Aracaju! - 2 (images)

Monkeys! EEEEEeeeeeeeeee:







Drawing blood from wasps:


Step 1: Put on suit


Step 2: Climb up giant ladder


Step 3: Capture the wasp in a small container and put on ice for 10 mins to sedate.

Step 4: Pin down wasp


Step 5: Mark wasp


Step 6:Place needle under one of the flaps on abdomen and gently suck out no more than 3 microliters of clear blood. If it's not clear, you hit something you shouldn't have.



Parque dos Falcões:
My album of falcões!

Aracaju! - 1

I am finding myself to LOVE Aracaju!

I arrived late on Monday and stayed in the pousada across the street from the bus station. The man running the counter in the morning was very nice and tried to help me with my Português while I was waiting on my couchsurfing friend, Raphael.

Once Raphael picked me up, I was able to see more of the city. It's around the same size as Jacksonville, but has a decidedly more arid feel about it and loads more sand.

The whole family here is lovely and very much my kind of people. The mom is very helpful with my Portuguese (probably because she doesn't speak English) and her cooking is amazing! We had a traditionally Portuguese dish (from Portugual). Cod fish, potatoes, cheese, onions, and green olives. Very tastey! In the evening, I went with Raphael to an island across the bay to watch the sun set and discuss life over clams (were they?) and beer. Very cool!

Yesterday I went the central market here. It was huge! There are actually two markets now. One has produce, live and dead animals, and all kinds of grains and spices. The other one is full of handmade goods... although they look uncannily similar to a market I went to in Salvador... maybe it's sort of hand made.

In the evening I saw a performance by Leila Pinheiro. Her voice is absolutely amazing! And what a lovely woman. She seems so genuine!

This morning I went with Raphael's brother, Eduardo, to a research project he is involved with. He studies social insects, particularly ants, but this project is with wasps. There is a nest that is monitored by an American graduate student, Hanz, who really knows his stuff. He explained that he wants to know more about the hormonal changes in the wasps that indicate wheather one becomes a queen or worker and how the wasps know to single out a queen to excommunicate, and in repeat enteries is refused back into the colony. He also showed how to take blood from a wasp... which is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Sítio do Conde

I visited a place called Sítio do Conde where there are about four main streets that cross to form a center plaza. It's a veeery small town! It was a nice change from how big Salvador is, and I was able to have a lot of time to myself. I met a lot of people there, but no one spoke English. It was a strange experience to not be understood, as they are not used to my accent there. I didn't know I had such an aural variation on the question "quanto custa?".

The beach was very strange there. Beautiful sand stopped just before the water into what kind of looked like asphalt. From there it stopped suddenly into more sand and then the waves. The cool part was the little mini-ecosystems that formed in the crevices of these rocks. There were tiny, and fast!, lizard-fish things. That's the scientific name :) And loads of plants, crabs and algae.

The woman who owned the pousada was very nice, but looked very coarse. She was round and had a strange squint to part of her face. She was very willing to talk with me and I found her to be understanding of my accent, probably because her two daughters live in Italy now and she visits them from time to time. She cooked a lovely breakfast for me and gave me lots of hugs. In the resturant that was attached to the pousada, there was a man there who seemed like the head bartender. He was very nice and seemed to giggle everytime I asked him "tudo bem" or to say "obrigada". It was really funny to have him react that way!

I accidently missed the 10am bus to Aracaju so I had to wait around for the 3pm one. By the time I arrived in Aracaju, I was exhaused!

Tchau for now Salvador

About to head out to the bus station.

I realize have the misfortune of traveling on a hoilday weekend to Mengue Seco. It's likely I will have trouble finding accomodations, so I've got a couple other towns to consider.

If all goes well, Tuesday I will be in Aracaju hanging out with the likes of Raphael, a 27 year old from the area who digs the Sufjan Stevens album Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise.

From now until then, internet will be questionable.
Don't worry, I'll take loads of pictures!

xoxo

Last day in Salvador for a while.

Woke up a little late today, but just in time to say goodbye to Lutz and his friend Frank before they left for the islands. What lovely people!

I went through the fridge and feasted on all the food I had left. I didn't want it to go bad by the time I'm back in Salvador in a month.

In the afternoon, I met Marie to go to Parque Metropolitano de Pituaça. It's a lovely park with a huge lake with an island that is the center of the trails. Once in the trails, I felt like I wasn't in a huge city in Brazil. So very serene. We ran a total of 10km. Actually, Marie ran 10km; I ended up walking most of the way. I'm surprised at my lack of endurance in running. Especially considering that I do capoeira. Well... it makes sense... strength vs endurance. yeah.

On the the return walk/run (5km there, 5km back), Marie ended up about 3km ahead. There were many patrol bikes that ran up and down the path, and one stopped me and asked if I wanted a ride to the head of the trail. OK! It was really fun riding on the back of the bike in all of that wilderness! Even funnier was Marie's face when I rode up next to her. :)

We left around 5, and it took us 1h30m to get back to Barra. Marie was nice enough to help me buy a cell phone so I have one for when I am traveling. Her Portuguese is MUCH better than mine! If you want my phone # to send me words of wisdom via text, email me!

To top off the day, I managed to fit all of my important stuff in one backpack as well as all of my stuff I'm leaving at the hostel in one suitcase. Ninja packer!!

I find that the manikins in Salvador are creepy:

Quatra-feira, 6 de outubro de 2010

Today was excellent!

I had a fantastic lunch, homemade and YUMMY! I had a quick lesson in portuguese related to food and then gathered some great tips on how to cook veggies with a Brazilian edge.

The percussion lesson today was EXCELLENT. I have been feeling unlucky that I wasn't born Brazilian... with a pandeiro in my hand, but today's lesson gave me some strength.

Now, cheap turasco, senzala, e música de Salvador!

palavra.

reacção alérgica

Saturday I went to the hospital for an allergic reaction to cashew nut shell liquid!

A week ago my lips came in contact with it and made my lips swell. They were doing well, and healing just fine, when Thursday a rash started to spread across my face and neck. I'm all about letting my body do it's work on it's own, so I let it be and tried not to scratch. Unfortunately, when I woke Saturday morning my face was swollen, especially around my eyes. I looked kind of like this. Although, actually like this and this.

As I was arranging to go to the hospital Saturday morning, I was fortunate to have brought the subject up to one of the other residents of the hostel, Lutz. He is a German surgeon, and happened to have some hydrocortisone pills to give me. It helped alot, but after 3 hours I felt it was getting worse; minor difficulties swallowing. (!!!)

I made it to a public hospital, and I found it to be unique experience. I was there maybe 30 or 40 minutes and I was seen. Quicker than any US hospital. The first room was a doctor who wrote me a prescription. I told him I wanted a shot, and he said they were going to give me one in the next room. I wasn't weighed, and other vitals weren't read.

The next room was full of people, patients and medical staff. The lady treating me was very nice, but didn't say very much because of our language barrier. I was given one hydrocortisone shot in my arm and two other shots in my hips. The ones in my hips hurt very bad!

After 20 mins, they said I could leave. The cool part: I didn't have to pay anything. Which was nice since I spent about R$110 in taxi fees finding the correct hospital.

Overall, a very interesting experience I am not interested in duplicating!