All posts by Nick

Growing up in downtown San Francisco surrounded by tourists and crackheads gave Nick a unique perspective on inner city living. This diverse upbringing conditioned him for a globetrotting life of urban adventure. After traveling extensively through South Asia, he kicked it with Maasai warriors during a four month stay in Tanzania, majored in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College and spent seven months backpacking around South American making documentaries. He currently is a video producer for the photography website Lensculture.

Kicking it in Zona Norte

THE HOUSE

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After only 24 hours of living in our new pad in Rio’s Zona Norte it was already abundantly clear that we had picked the perfect place to spend the next six weeks.  The house where we are staying is located in a gated hillside community less than a 10 minute walk from Maracanã Stadium far removed from the tourist hotspots of Copacabana and Lapa.

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Our room is on the second floor of a two story flat overlooking a middle class neighborhood and a favela nestled in the hillside across IMG_0883from us.  Patrick Granja, our host, lives with his girlfriend on the first floor.  The second floor is essentially a mini hostel, with Danny, another Brazilian filmmaker, in one room, two Swedish English teachers in across the hall and us three in the biggest room.  The final resident is an inquisitive little cat named Maasai.

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The living room is decked out with surf boards and guitars, and a breakfast of bread, ham, cheese, fresh pineapple and very strong coffee awaits us every morning if we get up in time.

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 OUR HOST, PATRICK GRANJA

The primary reason we decided to stay with Patrick was because he was a local filmmaker.  We thought he would be a great connection to have in South America and living with him, as opposed to in a hostel, would offer us a unique opportunity to see the city from the perspective of a local human rights advocate.

He grew up across the street from Maracanã stadium in a “rundown penthouse”.  His mom still lives there, but right now she is renting it out to CNN so that it can be used as their command center overlooking the stadium during the World Cup.  She also received five tickets to the World Cup final, which she intends to sell for thousands of dollars each and use the money to remodel the penthouse.

Patrick watched his favorite team, Fluminense, play over a thousand times growing up, but hasn’t attended a game since it was renovated for the World Cup.  The pitch was rotated so he can no longer remember where he was when the most important goals were scored.  He is not excited about the World Cup at all because of the problems that came with it, like the pacification of the favelas, the ensuing violence, and the rising cost of living in Rio.

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Patrick’s interest and involvement in Rio’s inequality epidemic didn’t start with the World Cup. He has been editing and contributing to the weekly Maoist journal A Nova Democracia for the last 12 years. He is also a enthusiastic videographer, filming all the major protest over the last decade with the best cameras, as well as the most prominent archiver of locally produced films and footage.

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His dedication to being in the midst of the action and getting the best shots has come at a cost to his health and safety.  He lost a chunk of his leg when a flash bang grenade exploded at his feet, has inhaled lots of expired tear gas and got shot at recently while in the front lines of a protest in a nearby favela, because the cops unexpectedly opened fire with real 9mm bullets.

This passion and proclivity to filming protest has been noticed by news agencies around the world.  He has sold his footage to Al Jazeera and most recently to Vice for their upcoming documentary on the World Cup in Rio.  I’m stoked to be living with him.  Hopefully we can all learn from him and start selling the footage we get in South America to keep funding our travels.

Check back soon to read all about our adventures with Patrick in Rio.

Peace

Road To Rio

After months of waiting the time had finally come to embark on the long journey to Rio.  Of course we had to eat one final meal at Sanraku, a Neumann family tradition, but this time we were joined by Moreno, Dre, Kyle and Conor. We celebrated by drinking some delicious Saki infused with gold leaves for good luck.

7:30 PM (PST) – Depart for Ft. Lauderdale with a short stop in LA. Virgin America was awesome, from the new Terminal in SFO, to inflight live TV and GoPro channel!

5:30 AM (EST) – Upon arriving in muggy Ft. Lauderdale, we decided to rent a car for the day for only $20, because we had 12 hours to kill in Miami.  It totally beat lugging our backpacks around during the rainy season.

American in Little Havana

After cruising down Miami Beach in style in our Fiat 500 we kicked it and swam at Nikki Beach for a couple of hours.  It was already getting hot, even though it was only 8 AM.

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As the day progressed an endless stream of beautiful cars began lining up along Miami  beach for the Gumball 3000, an annual British 3000 mile race on public roads.  This year the race goes from Miami to New York City, then the cars are flown to London and driven again to the finish line in Ibiza.

12:27 PM (EST) – While exploring Little Havana, we just happened to run into Santino, Moreno’s former coworker. So the only person either of us knows in Miami, was randomly in line for the same ATM, what are the odds? Next thing we know, we were at his house smoking bowl and listening to old school rap.

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Two things stood out to me in Miami.  All the drivers are crazy and its the only place I’ve been in America, where everyone expects you to speak Spanish.  English is a second language in Miami.

5:30 PM (EST) – Depart from Miami, stop for a short time in Santo Domingo and chatted with a former Marlins pitching prospect.  Tiredness was setting in. Next stop Rio.

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5:00 AM (BRT) – We finally arrived in Rio and waited in the airport till the sun rose figuring out how to get to the place we found on AirBnb, although still not completely sure if the place really existed.  Luckily our taxi driver was awesome, not just because he was honking at girls the whole ride, but because he found the exact apartment in a three story building on a random side street in Zona Norte.  Without him we would have been so lost.

Quick Travel Tip: Upon arriving in a new city or country for the first time tell people, like taxi drivers, that you’ve been before.  We learned this the hard way upon arriving in Delhi a few years ago totally discombobulated and our taxi driver from the airport ‘couldn’t find’ our hostel ‘because it had closed’ and took us to an expensive hotel owned by his relative instead.  It’s easy to take advantage of people who have no idea what they are doing, so just pretend you do. 

In the next post we’ll tell you all about our host here in Rio and our adventures to Copacabana and Ipanema.

Peace

Only One Week Left!

In one short week my life will change forever.

When I walk onto Flight 7711 en route to Brazil, not only am I embarking the journey of a lifetime, but it will also be the start of my unplanned life.

My whole life up until this point has been planned out.  I always knew I was going to high school, then college.  Even before starting college I planned to work to save up money after graduating so that I could travel.  All these plans end the moment I step on that plane for Brazil.  It’s as if I have been planning for this trip for so long that I never expected the day of departure to actually come.

Its not like I haven’t traveled before, just that this time its different. This time there is no time table, no itinerary, no commitments, and no real reason to return home.

If I want to become a gaucho and spend the rest of my days herding cattle on the Patagonian pampas, I can.  If I feel like living deep in Amazon learning the ways of the ancient shaman, I can.  If I want to become a hippie and spend my days growing (legal) weed in a commune on the Uruguayan coast, I can. If I can’t handle life on the road and want to return home in 2 months, I can do that too.

I have never had this kind of freedom before, and to be honest it’s a bit daunting.  The first chapter of my life is coming to an abrupt end, and the second is about to be written.

Photo: My two travel bags, my new Deuter Quantum 70 + 10 and my Canon camera bag, + my passport with a fresh Brazil Visa good for 10 years.

 

 

 

84 Days to Go

With only 84 days to go until we leave for Brazil to break some borders the excitement is definitely building.  It’s hard to believe that it has already been 10 months since I graduated from Oxy.  In terms of preparation, we have already purchased our one way flights to Rio de Janeiro for $600 and secured a place to stay in Zona Norte – a 10 minute walk from Maracanã Stadium – for the entirety of the World Cup.

Quick Travel Tip: We saved $500 by buying a $440 international flight from Miami to Rio and an $160 domestic flight from SF to Miami vs around $1100 from SF straight to Rio. 

Next on my to do list is to get insurance for my camera equipment and computer, and buy the perfect backpack for the trip.  Both are proving to be harder than I was expecting.

My Equipment:

  • Canon EOS Rebel T4i – Primary Cam
  • EF-S 10-22mm f/1:3.5-4.5
  • EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6
  • EF 50mm f/1.8
  • Canon Vixia HG20 – Backup Cam
  • GoPro Hero 3+ Black – Undercover Cam
  • GoPro Hero 2 – Undercover Cam #2
  • Canon PowerShot S3 IS – Decoy Cam
  • MacBook Pro

Until departure I’ll keep lyfting and ramp up preparations into high gear.

What to Expect

WHAT IS BREAKING BORDERS?

Breaking Borders is website and webtv series chronicling the adventures of three San Franciscans as we embark on an epic journey around the South America and beyond.  The trip will begin with a bang in Rio de Janeiro, where we will spend over a month taking in the beautiful sites and sounds of the Marvelous City during the World Cup.  We will be staying with Patrick Granja, a documentary filmmaker, only 10 minutes from Maracana Stadium (the site of the Final!).  Check back here during the World Cup for updates, pictures and videos of the protests, hooliganism and parties, as we will be in the midst of all the action.  After a champion is crowned in mid July we will head south to visit friends and live like Porteños in Buenos Aires and gauchos in Las Pampas.  We aren’t sure exactly where they will head to after, but they know that we would like to explore Patagonia, track down Moreno’s relatives in Chile, bike the road of death in Bolivia, and continue adventuring up the west coast of South America and beyond.

THE TEAM

The Breaking Borders crew is Moreno, the writer and travel noob, Walker, the photographer and travel guru, and Neumann, the filmmaker and travel vet. We will work together to produce entertaining blog posts, photo essays and galleries, and a series of travel videos. Yet, it won’t just be fun and games, as we will keeping a keen eye out for interesting people, social issues and environmental problems to investigate and document. Our goal is to not only produce entertaining documentaries, but also expose injustices and raise awareness about underreported stories and events.