Well, actually it's the opposite in Brazil, since we're heading towards summer, but still:) September, my favorite month of the year, went by so quickly! I don't know where it went, but it was a jam packed month. I traveled to Vitória, Espirito Santo for the APIES conference and went to Londrina twice, once for a holiday and once to attend my friend’s doctoral defense. And I even made it to the north coast of São Paulo for a weekend at the beach as well:) I’ve been posting lots of photos to facebook and Orkut (Brazilian facebook), so I think I will just put a few highlights here in addition to the descriptions.
Birthday dinners in between travels:)
Vitória was great. The presentations and conference went well, and I had a chance to visit some of the older parts of town as well. I was really impressed with the tourist board of Espirito Santo. Every church or monument you went to, they had guides ready to help you and hand out brochures and maps of the city – amazing! This was the first time I had experienced anything like that in Brazil. I wish Sao Paulo could do the same!! The city is on the water so we ate a lot of shellfish and their specialty – moqueca de capixaba. This is kind of a fish stew served with rice and pirão (kind of porridge). It was very good, but there is also a Bahian version (northeast of Brazil) which is made with more spices and coconut milk. I’m sure I would really love this!! Below is a picture of how it looked served at the restaurants in Vitoria.
During the conference, I spent part of the day visiting Vitoria and one other day visiting Vila Velha with some of the locals. We had lunch on top of a hill overlooking the water and then we visited the old Convent – Convento da Penha on top of the Morro da Penha. It was gorgeous! The views of the city from there looked very similar to Rio from the Christ statue. The chapel was founded in 1558 and is a major pilgrimage destination, especially at Easter.
Cathedral of Vitoria
Convento da Penha
Vila Velha - praia da costa, Vila Velha
Happy hour with Lucas
More perfect palm trees of Brazil
View from the hotel!
Then on Sunday, my last day in Vitória, I took a local bus 2 hours to the beach towns of Guaraparí and Meaipe, very famous beach destinations for Brazilians along the coast. The day was lovely, and because it is still the off-season here, it wasn’t overcrowded either. It was a welcome break to get out of busy São Paulo for a few days and be near the water – amei!
From Vitória I was supposed to fly back to São Paulo and fly directly on to Londrina on the last flight of the evening. Unfortunately, with my luck, our plane was delayed in Vitoria and I missed my connection to Londrina:( The plane for Londrina was pulling away from the gate as I arrived – so frustrating! But what can you do? I had to go back home and then come back to the airport early the next day. At least I didn’t have to pay any fines. They just issued me a new ticket, which was nice. I arrived in Londrina early Monday morning and spent the next couple days working on projects at the university and catching up with a few friends.
One more quick birthday drink:)
Then Wednesday, Jussara, Telma's student, had to defend her doctorate thesis about online communities of practice for teacher trainers. She did a great job and passed! This was the first time I had attended someone’s defense and I was so proud of her. I would really like to attend one in the U.S. now to compare.
Jussara and her "banca"
The weekend I got back to São Paulo, I ended up going last minute to the coast with some Brazilian friends. The beaches were gorgeous! But I met a new kind of mosquito there that I never want to see again! Since I arrived in Brazil people have been telling me to be careful if I go to Ilha Bela (island near São Paulo) because there are tons of mosquitos there. Given my past experience with mosquitos in Brazil, I just affirmed that I would never go there. Well, little did I know that this same mosquito would be on the beaches of the coast as well, a few hours away from the island. I never even thought of bringing bug spray with me there. But as soon as I had walked on the beach for only about 5 minutes, I felt like a sting on my legs and then bleeding and immediately a huge swollen lump. Incredible! This didn't look like a mosquito, it was a tiny black bug that you could hardly see, but that stung like a bee - ouch!
I guess the fact that there were fewer people there at this time of year, and the beach was isolated and surrounded by hills, made it an ideal spot for this type of mosquito. But of course these are the most beautiful of beaches too – agg, what to do?:) My Brazilian friend got bit a lot too, so it wasn’t just me, but these bites were brutal to say the least. They are finally just starting to go away now, a week later. Other than the bugs, the beaches really were worth the trip, though. Once again, so nice to be able to get out of the city for a weekend and enjoy sea air. Loved it!
Boiçicanga
Maresias
Ju and Walter at Camburi
October looks like it will be just as busy, so I’ll just to add updates as they come.
Até logo!
