Comparing Sao Paolo to Ouro Preto is like comparing tropical fish to an Orca. Both beautiful, both wild, but absolutely different. As we arrived over the city of Sao Paolo, I could see blocks and blocks of high rises interspersed with lower colorful houses and apartments and greenery. And it never seemed to stop. Sao Paolo is said to be the third largest city in the world according to population statistics. I may be wrong. But for such a highly dense city, its traffic and wide avenues are grandly civilized.
We drove for about thirty to forty minutes to reach our Hotel Fortune in the Jardims section of the city where the fashion district lies. It reminded me a little of Rodeo Drive with a twist or the Champs d'Elysse in Paris. It has prices to match. We had a short city tour in the Japanese section of the city along with a walk through Liberdade and the square filled with proselytizing and rabid evangelicals, Brazil's latest religious movement screaming against gays and sex and the devil. They weren't speaking in tongues but Pentecostals in Brazil are known to do so - it's their less than attractive equivalent to Candomble, which, by the way is alive and well here with women telling fortunes just outside the Catholic church that we visited on our walk.
We heard about the Brazilian education system yesterday at the University of Sao Paolo. Not a place where WCU can have an exchange of Brazilian students as the education system at least for the Federal system doesn't currently accept equivalencies of foreign courses for credit. Hmmmm. But that may change someday. And all classes are in Brazilian Portuguese except for an English language class. I wish I had time to visit the Art department. Again, this is more of a reconnaisance trip, hitting just the tip of the enormous Brazilian iceberg.
A popular buy here are Brazilian flip flops called havaillanos that come in all designs, glow in the dark, tropical colors, etc, I'll have to check it out before I leave Sao Paolo. And I heard from a fellow Fulbrighter, that the music scene is incredible as is the night life that doesn't really start until past midnight and goes until the early hours bordering on sunrise.
Will write more later as we have a multi-part city tour. I'm hoping to get more shots of mural art which is a typical Brazilian art form, not legal but tolerated just the same as part of their culture of expression.
Ginger and Osun
Casa Branca, Salvador
Friday, July 22, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Ouro Preto
Today we woke up in our Ouro Preto Hotel. We are sharing rooms again and this time, the rooms are much smaller than in Brasilia but more expensive too. That is because it is the winter and because of the festival. Breakfast was not as lavish as we have enjoyed in our other hotels but the colonial makes up for it in atmosphere. The name Ouro Preto means “Black Gold” not named for oil but for the black ore mixed with gold found in the hills of this town. It was marked by a specific rock formation so that the Portuguese could return from Sao Paolo with their men to start mining gold in earnest. Over one third of the world’s gold has been found in this region. Ouro Preto just celebrated its 315th birthday and we are in the midst of a great music festival in town making for a very noisy and joyous street scene every night. The town has some of the steepest streets I have ever encountered making some of San Francisco’s streets seem nearly horizontal in comparison. It was pretty frightening to be going down a hill on the bus nearly vertically this morning. Luckily we had not had our cassacia (alcohol made from sugar cane – a Brazilian speciality) sampling nor lunch before that.
The strange thing about Ouro Preto is that gold mines are found throughout the town, over 300 of them I think. The mines were worked by African slaves brought into Brazil and hand-picked for their short stature and small size in contrast to the strong tall Africans who were brought to North America and even to Northern Brazil to work in the sugar cane fields. Mining is a dangerous job with high rewards for the owners and miserable working conditions for the workers. In fact, it was said by our local guide after we donned our mining hard hats and were deep into the mine tunnel that children as young as six were taken to work in the mines to carry out the rubble that the stronger and older workers picked through in their search for gold veins. With little air, moist and damp conditions , constant dust and long hours, most slaves had very short lives perhaps only to twenty years or so when they would have died from pneumonia, exhaustion, malaria, dengue fever or any number of other debilitating diseases. The slaves were freed in Brazil only in 1888. In contrast to Brasilia, Ouro Preto shows a much higher percentage of its population as black.
We visited the Church of Our Lady of Preto with a cemetery with many graves next to the church. We couldn’t take photos in the church which was a shame since the interior was covered with fabulous Baroque carvings and paintings. I walked around the cemetery and started taking photos of graves with family names on it like da Costa and Fernandes. There were quite a few da Costas, many of them relatively recent. The church is no longer restricted to former Africans but is made of a congregation of the poor. Our guide Claudio told us that where there is a poor congregation, there are many more graves. Three workmen were digging a grave today in fact; well, one was digging the grave while two other men were just sitting around observing. There were lots of flowers on the graves mainly plastic.
Right now, I am hearing church bells ringing – there are so many churches here in the baroque style as most were built in the 17th century. I can’t imagine how all the building material got here but of course, the answer is slave labor. This place is full of iron ore, you can see it in the black soil and the red stones. Pelgy and I went shopping with Claudio’s assistant Nicole, a Japanese Brazilian who lives here in town. We had gone as a group to a gem store where they served us free capirinhas (Brazil’s native drink) and we each got a lottery number. The winner would get a free gem (a blue topaz) – the prize went to Pat. It was a nice stone but a setting had to be purchased and since gold is so high in price now, it cost a lot. I think she chose to just get the setting for a pendant and skipped the chain as it would have cost her around $500 American dollars.
I decided right then that I liked silver; even the gemstones that I was seeing were pretty high in price. The drink was nice though. We had lunch hosted by Fulbright today at an all you can eat place – we descended down many stairs and dined in a mine like stone cellar. Here in the southern part of Brazil we are seeing many more vegetables than fruits, no more Belo Souza Leiao cake for breakfast, and now an emphasis on pork. There is still the beans and rice dish brought to Brazil by the Africans with pork added by the Portuguese to make a national Afro-Brazilian dish.
After lunch we visited another church, this time, a rich church with balconies for the very rich so that they could be separate from the ordinary wealthy people below in the nave. All the walls were covered with wood carvings gilded to the hilt with numerous angels, saints, foliage and flowers. I noticed that some of the angels had one leg hanging over a ledge, others were just heads with strangely attached necks that didn’t look anatomically correct. The strangest phenomenon in this church was that several holy figures (Virgin Mary and Christ for example) had human hair. It made me wonder who donated the light brown locks? It reminded me of the glorious curled long hair that Saint Theresa of Lisieux’s father saved when her hair was cut just prior to her postulancy in the covent. The Madonna had the infant Christ in front of her, standing buck naked with rosy cheeks. Some of the angels had delightfully windblown hair and pink pursed lips. Since we couldn’t take photos, you will have to be satisfied with my inadequate descriptions. I don’t quite understand why we can’t take pictures but it might have to do with flash damaging the paint and/or gilding.
The visit to the church followed our cassacia tasting. Purportedly, sugar cane liquor from a town called Salinas has the best quality cassacia. No one knows whether it is due to the hot weather, the soil, or the rainfall but the distillation produces an almost smoky product that is best drunk straight rather than made into a capirinha. As everyone else was tasting the different varieties, I found a type called Passavara made with ginger and cinnamon and some herb that is supposed to invigorate one and create sexual energy as well. I liked the spicy taste and the fact that it was in a smaller plastic bottle; then I discovered that it only cost 5$ Rais each – the perfect little nightcap or medicinal drink for say, a sore throat or cold.
The strange thing about Ouro Preto is that gold mines are found throughout the town, over 300 of them I think. The mines were worked by African slaves brought into Brazil and hand-picked for their short stature and small size in contrast to the strong tall Africans who were brought to North America and even to Northern Brazil to work in the sugar cane fields. Mining is a dangerous job with high rewards for the owners and miserable working conditions for the workers. In fact, it was said by our local guide after we donned our mining hard hats and were deep into the mine tunnel that children as young as six were taken to work in the mines to carry out the rubble that the stronger and older workers picked through in their search for gold veins. With little air, moist and damp conditions , constant dust and long hours, most slaves had very short lives perhaps only to twenty years or so when they would have died from pneumonia, exhaustion, malaria, dengue fever or any number of other debilitating diseases. The slaves were freed in Brazil only in 1888. In contrast to Brasilia, Ouro Preto shows a much higher percentage of its population as black.
We visited the Church of Our Lady of Preto with a cemetery with many graves next to the church. We couldn’t take photos in the church which was a shame since the interior was covered with fabulous Baroque carvings and paintings. I walked around the cemetery and started taking photos of graves with family names on it like da Costa and Fernandes. There were quite a few da Costas, many of them relatively recent. The church is no longer restricted to former Africans but is made of a congregation of the poor. Our guide Claudio told us that where there is a poor congregation, there are many more graves. Three workmen were digging a grave today in fact; well, one was digging the grave while two other men were just sitting around observing. There were lots of flowers on the graves mainly plastic.
Right now, I am hearing church bells ringing – there are so many churches here in the baroque style as most were built in the 17th century. I can’t imagine how all the building material got here but of course, the answer is slave labor. This place is full of iron ore, you can see it in the black soil and the red stones. Pelgy and I went shopping with Claudio’s assistant Nicole, a Japanese Brazilian who lives here in town. We had gone as a group to a gem store where they served us free capirinhas (Brazil’s native drink) and we each got a lottery number. The winner would get a free gem (a blue topaz) – the prize went to Pat. It was a nice stone but a setting had to be purchased and since gold is so high in price now, it cost a lot. I think she chose to just get the setting for a pendant and skipped the chain as it would have cost her around $500 American dollars.
I decided right then that I liked silver; even the gemstones that I was seeing were pretty high in price. The drink was nice though. We had lunch hosted by Fulbright today at an all you can eat place – we descended down many stairs and dined in a mine like stone cellar. Here in the southern part of Brazil we are seeing many more vegetables than fruits, no more Belo Souza Leiao cake for breakfast, and now an emphasis on pork. There is still the beans and rice dish brought to Brazil by the Africans with pork added by the Portuguese to make a national Afro-Brazilian dish.
After lunch we visited another church, this time, a rich church with balconies for the very rich so that they could be separate from the ordinary wealthy people below in the nave. All the walls were covered with wood carvings gilded to the hilt with numerous angels, saints, foliage and flowers. I noticed that some of the angels had one leg hanging over a ledge, others were just heads with strangely attached necks that didn’t look anatomically correct. The strangest phenomenon in this church was that several holy figures (Virgin Mary and Christ for example) had human hair. It made me wonder who donated the light brown locks? It reminded me of the glorious curled long hair that Saint Theresa of Lisieux’s father saved when her hair was cut just prior to her postulancy in the covent. The Madonna had the infant Christ in front of her, standing buck naked with rosy cheeks. Some of the angels had delightfully windblown hair and pink pursed lips. Since we couldn’t take photos, you will have to be satisfied with my inadequate descriptions. I don’t quite understand why we can’t take pictures but it might have to do with flash damaging the paint and/or gilding.
The visit to the church followed our cassacia tasting. Purportedly, sugar cane liquor from a town called Salinas has the best quality cassacia. No one knows whether it is due to the hot weather, the soil, or the rainfall but the distillation produces an almost smoky product that is best drunk straight rather than made into a capirinha. As everyone else was tasting the different varieties, I found a type called Passavara made with ginger and cinnamon and some herb that is supposed to invigorate one and create sexual energy as well. I liked the spicy taste and the fact that it was in a smaller plastic bottle; then I discovered that it only cost 5$ Rais each – the perfect little nightcap or medicinal drink for say, a sore throat or cold.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Wednesday - halfway through our Fulbright trip
This morning we leave for Brasilia on an 11 am flight. No lunch will be served on our airline so I made myself a sandwich from the breakfast breads with cheese and turkey for a snack with a hand zip lock bag. I will miss the Bola Souza Leao treats but no manioc based sweets further south. Liz looked up the preparation of manioc online and it is a very long process taking over a week to prepare the root by soaking, pounding grating etc. I did buy some tapioca flour with the recipe on the back for tapioca con queijo - tapioca crepes with cheese that I have loved here in the north of Brazil. Interestingly, no Brazil nuts so far but plenty of cashews. I don't really care for the cashew fruit though it makes a pretty good juice.
All of our luggage is getting a bit heavier and I notice that some bags have their expandable options utilized. Both Esther and Kamillah bought cotton woven hammocks yesterday from Luciano, a Gallinha Beach resident yesterday. At first the light went out of his eyes when he found that we were American and not Canadian but after a spirited haggling with Esther for a yellow hammock his mood definitely improved. With Kamillah's purchase of the orange hammock, he was in 7th heaven. We were sitting outdoors drinking capirinhas enjoying our time before we departed for our hotel.
On the way back home - heavy traffic time - we found that there was a major traffic problem which the bus driver conveyed to Ni, our tour guide. It was decided to take the private toll road owned by the Brennand's who had it put in for the condos and private owners. No one, not even most tourists know about this road so we saved 2 1/2 hours of travel time. The toll is expensive, around 35 $Rais but so worth it. We arrived back at Boa Viagem and our Atlante Hotel at 6 pm far earlier than if we had sat in traffic.
All of our luggage is getting a bit heavier and I notice that some bags have their expandable options utilized. Both Esther and Kamillah bought cotton woven hammocks yesterday from Luciano, a Gallinha Beach resident yesterday. At first the light went out of his eyes when he found that we were American and not Canadian but after a spirited haggling with Esther for a yellow hammock his mood definitely improved. With Kamillah's purchase of the orange hammock, he was in 7th heaven. We were sitting outdoors drinking capirinhas enjoying our time before we departed for our hotel.
On the way back home - heavy traffic time - we found that there was a major traffic problem which the bus driver conveyed to Ni, our tour guide. It was decided to take the private toll road owned by the Brennand's who had it put in for the condos and private owners. No one, not even most tourists know about this road so we saved 2 1/2 hours of travel time. The toll is expensive, around 35 $Rais but so worth it. We arrived back at Boa Viagem and our Atlante Hotel at 6 pm far earlier than if we had sat in traffic.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Francisco Brennand and Suape
Yesterday was a very full day - the highlight was visiting the artist, Francisco Brennand on his 4000 acre estate near Recife. Francisco is the descendant of 19th century Irish immigrants to Brazil. His father ran a brick and tile works and Francisco inherited it. For the last 40 years, he has been working in clay and is about 85 years old. Before that, he painted and still paints in as he says "a more traditional and less controversial style." His clay sculptures, some of which are absolutely monumental, decorate the grounds of his estate as well as the interior of the converted tile factory and gigantic kilns. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. his cousin, Ricardo Brennand also has a sizeable estate but has chosen to house his 5000+ collection of swords in a medieval styled castle. He also has, in his collection, armor and paintings. We weren't able to see Ricardo's collection but had the opportunity to actually talk with the artist since one of the former ambassadors of Brazil accompanied us and is a personal friend.
I asked Francisco where the clay came from and what kind of glazes he used. He said that the clay was specially chosen from a place in Pernambuco because of its properties and the glazes were not scientifically applied or mixed but were rather the result of such a long experience with them. I took lots and lots of pictures of the sculptures, tile wall collages and the temple. Outdoors, he has a sacred site with a blue egg shaped dome that colors everything with a celestial blue hue when the sun is directly overhead.
I have to disagree with Lonely Planet's description of this famous artist and site. They describe his work as weirdly sexualized earthworms, lizards and frogs. Did they actually see his work? Yes, some of the pieces might appear phallic at first glance and yes, sensuality and sexuality is a part of Francisco's style but he makes frequent references to creation, mythology, history and biblical references with a twist. Adam and Eve are represented outside as is Cain but Cain is given complete redemption in Francisco's interpretation as he should be. He is the one who gave the gifts of the earth and the harvest rather than shedding the blood of animal in sacrifice to God. Frogs and fish emerge from the waters of the pools and fountains, large ceramic eggs stand on end ready to hatch into what the viewer chooses to imagine. Inside, Joan of Arc has two heads symbolizing perhaps her two natures or the way that she was both virgin and dressed as a man to get the job done of crowning the Dauphine King of France.
One can feel a mysticism and animism and spiritual force walking around Brennand's clay bodies and forms. He said that none of them can be moved or separated from each other. Another quotation that I found very inspiring was "My art may be immovable but it is not inert." In fact, nothing on earth is inert, not even rocks, rivers or sand. Everything is alive. Before leaving all too soon, I was able to buy a small sphere from the restaurant gift area made by Brennand that I will keep in my office in our new Art building so that I can be reminded of the Brazilian artist with the kindly face who is one of Brazil's most important living artists. If you go to Brazil you must visit both cousins. They are exceedingly kindly men, our tour guide, Ni tells us - she is a native Pernambuca native Brazilian - who do a lot for the poor in the municipality.
The talk about urban planning in the state was not as inspiring, I'm afraid. It focused on development of the Boa Viagem beachfront area and moving the poor out of their shanty towns along the waterfront where they eke out a living by fishing. The solution, unfortunately for low income housing is to move people out to the fringes of the city where it is nearly impossible to get to any kind of work situation. In some areas that we passed through in Recife like San Antonio and San Jose, there has been frequent flooding so that some houses that used to be for the wealthy were abandoned. Gabe and I have decided that we could start a business here with a power washing company to get rid of the mold that seems to constantly endanger the health of Recife's inhabitants. We would add a little bleach to it and then sell at low cost, dehumidifiers too. Gabe is my fellow Hawaiian from Hilo - he has taught at the community college there for over nine years so he's become an official Hawaiian native in my classification.
That was Monday July 11. Now today, July 12, we had an appointment to visit the new Port of SUAPE nearly one and a half hours away. It takes such a long time because first of all, the roads are terrible with potholes like you can't believe. And then there is the traffic. Anyway, we were presented with a 9 minute slick video about the publicly owned port of Suape (which we were given as well along with the power point on CD) which is giving private companies huge tax incentives to ship things in and out of Brazil. The tax break is around 75% so it will definitely benefit those private companies. There is a shipyard, fiberglass company, resin company and lots of others. They say they are dedicated to sustainability and maintaining a large green area around the port. They have two Goliath cranes that can lift 1500 tons which is important in shipbuilding. Suape has very deep water at its port and is the closest to Africa of any site in Brazil. Their plans are expansive and will give jobs to many Brazilians in this state. Well, more jobs as they are building the port and other buildings and less when the building is complete. Of the total number the private companies are supposed to employ 50% Brazilians - I imagine for the lower paying jobs.
I asked about waste management and air quality control for pollutants. I was told that containment areas were designated and when I asked where? I didn't feel that I was answered in detail but we were given the email account of the VP who spoke with us and he promises to find answers and then get back to us. Hopefully there will be no DuPont situations or oil spills. They have very close offshore oil sites and oil refineries are being built by Petrobras, the largest oil company in Brazil on the site as well. I took some photos from a site where our bus drove us so that we could see an over view. Pernambuco is one of Brazil's poorer states.
Is Brazil a country of the future? Will Brazil be able to reap the benefits the capitalism without selling its soul and the health of its people? Many other questions will come up I'm sure as I think about the ramifications of conservation, sustainability, social welfare, etc.
I asked Francisco where the clay came from and what kind of glazes he used. He said that the clay was specially chosen from a place in Pernambuco because of its properties and the glazes were not scientifically applied or mixed but were rather the result of such a long experience with them. I took lots and lots of pictures of the sculptures, tile wall collages and the temple. Outdoors, he has a sacred site with a blue egg shaped dome that colors everything with a celestial blue hue when the sun is directly overhead.
I have to disagree with Lonely Planet's description of this famous artist and site. They describe his work as weirdly sexualized earthworms, lizards and frogs. Did they actually see his work? Yes, some of the pieces might appear phallic at first glance and yes, sensuality and sexuality is a part of Francisco's style but he makes frequent references to creation, mythology, history and biblical references with a twist. Adam and Eve are represented outside as is Cain but Cain is given complete redemption in Francisco's interpretation as he should be. He is the one who gave the gifts of the earth and the harvest rather than shedding the blood of animal in sacrifice to God. Frogs and fish emerge from the waters of the pools and fountains, large ceramic eggs stand on end ready to hatch into what the viewer chooses to imagine. Inside, Joan of Arc has two heads symbolizing perhaps her two natures or the way that she was both virgin and dressed as a man to get the job done of crowning the Dauphine King of France.
One can feel a mysticism and animism and spiritual force walking around Brennand's clay bodies and forms. He said that none of them can be moved or separated from each other. Another quotation that I found very inspiring was "My art may be immovable but it is not inert." In fact, nothing on earth is inert, not even rocks, rivers or sand. Everything is alive. Before leaving all too soon, I was able to buy a small sphere from the restaurant gift area made by Brennand that I will keep in my office in our new Art building so that I can be reminded of the Brazilian artist with the kindly face who is one of Brazil's most important living artists. If you go to Brazil you must visit both cousins. They are exceedingly kindly men, our tour guide, Ni tells us - she is a native Pernambuca native Brazilian - who do a lot for the poor in the municipality.
The talk about urban planning in the state was not as inspiring, I'm afraid. It focused on development of the Boa Viagem beachfront area and moving the poor out of their shanty towns along the waterfront where they eke out a living by fishing. The solution, unfortunately for low income housing is to move people out to the fringes of the city where it is nearly impossible to get to any kind of work situation. In some areas that we passed through in Recife like San Antonio and San Jose, there has been frequent flooding so that some houses that used to be for the wealthy were abandoned. Gabe and I have decided that we could start a business here with a power washing company to get rid of the mold that seems to constantly endanger the health of Recife's inhabitants. We would add a little bleach to it and then sell at low cost, dehumidifiers too. Gabe is my fellow Hawaiian from Hilo - he has taught at the community college there for over nine years so he's become an official Hawaiian native in my classification.
That was Monday July 11. Now today, July 12, we had an appointment to visit the new Port of SUAPE nearly one and a half hours away. It takes such a long time because first of all, the roads are terrible with potholes like you can't believe. And then there is the traffic. Anyway, we were presented with a 9 minute slick video about the publicly owned port of Suape (which we were given as well along with the power point on CD) which is giving private companies huge tax incentives to ship things in and out of Brazil. The tax break is around 75% so it will definitely benefit those private companies. There is a shipyard, fiberglass company, resin company and lots of others. They say they are dedicated to sustainability and maintaining a large green area around the port. They have two Goliath cranes that can lift 1500 tons which is important in shipbuilding. Suape has very deep water at its port and is the closest to Africa of any site in Brazil. Their plans are expansive and will give jobs to many Brazilians in this state. Well, more jobs as they are building the port and other buildings and less when the building is complete. Of the total number the private companies are supposed to employ 50% Brazilians - I imagine for the lower paying jobs.
I asked about waste management and air quality control for pollutants. I was told that containment areas were designated and when I asked where? I didn't feel that I was answered in detail but we were given the email account of the VP who spoke with us and he promises to find answers and then get back to us. Hopefully there will be no DuPont situations or oil spills. They have very close offshore oil sites and oil refineries are being built by Petrobras, the largest oil company in Brazil on the site as well. I took some photos from a site where our bus drove us so that we could see an over view. Pernambuco is one of Brazil's poorer states.
Is Brazil a country of the future? Will Brazil be able to reap the benefits the capitalism without selling its soul and the health of its people? Many other questions will come up I'm sure as I think about the ramifications of conservation, sustainability, social welfare, etc.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday full of grace and music
Friday was the day for music, music instruction, types of music in Pernanbuco all led by Professor Carlos Sandrini at the Federal State University in Recife. There are about 400 students enrolled at the school. Carlos was ready for us with lots of YouTube examples of the different kinds of music possibilities in this state, with Afro-Brazilian nusic and brass bands, etc. He explained Frevo music and Forro music and played examples. We had a three piece band of a professor and two students who played a variety of musical styles for us with a tambourine also used as a percussion instrument, a mandolin and a 7 string guitar. I really learned to appreciate AfroBrazilian music.
Following a full 2.5 hours of music presentation, we were off to lunch at a restaurant called Parraxuxu, well known for its Brazilian specialities for the region where your food is weighed by the kilo. They had chicken in blood sauce, goat, chicken hearts, manioc cake, fried cheese, some animal's stomach in sauce but regular type food too like beef and beef ribs and sausage. So much variety. And the choices of desserts was amazing. I got little tastes of lots of things.
the day before, a few of us went to a restaurant in Recife where I had sliced beef from the hump of the cow. The hump being that of a Brahnma type cow or bull. Very tender and not totally fat filled like those prehistoric bison.
After lunch, we made an off schedule run to a music store so we could buy some CDs of hte types of music we had heard and professor Carlos went with us. The record shop owner opened the CDs so we could hear what the music sounded like. It was great.
July 9, 2011
Today, we visited a manatee center where a few baby manatee have been born in captivity. After that, we headed to the beach. I walked around looking around for shells and finding a few. Without sunscreen and just by walking around, I have a nice shade of pink on my face and chest. so now I will be using sunscreen. It was a nice leisurely day. I did spend most of my time except the twenty minutes or so shell finding, under an umbrella. We had lunch there and what chicken I didn't eat, I fed to three hungry mama dogs. By 3:50, we were herded onto the smaller bus and got home, sleepy and tired from the sun and salt air. So nice to breathe it all in.
Tomorrow is our day off and Kira and I are planning on going to Olinda for a leisurely time checking out a great church, taking pictures, and maybe doing a little shopping. Until tomorrow! I look forward to the awesome buffet breakfasts our hotel has. I have become a big fan of manioc pudding in any and all forms
Following a full 2.5 hours of music presentation, we were off to lunch at a restaurant called Parraxuxu, well known for its Brazilian specialities for the region where your food is weighed by the kilo. They had chicken in blood sauce, goat, chicken hearts, manioc cake, fried cheese, some animal's stomach in sauce but regular type food too like beef and beef ribs and sausage. So much variety. And the choices of desserts was amazing. I got little tastes of lots of things.
the day before, a few of us went to a restaurant in Recife where I had sliced beef from the hump of the cow. The hump being that of a Brahnma type cow or bull. Very tender and not totally fat filled like those prehistoric bison.
After lunch, we made an off schedule run to a music store so we could buy some CDs of hte types of music we had heard and professor Carlos went with us. The record shop owner opened the CDs so we could hear what the music sounded like. It was great.
July 9, 2011
Today, we visited a manatee center where a few baby manatee have been born in captivity. After that, we headed to the beach. I walked around looking around for shells and finding a few. Without sunscreen and just by walking around, I have a nice shade of pink on my face and chest. so now I will be using sunscreen. It was a nice leisurely day. I did spend most of my time except the twenty minutes or so shell finding, under an umbrella. We had lunch there and what chicken I didn't eat, I fed to three hungry mama dogs. By 3:50, we were herded onto the smaller bus and got home, sleepy and tired from the sun and salt air. So nice to breathe it all in.
Tomorrow is our day off and Kira and I are planning on going to Olinda for a leisurely time checking out a great church, taking pictures, and maybe doing a little shopping. Until tomorrow! I look forward to the awesome buffet breakfasts our hotel has. I have become a big fan of manioc pudding in any and all forms
Thursday, July 7, 2011
If It's Thursday, It Must be Recife
A new place today - we nearly left on time but Esther was on Brazilian time. Not to worry, the airport was very easy to negotiate and our plane from Salvador to Recife was not even full. Sue and I sat in the same row with the middle seat empty. I read and by the time I was tired of reading, we had landed. It was only around an hour or so flight south. Of course, the usual waiting to get luggage and then to a huge tourist bus rather than a minibus. Our tourist leader whose nickname is shortened to Ni, kept up a steady commentary on all things Recife and Olinda. Our (unknown to us at the time) 5 star hotel, the Atlante Hotel is right across the street from an enormously long beach. Everyone here walks on the beach - it has both bike paths and jogging paths and plan walking paths - from 6-8 am and from 6-8 pm. At least those people not buying groceries which a few of us did around 7:30 pm when we returned from our tour of the city which ended up being a 4.5 hour tour.
Brazilians move at their own speed which is generally unhurried. It is that way in traffic, it is that way with grocery lines. There were three lines at the supermarket which was a ten minute walk from our hotel. We were on a necessary quest for water and snacks. Finding snacks was our goal and that was easy. Lines were long, only three check out counters. Our line had a checker who had to look up each item so it took forever for our line to move. I amused myself by analyzing the food items in the woman's cart in front of me and having imaginary conversations with her about her food choices. Midway in her food check out, another clerk took over and it was a radical improvement. We decided that the pink shirt employees were the rapido checkers as the previous one was in red shirt and probably a trainee as in red shirt from a hellishly slow Brazilian state.
We trudged back to the hotel, grateful for our two bottles of water each, cashews and my apples. Hot, sweaty and too tired to go out again, I opted to stay in and shower while Patty went out for a drink on the beach where you can get drinks and the equivalent of bar snacks.
Our city tour of Olinda was great. We were told to wear comfortable shoes as our big tourist bus couldn't get up the steep hill. And up we went panting and trying to get up to the level part on top. Beautiful colonial style Portuguese houses. We visited one church but Lonely Planet speaks of another church with an exquisite altarpiece that we didn't have time to see as we went to a bunch of shops. I did manage to boy a handmade blouse with handmade lace for a very reasonable price. Plus, I drank some sugar cane 100 Proof liquor dispensed from a ceramic goat's butt. Just a sip and I choked. I was then given a more palatable banana liquor which was infinitely better in taste. We walked back down a very very steep hill psst some artisan shops and were shown thee four oorners area where the carnaval music and festivities converge. It sounds like a whole lot of fun in Olinda where there is a cultural theme each. I would like to be here someday for Carnaval. The music is different than in Rio the dancing is different too.
Brazilians move at their own speed which is generally unhurried. It is that way in traffic, it is that way with grocery lines. There were three lines at the supermarket which was a ten minute walk from our hotel. We were on a necessary quest for water and snacks. Finding snacks was our goal and that was easy. Lines were long, only three check out counters. Our line had a checker who had to look up each item so it took forever for our line to move. I amused myself by analyzing the food items in the woman's cart in front of me and having imaginary conversations with her about her food choices. Midway in her food check out, another clerk took over and it was a radical improvement. We decided that the pink shirt employees were the rapido checkers as the previous one was in red shirt and probably a trainee as in red shirt from a hellishly slow Brazilian state.
We trudged back to the hotel, grateful for our two bottles of water each, cashews and my apples. Hot, sweaty and too tired to go out again, I opted to stay in and shower while Patty went out for a drink on the beach where you can get drinks and the equivalent of bar snacks.
Our city tour of Olinda was great. We were told to wear comfortable shoes as our big tourist bus couldn't get up the steep hill. And up we went panting and trying to get up to the level part on top. Beautiful colonial style Portuguese houses. We visited one church but Lonely Planet speaks of another church with an exquisite altarpiece that we didn't have time to see as we went to a bunch of shops. I did manage to boy a handmade blouse with handmade lace for a very reasonable price. Plus, I drank some sugar cane 100 Proof liquor dispensed from a ceramic goat's butt. Just a sip and I choked. I was then given a more palatable banana liquor which was infinitely better in taste. We walked back down a very very steep hill psst some artisan shops and were shown thee four oorners area where the carnaval music and festivities converge. It sounds like a whole lot of fun in Olinda where there is a cultural theme each. I would like to be here someday for Carnaval. The music is different than in Rio the dancing is different too.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Two blog days in one
Yesterday was our ecology day - we went to an in-city green space devoted to ecology of native plants and conservation, took a short walk, looked at a three month old baby boa constrictor - I took a picture! We had a short presentation about water cycles and recycling. The best part was being introduced to the work of Brazilian born artist Vik Muniz who produced a PBS documentary called Wasteland. I'm going to request our WCU library to purchase it. I looked it up online and found out what Muniz was doing. He went back to Brazil documenting the people who make their living at the huge garbage sites near Rio de Janeiro and with their help, photographed them, then made portraits of them with recycled objects based on the photographs and then photographed those works of art. All proceeds go back to the garbage workers for education, health care, etc. It kind of reminds me of the zabaleen of Mokkatam in Cairo. There is a book as well based on his work though it is only written in Portuguese. Muniz lives in New York and is a photographer, mixed media artist and performance artist. His medium is sometimes very ephemeral; some criticize him as not being original but I was suitably impressed. I got some good ideas for my Fulbright project about having our students create art with recycled trash or as someone termed it by "dumpster diving."
We went to an Asian Fusion restaurant after that called Soho where I had a great lunch of Robalo which translates to some sort of sea bass. Excellent! Today's lunch which we paid for wasn't so great but it was cheap. I had been complaining about too much salt in my food and so I got what I thought I wanted - absolutely no salt and no taste!
After yesterday's lunch we visited the Church of the Senhor do Bonfim - a place absolutely festooned with ribbons on the doors and fence. Multicolored ribbons printed with the words Lembanca do Senhor do Bonfim. You tie a ribbon around your wrist - some say you should wrap the ribbon around three times and you get three wishes. The ribbons are multi-colored and our hotels puts out a few different colored ones every day. Kids will approach tourists with these ribbons demanding a lot of money but you can get 22 ribbons for 1 $Real. We did a little shopping after that and still had time to go to the Modern Art Museum near the Bay of Salvador,
The Modern Art Museum was once the home of a wealthy guy - they showed us the area where the slaves were kept who worked there. I think he may have been in the sugar cane or cotton business. Anyway, the outdoor sculpture was OK, I took pictures. Not that impressed with the current exhibition but bought an assorted box of postcards with their permanent collection of Brazilian artist paintings.
This morning, Wednesday, we got to sleep later and didn't leave until 9:00 am. Our speaker was Livio Sansone, an ex-Sicilian anthropologist who has taught in Brazil for over 20 years. He gave a very interesting talk both in the minibus going into town and later after lunch in the conference room of the hotel. He took us into the upper part of Salvador and into the Franciscan Church. You know St, Francis was once rich and then took the vow of poverty and founded the Franciscans? Well, as soon as I entered the church, I gave an audible gasp. The interior was covered in gold leaf to the tune of 900 kilograms. The carvings and wood are of imported cedar from Lebanon. I have never seen so much gold. It is said that some of the Afro-Brazilian carvers took a lot of artistic license with carving the angels, making them male and female with some hermaphrodites, some with huge penises and some of the female angels visibly pregnant. I only wish we had had more time for me to find and photograph some of them.
Pelgy, one of my Fulbright buddies, brought me to a part of the church with the ex-votos - life sized wax legs, feet, arms, hands, and other body parts all hanging from the ceiling in big clusters. The walls of this room were covered with photographs of people who had been cured. Some of you know how much I love this sort of thing. I got some pretty good photos today as well - I was caught taking a photo of a Candomble dressed Afro-Brazilian woman so she agreed to pose with me for 2 $Rais which I figured was worth it. Then I bought a praline like coconut thing which the Afro-Brazilian women make in the street stirring vigorously and I asked to take her photograph. We have gotten into the routine of taking pictures of each other.
Tomorrow we take off for the beach town of Recife so Bom Viagem to me. I'm pretty much packed. It is 6:50 pm right now your time and 8:50 pm my time. As you can see, I'm only two hours ahead of you.
We went to an Asian Fusion restaurant after that called Soho where I had a great lunch of Robalo which translates to some sort of sea bass. Excellent! Today's lunch which we paid for wasn't so great but it was cheap. I had been complaining about too much salt in my food and so I got what I thought I wanted - absolutely no salt and no taste!
After yesterday's lunch we visited the Church of the Senhor do Bonfim - a place absolutely festooned with ribbons on the doors and fence. Multicolored ribbons printed with the words Lembanca do Senhor do Bonfim. You tie a ribbon around your wrist - some say you should wrap the ribbon around three times and you get three wishes. The ribbons are multi-colored and our hotels puts out a few different colored ones every day. Kids will approach tourists with these ribbons demanding a lot of money but you can get 22 ribbons for 1 $Real. We did a little shopping after that and still had time to go to the Modern Art Museum near the Bay of Salvador,
The Modern Art Museum was once the home of a wealthy guy - they showed us the area where the slaves were kept who worked there. I think he may have been in the sugar cane or cotton business. Anyway, the outdoor sculpture was OK, I took pictures. Not that impressed with the current exhibition but bought an assorted box of postcards with their permanent collection of Brazilian artist paintings.
This morning, Wednesday, we got to sleep later and didn't leave until 9:00 am. Our speaker was Livio Sansone, an ex-Sicilian anthropologist who has taught in Brazil for over 20 years. He gave a very interesting talk both in the minibus going into town and later after lunch in the conference room of the hotel. He took us into the upper part of Salvador and into the Franciscan Church. You know St, Francis was once rich and then took the vow of poverty and founded the Franciscans? Well, as soon as I entered the church, I gave an audible gasp. The interior was covered in gold leaf to the tune of 900 kilograms. The carvings and wood are of imported cedar from Lebanon. I have never seen so much gold. It is said that some of the Afro-Brazilian carvers took a lot of artistic license with carving the angels, making them male and female with some hermaphrodites, some with huge penises and some of the female angels visibly pregnant. I only wish we had had more time for me to find and photograph some of them.
Pelgy, one of my Fulbright buddies, brought me to a part of the church with the ex-votos - life sized wax legs, feet, arms, hands, and other body parts all hanging from the ceiling in big clusters. The walls of this room were covered with photographs of people who had been cured. Some of you know how much I love this sort of thing. I got some pretty good photos today as well - I was caught taking a photo of a Candomble dressed Afro-Brazilian woman so she agreed to pose with me for 2 $Rais which I figured was worth it. Then I bought a praline like coconut thing which the Afro-Brazilian women make in the street stirring vigorously and I asked to take her photograph. We have gotten into the routine of taking pictures of each other.
Tomorrow we take off for the beach town of Recife so Bom Viagem to me. I'm pretty much packed. It is 6:50 pm right now your time and 8:50 pm my time. As you can see, I'm only two hours ahead of you.
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