arrange for shipping the car to LA. Number 2 is checking out the golf scene. Food & accommodations should not be far behind. Culture & history will be soaked up from being there.

Dia 140 - Thursday April 28, 2011: Vitoria, Espirito Santo to Trancoso, Bahia

The rain was heavy all night and continued into the morning so golf was out. The air conditioner in the room Steve & I shared was out so the sliding door was left open to the delight of the many bugs that feasted on us all night. I did not sleep well and we were anxious to get to on the road. This was the beginning of the rainy season, yet there was flooding in several Vitoria downtown streets. The rain lightened gradually so that we had intermittent afternoon sunshine. The rural countryside of cleared jungle and many large nature preserves was lovely. The elevation was mostly 30’-70’, although the full range was 0’-630’.

The maps showed poor road conditions for the first 120KM of BR101 of south of Bahia going north. The potholes rivaled the worst of El Salvador and Costa Rica. Anisa says that some are bigger and badder than the big one on her street in LA. Anisa spelled me for the afternoon drive. In passing a truck, the driver swerved to avoid a truck eating pothole, forcing her to swerve into an equally bad pothole throwing the Cayenne’s wheel alignment off. We will look for realignment in Salvador or just take care of it in the US. This is one more omen that it is time to go home. (Yesterday, I had to swerve to avoid a car that cut in front of me while I was passing, but I only took out 2 plastic road cones, no damage, just embarrassment. They often pass very slowly here.)

We arrived at the Relaix & Chateau on the beach at Trancoso just after dark. Note that the entire Mercasur from Brazil to Argentina is on the same time zone. It gets dark here by 5:30 even though it is summer. At home, it wouldn’t get dark till 7:30-8:00 at this stage of summer so my inner clock is off by about 2+ hours. Anisa booked our rooms by Internet. Once again, the receiving end failed though we had a reservation number and confirmation. It is off-season so there were many available rooms. We all had different & delicious fish dishes for dinner. My Moqueca version was the tastiest. The beds are surrounded by mosquito netting here so I know that I will sleep well.

Dia 139 - Wednesday April 26, 2011:Grand Taco into Vitoria

We had a pleasant start: 7AM coffee, breakfast with our hosts, collecting our laundry, etc. We were on our way by 11:15. Our mileage for the day was a little less than 300 miles. If we averaged 50mph, we would arrive around 5:30, before dark. Our revised estimate was for 6 hours of driving time, plus lunch. The scenic 65 mile waterside drive through a lot of seaside or lagoon side towns and many “topes” took 2 hours. Once on BR101, the going was faster with frequent passing of trucks & cars necessary. The landscape was very green and could have been a lot of other places. The natural reserves were beautiful semi-tropical jungle. We had lunch at a busy roadside restaurant that served fejouada (sp). It was solid home cooking. We continued on with only a minor delay for a semi truck catching telephone and power lines and blocking the roads. This is somewhat common here (see photo of topped truck)

5:30 & 18 miles from the destination, we encountered the first major traffic stoppage due flooding of the highway. (There was a deluge last night and it rained all afternoon.) This took ½ hour. Then minutes later, the “Grand Taco” of 3 ½ hours due to “obras” (works) on the main highway. Everyone, mostly truckers, was just resigned to it. It took 4 ½ hours to travel the last 18 miles. We dined at the hotel. It was fine.

We are not caring much for the rainy season itself, nor its effects on the infrastructure here. The insect situation and humidity make the outdoors very challenging. The beaches are nice, but we are not into hanging around on this Adventure. The car was not going to like the often muddy unpaved roads in the Guyanas. We are looking at the total signs: Stranding in Sao due to valet damage to the roof of the car, the stranding in Rio due to the failure of the fuel pump, a 4 ½ hour taco, being rained out of golf on Thursday, and the prospect of 14 rainy days out of the next 15, bad roads & bugs, bugs, bugs. In sum, we have decided to conclude the trip in Salvador, Bahia, where there is a large port and weekly container service to the US.