Angeline the Baker comes to Ilha Grande

Found another incredibly vain video I took of myself while on Ilha Grande and thought the world really needed to see it. Notice in the background on the boulder my laptop...where I rewrote my NSF proposal...not too bad a spot if that banjo didn't keep getting in the way...

Sorry to all one or two people who actually read this blog from time to time. It's been a fairly hectic week getting set up in Fortaleza, and not a whole lot worth blogging about. Of course, what do they say? When it rains it pours. Well, probably does here as well, although I'm beginning to feel like I'm in Nevada weather wise. Anyways, here are some photos from a trip I took this last weekend to Canoa Quebrada (Broken Canoe...don't ask me didn't even see a normal one). It's pretty neat I'd have to say, perhaps the mini-Bryce national park of the Brazilian coast (emphasis on mini). O






One thing that the beaches here are known for are the dune buggy rides that you can take (they use the English word buggy here, but pronounce it like boogey which always makes me laugh). Anyways, after take a little hike through these neat cliff formations we ended up on the beach where all these dune buggies were gunning there motors to take off...



Another thing the area is known for is its constant strong winds. Everywhere there are these windmills...



and as a result of all that wind you have a ton of nuts who go kite surfing. Now as my photos of people kite surfing were absolutely abysmal, I decided to grab one from google images....it's amazingly cool to watch, but I'd have to say I almost dislocated my shoulder just watching. That's one thing I definitely won't be doing.....at least any time soon :)

On to Fortaleza...

Tomorrow, I leave for Fortaleza, which is in the Norhteastern state of Ceara. I´ve had an absolutely wonderful time in Rio. I will definitely miss my friends here, and the fun times playing music for my little fan- Manuela (her shirt says ´my first world cup´ ;)




and here's a little video of the dance party in action....

Fun times from Ilha Grande

Thought I´d post a few photos of me as proof that I do sometimes step away from the computer....Photos include me playing on a rope swing, enjoying the beautiful beach of Lopez Mendez, and sitting atop Parrot´s peak after a grueling hike.

Rapaz, tem problemo serio...

´Boy, we have a problem´ sad the military officer as I arrived at the archive this morning...and now I know how a hot air balloon feels when it loses its air.

To make a not-so-long story even shorter, it turns out that the Sergent who I dealt with last week didn~t have the proper authorization to sell the photos....

Now of course, said sergent could have called me on my Brazilian cell phone (of which he had the number and of which I kept with me all week) or he could have emailed me (using the email address I gave him and told him was the best way to contact me in case there were any questions whatsoever...), bu for whatever reason, he didn~t.

And today there is another soccer game, which means said sergent did not come into work today and won~t be in until Monday, which is great considering I leave for Fortaleza on Sunday. All of which means I get the please of trying to figure out via skype whom I need to get authorizaion from, how to get it, to get it, then to get photos developed, figure out how to wire the money, get them to air mail the photos to Fortaleza.....simple, right?

The upshot of all this is that A) I now know something I didn´t before, namely that the photos exist and are of good quality; B) I have the phone number of the archives and the person´s name who was friendly and helpful; C) I know this is how the `game´works, the silly trying-to-conduct-research-abroad game that is, and D) I´m damn persistent

What did put a little air back in my balloon was getting back on the subway (mind you I had to go across Rio this morning to get this wonderful news) and see all the ridiculous people dressed up in yellow and green mohawks with fake giantsunglasses and kazoos, creating a giant bit of insanity in the subway car at 9:30 in the morning before the 11:00 game...thank you fools, the manifestation of the insanity that took the air out of my little balloon.

Greetings from Ilha Grande!

So I´m back at Ilha Grande for a little writing retreat...as you can see from this picture I´m getting alot of writing done! Just kidding, it´s actually quite productive to be here.

It says alot for a place that I came here last year and spent a few days, and with all the places I haven~t been in Brazil, I came back at the first chance I got. The reasons are simple. It´s close to Rio (about 3 hours), it´s pretty cheap. And there are really endless outdoor opportunities.

Today for example, I went for a 10 mile hike/run through the rainforest around the island to the most amazing beach, location of this photo.

Which just goes to say.....please come and let´s take a trip here!

Sunset....Rio style

If you are ever in Rio I can´t recommend highly enough going to Pao de Açucar (Sugar Loaf) for the sunset on a clear day. Absolutely magnificent (likely thanks to the pollution being trapped by the mountains, but oh well). Even more amazing than the actual sunset, which was great, was watching all the lights come on all over the city! So cool!

Their are several ways up to the top. One can take the cable car. One can climb the mountain itself, which I didn´t. Or one can take a pretty strenous hike up the backside. I chose the latter, and phewwwww I am beat. It was an incredibly tough hike, but oh so worth it....