The Brazilian Chameleon

So, I came from the Amazon, where it was sweltering (although not as hot as in India) to the south of Brazil, where it's in the 50's, and tonight I head farther south, where the temp has been dipping into the freezing digits....

So, with only shorts and short-sleeve shirts I need to do some retrofitting...

Now, I had been feeling like I stood out a little, but I wasn't about to go Native, as I think Brazilian clothing styles are absolutely atrocious (I imagine the Natives think the same of my zip on pant legs...oh well)

And then a fellow hosteler was getting rid of half his wardrobe in front of me...and I scored this marvelous gem!



Now, I was not going to go whole hog and buy the pants to match it, which would have been jeans with zippers and doo dads in strange places, acid washed, and with strange non-sensical english words scralled on them....

So instead, i headed down to the equivalent of China town....

and retrofitted myself again....





For US$ 20, not bad for jeans (which lack all of the culturally-appropriate acouterments, sorry) and a long-sleeve button down, now who looks legitimate.....

except for that stuff on my face...no it's not dirt, i didn't fall. I just decided it was a lot easier to trim my "neard" (neck beard) every once in a while, and embrace the beard than actually shave proper style. Whether I come back with said facial hair will depend on the number of electronic requests I get, and who they're coming from!

Clean as newly fallen snow...

or the beautiful white seats of a cadillac (google images has everything)...

(and it only took SIX HOURS of me pacing frantically, drinking too much coffee, and playing the mandolin obsessively, while the cleaner cleaned to find out that my data was clean was well)

and for US$80 (which I'm not sure, but I have a feeling is a pretty good deal for having a technician come to you and work for six hours, try getting that in the States), I'm now a happy camper.

The Cleaner

So let~s play the `have you seen that movie game`:

Anyone seen Resevoir Dogs?

Pretty violent flick....anyone remember the cleaner scene?

Well, for those of you who turned the movie off, what happens is basically as follows. An incident occurs in which the protagonists blow someones brains out all over the inside of the fancy white leather car and they need to get the situation (as well as the car) cleaned...in a hurry. Harvey Keitel (the cleaner) is called in and arrives in a tuxedo to make the situation go away.

Now, you are probably wondering what situation I´m in that warrants starting off a story with this cinematic analogy.

Well here it is:

So two days ago I opened an email message from a researcher here in Brazil, and downloaded a document he sent me (which I assumed was virus-free) ((You can probably see where this is going...)

After downloading the document all of these ads started popping up on my computer...then several minutes later the computer started acting funnier, no not like tellnig jokes, but like not working....I shut it down....

and it wouldn~t restart....

Ok, freaking out: all of my summer research. Not really thoroughly backed up, a draw back of not having a cd/dvd burner in the computer, is that i only have 2gb backed up of the important stuff on a thumb drive, and some stuff in the cloud storage online (yes, various lessons being learned here)

So freaking out, I ask the people at the hostel: And they make the call.

And arrives Marcos, in a very nice suit (a tuxedo might be innappropriate).

He~s the cleaner. And three hours later he~s still cleaning. Apparently this was a very nasty virus and was trying to destroy my operating system.....Marcos seems to be of the qualifications of Harvey Keitel, so I have complete faith that he will be able to get my white leather cadillac back to its pristine white condition (minus the amazonian dirt that~s engrained in it)......

So lessons learned:

1. A spyware program is only as good as it is (i.e it can~t detect new viruses it doesn~t know about (according to Marcos)

2. You are the best spyware program there is (ie know what you~re opening, which unfortunately makes it difficult when you revert back to the law of the highway which is you~re only as safe as the least safest person on the road.....)

3. Back up, back up, back up

4. Know the number of a good cleaner

Back in SAMPA

So I'm not sure, but from what I can tell people actually do refer to Sao Paulo as SAMPA, as opposed to those flower children posers who refer to San Francisco as Sanfran. Well, regardless, I'm staying at the SAMPA hostel, which is located in the unbelievably large metropolis of Sao Paolo (18 million and counting in the metro region).

My "worst" fears of returning here in the dead of "winter" were luckily unfounded: it's not THAT cold (all the warnings I'd had were from Brazilians after all)....so I'm sitting in shorts (and a very smelly t-shirt that should just be burned at this point as no amount of washing seems to ameliorate its unfortunate condition) and it's 8 am in the low 60s...I know...frigid right?

Anyways, so I'm staying in a slightly different part of SAMPA this time, in a different hostel (as my favorite Oca hostel is under renovation, which is very very very sad). I have a very love-hate relationship with hostels. If it's a nice hostel (like the one in Belem or the Oca) it's great; for US $ 12-15 dollars you get a dorm bed, wifi, shower, bad tv, and breakfast (of marginal quality). But it's a "crap shoot" (pardon the expression) as it depends on how many annoying travelers are staying there at the moment, and how thick the hostels walls are...let's just say here in good old SAMPA there are many of the former and the latter is of as much substance as their travel itineraries.



So judging aside...ok judging not aside: this area of Sao Paulo I'm in is insane! It's like a mix between Sanfrancisco (the hills), Berkeley/North Hampton (the funky), Buckhead (the incredible opulence) and I don't know a few other things. It is sooooo far removed from the 17 de Abril settlement it's unbelievable. On one street I walked past a Russian, Morrocan, Indian, Japanese, several artisan pizza restaurants and microbrew pubs a buddhist meditation center and innumerable art galleries, even the grocery store (where I thought I might be able to afford something) was an upscale version of Whole Foods/Trader Joes where I couldn't even afford the bread...



oh well....now it's pouring and unlike the rain in the Amazon which was cathartic and cooling...this feels like that great rain in October at the beach when all you brought is shorts and a t-shirt thinking it would be warm...where's Rag-R-Rama when you need it?

and sorry, I couldn't help taking this picture, or posting it: But at a funky "toy"/art boutique store, which I have no idea what you would really call it....I saw this very strange and disturbing chatchka.....yes, you can get your very own miniature OB/GYN or proctologist action figure set....yes, now life is complete. No, I didn't get them (but I am taking orders...)

Life of the River: Parting Shots

On the way back from a day trip to the island of Cotijuba, at sunset I saw this person commuting....somewhere




While wandering along the docks at night I came across a passenger boat getting ready to do a different type of commute along the river.....holy moley! Can you imagine sleeping for 5 days (let alone what you'd be doing the rest of the time) on a deck with hundreds of people in hammocks slung this way and that across each other! Absolutely insane!




Fresh shrimp anyone?

Back in SAMPA

So I'm not sure, but from what I can tell people actually do refer to Sao Paulo as SAMPA, as opposed to those flower children posers who refer to San Francisco as Sanfran. Well, regardless, I'm staying at the SAMPA hostel, which is located in the unbelievably large metropolis of Sao Paolo (18 million and counting in the metro region).

My "worst" fears of returning here in the dead of "winter" were luckily unfounded: it's not THAT cold (all the warnings I'd had were from Brazilians after all)....so I'm sitting in shorts (and a very smelly t-shirt that should just be burned at this point as no amount of washing seems to ameliorate its unfortunate condition) and it's 8 am in the low 60s...I know...frigid right?

Anyways, so I'm staying in a slightly different part of SAMPA this time, in a different hostel (as my favorite Oca hostel is under renovation, which is very very very sad). I have a very love-hate relationship with hostels. If it's a nice hostel (like the one in Belem or the Oca) it's great; for US $ 12-15 dollars you get a dorm bed, wifi, shower, bad tv, and breakfast (of marginal quality). But it's a "crap shoot" (pardon the expression) as it depends on how many annoying travelers are staying there at the moment, and how thick the hostels walls are...let's just say here in good old SAMPA there are many of the former and the latter is of as much substance as their travel itineraries.



So judging aside...ok judging not aside: this area of Sao Paulo I'm in is insane! It's like a mix between Sanfrancisco (the hills), Berkeley/North Hampton (the funky), Buckhead (the incredible opulence) and I don't know a few other things. It is sooooo far removed from the 17 de Abril settlement it's unbelievable. On one street I walked past a Russian, Morrocan, Indian, Japanese, several artisan pizza restaurants and microbrew pubs a buddhist meditation center and innumerable art galleries, even the grocery store (where I thought I might be able to afford something) was an upscale version of Whole Foods/Trader Joes where I couldn't even afford the bread...



oh well....now it's pouring and unlike the rain in the Amazon which was cathartic and cooling...this feels like that great rain in October at the beach when all you brought is shorts and a t-shirt thinking it would be warm...where's Rag-R-Rama when you need it?

Marajo

So I’m writing this blog entry on the ferry from the island of Marajo back to the city of Belem. (for the full story on the water buffalo and the church...well that's a long "story"






As Malinowski (the “father” of ethnography) emphasized, it is important for the anthropologist to take a break every now and then to recuperate and mull over the data one has gleaned from one’s time among the natives. (picture of malinowski) Couldn’t help throwing that one in….and I wonder what the people at the settlement think of me!

Anyways, so I took a mini-hiatus, more for the need of a quiet place to work on my Fulbright application ( a large grant for fieldwork more than a year and a half from now, no we never rest…I know cry me a river) than for the need to ruminate on deep insights. So I decided to head to the island of Marajo, which is approximately the size of Switzerland, and sits in the mouth of the Amazon. Well, four days later it’s official: for those willing to make the trip to Brazil in a year and half to come visit me (that’s approximately June 2011-12 for you OCD planners-you know who you are) a trip to Marajo would be on my list of things to do.

For where else can you get breakfast like this....



after watching this sunrise...






It’s a three hour ferry ride from Belem, which in itself is a fun and exciting adventure as you travel along the coast of some body of water which is part of the Amazon (I think at the mouth it’s just water…fresh, but unnamed…the whole thing is for some reason confusing to me)…anyways, it’s a great breezy ferry ride...until it starts torrential downpouring in the middle of the strait....




and then you get to the island and take a shuttle to one of the three easily accessible towns of Salvaterra, Soure, and Joanes (unless you have a private plane and then you go wherever you want). Each has their own “thing”. I chose Joanes for its relative isolation. And relative isolation I got. The very eclectic pousada



sists on an incredible bluff, getting buffeted constantly by cool breezes.





The rooms are decorated with whimsical paintings ,





and the beach is literally steps away…and on the beach, one does not collect sea glass (as the water body is the Amazon after all) but rather seeds! Incredible, unbelievable seeds! It was so much fun to walk along the beach collecting the most incredible seeds, some bigger than baseballs that I’ve ever seen.





So aside from some quality time in the hammock/or at my desk working on my grant application,




and quality time watching the daily torrential downpour arrive at 2-3 pm ( an amazing phenomenon),



I rented a single speed no-brakes bike (good thing we’re on a flat island and the chain falls off every few hundred meters or I might get above a km/hour). The bike trip was a lot of fun: I just went off exploring and encountered all sorts of fun landscapes, including this swampy area with a very interesting bridge.




A coastal forest



With some seriously spiky thwarting road blocks…..try riding your bike over those…no, don’t



A very “warm” savanna



a gorgeous isolated beach (great for riding around and around in circles on)



and a very interesting Mangrove…



and some generally strange things....like this house that had a fence made of soda bottles...reminiscent of anything anyone...(inside "joke")?



Unfortunately, the threat of stingrays on most beaches kept me from swimming on my bike trip (I guess I could have pe(a)ddled in the water on the bike), but I really enjoyed swimming in the stingray-free waters of the beach my pousada was on. For those of you who like warm waters, this is it! Walk straight in and while away the hours……and then back to the hammock for a breezy nap….

Now Malinowski had it right!


Ok, now some parting shots...it'd be hard to pin down a highlight of this trip...but I think finding this book on "Sting saves the rainforest" might be at the top....




that is until I found this 8x11 spread....puts that old famous "scream" painting to shame...




I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at this picture...and hopefully you won't either!