Bounce, Bounce, Bounce to Casca Danta pt 1 (5 August, Tuesday, 2014, 19:33, Passos, Brazil)

5 August, Tuesday, 2014, 19:33, Passos, Brazil

Had another incredibly beautiful day, but I want to write some more about yesterday, and hopefully get caught up a little before the triple birthday party tonight…

So yesterday….

Adventure awaits! (Me and Natalia)

The park is in the serrada region of the country, so where many people might think of the tropical rain forests of the Amazon when they think of Brazil, this is not like that. There are mountains, plateaus, grassy areas dotted with trees and around the rivers there are dense forests. As we rode into the park, all of this was slowly revealed with each passing mountain.

Standard view when driving through the park

Our first stop was an outlook over at the top of a canyon cliff, looking back over the stretches of land that we came from.  My mom and I spotted black tadpoles in the babbling creek. While my dad, Natalia and the guide, Conrado, spotted the first toucan of the day. We wandered around a bit more, discovering as many nooks and crannies of this tiny dot in the park as 10 minutes or so would allow. We piled back into the jeep and bounced deeper in to the park.

First stop, overlooking where we had just come in and where we would be headed

More views from our first stop

Pond at our first stop

Traffic jam as we headed away from our first stop

We rode to a small cluster of buildings where you can spend a night or a few in the park. Here we were greeted by a blue heeler (which reminded us of our Lacie back home), a chocolate lab and a kind, old man.  This was one of our few bathroom breaks of the day. After the break, we piled back into the jeep.

Our trusty jeep

A Blue Heeler in Brazil!

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

Through valleys and over mountains.

Bounce.

Through the tops of mountains that had been burned by a stray cigarette or on purpose by criminals, some of the mountains still smoldering. All were black except for the termite hills whose height was even more exaggerated by the foliage that was burned to the ground.

Still smoldering mountains 

Termite hill surrounded by burned ground

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

Up the mountain toward the sun. We passed a smoke/dust-nado that danced in the sun to the right of our jeep.

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

We stopped briefly for Conrado to let us take pictures and for him to point out our destination which was barely visible among the shadowy cliffs. But sure enough, tucked away in the crevasse of one of the cliffs in the distance we could see the white water of Casca Danta.  It was a few more hours before we reached it, but it was ever worth it.

Casca Danta can be seen in the distance, the thine white line just left of photo center

About two kilometers away from the waterfall, we had to ditch the jeep and walk on foot. About a kilometer after the jeep, we also ditched our clothes to swim in the cold, fresh mountain water. We hesitated walking in as the jagged rocks wer at angles that could easily injure a non-pre-carious traveler. Once we got to a good spot, Natalia dove in.

I have always been a chicken when it comes to this. I have done the polar plunge in Milwaukee three times, even having to climb out of ice to get out of the water, but that is different. You get all psyched up for that and everyone is doing it. When not doing a polar plunge, I usually have to tip-toe my way into the water, inching in slowly until I am up to my shoulders, then I fully submerge my head. Diving in was not my style.

Natalia was not having any of my bull-shit, and after some really lame excuses and dawdling on my end, she started to splash me. To make it stop, I decided to jump in, and it was cold, but it wasn’t that bad. After a while you get used to it.  We swam around for a while and floated in the water in the sun, and it was wonderful.

Natalia (in the water) arguing with me/encouraging me to just jump in

Floating in the water, soaking up the sun

Me (left) and Natalia (right) with Casca Danta in the background

After a comfortable amount of time, we got out to finish our hike up to the waterfall…

I have to go to the party now, so will finish this later…hopefully. 

(link to Conrado's tour company - https://www.facebook.com/Conradoopa/?pnref=lhc) 

Bouncing Out of Passos (4 August, 2014, 22:14, Passos, Brazil)

4 August, 2014, 22:14, Passos, Brazil

Today was a long, but stunningly beautiful day. It started at 7:30 am, when our tour guide came to pick us up at the apartment.  He came bouncing up the road in a white jeep and he had the look of someone who is curious about the world, but in an outdoorsy kind of way. He wore a worn baseball cap, had well-trimmed facial hair, a nubby green sweater and his eyes wore a look of adventure behind his gold, wire framed glasses. After helping us load our stuff into the jeep – our towels, snacks and water bottles – we climbed into the jeep that we would spend the better part of 12 hours in. We bounced through, Passos, out of Passos and into the countryside that was yawning awake with the already white light of morning. 

Morning haze over the countryside outside of Passos

We bounced over the river, past fields of sunflowers (which were used for bio-diesel), through patches of eucalyptus trees that were brought here by the Australians and soon found ourselves gaping in awe at the impressive mountains and plateaus that stretched before us. Our guide explained how the government owned the land and shared it with the farmers, or maybe they split it (I don’t remember 100%), but there was tension to who exactly owns what.  As our jeep bounced higher and higher, he explained how one side of the mountain is good, fairly fertile soil and on the other side is a type of rock that is only found in Brazil and India. (I have to look this up when I get home, they kept saying something with “quartz” in the name, but it isn’t quartz – didn’t look like it and quartz is found everywhere.)

Sunflowers used for bio-diesel

Various trees are throughout the park

As we rode through the park, it was different in some areas, but it was hard to keep track of what was what area to the untrained eye ( at least in terms of the soil he was talking about). 

Well, I fell asleep last night writing this and am now about to head out for a boat tour of a hydroelectric dam and geology here in Passos…write more later….

Connecting Across Different Languages (3 August 2014, Sunday, 22:47, Passos, Brazil)

3 August 2014, Sunday, 22:47, Passos, Brazil

I am writing this from my bed in Natalia’s (maternal) grandmother’s apartment in Passos. It is a nice apartment; several bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen. We have all been making comments about how cold it is in here. I am sure it is nice in summer, but Natalia was saying that it kind of sucks now that it is winter here – when you go outside you want to inside where it should be nice and cozy, but it is usually cooler inside, so you want to go back outside. It feels kind of nice though.  I would rather be cool than warm – although I don’t have slippers with me and it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember that I have socks with me that I can use as slippers.

No major events planned for today, other than travel and meet with the family – but that has been an event in of itself.  It is common for Latin American families to be close-knit, especially with the strong Catholic ties, and Natalia’s family is no different. Her mom’s brother lives above their mother.  Her father’s sister lives in town and their mother also lives here in Passos. Both aunt and uncle are married and the one that lives upstairs has children – and today we met everyone. Everyone is very nice and welcoming. The apartment that we are staying in reminds me so much of a “typical” Catholic grandmother’s house; there is a curio cabinet filled with a large collection of delicate class cups that a part of me is so paranoid of breaking if I so much as look at them aggressively; some of the furniture is covered in plastic; and all around are photos of her family tucked among religious symbols ranging from angels to crucifixes. 

The lunch that was waiting for us in Passos

View from my room in Passos

I think that if both of my grandmothers were still alive today, this apartment would be a combination of their two homes.  There is a comfort in that and in seeing that the love and importance of family to the family matriarch is expressed so similarly across cultures.

It has been interesting too with communicating with all of these people, since we don’t speak Portuguese (a few words and sentences here and there: “Tudo bem?”, “De onde voĉe e?”) and most of the people in Natalia’s family don’t speak English.  However, we all have a very personal connection through Natalia. She lived with us for a year when she was 14 or 15, and my family has remained close to her since she returned to Brazil, calling on holidays and being there for each other (emotionally) for all of our ups and downs that have occurred since she was with us.  I am sure that through all of that, her family has heard much about us, and I know she was beyond thrilled when we told her we were coming – so if they didn’t hear much about us before, they certainly did then.

On our side of it, we have always heard of all of her family members whose homes she travels to for holidays or other events, so it is nice to finally meet them and see these mysterious places. With all of that being said, the two sides of her family (her blood family and her “American” family) can barely communicate with one another without her assistance. 

The inability to communicate easily has led to some interesting moments, ranging from a few nights ago when her mom, Renusa, and I had a full and fairly deep conversation using Google translate, to the smiles I exchanged with her paternal grandmother and aunt tonight. Whole conversations were had in the silence of the cool apartment.  Words of love and happiness were said through the parting of our lips in the universal language of a friendly smile. Through all of my travels, and social interactions for that matter, I have learned to never underestimate the power and effectiveness of a friendly, genuine, smile; it is no different smile. Actually, Brazilians really seem to like smiling and laughing, so it is probably even better here. I don’t know, but it is working so far.

Inside one of the churches in Passos

Both families playing on outdoor exercise equipment

Ending the day getting some Açaí with the family

Where we got our Açaí

  

A Moment of Pure Excitement on the Road to Passos (3 August, 9:58am, 2014 somewhere between Goiana and Passos - Brazil)

3 August, 9:58am Sunday, 2014 somewhere between Goiana and Passos

We are on the way to Passos right now. I think we might be about half-way there – we have been up since 6:18 am when we left Goiana. The drive to Passos is about 7.5-8 hours, so we have a ways to go yet.

The thing that I really want to write about before I pick up where I left off, is something I am really excited about, a brief glimpse of what may or may not be ahead of us in the up-coming days….

We were driving and were probably about two hours outside of Goiana. Everyone else in the car was dozing; Mom in the front seat, Dad behind her, Natalia next to me, head resting on my shoulder, Renusa (Natalia’s mom) behind the wheel listening to Brazilian pop music, doing a good job of staying awake and making good time. The red flaming embers of the rising sun were already in the white glow that it would remain at for the rest of the morning.  We were driving through the countryside; a countryside full of sugar cane, bamboo, palm trees and various blooming trees which were dotted with either yellow or pink flowers.

Sun rising on the road to Passos

 I don’t remember what was in the field at that exact moment, but it was held by a parentheses of shadowy trees in the distance.  The field was punctuated by the same menagerie of trees that I had been seeing leading up to that moment. Two palm trees were silhouetted in the foreground, next to the road. I caught sight of some movement in the closer of the two trees, so looked up to see what it was, and that is when I saw it, just flying, going about its day. 

It was unmistakable with its all-black body paired with its large, red, yellow, and orange bill that was the same size, if not larger, than the body. 

I saw my first wild toucan.

It was, obviously, a very exciting moment for me. The toucan is one of the animals that I really wanted to see while here.  The other is the anteater.  There are several that I would love to see, but I figure those two are the more common of the animals for the region we are in – the cerrado.  We will see what animals I see in the park tomorrow, but I am happy with my toucan moment.  Now I can buy the toucan travel pillow I keep seeing places and love so much, but felt kind of like an imposter buying it without seeing one. 

Dad grabbing some breakfast on the road

Later that morning on the road

Even closer to Passos that morning

Doing Everything the Brazilian Way (writing about 2 August 2014 - Goiana, Brazil)

I write so much for each journal entry, that I skipped what happened on the 2nd of August, so I have to go back and write a bit about it - a year and half later...this will be mostly pictures with some commentary.

This was the day that we tried the Brazilian national dish, while listening to live samba music. And I swear the whole meal was a few hours long, because why not? Plus, feijoada takes a very long time to cook.

We started our excursions with our feijoada feast:

Livia (left) and my mom (right)

Natalia and me....

My dad, aka Natalia's "American" dad and Natalia

The star of the feast, the feijoad - a black  bean stew with spices and all sorts of meat

Since the feast was so long, the rest of the day we laid pretty low.  In the late afternoon/early evening, Natalia's mom wanted to run out to the market to get some food supplies for us.  My mom and I asked if we could go as well, to experience a market in Brazil, and to see what kinds of foods were all available.

Sunset over the market

Lots of fruits were available

 

Making some purchases of sweets

Eating the goods we just purchased, with a bowl of pão de queijo in the foreground (loved those! Little balls of manioc root dough and cheese)

After our light dinner, we went out dancing, because BRAZIL!
Natalia killed it on the floor with her dance instructor.

Dance Club Adventures that Kicked My Butt ( 2 August 2014, 11:00am, Goiana, Brazil)

2 August 2014, 11: 00 am, Saturday

I fell asleep last night while I was writing – oops.  The 31^st was more of a travel day, but it was great to see some of the countryside. It is really dry right now, I everything is brown and the soil is a rusty-red color so it makes for a different look than I was expecting. Parts on the way to Goiana were really hilly, almost to the point of looking like the driftless area of Wisconsin, over by Platteville. And everywhere you would look, you would see ant hills, some looked like they were about 4 feet tall.  I am hoping that I am able to get a good photo of it later – since we were in a car, it was a little difficult to get a good photo.

Country side between Brasilia and Goiana, dry season. 

Once we arrived in Goiana, we met with some of Natalia’s neighbors that wanted to practice their English over coffee.  Coffee was served with French bread, biscuits, crackers, cheeses, juices and a few other things that I think I am forgetting.  Since we were eating so much and kind of late (around 4 or 5), we asked “why so much food?” to which the neighbors replied “Because we Brazilians like to eat – we get hungry!”  Apparently they do that every day and don’t eat much at dinner…which I think was part of my demise later that night.

Afternoon coffee with the neighbors.  From foreground back, biscoit with coffee cup, juice glass of cashew juice, plate of french bread, box of cashew juice, large bottle of biscoit

"Biscoit" - a Brazilian snack.  

That night, one of Natalia’s friends was having a going away party at a local gay bar.  Natalia and I got really dressed up to go out – it was a dance club after all.  

All dressed up to go out dancing!

Once at the club and while we were waiting in line, we made friends with some guys that were waiting ahead of us.  They added me on Instagram and Facebook, which I think is kind of funny, we think it is a bit of novelty for them – their “American friend”. Oh well, it was fun talking to them and hearing about their concern for my having never been to a gay bar before and thinking that I was going to freak out at seeing two guys kissing.  I understand how this can be a very legitimate concern, but I have several friends back home which happen to be gay, and I don’t really see it as an issue.

From what I have been hearing, Brazil is in a similar position as the US right now in that some people are accepting and some are not.  With that being said, the government doe recognize their rights in marriage. It is very interesting.

 4:58pm

But back to the club. It was very different than the clubs I have been to back home. We had two options for the cover charge, either pay 60 Reais for our drinks and cover charge, or pay 40 Reais for just the cover charge. We did the 60 Reais option and got a ticket. From the main counter, we would take our ticket to another counter where we ordered our drinks and got tickets four our drinks. We would then take our tickets to get our drinks for the rest of the night. It was an interesting way of doing it that I have never seen before.

I ordered the drink that is very common here. It is made with vodka and strawberries or other ground fruit.  This was a very dangerous drink for me. I love daiquiris and this was even more delicious because it was real fruit. I inhaled all four like they were oxygen.

So small, so tasty, yet packs a mean punch

Keep in mind that I had also not eaten dinner, so this all hit me, and hit me hard. I remember going to the bathroom later that night and everything swirling.  Needless to say, I spent a chunk of that night after the club, “worshipping the porcelain goddess”.  But that isn’t all that happened that night.  When people would find out that I spoke English, several of them would want to talk to me to practice.   I met some interesting people this way, one of which argued with Natalia about me being American.  I guess the argument went something like this (in Portuguese):

Random Guy: I speak four different languages.

Natalia: Oh, ok. Then use them with her.

Random Guy: I lived in Boston for a while and am very familiar with American accents and she is not American.

Natalia: Jessi, give me your ID.

*I give her my driver’s license*

Natalia: See, she is from the USA.

Random guy looks at me in disbelief and walks away.

So I guess I don’t have a very American sounding accent when I am speaking English – take that my Chicago friends who say I have an accent! Ha! Although, if he lived in Boston, he is used to a very different accent.  Oh well. It was a pretty lame way to try hitting on me and Natalia. Overall, it was a very fun night. Natalia’s friend that we were partying for is great and is moving to the United States next week, so I told him he should come visit Chicago and we can go to the gay bars there. We will see what happens.

Making new friends in Brazil!

The next morning I woke up still drunk and would spend the rest of the day paying for my night of fun. We spent most of the day shopping and from there were going to a popsicle place called “Fruits of Brazil,” but by the end of our shopping trip, I was feeling hung over so asked if I could be taken back to the apartment to rest. So I was taken back and everyone else went out for popsicles and to tour the city. 

It felt amazing to come back to the apartment and rest. As soon as I entered the cool, dark apartment, I could feel some tension and stress lifted off of my shoulders. After a night of so much excitement and stimulation, and a few days-work for that matter, it felt great to just kick back and relax. So with the place mostly to myself (Natalia’s aunt, Livia was here briefly before work, and Elliot their dog was here), I sat on their balcony with some water and biscoits (a Brazilian snack), and watched the world go by. That is when I started writing, then took a nap on their couch.

Hours later, after dark, everyone came back and we were in a tizzy getting ready to g out to a bar to listen to some live music. The band was great and played several rock classics (in English).  It was a really fun night and I bought their cd and dvd, or rather, a guy paid for it for me and Natalia, then asked for her number. Good times. Haha. 

The band we saw 

The Bridge I Fell in Love With In Brasilia (1 August, 2014 - Goiana, Brazil)

1 August, 2014 - Goiana, Brazil, 1:12pm

Lunch was very good; salad, rice, garlicky beans and salmon cooked with capers.  It was a pretty delicious and satisfying meal, considering I am 98% sure that I am still drunk from last night – but I will get to that.

Our first full day in Brazil, we spent seeing everything in the capital city, Brasilia.  We started off at the top of the radio tower that is right by/in the heart of the city, which was nice so we could get an overview of the city and see where we would all be going.  The next few hours included a whirl-wind of architecture in the city that was built for the sole purpose of being the capital of the country. From an engineering standpoint, this fascinates me. The city first became an idea in the 1800’s when Dom Bosco had a dream that a city would be built between the latitudes of 15° and 20°, and that there would be many riches – a “milk and honey” kind of thing.

The city was built from nothing, literally nothing, in the 1950’s and had its opening in the 1960’s. Now it is a bustling city that houses congress, several other government buildings, and amazing architecture; including the JK bridge, named for the architect and mastermind behind the actual creation of the city. He was also the president of the country, went to medical school and did a lot of really cool stuff.  But that isn’t why I love the bridge. I love the bridge because of the design….

4:55pm

She is really keeping us busy! There is so much to see here! I am only back at the house now because I was starting to feel sick from partying too much last night…but more on that later, back to my bridge in Brasilia.  The design is something like this:

Profile and Plan view sketches from my journal

Me posing with the bridge. 

JK bridge on the right and some of Brasilia on the left

JK bridge as seen from the restaurant at night

It is white. Apparently it is designed to look like a stone skipping across the water. I love it.  If I had stayed a civil engineer, I would probably design things with that kind of whimsy. Why make a basic bridge when you can make one that looks like is skipping across water? Plus, the math looks like it would be really fun – they should use it in statics and strength of materials classes, it would have made me more likely to actually do my homework in those classes….

But anyway, that was probably my favorite thing to see in Brasilia. We also saw the cathedral that is famous for its architecture, and looks something like this:

Catedral de Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida

Inside of Catedral de Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida

Close to the cathedral was the cultural center, which was a dome with some pretty sweet ramps coming and out of it. Inside was a bunch of art, which was cool to see.  

We went to their congressional building that on the roof had this:

Congressional Building, on the right is a bowl to "collect" the voices of the people, and on the left is an inverted "bowl", to pour the voices into the ears of congress. 

 This design has significance because the bowl is to represent the voices and words of the people of the country being collected.  The dome is the roof of the of the room that the congress actually meets in and it is a dome to represent the flipping over of the bowl into congress; the voices of the people going into congress. I thought that was a cool idea. I don’t know enough about Brazilian politics to know if that is being carried out, but it is still a nice sentiment. 

At sunset, we went to a park that is a memorial for Dom Bosco (the one that had a dream about the city).  The park is on the other side of the lake and overlooks the city. The sun set behind the city and as I sipped fresh coconut water, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful of an ending it was to our day in Brasilia, which I was soon to find out was not over just yet. 

Us ladies watching the sunset over the city and drinking fresh coconut water

We met up with Natalia’s uncle while we were at the park and he suggested that we take a trip up to the digital TV tower which is on a hill on the outskirts of the city.  By the time we got there, everything was closed, but we did get some great views of the city. And I got some great pictures with the tower.  J

This is how you pose with a tower, right?

By this time, it was time for dinner and we decided to go to a restaurant that has very traditional Brazilian food, served buffet-style and charged per kilo.  It was soooo good!  The foods that I tried that were among my favorites there included roasted eggplant, the fried banana (always a favorite of mine) and a dish that I don’t remember the name of, but it is almost like a risotto.  Henrique (Natalia’s uncle) was saying that it was a traditional dish of the people that the restaurant was modeled after. I will have to ask Natalia for the name when they all get back.

Delicious Brazilian food and drinks!

At this point, we were pretty tired, so went back to the hotel.  We had discussed going to an Irish Pub with Natalia’s friend that we met with at lunch (at an Outback no less…Brazil is a melting pot too! Australian, Irish, German and of course, Portuguese and African), but it didn’t work out. Instead I watched TV with my parents to at least listen to the language.  The first five channels were soccer, one channel had a sketch comedy show that I could not follow, and we ended up watching a show that was a talk show of some kind where the hosts were in drag and they had a dating game component that consisted of seeing how well the guys could unhook the girls’ bra – without looking. Never a dull moment in Brazil. With that, I took a shower and went to bed.

The next day (July 31^st) was mainly a travel day from Brasilia to Goiana, even though it is only about a two hour drive. We laid low the rest of the day, which was nice, considering how busy of a day we had the previous day.