It’s one day before we head back home and have to face reality.  Our trip to Buenos Aires has been really spectacular!  There is so much going on in the city, so much to do.  If New York is the city that never sleeps then Buenos Aires in the city that goes to sleep really really late.  Last night Karisa and I enjoyed a dinner that started at 11:30 and ended around 1am.  Keeping up with the locals took a few days of adjustment, but now we’re starting to feel like true Porteños.  Last night was also a mission of sorts;  It was, after all, my 30th birthday.  To stave off the effects of old age, we were determined to spend the night like a couple of reckless twenty somethings.  In the end, I think we were successful – the final tally was 3 cab rides, 3 bars, 1 private party crashed, and 1 reggae “battle of the bands” show mistakenly attended.  Arriving back at the hotel at 6am, I felt younger than ever.

I suppose this wraps up the blog entries – aside from posting some more pictures from the trip next week.  Thank you to all of you who have shared my experiences in South America.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it.  Writing down my thoughts and the events has helped me keep them fresh in my memory(something old people like me need to worry about) – and I hope interesting to you, too.  This truly has  been an experience of a lifetime.  The lessons I’ve learned about conservation, the travel/cultural adventures, and the great friendships I’ve made will truly stay with me forever.  I’ve also learned how important home is to me.  While I cherish any opportunity I can get to explore and travel the world, I’ve never felt the need to reconnect with home as much as I have recently.  I’m eagerly anticipating sitting with as many of you as possible and sharing these experiences face to face.  Thank you for being with me in digital spirit!  Ate mais!

I finished up my last week on the job this week.  It felt sad to be leaving for the office for good and all the great people I had been working with.  I also feel ready to head back home and reconenct with the places and people, and work that I’ve been away from for 3 months.  It might be the knowledge that something is coming to and end that brings on the anticipation of leaving and makes it feel like the proper time.  The South American adventure isn’t totally over, however.  Monday we’ll be flying to Buenos Aires for a week long vacation filled with tango and wine and steak and wine and then tango.  When planning the trip in April I didn’t fully consider the fact that this would be the winter and that Argentina is actually really far south.  So the weather in Buenos Aires is ranging from the mid 40s to 60s, with rain.  I just look at it as a sneak preview for October.  Everything we’ve heard about the city sounds amazing.

For now, goodbye from(and to) Brasilia!

This past weekend marked the first excursion to the Brasilian beaches for me since I’ve been here, as well as my first real vacation of the summer!  I spent some time searching for destinations along the coast and getting suggestions from coworkers.  Then I heard those 9 magic words – “we’ve got a place you can stay for free.”  That was my supervisor talking.  His girlfriend’s family has a vacation home that sits vacant for most of the year, especially now, the Brasilian winter.  I told her that we would be incredibly grateful for letting us stay there and that we would love to take her up on the offer.

The house is in the northeast of Brasil an hour and a half south of the city of Recife(pronounced Hey-See-Fee.)  We flew into Recife Thursday morning and picked up the rental car.  I opted for the bargain car(still $50 a day) and it lacked some of the more basic features such as A/C, cruise control, locks on the inside of the doors, temperature control, and power steering.  Driving south of the city, Karisa and I saw some remarkable landscapes like we’ve never seen before.  The northeast is sugar cane country, and it’s pretty much the only thing you see for miles around.  There is also, unfortunately, a high rate of poverty in this region, and there are some sad sights mixed in with the unusual beauty of the scenery.  We made it to the house just around sunset – barely light enough to make out the house from the Google Earth map I had printed.  We were greeted by the housekeeper who showed us in.  Now this is a cultural issue that we had a really hard time with.  Housekeepers/maids are very common here.  For example, every coworker of mine that has a family also has a full time maid.  This is a someone who cleans, cooks, cares for the kids – everything.  Even knowing that this is really common in Brasil doesn’t make it easier to have someone cook your meals and wash all of your dishes for you afterwards.  Add in the major communication problems and it made for an interesting few days.

The beach was amazing.  The house is only a couple hundred feet from the beach, with private access.  The first day we spent playing in the low tide beach, searching for cool sea life and loving the warm water.  The wonderful sun we had on the first day didn’t last though.  The next day the sky opened up in a major way.  And then again…and again.  But we made the best of the situation and enjoyed some intense games of poker.  The final day cleared again just in time for us to leave.  One last morning on the beach and then we hit the road to visit the city of Recife.  One last confusing and awkward interaction with the housekeeper and we were off(I should add that Joelma was unbelievably nice and accomodating.)    In the end, relaxation was achieved.  A great trip!

Here’s a link to the pics…

Last Thursday Karisa finally made it to Brasil(yay!) and she was followed a day later by Matt.  Friday the three of us went 3 hours north of Brasilia to visit a national park called Chapada dos Vadeiros.  It was getting so much hype from my coworkers that I really had nowhere to go but dissapointment.  It turns out they were right – it is a completely amazing place.  And near the park was the strangest natural area I have ever seen – a place called Valley of the Moon.  The Cerrado must be one of the most overlooked and underappreciated areas on earth.  It passes under the radar in Brasil because of the Amazon and the beaches.  I highly recommend anyone to come visit here.

It’s been a really busy week so I haven’t had time to post anything recently.  Here are a few teaser pictures from the most beautiful and weird places from the weekend.  Tomorrow Karisa and I are headed to the coast for a few days but I promise to post more when we return!

What do you get when you combine soccer and golf?  Not much fun and a high possibility of injury.  On the other hand when you combine soccer and volleyball and put it on sand you have one of the coolest sports in the world – Futevolei!  Take the hard part of volleyball – getting the ball over the net quickly – and remove the ability to use your arms – and you have the essence of the sport.  It’s pretty amazing to watch talented players play.  They have the same rules and tactics as beach volleyball – 3 touches per side and pass, set, spike.  Their control with headers and chests and feet is remarkable.  I saw more than one point go for over 15 volleys back and forth.  This past weekend was the highlight of Futevolei fans in all of the greater Brasilia region. The best players from the region came with their A games to face off in the Brasiliense championships.  Literally, tens of people came to cheer on their favorite players(mine was named Tapioca.)  Have a look…

Really, do we expect anything less?

Preparing to serve…

Passing…

and spike!

Navigating through the thick crowds made viewing difficult.

A man can only watch so many episodes of The Simpsons in Portuguese from the hotel room before he wants to choke himself on a spoonful of farofa. Thus the inertia for a weekend roadtrip was born. With 4 friends I made it out to the lovely little town of Perinopolis last weekend. It’s about a 3 hour drive from Brasilia and is a very popular tourist destination for Brasiliense(people from Brasilia.) Perionoplis is over 300 years old and hasn’t changed much in that time. Colonial houses – stone paved streets – local artisans. The trip was also a great opportunity for me to get out into the cerrado and actually see some of the landscape that I’m helping to protect. Granted the area I was traveling through is largely converted farmland, but it was still very beautiful. And without delay – pictures!

Our trusty steed that we lovingly call “Capomotimo,” because of it’s striking resemblance to a hippopotamus

Some of the dangers you face an hour outside of Brasilia.

and Yuri says, “oh – I know this great shortcut to a waterfall this way!”

Go Capopotimo, Go!

View looking over the cerrado heading towards a cachoeira(waterfall)

Celebrating my dominance over nature.

Finally reaching the city of Perinopolis, the city of of VW Beetles.  It has the highest per-capita ownership of Beetles in Brasil.  Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the world.  They were everywhere.

The Ingreja Nossa Senhora do Rosario Matriz.  After 40 years of painstaking restoration it was completely gutted by fire in 2002(possibly arson set by the priest.)  Doh!  They managed to restore it(again) but without the beautiful details dating back to 1732.

Some vagrants that let me tag along in the car with them from Brasilia.  I think they might have been environmentalists, but I was too afraid to ask…

Main street – Saturday night.

In the throes of surrealist creativity penning an exquisite corpse drawing on Saturday night.

All good things must come to an end.  Heading back on the road to Brasilia – wait – what’s that in the distance…Brasilia…NOOOOO!!!

I’m just getting back from a night at Festa Junina. In Brasil they celebrate the entire month of June!  More specifically, Festa Junina is a catholic festival celebrating Saint Anthony, John the Baptist, and Saint Peter.  Our festival was hosted by a church/school.  It’s also associated with rural traditions and so it involves dancing similar to squaredancing and dressing up in redneck clothes.  But most importantly, Festa Junino involves lots and lots of food.

Praying for good food. Prayers answered.

Saint Anthony money – just like real money but more fun – and more pious.

Chocolate and candy coated grapes.

Galinha – a dish typical of this region of Brasil. It’s sort of like a paella but with chicken instead of seafood, which is good since we’re a couple hundred miles inland.

Caldo Verde – a potato based soup from Portugal with kale and sausage.

Churrasco – meat on a stick. But you have the choice of having it dipped in farofa(dried manioc flour) Brasilians like to eat farofa every chance they get, and it will probably be the taste left in my mouth when I leave the country.

Cajica – for dessert I was introduced to cajica. It’s a bit similar to rice pudding, but corn based and more watery. The stock is a peanut flavored hot sweet milk with pieces of white corn floating around. The corn has a consistency unlike I’ve ever had – more like rice really. After 2 beers and all the other food the hot milk almost knocked me out for the evening. Super tasty!

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This past weekend I competed in my first ever 10km running race here in Brasilia. I’ve been training for over a month and I need to have some sort of goal to keep me motivated. I think my race was a success overall – I came close to my goal with a somewhat respectable time of 45:02. I suppose I’ll have to run another to gauge my performance when I get home – I figure I could take a minute off without the heat. The best thing will be when someone asks me if this is my first race and I’ll be able to say, “well this is my first domestic race.”

The coveted “Participant” award

On Saturday I borrowed my friend Gabriel’s motorcycle and the 2 of us headed down to Brasilia’s large lake, Lago Paranoa, that surrounds the eastern side of Brasilia.  It’s an artificial lake that was made the same time as the city, I think mainly for its recreation value.  Here’s a few shots of the lake around sunset.  These don’t really capture the quality of the sunsets here in Brasilia – they’re really marvelous.  I’m looking forward to the end of the month when we’re heading to a national park, where the sunsets are rumored to be the best anywhere in the world.  It’s true.

Probably one of the best features of living in a tropical clime is the coco gelado. The coco gelado(or coco frio in Spanish) is the ultimate tropical indulgence. The simplicity is what makes it so appealing to me. Take one nicely chilled coconut. Cut off the top. Insert straw. Drink. Nothing better after a hot day running in the sun. Plus it replenishes your vital coco-nutrients. And the best thing is they’re really cheap – about $1.25. Perfect!

I’ve been traveling this week. I’m in Curitiba Monday through Wednesday for a meeting. Curitiba is a nice city located near the coast of southern Brasil. The weather here is sort of like San Francisco with lots of fog and the 4 seasons in one day phenomenon. There’s about 2 million people here, but the city has made great efforts to increase green space and make it more livable. It’s a very European feeling city and they have a lot of European influence from German and Italian immigrants. We were supposed to dine at a classic German joint tonight but unfortunately it was closed. Instead we headed to an all you can eat meat-fest restaurant where they put a cover over your jacket so that it doesn’t smell like meat when you leave. Brilliant!

I’m here for three days attending a meeting about conservation management status. Basically the purpose of the meeting is to develop a way to gauge how effectively protected areas really protect the things they are supposed to. Unfortunately, just because a piece of land is put into a protected status – ie. national park – doesn’t mean the biodiversity within it is safe. Many – scratch that – all parks in South America are underfunded and/or understaffed. Even the parks that have higher numbers of staff and money likely lack a plan for how they will manage the resources within the park. The result is that we(TNC), as an organization, can’t say that these areas are effectively protected from threats for the long term. The information coming out of this meeting will help us to develop strategies for how to conserve the biodiversity of South America. In order to meet the conservation goals set by TNC for 2015(conserving 10% of all major habitats on earth), one strategy is to create many new parks. After the first day of this meeting it’s clear that another strategy will have to include mechanisms for ensuring existing protection areas stay permanently protected. It’s a huge challenge. But from what I’ve seen from the TNCers down here, I expect they will make it happen.