Last night we had our first long rain, which was beautiful covering the lake near Tefe. It cheered me up for some reason, as I love thunderstorms and rain.
Other than that, we are enjoying our favorite restaurant, Stylo, which is located by the hotel; one of two restaurants that have been recommended.
The night before, we actually had (Brazilian) pizza; Brazilians love hearts of palms on their pizza, which sort of taste like artichokes. It was quite cheesy (not good for us lactose intolerants), but still was a pleasant change from fried chicken, fried manoc, fried beef. The treat of the day, however, was the sundae bar that they had - complete with magic shell and coconut ice cream. Yum.
This morning I was super excited, as fried manoc was served for breakfast this morning - they look sort of like french fries, but taste like a grainy potato. Or like a potato smashed with cauliflower. I LOVE it. We also sprinkle manoc on our rice and beans, but this is more of a "salt" type consistency.
Tomorrow morning we leave for the reserve, in which we will be about two hours outside of Tefe. We plan to stay at one of the Institute's reserve stations, with no idea of the "amenities." We also plan on visiting the eco-lodge as well, to get an idea of how it is run by the local population. I'm sure on Monday, there will be lots of updates and pictures.
Here's the website to the Institute (they have not updated the English site, however):
http://www.mamiraua.org.br/
As well as a link to the Eco-Lodge (it's actually a floating house) -
http://www.uakarilodge.com.br/ing_index.htm
Ciao for now -
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
May 24, 2007: Our A/C Unit is a Punta
Soooo ... looks like all of my smack talk about our air conditioning unit's indigestion has come back to bite me in the ass ... quite literally. It figures.
We are knee deep in fundraining (I meant to write fundraising - weird Freudian slip, as we are in the middle of a thunderstorm) analysis and evaluation, which has left us all wanting to bang our heads on our rattan table. Well, there's always cocktail hour to look forward to.
The IT brought up the fact that the internet was slow due to some of our activity; I didn't want to mention it was because I was in dire need of downloading the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. That being said, if I hear from anyone what the outcome or cliffhangers are, you are in deep doo-doo. And that's not hard to find in these here parts.
Ciao -
We are knee deep in fundraining (I meant to write fundraising - weird Freudian slip, as we are in the middle of a thunderstorm) analysis and evaluation, which has left us all wanting to bang our heads on our rattan table. Well, there's always cocktail hour to look forward to.
The IT brought up the fact that the internet was slow due to some of our activity; I didn't want to mention it was because I was in dire need of downloading the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. That being said, if I hear from anyone what the outcome or cliffhangers are, you are in deep doo-doo. And that's not hard to find in these here parts.
Ciao -
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
May 23: X-Rated Video
Brazil is filled with vibrant, colorful people - we were even fortunate enough to spot Michael Jackson dancing in the streets of Manaus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69twn3FCDk
Watching the dolphins play in the Amazon was really quite amazing - blows me away that the dolphins are "fresh water" dolphins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIP4tHE1W_o
Ciao for now -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69twn3FCDk
Watching the dolphins play in the Amazon was really quite amazing - blows me away that the dolphins are "fresh water" dolphins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIP4tHE1W_o
Ciao for now -
After Meat, Don't Count on Me
I have attached a few pictures of Tefe, this one being one of the typical houses in a poorer part of the city. Kids are often playing soccer in the middle of the road, as, of course, soccer is the most important sport in Brazil. Stephan was telling us that usally the poorer kids take to playing soccer at an early age, and learn to be able to play in many different conditions, which makes them extremely good players as they grow older. Incidentally, Stephan's favorite team, the Flamengos, just lost and he's not feeling like talking about soccer much today. Anyway, while this picture is quite picturesque from an artish standpoint, it also makes me appreciate my cold showers, Brazilian morning coffee, mosquito net and belching air conditioner.
That being said, I feel obligated to show you my mosquito net ... I feel like a pretty pretty princess underneath my sheath of protection. Funny how every little girl wishes for this sort of decoration, and now that I have it, I feel like my life is complete.
I have become an expert at setting up my princess protection - I pull and tuck the head region first, then the far corner, then the close corner, leaving a little teensy tiny place to slink inside. It's a bit like that movie, Entrapment, with Katherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery, in which she navigates under the laser beams; although, I am far from replicating her elegance.
Of course, when the air conditioning starts belching in the middle of the night, my pretty pretty princess feeling is replaced by obscenities directed towards the A/C unit and a mad display of extreme lack of grace as I yank myself out from under my netting to fiddle with the Brazilian controls to figure out exactly at what temperature and flow would serve as Milk of Magnesia for the A/C's extreme indigestion. Still cursing, I crawl back under my pretty pretty princess net and pray to not have to go through the ongoing fight with the A/C unit.
Here is a picture of the "main drag" or the square in the middle of town, which is often populated with people hanging out, eating, drinking beer (Brazilians in Tefe drink more beer than a fraternity) and ... dogs. Motos are everywhere. You can see the river in the distance, if you look closely enough. 
And of course, the team - a picture taken from outside of the Institute which we are working. Stephan, Me, Maiken and Steve. Nice view, no? 
And of course, the team - a picture taken from outside of the Institute which we are working. Stephan, Me, Maiken and Steve. Nice view, no? 
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
May 22: Do You Know What We Are Up Against?
Complements of my future sister-in-law ... Click on the link if you don't know what it is!
http://www2.oprah.com/health/oz/oz_20070521_350_109.jhtml
http://www2.oprah.com/health/oz/oz_20070521_350_109.jhtml
May 21, 2007: Drop the Chicken
I wanted to post a few pictures that fully describes the breadth and depth of the Amazon; these two from the plane should give you a good idea of its vastness (note the “tin” airplane wings).
The picture below is of our team, Steve O (aka Stevie Ray), Maiken, Stephan (our token Brazilian) and me, right as we got off the plane in Tefe. Since this picture, we have instituted mandatory cocktail hour in which we all take turns making some sort of sophisticated beverage before heading out to dinner, which consists of - as you should be able to recite along with me – fried fish, fried chicken, fried manoc, and rice and beans. “For every bean,” as I have learned from a translation of a Danish phrase from Maiken, “there is a tiny sound.”
Not to cause any alarm, but here is a picture of the “pier” that we crossed to get to our boat for our tour of the Amazon –
And here is a picture of me on the boat, with the Amazon in the background, followed by a scenic shot of the Amazon:
This picture is the quintessential house that sits much further away from the town of Tefe; although, I am quite jealous of the bathing children in the river (far right corner), as I’m sure the waters are much warmer than my morning showers. Nonetheless, obviously I cannot live without the internet, so living without electricity may not suit my lifestyle.
One of my favorite pictures – part of our boat trip consisted of a little side trip to a tiny village across the lake (part of the Amazon, but too large to call it part of the river), where our driver taxied some others back (um, yeah, don’t ask, just see the picture). We enjoyed the hot mugginess with a cold beer at one of the shack stands on the beach.
This picture of Maiken is one of my favorites – you can see the houses in the background, which sharply contrasts with our Indiana Jones attire.
Well, that’s it for today – we met with our clients for the first time in person, and toured the Institute’s facilities. It’s definitely a diamond in the rough, as government funding has been kind to the quest for scientific and ecological knowledge. But, more on that later. Time to set up the mosquito net and take malaria pills (crazy-ass dreams from this stuff).
The picture below is of our team, Steve O (aka Stevie Ray), Maiken, Stephan (our token Brazilian) and me, right as we got off the plane in Tefe. Since this picture, we have instituted mandatory cocktail hour in which we all take turns making some sort of sophisticated beverage before heading out to dinner, which consists of - as you should be able to recite along with me – fried fish, fried chicken, fried manoc, and rice and beans. “For every bean,” as I have learned from a translation of a Danish phrase from Maiken, “there is a tiny sound.”
Not to cause any alarm, but here is a picture of the “pier” that we crossed to get to our boat for our tour of the Amazon – And here is a picture of me on the boat, with the Amazon in the background, followed by a scenic shot of the Amazon: This picture is the quintessential house that sits much further away from the town of Tefe; although, I am quite jealous of the bathing children in the river (far right corner), as I’m sure the waters are much warmer than my morning showers. Nonetheless, obviously I cannot live without the internet, so living without electricity may not suit my lifestyle.One of my favorite pictures – part of our boat trip consisted of a little side trip to a tiny village across the lake (part of the Amazon, but too large to call it part of the river), where our driver taxied some others back (um, yeah, don’t ask, just see the picture). We enjoyed the hot mugginess with a cold beer at one of the shack stands on the beach.This picture of Maiken is one of my favorites – you can see the houses in the background, which sharply contrasts with our Indiana Jones attire. Well, that’s it for today – we met with our clients for the first time in person, and toured the Institute’s facilities. It’s definitely a diamond in the rough, as government funding has been kind to the quest for scientific and ecological knowledge. But, more on that later. Time to set up the mosquito net and take malaria pills (crazy-ass dreams from this stuff).
Monday, May 21, 2007
May 17 - May 20: Plastic Chairs and Beer ...
... is all you need to be happy in the Amazon.
It has been an adventure getting here, with two six hour plane rides and a five hour layover, and a three hour tour of Brazilian customs. We stopped in Manaus for a day and a half, which was a good introduction to Brazil and the extreme heat, mugginess and refreshing cold showers (except in the morning).
I have to laugh - our air conditioner in our room (we were lucky to have one) was on a timer, so we would wake up in the middle of the night sweating our asses off to restart the timer on the air conditioner. We discovered this little fun detail after sweating our asses off for the first night we were there, thinking that our air conditioning was broken (a fun little window unit). We did see the ``fast`` boat that we were going to ride if the airport remained closed; needless to say, I am glad we took the plane. By the way, the airport was closed due to birds circling trash dumps near the Tefe airport.
My first view of the Amazon River was on our plane ride to Tefe, where we are now. It is amazingly VAST - it looks like an ocean. I had no idea the magnitude of the river. Tefe is quite an interesting place, with about 50K inhabitants. There is little industry here, outside of small hotels (2-3), a few restaurants, and of course, the markets. I thought I would lose weight here, but given that the staple foods are fried fish, fried chicken, fried manoc, fried bananas and rice and beans, with beer being cheaper than water, it looks like I may have to forgo dietary restrictions for the time being.
The nightlife in Tefe is quite funny, with just a lot of drinking beer, and one dance club that looked like it was more appropriate for 14 year olds than us old farts. There was some sort of street party yesterday, that was semi-sponsored by the church, which uses a foghorn to blast the sounds of the bells. You could purchase local fried Brazilian food for fifty cents, which was good. Being foreigners, we are often stared at, especially by the younger folk. We do think that our presence here has quickly spread through the community.
Yesterday, we hired a `boat taxi` to take us around the lake/river right outside of our door, where we went were the two rivers in the Amazon converge - one is blackish, the other is brownish/murky, and you can actually see the colors mixing - like miso soup or coffee and milk. Here is where you can see the legendary river dolphins, as well as the Amazon pink dolphins. I will of course post pictures when I am able. We also visited a local village in which it´s possible to swim, and only Stephan (our Brazilian team member) braved the waters. Maiken, Steve and I watched from a beer shack on plastic chairs.
In general, I am pretty amazed by the vibrancy, the laid back attitude, and the casualness of the Amazon region.
Otherwise, my new official perfume is DEET, and my attire is consistently Indiana Jones, and my hair is pulled back due to the frizz that often sneaks out. I´m definitely enjoying myself, and look forward to the next three weeks!
It has been an adventure getting here, with two six hour plane rides and a five hour layover, and a three hour tour of Brazilian customs. We stopped in Manaus for a day and a half, which was a good introduction to Brazil and the extreme heat, mugginess and refreshing cold showers (except in the morning).
I have to laugh - our air conditioner in our room (we were lucky to have one) was on a timer, so we would wake up in the middle of the night sweating our asses off to restart the timer on the air conditioner. We discovered this little fun detail after sweating our asses off for the first night we were there, thinking that our air conditioning was broken (a fun little window unit). We did see the ``fast`` boat that we were going to ride if the airport remained closed; needless to say, I am glad we took the plane. By the way, the airport was closed due to birds circling trash dumps near the Tefe airport.
My first view of the Amazon River was on our plane ride to Tefe, where we are now. It is amazingly VAST - it looks like an ocean. I had no idea the magnitude of the river. Tefe is quite an interesting place, with about 50K inhabitants. There is little industry here, outside of small hotels (2-3), a few restaurants, and of course, the markets. I thought I would lose weight here, but given that the staple foods are fried fish, fried chicken, fried manoc, fried bananas and rice and beans, with beer being cheaper than water, it looks like I may have to forgo dietary restrictions for the time being.
The nightlife in Tefe is quite funny, with just a lot of drinking beer, and one dance club that looked like it was more appropriate for 14 year olds than us old farts. There was some sort of street party yesterday, that was semi-sponsored by the church, which uses a foghorn to blast the sounds of the bells. You could purchase local fried Brazilian food for fifty cents, which was good. Being foreigners, we are often stared at, especially by the younger folk. We do think that our presence here has quickly spread through the community.
Yesterday, we hired a `boat taxi` to take us around the lake/river right outside of our door, where we went were the two rivers in the Amazon converge - one is blackish, the other is brownish/murky, and you can actually see the colors mixing - like miso soup or coffee and milk. Here is where you can see the legendary river dolphins, as well as the Amazon pink dolphins. I will of course post pictures when I am able. We also visited a local village in which it´s possible to swim, and only Stephan (our Brazilian team member) braved the waters. Maiken, Steve and I watched from a beer shack on plastic chairs.
In general, I am pretty amazed by the vibrancy, the laid back attitude, and the casualness of the Amazon region.
Otherwise, my new official perfume is DEET, and my attire is consistently Indiana Jones, and my hair is pulled back due to the frizz that often sneaks out. I´m definitely enjoying myself, and look forward to the next three weeks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
