Summer 2023 Recap + Rj - Chapter 1

Back by popular demand. Decided to get this back up again to help clear my thoughts and let everyone who I haven’t talked to in a minute know I’m still alive.

This time, coming to you live from Rio de Janerio in Brazil. Before I get into current tense let’s do a recap up on the year so far since I think my last post was for NYE.

Spring was spent at home. With the Summer approaching and my itch for a change of scenery spreading fast, I tried to switch things up by going to Spain for two months to live in Malaga. This was my second long-term trip to Espana. I can wholeheartedly state that out of everywhere I’ve been so far, Spain has the best quality of life for someone looking for a place to stay long-term. Why? Asides from the obvious the cheap(er) cost of living, the weather is one of the best that I’ve ever seen. Malaga is on the Southern coast of Spain in a region called Andalusia. While I was there, I learned that it is one of the sunniest places in the world (in terms of hours of sun and intensity). In 2 months, I think it hardly rained more than 2-3 times which made waking up a lot easier than on the gloomy days in Canada you get pretty often. Overall it helped improve my mood big time because I didn’t have any days where I felt trapped in my house.

The second thing I’d say is the pace of living. The hustle and grind culture that we have in financial hubs where people dedicate most of their waking hours chasing higher salaries, better titles, and more prestige, isn’t evident in Spain, even though it certainly does exist in some people. However, despite the siesta hours, it’s not as slow and lazy as many parts of South America where I felt that innovation and hard work is kind of stifled by the culture (expand on this). Spain exists in a happy medium where people are willing to put in the work to have a better life than their parents which makes the service great, but they also put a higher value on leisure and social activities that makes the culture so warm and lively.

After Spain I did a month in Budapest where I tried to reconnect with some of my Eastern European roots by drinking a ton of Palinka (plum brandy) and eating a ton of Langos, Goulash, Chicken Paprikash and Kuroskalacs. The vibe in Budapest specifically was heavily touristic which is also partly due to the fact that I was there during July. The pros of this are that you won’t have trouble getting around, learning about the history or getting lost in the city because most people speak English. On the other hand, the streets were flooded with college students staying in hostels and looking to get rowdy.

Hungary is also popular for its thermal baths which I frequented quite a bit and their architecture which is way more aesthetically pleasing than the Soviet-era style of their Eastern European counterparts.

After Hungary I did a trip to Peru with my Dad and some family friends. It was a trek in the mountain range called Cordillera Blanca that is part of the Andes. We slept in tents and hiked for six days without any access to the outside world. Was a great chance to disconnect from the rest of the world, give my body a much-needed detox, and see some of the most unique natural sights on the planet.

Following Peru my plan was to go back to Budapest but I was diverted due to uncontrollable circumstances and ended up back in Mexico for the second time this year (can’t complain). I was only there for just under a week but by complete coincidence my friend Rod who I met in Mexico and did a Trip to Montenegro with last year happened to be flying in to Playa del Carmen a day after me. I had a good time because I got to see a lot of people that I got to know when I lived there in 2021 there but Playa nowadays is not even close to the level of fun that it was during COVID. What made it good at that time was the sense of community, but now that seems to have died down because most of the digital nomad population that was there at that time migrated to other parts of the world.

This brings us to present time. I got to Brazil last Tuesday with my friend Daniel who has been a recurring guest in these posts, and his brother Franz. Brazil has been next on my list of South American countries since I lived in Colombia last winter.

So far Rio checks off a lot of boxes. Phenomenal food (if you like chicken, steak, and fish). Cheap prices (asides from property rentals). Breathtaking beaches. Gorgeous women.  Super inexpensive transportation (Uber is dirt cheap). What more can a guy need? I’ve also got one of the Wonders of the World like 20 min from me, but I haven’t even given going there much thought yet because there’s so much else do see and do in Rio.

Daniel and I got a place together and his brother is staying a little farther from us. This is the first time I have had a roommate abroad since my Argentina adventure in early 2022. I always avoided living with friends even if we were in the same city because I like my space, but given the price of rentals it made financial sense to get a place together. So far, we haven’t chopped each other’s heads off and I actually feel more productive getting work done someone else in the same house. Daniel has his own business that he’s running and we also have one together that demands quite a lot of time.

The only downside of this place so far has been the language barrier. I did a month in Portugal in late 2021 where I had no trouble getting by with English. I didn’t even have to pay attention to Portuguese there because every machine had an English setting and almost every worker understood it as well. Here it’s a different story. While Rio is popular, it doesn’t see nearly as many English-speaking tourists as Mexico, Costa Rica, or even Colombia. So even the workers in the touristy places don’t speak a lick of English. It took me 3 days of going to Claro (telecom store) stores across the city to find someone who spoke English that could help set up my sim card. It doesn’t help that Portuguese sounds like Spanish spoken by someone with a serious speech impediment. I can’t even make the sounds required to pronounce some of the words properly. Daniel and I said we’re going to hit Duo Lingo hard to at least get the basics down.

The highlight so far was hitting the beach last Saturday and then having a night on the town in one of the most popular bars in the city where we chatted up a bunch of locals and had a great night.

There will definitely be many stories to come in the next few months from this place so I will keep on spewing my thoughts on here every once in a while.

Bom dia!

-MS