Rio.
This is it, the last evening. After dropping Heather at the bus station, I spent the day with Andrea, visiting some Atlantic rainforest, eating a buffet a vontade, and visiting downtown. It was obviously very great to see her again, and she looked just as marvellous as the last time I saw her.
Tomorrow I take the train from Rio - breeding hot here - to Sao Paulo. I catch my plane at 23.30.

I can finally upload some more pics, made with Thais camera.

A pic of the audience at my talk in Rio


Heather, Anna and Thais


With Thais and Heather

Today we went for a walk in Rio with Thais and her friend Anna, then attended a raw food workshop, organised by a Brazilian doctor - who, icidentally, told me he had taken Ayahuasca like 2000 times and that it had changed his life - and then went for a swim on Copacabana beach. At night it was time for a third talk for some 15 activists, at Thais appartment.
This is Heathers last day - she leaves one day before me - so tomorrow morning we say goodbye, I dont know for how long...

The Ayahuasca session took place yesterday night, between 20 and midnight. It was 2.30 by the time I got home and was done talking with Adriano, and my brain was so excited about the experience that I could not find sleep until 5 am, only to have to wake up again an hour later, to catch the bus to Rio, after saying a heartfelt goodbye to Adriano.
The trip to Rio was long but pleasant, in the company of Lara, the girl sitting next to me, a psychology Ph.D. with whom I had an interesting chat. In Rio I was picked up by Thais, who is so kind to offer me and Heather a room in her appartment. She is one more person - like many on this trip - with whom I felt right away at ease, and with whom it feels I have known her for a long time.
We just had a great dinner in Vegetariano Social Club, a great vegan restaurant. I finished it with - at last! - a chocolate cake with chocolate icecream. Life is beautiful...

This entry may scare some people, and may raise a few eyebrows, but I can assure my dear readers that everything is fine and that I feel wonderful, and I still have trouble believing what I experienced. I have finally found one of the things I came here to find.

On November 27, 2005, in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, I participated in a ritual of the religion of Santo Daime - see www.santodaime.org. This is a synchretistic religion, incorporating elements from mainly christianity and sjamanism. The most important element of the ritual is the ceremonial usage of the Ayahuasca drink, or holy tea, a brew from the plant Banisteriopsis Caapi - see e.g http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca or www.ayahuasca.com. Some people might call it a drug, but Ayahuasca is supposed to be a holy plant, and is actually used to cure people from addictions and other bad things.

I was accompanied by my friend Adriano, from Ribeirao, who is used to do the ceremony once or twice a month, since several years. I had never taken any mind-enhancing substances, and I must say I that next to being very excited, I was also a bit apprehensive. The plant was supposed to have stronger effects than LSD. However, it was the alleged healing and spiritual properties of the plant that attracted me. Ayahuasca is also called the Teacher Plant and is said to be able to give you insights and wisdom, and access to higher realms. Having heard this, and having read that users experience astral travel, telepathic powers, visions etc., my expectations were very high, so high in fact that I felt I could only be disappointed.

I was wrong. The Ayahuasca session exceeded my expectations a hundredfold. It was a life-changing experience, and I feel that I can safely say that there was a life before, and after Ayahuasca. My whole life I have been feeling that there is more than what we see, that there is a purpose to all This. I was, however, never sure if this was wishful thinking, or based on fact, and my rational mind was asking for a sign, some proof. The Ayahuasca experience has given me exactly what I asked and what I needed. I am convinced that the plant is something extraordinary. Its use, however, I know is not to be taken lightly. I consider its usage a means to get a glimpse of whatever is possible, a stimulation to get there by other means, such as meditation.

I will not write here how the session went and what I saw - that does not belong here. I am writing a more extensive report, for my own reference and for whoever is interested.

Riberao Preto.
I had a few nice days in Belo Horizonte with Mariana. It was really great to see her again, and she is in my list of top 10 favorite people in the world (together with 30 others :-)
I left BH on the morning of the 25th, taking the bus to Riberao Preto. At Figueira (and before, at my talk in Sao Paulo) I got acquainted with a guy called Adriano, who runs the local division of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society in Riberao Preto. He had asked me to come to his city (pop. 800.000) to give a talk.

I have had the good fortune to meet a lot of wonderful women in my life, but wonderful guys are somewhat more rare. Adriano qualifies, and I am much impressed by him. At 30, he runs his own internet business, coaching 10 people, coordinates the vegetarian society, and has a wife and a kid. He is a wonderful guy and if he weren´t happily married, I´d match him with one of my female single friends :-)
His dog, Chouchou, may very well be the sweetest dog I have ever met. Perhaps her stays at Figueira have something to do with that.

It was great yesterday to give the talk - to some 20 activists. It is wonderful to have this opportunity, and it also gives me a good feeling to see how people are impressed by the vegetarian work we do in Belgium. The president of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society vaguely suggested me to stay here one or two years, to help launch their magazine. It is an interesting idea, and certainly a challenge, but for now I´ll see what Belgium has in store for me when I return.

Tomorrow I will be travelling to Rio, where I will give a final talk. These were all unexpected and organised at the last moment. It´s great to be able to travel around the world and always meet up with vegetarian activists (I don´t like the word, but for want of a better one...) connect with them, get to show the city by them and stay at their place and eat their vegan food (a great vegan cannelloni yesterday, courtesy of Christiana, Adriano´s wife)...
In Rio I will also see Heather again, who has finished a two week homestay. This time it was with a single guy, who appeared to be very rich (a surgeon). She seems to have had a nice time but I will hear more about it tomorrow.

Portuguese is such a beautiful language. I keep wondering why I didn´t make use of the opportunity to learn it while I was living with uma Brasileira.

I don´t know if I will be on email much in the coming few days, and if am not, this would be the last entry while outside of Belgium. I am back on the night of 3 december - plane is arriving around 19.00. If you have been nice to me I may have a gift for you :-)

Abraçao!

It´s been a while, but I am back, a little earlier than planned. I stayed in Figueira, a spiritual center in the South of Brazil, for eight days. I originally planned two weeks, but I thought it would be stupid not to visit Mariana, here in Belo Horizonte, so I cut my stay a bit short. Moreover, I am also visiting another friend in another city, Riberao Preto, and give a talk for his local vegetarian group, tomorrow.

It is hard to give an idea of what Figueira is like, but it is surely a wonderful and special place, and I am almost hesitant to say anything about it. I will limit myself to a short description. Whoever wants to know more can ask me.
Figueira is a community of some 70 people, plus a few hundred short or long time visitors. The founder is Trigueirinho, a simple enough living and looking guy, who is without a doubt genuine, and very serious about what he is doing. He is the author of more than 70 spiritual books, and has a very interesting personal history, which I will not divulge here
The aim of a stay, or life, at Figueira is to work on one´s spiritual progress, in an environment of voluntary simplicity, serenity, far from the world and close to wonderful nature. Indeed, the scenery here is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, mainly because of the incredibly beautiful sunlight, and wonderful skies.
People work the whole day (and the day starts at 5.45 and ends around 9.30), but the manual work they do is considered to be at the same time internal, spiritual work, wether it is cleaning dishes or working the land. Everything is done with great devotion, concentration and inner silence, and with a lot of order, almost bordering on the neurotic, to say it a bit disrespectfully.
I mainly worked together with a Dutch 55 year old guy, Paul, who has been living in Figueira, without leaving it, for 13 years - a wonderful person. I worked in the wood, cleaned toilets, took care of trash and compost, watered plants, loaded and unloaded firewood on trucks, dug holes, washed dishes, helped bake 250 breads from 4 am in the morning...
Apart from the work, there is opportunity for rest, relaxation, meditation and study. Three times in the week there is a so called ´sharing´ with Trigueirinho, during which he answers questions from the audience. There is also singing, other lectures (most of the time at 6 am). One of the best memories was the Figeira choir, which sings heavenly music once a month.

I guess what brought me to this community was to find an answer to the question wether other ways of living are possible. Ways of living that are more loving, more useful, more caring... Perhaps the important thing is not so much to find a better world, but to find people who believe in working towards that aim. In Figueira I certainly found that.
However, certainly at this stage in my life, there is no way i could live there. I would still miss too many things. The main thing, I guess, would be personal relationships, either friendships or romantic ones. These are not encouraged in the centre. Also, I would need to do mentally challenging work, rather than just manual labour, which, I found out, I don´t like much.

Some of the most wonderful things about this community:
One, it is entirely free. You can stay there (if your candidature is approved) for free (of course you have to work), and all the work done there (e.g. developing natural medicines and helping people) is done without cost. The place is huge, with a lot of buildings, beautifully designed, all with donations!
Two, the community is entirely vegan and organic, and their attitude towards animals is the most beautiful I have ever seen. The community is not about animal rights or whatever, but animals are considered to be like humans, and the task of humans is to help them. It is hard to express how this feels over there, but it is wonderful. It even looks like the birds are less afraid of people there.

These words don´t do much to convey the atmosphere, aims and organisation of the place, but like I said, I gladly tell about it to whoever would like to hear more.

So apparently I am still online. I am spending the last night in Sao Paulo sill at Tizzy's appartment (or rather her mom's), even though they left town for a few days. How nice of them to just trust me with the keys...
I just got back from a Verdurada, or straight edge concert. Horrible music, but interesting to witness: hundreds of young people going crazy on sounds from hell. But most of them are committed to change, and the food is vegan. One guy told me that the Belgian hardcore music is actually the greatest influence for the Brazilian hard core scene, and a lot of the CDs they sold were from Belgian bands.
With a bleeding heart I said goodbye to Vanessa tonight. She is the girl who, when god distributed Cuteness, was first in line. Life seems to be a continuous farewell these days...

The last blog in a couple of weeks. Spend last night at the apparment of Tizzy, a girl of Italian origin, temporarily living in SP, whom I met on Orkut. Yesterday night I went with Heather, Vanessa and Lucas to a restaurant that does a special vegan pizza evening every Saturday. All you can eat for 13 Reais or 7 dollars. Great pizza with great homemade fake cheese, from tofu and soaked nuts. This place too is more vegan friendly than Belgium.
Tonight I'll try to find another place to stay, for the last night in Sao Paulo, and tomorrow I take the five hour bus to Figueira. Heather will do another homestay, and we will meet for two more days in Rio afterwards, before flying home.

Bought a Teach Yourself Portuguese book, cause I love this language, and especially the intonation the Brazilians speak with (you also hear it in their English). It messes up my Spanish knowledge though.

I left Peru a few days ago and am now in Sao Paulo, the third biggest city in the world. Everything feels great and I dont know why I love this country and its people so much. I feel more at home here than in Peru.
I am staying at the place of George Guimaraes, a 31 year old doctor who does wonderful things here for vegetatianism. He has his own nutritional practice for veggies and would be veggies, his own vegan restaurant, and coordinates the Sao Paulo chapter of the Brazilian Veg Society. It is great to have this network of veg friends all over the world that you can hook up with in any country. Yesterday I gave a presentation about V-day in the restaurant for some 15 activists. This afternoon and evening I am meeting up with old friends from the congress last year (Lucas and Vanessa).
Sao Paulo is supposed to be a very unsafe city, but I feel pretty ok here, though it was a little bit scary to arrive here in the middle of the night and have to find my way to Georges appartment.

I will move to a commune for two weeks on monday, and after that have a few days left in Rio. During the two weeks I will not be able to blog anything and will be in solitary confinement.

Have to go, time is up.

Much love
Tobias