May 26 - May 27, 2007 - Part IV: Fried Green Ham

All work and no play ... Given that the Reserve at night is fairly quiet, and there are roughly 20 people situated in an area that is the size of Maryland, you have to take advantage of civilization when you can (outside of the village shops, of course). The Eco-Lodge has a small bar - yes, a BAR. No one who stays there really hangs out there, but we did ... and you can see the results of that night below ... After 3 caipirinhas apeice (basically a straight, rather large martini made with cachaca (cheap-ass liquor with a kick), lime and sugar), it's easy to make faces like this ... Not that Maiken and I aren't quite as good as the boys.

Being the good sports that we are, when we returned to our own floating lodge, the research station, Maiken and I offered to make grilled cheese, as the only items we had left to eat were the whitest bread I have ever seen, and warm cheese (type yet to be determined). Needless to say, Cesar had to laugh as he ate it, as the bread was mostly burnt and the cheese unmelted.

The next morning, we were expelled indefinitely from the kitchen, as one of the house maintenance crew made us tapioca pancakes, to save them all from our lack of cooking skills.

To finish up the weekend, we ended up at a Brazilian waterhole ... it's quite likely the most surreal moment I've had in a while; at first, I thought it was just the river re-directed into a "pool"-type area, surrounded with a bar, grill station, Pepe Morano cheezy Brazilian music, lots of women who should NOT be wearing brazilian bikinis, and of course, plastic chairs and beer. Turns out that the water is actually from a natural spring. This place is in the middle of nowhere; you drive for miles and then here's this popular hang-out for all of the locals. Food was unbelievably cheap - for a skewer of chicken, rice and beans, it cost $3 reais (or $1.50).

Probably the funniest event of our afternoon at the Tefe watering hole was that they ran out of chicken, beef, rice and beans when we ordered. So, we were left with sausage and manoc flour. I've never eaten so much sausage in my life.

Anyway, here's a picture of Stephan and Steve making their incessant crazy faces - seems to be a trend here for some reason ...

Well, that's all for now, as we are going to struggle all night to finish up our project for presentation tomorrow at 3. I do have some other posts to make, so hopefully I'll get to them at minimum late tonight when I'm stir crazy and slap happy.

We are on our way out of Tefe on Thursday (it worked out well, as nothing will be open due to a Catholic Holiday); the plane only leaves to Manaus two times per week. We will be in Manaus until Saturday (that flight as well is limited) and then we will be back in Berkeley late Saturday night ...

Ciao for now -