More pictures, the trip is over, but the luademel continues...

Here are some pictures of our pad in Maracaripe. It was really sweet, with a magnificent beach in front, and a huge lagoon a short walk behind us. One night, we went to a beach party that had a groovy DJ and lots of Brazilians getting down to some funky beats.

Corcovado

Cristo Redemptor Okay, whether you believe in the guy or not, you gotta admit this is one helluva sculpture. In fact, it is the largest art deco (completed 1931) sculpture in existence at 30 meters high.

I mean, look at all that scaffolding!!

From the base of the sculpture, you get these amazing panoramic views of all of Rio. Please excuse the muted background--it's a foggy oceanside city. Sound familiar?

The sculpture was built atop the tallest granite mount rising above the Tijuca National Forest. The forest is entirely second and third growth as the old growth had been levelled in order to plant coffee farms. Beautiful, nonetheless.

Poor Burr! He's been struggling with the heat and humidity. Broke out in some hives, got mild heat stroke, made him inconsolable--so much so, he turned into Carranca. Luckily, we are able to refresh him with one of his favorites here in Rio, Skol beer... Copacobana, looking towards Sugarloaf (right) and Ipanema (below).

Rio de Janeiro

Hey folks, we finished our powerlounging week on the beach in Maracaipe, near Porto de Galinhas, south of Recife. It was really great. Our pousada was on the beach and we didn´t really do much more than enjoy the shore and some great food. We arrived in Rio last night and spent the day at the Botanical Gardens, and we´re just getting oriented to this beautiful city. We have lots of photos from Maracaipe, but this internet cafe won´t support a USB cable, so we can´t upload any. More sooner, love Burr and Jaime.

tchau, Salvador ~ a Recife

New Year 2007

Dancing under the light of the moon on the night of our 10th anniversary of togetherness...

...which also happens to be New Years Eve! Look, fireworks! For us! (wink-wink)

Perspectivo

Havana, La Paz, Cuzco, Calli, Quito all share some qualities with Salvador, Bahia. There is a great colonial part of town, with the euro~influence, in this case Portuguese of course. It´s a huge city with over 2.5 million people, and quite spread out, even though many parts are dense. The hood we are staying in is a very happening place with lots of Brazilian tourist here for the holidays (Porto de Barra). They love the beach and it´s jam packed each day. Kinda reminds me of the SF Tenderloin on the Lahina, Maui waterfront. I know that sounds odd, but it´s a fair description. A bit gritty, but I gotta give credit to the daily effort that municipal workers put in. The beaches are occupied from early morning until well after midnight, and these guys come around at about 11 pm to pick up trash on the beach, racking it all up and really nit picking up all the crap from the day. Then, around midnight, a giant water truck with a high pressure hose comes around and cleans the sidewalk. Construction work was happening at 2 am on some new beach club/hotel we walked by last night. Other than the holiday, it seems Tuesday is the happening night. Near the historic district, called Pelourinho, there are some famous samba groups that perform and the streets are packed with revelers. Little cobblestone streets with cool cafes have nice outdoor music until late at night. We know that we are only seeing little bits and pieces of this town, but we came here to relax and dint want to pack in too much hustle bustle tourism. The other day, I had a great wreck dive with awesome visibility. We are going to spend New Year´s Eve on a boat that our B ´n B host has chartered with about 35 others, watching fireworks off the beach. We are actually just getting warmed up, in terms of relaxing. On the 2nd, we are heading to a beach resort south of Recife, and I believe it will be considerably quieter. It´s been fun here in Salvador (Jaime wants to move here) and we´d like to return. Anyone want to invest in a pousda that we can share and have a place to land for Carnaval? If you want to know more, check the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Brazil I hope to post again, sooner than later, but don´t hold yer breath. Welcome to 2007! Love, Burr Oh, by the way, luadumel means honeymoon in Portuguese

Mercado Modelo and the Marina

The droves awaiting the ferry to a neighboring island. Salvador is the third most populated city in Brasil. We are here during high vacation season for Brasilians--think of it this way, Porto da Barra is to Salvador what Venice Beach is to Los Angeles. This area is also full of history, the colonial slave-trading sort of history. When Portugal came and tried to make slaves of the Brasilian Natives, they were unsuccessful as the Natives did not work hard enough for the likes of the whip-crackers. The solution was to go to Africa and bring over the toughest, strongest men to Brasil as slaves and thus, the African slave trade was born in 1501. The dungeon of the Mercado Modelo.

The dungeon was used as a garbage dump and as sewage . Where you see me standing is part of a series of tunnels and platforms. As a torture device, slave drivers would pack the dungeon with slaves and flood it with water. Those tall enough and who could hold their breath long enough survived to continue as slaves. All others drowned.

Underwater

27 Dec-Wednesday was a day for underwater diving. It has been about ten years since we've both been PADI certified, in other words, ten years since we've done any dives. Jaime attempted to go under, but she couldn't equalize the pressure in her right ear so she decided not to push it. Burr got in two dives, one near some reef and another near this wall you see here. On the boat looking back from Bahía de Os Todos Santos.

Burr up from the depths.

This is Joseph Santini with huuuuuuuge mangoes from his farm. It's his pousada where we are staying and he's the travel agent in Berkeley we went through for our travel plans.

Wednesday, 26 December We went out to get some cultchah at a restored park and three museums (geology, art, film) Burr took a picture of Jaime in front of a mosaic made of semi-precious stones. Campo Grande Park. Another beach...

Sunset down the street

December 25, 2006

Hi people, after a hella long flight from Chicago to Sao Paulo, we made it to Salvador, Bahia. We spent Saturday night resting and recovering from a long trip, then our host made this incredible spread of food for his employees and guest. He considers them all family. Great xmas food, Brazillian style and good drinks too. We had to nap in the hammocks after that meal, but managed to walk half a block to our local beach. Here are a fews shots Jaime took and I will sign out and let her say something about this place. Peace, out, Burr.

Ola! Todo bem! You can see from the photos that the beach is where the locals go for Christmas. So far, the people have been very helpful. A bummer that I am sick, but better to be sick here in Brazil than at home in the cold. The proprietor of our pousada, Joseph, insisted I come and drink a capirinha(one of the local drinks) to make me feel better ;'>

This is taken from the balcony outside our room. Leads down to the beach where we caught the sunset.

More about the flight here...apparently there is a nationwide protest from the airline workers in which they are delaying flights. This stems from the fact that air traffic controllers were blamed for the big crash in the jungle recently. The problem is the atc's are made responsible for more flights than they should be managing so they want to slow things down in order to make "them" hire more people and cut back the work overload.

Can you find Burr?

So far, all the people here have been very nice and helpful. For instance, the guy on the bus who handles the money asked a local passenger on the bus to lead us in the right direction for a taxi to the pousada. By the time we got to Porto da Barra where we are staying, it was dark, and we are quite aware that we shouldn't be traipsing around with our luggage at night in a big foreign city with which we are unfamiliar. Ahhh, the kindness of strangers is priceless.

Burr and Jaime with the wind and the Forte Santa Maria at their backs.