Cape Cod National Seashore

Captains quarters... arrive - beautiful GREEn pool - tennis courts - basketball and beach volleyball. We're actually on the bike path.... ON it... get on bike and ride - after swim and tennis, we went to nauset beach... much to Zak's distress cuz he did not want to leave the hotel. Saw the 3 sisters lighthouses and the Nauset Lighthouse.... looked up restaurants and the Bookstore in Wellfleet seemed the perfect place... I ate so much I thought I'd explode. We ended up playing on the beach across the way until my food digested some, then on the awesome playground which had a full skateboard park attached. .. In the AM played tennis, rode on biketrail to four corners for cocoa puffs b'fast, swam in pool, then went looking for Gull pond... which took longer than imagined due to evil GPS which gave too many routes. Ended up at the Lighthouse restaurant in Wellfleet - drawing pictures, sipping bloody mary's and eating Mac & cheese. Followed up with Audobon society tour.

Kitties

Zoo Field trip - Fri Jun 19

How MilSpecs Live Forever!

coachphil@gmail.com to newtonparents

Here's a lesson for all of us. I have checked it and though "labeled" false by snopes "technically" it would sure make an interesting experience for kids to learn from I think.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp


How MilSpecs Live Forever!

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 ft 8
1/2 in (1.44 m). That's an exceedingly odd number. Why is that gauge
used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US
railroads were built by English ex-patriots.

Why did the English build 'em like that? Because the first rail lines
were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and
that's the gauge they used. Why did they use that gauge then? Because
the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools as they
used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

OK! Why did the wagons use that wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to
use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long
distance roads, because that's the spacing of the ruts.

So who built these old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in
Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The
roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which
everyone else had to match for fear of breaking their wagons, were first
made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made by or for
Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing (ruts
again).

Thus we have the answer to the original question. The United States
standard railroad gauge of 4 ft 8 1/2 in derives from the original
military specification (MilSpec) for an Imperial Roman army war chariot.
MisSpecs (and bureaucracies) live forever!

So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's
ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial
Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the
back-ends of two war horses.

A follow-up to this story: When Napoleon marched on Russia, his army
made much slower time than planned once they reached eastern Europe
because the ruts weren't to Roman gauge. Because they made slower time
than planned they got caught in the field in the Russian winter rather
than on the outskirts of Moscow. And then, of course, they lost the war.

Now the twist to the story...

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two
big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These
are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at
their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have
preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by
train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the
factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had
to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the
railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as
wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's
most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand
years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

 

Hungarian cities translated!

Baja : Her/his problem
Kiskunhalas : Fishy Little Kun
Sárospatak : Muddy Stream
Sátoraljaújhely : Tent Bottom New Place
Szeged : Your Nail
Sarkad : Your Heel
Szilvásvárad : Your Plummy Castle
Szarvas : Shit Iron
Kiskunfélegyháza : House of Little Kun Half Past Twelve
Dunaújváros : Danube New City
Tiszaföldvár : Tisza Earth Castle
Szeghalom : Nailpile

Hévíz : Hey,Water!

Kiskunlacháza : Kun Leslie Jr. House
Lenti : downward
Mezőkovácsháza : House of Field Smith

Kisújszállás : Little New Flying or Little new abode

Nyíregyháza : House of Cut One
Szombathely : Saturdayplace
Várpalota : Castle Palace
Simontoronya : Tower of Simon
Kőszeg : Stone Nail
Kapuvár : Gate Castle
Hódmezővásárhely : Beaver Field Market Place
Nagyhalász : Big Fisherman
Ajka : Her/his Lip
Érsekvadkert : Archbisop Wild Garden
Oroszlány : Russian Girl

and

Hatvan : Sixty
Ajak : Lip
Makó : Flush
Ács : Carpenter
Pápa : Pope
Tata : Dad(dy)
Tököl : Hesitation
Szentes : Sainty
Békés : Peaceful
Szolnok : Callman
Kardos : Swordy

aches

is there some reason everything's gotta hurt when u wake up? That just doesn't make sense. My 5 year old braniac turns from cartoon network advertising posturpedic and says, "mom, you've got to get that". Ok. This AM on our walk to school, I meet my friend outside who says "oh, my back is killing me" - turns out she HAS a posturepedic. Well. I'm happy today cuz I saved about $2000!

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow

Best book - evah! gotta get it

march 14 - last day of training

 
 
 
 
last day of training (on Resende beach /praia)

flight from salvador - march 18

 
so the blurb about salvador airport is a real security nightmare can me termed a great misnomer!
We set our alarm for 5:30AM, got in the taxi, skedadled to the airport for a 7:50 AM flight - They hadn't even opened the security yet when we arrived... after a hot dog, ice cream, and all the 6 stores open, we exhausted our opportunities and sank into the uncomfortable seats with the other waiting passenges... What wasted time.

 
 

50

50 years is a really long time. My son is 5 and he already knows how to do almost anything... so whats the rest of the time for? sitting around reading? but i already forgot the books i read. and every time i start to read, i want to write my own...

We're home...

yeay. so incredibly comforting, no matter how good the trip - to finally get = HOME. your street, your house, your kitchen, your BED! I have incredible saudade for my bed.

the whole way back from salvador was like living life in reverse. same terminal arrival as departure, same stores, same walks, even the people looked the same. It was sort of like undoing a month spent in brazil. I couldve kissed the ground in my house when we arrived... yeay!

Z wnt to school today. all the kids were so happy to see him and him them!

getting around

ok. so this is how we got around. granted it wouldve been better to walk everywhere, but why?


zak was so insistent on using his seatbelt feb 18 when we arrived (and i was glad). OUr drivers laughed... as eva always tells me, kids adapt fast. in no time, zak was jumping in and out of cars with no thought of a seatbelt. Terrified of motorcycles, he always ran to the side of the road with the sound of any approaching. This continued thruout, but Salo rode us around on his motorcycle and i decided that a scooter would be advantageous.of course the scooter starter was a piece of wire, which i asked, couldn't anyone duplicate? but apparently, the itacare mafia are notorious enough to not warrant the consequence... of course, I did lose the damn thing once and Salo had to make it out of the garbage we found at the beach.

saudade

ok. i just want to go home. i've had enuf. seen what i wanted to see... done all i can in the time i have. i spent yesterday trying to figure out our way home and getting impatient to go... actually started when i broke the statue in front of the bathroom (which i knew i was going to do sooner or later).. and tried to find superglue but instead was left with epoxy with which i epoxied everything, (the table, the knife, my hands), except the statue. another huge frustration is bananas... The trees around here must be filled w/ bananas but for some reason, the only kind i can find are the ones you cook. no big deal i suppose except u hafta cook them and zak duzn't like them. Also, no "supermarket" (corner grocery) has everything you need, so you hafta go to several and wait in line in each to get your shopping done. more flaws in paradise, huh? The man in the store from Sao Paolo told me in english "baihanos are lazy"... i miss my walking group, i miss my telephone, imiss my bed and Zak duzn't stop asking when he can go to Eva's house..

the complacency of beauty

Concha beach at sunset was magical. The water shimmered rose, violet, and azure reflecting the pink puffy clouds and blue sky. We were going toward “por do sol” / sunset point… Mirante/ponta do Xareu where everyone goes to see the sunset. This is also where Salo and I are looking to buy the property. I was talking to a beach vendor (of earrings/jewelry) asking him what Xareu was. He said it was an ancient indigenous word for a fish which used to be abundant here. Two dogs bounded with us toward the point and every vista was magnificent with the one catamaran sailing about. Of course, I had decided today not to shlep around my camera and video recorder!!! I couldn’t believe how many fab pics I missed today. But, perhaps cuz my mind was observing rather than recording, I decided to call our live entertainment joint – “Sunset bar”.

festa, samba, roda- finalmente!

Domingo – 3/9
Festa de Jamaica for someone leaving back to Scotland. See videos. Monday was hard cuz of my foot. Stayed home til 2:30 – well ran around returning and renting the same scooter… then trained with taped up foot and sneakers. Netto (contra-mestre) trained w/ us w. ninho, expatriot now living in Norway w/ wife and bb – a huge adorable guy living up to his name… looks like the mulatto version of bambam… The roda was hard for me cuz of my injuries and pains now. On Jamaica’s urging I bought zak the white capoeira pants and dressed him w/ white shirt. When I was able to drag him away from the Xbox video game (only bcuz his grand theft auto game was over), he got to play in the roda. I’m very lucky cuz the roda is two “stores” down from the xbox place so I can leave zak there while we drum, play and sing and he can come find me when it’s over. Everyone knows him/us now if he needed anything. True to his astrological sign, the first thing he asks when he leaves the roda is " can I play again???"

Training is something else. It’s on Resende beach at 4pm. Just amazing, training capoeira outside in the sea slapping sand shaded by palm trees. It’s one of those absolutely beautiful moments that you unfortunately get used to like the vista in zsuzs’ new house in Inverness CA. on entering the beach today, a woman asked if Z was the capoeirista from last nite and how long he's been training... He's famous!

After the miniscule training I was able to do today, we went back to concha beach to look for zak’s white shirt which was taken by serai do mar earlier this afternoon as it dropped out of my hands and a wave grabbed it up like a hungry dog after a steak. The tide had been so high, it was above the level of the plastic tables. Salo had told me how annoying these tables were and I didn’t notice at the time, but at high tide like this, you cannot walk the beach due to the plastic furniture strewn forward, I suppose to attract customers.

little israel and copper starter

So another interesting thing in Itacare (now at least) is that it’s filled with israelis. One very cute Israeli, Tal, helped barter Zak’s and my abada (capoeira pants). Wish he was there when I rented the scooter for fortune! On our way back, he asked me, or stated, “so you’re 29.” Made my week! – perhaps made up for the broken scooter which had to be started by a piece of copper wire. Although this was somewhat exciting and romantic at first, it soon became tiring looking for this 1 inch piece of copper wire in the black insides of my fanny pack. Of course, I lost it once and Salo made another for me from street wire, having the guy who charged me R$2 to park there help him strip the wire. Of course this wire was way too tricky and long and took eons to maneuver to start the bike. Even if it did start, it would fall out and stall. All this time of course the carrying compartment didn’t lock. One day they came to the house and took the bike to replace the start w/ a key. While I was skyping zsuzs, they threw the key up to me. After this, I could no longer OPEN the carrying compartment. … All this, I paid R$40… (which I had talked him down from $50)… I was really going to give the bike back Tuesday, but bcuz of my foot, I decided to keep it and talked him down to R$30/day… I think that’s a lot and I’m so horrible at bartering, but I havent’ found a single other place. i guess i should b happy for the lesson in how to hotwire a vehicle.

my own lecture- why not?

– after practicing capoeira for 1 year in 1992, Tisza was the first woman capoeirista I ever saw in Boston. I was stunned, amazed and enthused, wanting to emulate her and be mentored by her. Unfortunately, the first thing she said to me when I did an “au sem mauns” /aerial, was “the boys just want to see your underwear”. I was disappointed to say the least, but enthused nevertheless to see her thrilling capoeira, maculele with real machetes sparkling on contact in the dark shows and other expertise. I thought she would amount to more in supporting and promoting women in these arts… it would have been beneficial in contrast to the ultra male and macho environment, filled with constant seduction, power plays and betrayals.

capoiera and lectures

Z and I (planned to get up) early yesterday to go to Tisza and Cabelo's kids percussion class in Serra Grande. I rented the car by 9:30 and we sped off (well, putted off with pieces flying off the car like the flintstones, the car was so flimsy).

Of course, we and the Swedish guy were the only ones there by 10AM.. Tisza and Cabello got there about 10:30… (or later). About 8 kids were there and we did some sound percussion, then instruments. By this time Z had to poop and we were both a bit tired/hungry, and our ears were shot so I took Z to the “praca” looking for Helena where her daughter said she would be ☺ Never found her but got Z a hamburger and went to Itacarezinho… a private and even more breathtakingly beautiful beach with a small warm waterfall to rinse off with after the foaming ocean. Of course, I climbed the waterfall and when I went to lift z onto a higher rock, I crashed down on my butt/bunda/tuchus like a magnet to iron with z safely on my lap. After the shock of the fall, verifying Z was alive and well and scanning various parts of my body, I realized the fall actually felt great for my back. Unfortunately, a few seconds later my foot was pounding and I had sliced it in two places. (I’ll spare you any pics). My first thought was – oh no, how am I gonna train capoeira on the beach ???

Well we enjoyed itacarezinho nonetheless but couldn’t get any service there for food (since there’s an entry fee and they have a monopoly) they’re not only slow, but expectantly horribly expensive. So we trotted off in our little vagabundo car in search of food... and ended up in a place called “Casa de Valter” in one place and “Casa de Walter” in another… basicly a house/farm with a “restaurant”… we had a blast there and saw the nastiest looking crickets ever that Jasmine told us the name of. We had an “ok” mocqueca and lots of fun, but best of all, he knew cabelo and tisza and told us exactly where to turn to go to their fazenda (farm)… (after the bridge and before the omnibus stop.) Tisza’s direction was at Km 39, but unfort, there are no km markers, so that is moot…

Once I found the entrance, memories flooded me on how horrible the path had been and how we got stuck last time we came, even with the 3 time brazilian kickboxing champion, native from para and cross-country driving us. Z immediately observed “this is like a ride on space mountain!”

After going to someone else’s house in the middle of nowhere (following a little arrow sign) we backtracked (with the car nearing empty) and found their fazenda and the lake and the roda in their beautifully constructed Ouro Verde. We observed the roda til Cabelo asked if I would play/join. I showed him my foot, but he said to enter anyway, so I put pants on and zack’s white shirt (mustve looked funny, but I didn’t have to see it).
Jamaica’s words came back to me how much more exciting Regional is than angola… of course watching Cabelo play, it’s equally exciting. I played a game and as expected, totally forgot about my foot while playing. Had an ok game but got really really tired and a huge bruise in the middle of my palm from something? The cement floor? Dunno… the sky was turning brilliant colors indicating it’s decline and Z wanted to go diving off the bridge.

The roda ended and Cabelo began reprimanding folks for not having respect by coming late and not asking permission to enter the roda. I thankfully was saved by z wanting his water wings… This totally reminded me of Deraldo arriving late for everything and the one time he arrives on time, reprimanding everyone for arriving later than him… I dunno why cabelo was giving this lecture, or why capoeiristas feel like lectures are a necessary part of their business?

Then Cabelo asked if Tisza had something to say and she started… I helped Z jump in the water the first time from the bridge, then returned to hear her telling that Mar 8 is Dia dos mulheres and how important it is and how she is one of the only women capoeiristas making money from capoeira and how she has two busted vertebrae and her internals all gone bcuz of her dedication to capoeira and how other women should be so moved…. This kind of self-pity oration really disturbs me… besides me, whom she’s known for over 17 years (and also has 2 busted discs and other ailments associated with an active life) there was another woman capoeirista from Sao Paolo… Not only was this disturbing and I guess from an egotistical standpoint insulting, but totally ignorant rantings… of course capoiera is male dominated. So is boxing, martial arts, and other fighting arts. It’s difficult for women by the nature/definition of the interest… much like you don’t find a lot of male ballerinas. I don’t understand why Tisza has never embraced and celebrated the women who ARE performing and HAVE devoted decades of their lives??? It’s too bad.

Z was done swimming by then, and the sky was ominously filling with moon and stars, sun sinking way too fast. I “asked” cabelo for my leave and bounded off w/ zack on the space mountain, through the underwater bridge which minutes later would become invisible, and curvaceous mounds on the ever ascending/descending road out to the main drag.

skypeing Zsuzs

We skyped Zsuzs the other day with an insy weensy teeny weeny internet connection we’re “borrowing” from our pousada neighbor. It was way cool, tho afterward, I thought of all the things I could have shown her (none of which come to mind at the moment) otherwise, we were just looking at each other while talking, and frankly , she had her beret on and looked identical to her static picture so I need to learn how to take the video off.

Live Bait

3/6 – Live Bait
what’s the worst waking nightmare a person can have? To be sleeping under a mosquito net with a number of mosquitoes in it. But there’s more… while searching the white net under the fluerescent light bulb to murder the little bastards, you see none other than a tick – inside the mosquito net with you, inches from where your head had lain minutes ago. Paradise has its flaws.

Speaking of paradise, I finally was able to investigate and participate in the capoeira class I liked – basicly Jamaica’s. His class is on Resende beach at 4pm. I investigated it w/ zak wed and played in his roda that nite… other than badmouthing angoleiros, his class was awesome. We even did backflips! Zak enjoyed the beach and after an hour came over and watched. The night before in the roda, he did not get asked to play, so he was very disappointed thinking Jamaica did not like his capoeira game Monday nite and didn’t ask him…. Very interesting.

So we’ll go again today at 4pm. I abandoned the casa do boneco idea because they overcharged me for so many things as well as the classes they were going to have for zak (first private lesson for R$20, then with all the kids for R$25 and the pants I bought – used! R$30 for a kids, then they charged R$50 for the adult pair!) … so we won’t be going there. Hopefully the R$80 for the pants will help them accomplish their goals and be less scalping in the future…

New House!

We have a new house in Itacare... v nice! near a calm beach - that is so amazingly brazilian. I remember when we were in Newport RI and my (ex) said the beaches in US were nothing... I couldn~t really understand what he was talking about... the beaches here are - absolutely awesome for divertisse ... guys play soccer, people surf, restaurants line the shore with your toes in the water til your food comes, unless you~re zak and i then we~re totally in the water and swim up to eat our \Muqueca. absolute paradise. today i was able to tear zak away from the video arcade to go to the beach - had to bribe his friend Anderson to come w; us too. ended up eating over w; Tiago's spaghetti and .... (not feijada but ground meat etc) sauce... I~~ll start to look for capoeira classes and sign him up for drumming (i hope) tomorrow.

two videos i managed to upload!

discovering the house on Concha (instead of pituba!!!)


at Salo's venture store

spiders and snakes oh my

so ... walking back in the fine sand in the middle of the matta/forest... zak points to something and steps back... I look and there's a tarantula about 5 inches long on the side - so i grab z and back up. Later, upon asking they say this one is not dangerous, only throws it's hairs - which itch... so that evening Gabriel had medicine dance and the kids were placed at his house watching TV. Z went with Angelina and she said he was fine so I went to the dance - began the relaxation/trance , blindfolded.. then someone took my hand and helped me up. I wanted to remove the blindfold but realized it's part of the dance.. and then they kept telling me "your son" "your son" and i finally realized he was there ... crying. One of the school teachers brought him to the dance because he was crying for me - but she was as white as this screen from having seen a snake... well .. so now I'm in Gabriel's house in Itacare (the second one) cuz I got a bit spooked with everyone's story - "Yes, yesterday so and so had a snake in her hammock when she went to sit in it", There are flying spiders - those are the ones to watch out for... i decided to ask if \i could stay in the itacare house...

arrived there - climbed up and up and up (rmeinds me of Zsuzs´place in LA that she shared but HIGHER)... gr8, but totally isolated and farther from the beach... i checked if the other house was avail and we were able to stay there (On concha beach ) where upstairs was the most... helpful character... Salo (Saloman)...

Salo is telling me to write:... I met the most increcible guy - selfish is like cholestoral and agi says no no ...he continues (w/o a thought to my idea) you have HDL & LDL good and bad - life is balance - we have to work out our monsters...

so it goes like this. Salo saved us from total impoverishment as I couldn~t work the ATM machines anywhere in town, not knowing the secret ... and he lent me $20 Reis (~10$)... which we lived on for a day and a half til i spent half the AM in the banc filled with people . We were so tired - /Z and i\ of dragging all over the place that I rented a moped - feeling like I~m taking our lives in my hands, but dunno any alternative. Salo has a great mountain bike for us, but it has no kids seat and I dunno how to solve that prob. Also, I~d hafta exercise a lot w; that so ... better take chances than exercise!

So The really really cool thing is that Z is behind me playing the XBOX w; a bunch of cool kids while I~m trying to learn how to upload videos from here- (which is not succeeding) .

OHHHHHH - Spoke to Jorge/Dani from Casa Da Boneco and they said Z can start percussion lessons anytime. $100 Reis /week!!!! I am dying to arrange staying here in Itacare so he can start.

Carnaval, itacare'

Twas raining too hard and they cancelled the carnaval in Itacare' for the kids but we had one here with contest and prizes for all!

Yesterday, Gabriel maneuvered the landrover through the Matta to the "balsa"/ferry where we took a "canoe" over to Itacare. It was magical! I have videos I wish I could load!!! For now, these pics will have to suffice.

our house

is a very very nice house
with a hammock on the porch,
life can be a torch,
now everything is easy cuz theresnothingto do,,,,
yea

the funny thing is that we're behind the "school" (where you see the playground) and the ocean is beyond the river behind that. It's very loud but since you can't see it, it sounds like the metro passing directly in front of your house! As for the school, it *should open Mar 3... I can't wait cuz i think it will be good for both of us to have some exposure to things alone...

PIZZA

We went swimming again and tried to surf... The guys/girl surfing were amazing! I can't even stand up on the board. Tonight was pizza night and since we woke, zak was asking when it would be pizza. Poor kid, the meals are 8,1 & 7.. he's used to two snacks in between meals and I ran out of the power bars I brought. we went for a long walk on the beach and found many sand dollars and beautiful shells while we watched the sky turn colors for sunset.

At night after the homade pizza feast, a guest who became a photographer gave an exhibition / slide show of nature photos from all regions of Brazil with a water theme. That in itself was spectacular, but then he showed what he's doing now - making mandalas from the gorgeous images. wow.

Many of the people here have purchased a house here in Piracanga. I don't know anything about this. I think the next place zsuzs should open a pharmacy is here!

Today we are going to Carnaval! The kids will parade with Casa da Boneca - the drumming endeavor I was hoping to get Zak involved in. They will dress up - show u pics soon!

piracanga.. at last!

gabriel just took a picture of the parrot eating spaghetti off zak's plate... i hope i can post that... the videos don't really upload cuz they;re too big. i'll tty to make them smaller. Went again to the delicious crashing ocean - ate more delicious vegetarian food... talked to more "residents" / home owners... trying to get my bearings...

Had to FORCE Zak to the ocean this morning ... and then of course he had fun... tho he kept asking to return to swim in the pool w/ Fernanda!

Fred and vincente are here again playing w/ Zak in his "house"

Fernanda and Pousada encantadou...Salvador

Salvador and drive...

2/18 –
the flight from Miami was a sardine can hotel. We were so lucky bcuz we met a great geneticist, Paolo from Framingham, who sat with us the whole way and had traded seats with a huge man who would have stayed in our 3rd seat. Paulo . Paulo had just gotten a new job in Camridge with some genetic company and was celebrating by coming to carnaval – his family being from Salvador and having grown up traveling back and forth. If I had known it was carnaval, I would have picked another time to travel! What a mob… It’s like the inauguration. Bands people, cars everywhere!
Alisson picked us up from the airport (the connection through Bruno from Melrose who I met from Craigslist!) and drove us to the beautiful hotel very close by on the beach!
I emailed fernanda and quickly crashed while zak (who slept on the overnight) played his DS and toys… Fernanda showed up 5 hours later! It took her 1 hour to get to us through all the traffic. Zak swam with her in the pool and we had a great feast on the beach. That night, a friend of hers came over with her daughter nina and we got some Acai, (from the deathwish ice cream place) and went to her beautiful house near our hotel. Her husband is a percussionist with Asa de Aguia and Marivaldo, fernanda’s husband, was playing for Daniella Mercury. Nanda herself is great friends with Ivette Sangalo’s sister… These are all HUGE stars in Brazil on the scale of Christine Agularis or Madonna…. Very funny to see “my nanda from NYC” surrounded by such fame!
2/19/09
Our Trip began with Alisson and his driver Marivaldo picking us up and taking us though Salvador toward our destination. Salvador was PACKED with all the stages ready for the evening’s festivities. “Trio Electricos” all over the place – stages with famous bands and singers to play for the audience… I was so happy to get out! I am now writing from the comfortable VW which is driving us toward Piracanga with a driver and a policeman..? Zak wants to know why we need a policeman. So do I – or maybe I don’t!
2/20 and 21
Marivaldo became very flustered at the end of the 4.5 hr drive (but wouldn’t call Gabriel, the owner of the place - ???) … finally, we couldn’t get thru an extremely flooded dirt road and he called… Gabriel and his daughter came to pick us up in a “snorkel equipped” truck! With his daughter Psorria…
getting accustom to piracanga…

So for the past 2 days, we're getting used to the people, the kids (Fred - Gabriels adopted son from Itacare lives next door - he's 8). The ocean's like bathwater with crashing breathtaking and terrifying waves - the river which flows in front of the ocean is filled with mangrove brown but is delicious - a bit cooler than the ocean.... We're eating 3 vegetarian meals and sleeping in our outdoor bed (1 of 3 -). Sunday, we will go to town, Itacare' for Carnaval. The kids will march with "George" of Casa Da Boneca! the place I want Zak to drum...

goodbye Cruel Snow!

 We're leaving this behind

Reasons behind trip

It's all Zsuzs's doing... We saw this drum/dance production by Casa do boneca (CDB) in '03 and Zak loved it. There was a 5 year old who drummed like a master... .. Zsuzs said - "Zak has to go here..."  After being totally confused about what his future entailed in terms of the stringent demands of Newton acacemia (while maintaining a half day curriculum) ... and his age (young academically) maturity (appropriate).. I started hunting for alternatives and found the "free school" in Piracanga which incorporated  CDB... - so now you know... 

 So we're going back from this... 

Valentines Day

I bought the new "flip" video for our trip today - so you're exposed to my trying it out on the next Ronaldinho! Let's see how it works (it's really* sweet) .... Here's ONE video - I'm saving you guys from the 6 others!

and here's the URL for youtube  

Pre -Trip notes

So - we're off in a few days to http://www.piracanga.com and we're both very excited! This is what the weather /surroundings are like here in February.   - We'll fly to Salvador, Bahia and (hopefully) stay at this Pousada (If i ever finish making/deciding on the reservations)... Then we'll head to Piracanga - Next to Itacare (if the people who said they would drive us really do - otherwise, we'll have a huge adventure). Here's how we'll get there.
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