Palmeira Real - Brazilian Home

(Click all photos to embiggen)

Now that I'm looking into leaving Bonfim in the next week or so, I thought I would give you all an overview of my digs here in Bonfim.

I've been staying at Pousada Palmeira Real. A pousada is kind of like a cross between a hostel and a BnB. It's like a BnB in that it's an extra room in a family's house. It's like a hostel in that it's no frills, no additional services (whereas a BnB comes with breakfast, or a turndown, or room cleaning etc).

There are three houses on the Palmeira Real property: the main house where the family lives, and then two houses on top of the hill with extra rooms. There is also an outdoor kitchen. I've been staying in the house furthest up the hill, and have been using the kitchen to cook my meals and as a sort of office, and the living room of the Big House as another workplace (that's where the internet is).

Here's a little walking tour from the street up to my room:

First you go through the gate. 

These puppies guard the gate:

On the right is the big house:

Straight ahead are the stairs:

About halfway up this flight of stairs, you can pause and look to the left to see the pool. The pool is a natural rock cleft, filled with water diverted from the nearby river. The water cascades out the other side in a waterfall drain. I've used it twice, because it's winter here and I can never feel my feet.

Looking straight ahead, my kitchen/office is at the top of the steps. 

The rounded room on the side of the kitchen is the sauna. I've never been able to get the "sauna" above 40 degrees, but on rainy days that feels nice enough. Mainly, I use this as a warm reading room. Recently it's picked up internet capabilities, which opens up a whole host of potential uses.

This is the view out towards the pool from my kitchen/office:

Here's a better view of my kitchen/office looking back from the next staircase.

Turning back around and continuing along the stair pathways...

You see this lovely sight straight ahead...

and to your left you can see the first guesthouse. I use this hammock to "study" in. (My kitchen/office is down the hill to the left)

Wrapping around the right side of the first guesthouse are more stairs. I go up these, because stairs are fun.

At the top you get the first glimpse of my house! But we're not there just yet.

After the steps I follow this winding path for about 20 meters...

And then finally arrive at my destination!

That's my window you see. The other side of the house is a room currently occupied by a pregnant couple that I think are vaguely related to my host family. In the front is my koi pond. There are 2 koi that live there, in constant danger from the heron. There are also 540984093598230493 frogs that sing me to sleep every night with such lovely harmonious voices that have never once kept me up at night.

So there you have it, where I've been living since the first week of July. My time here in Bonfim is winding down, and I'm trying to fit in a trip elsewhere in Brazil. I was going to go visit the other MDP students on their second field placement in Amapá, but I don't think I can afford the plane tickets. Anyone else have a suggestion for a Brazilian destination (that's not Rio)? 

Two weeks of water research in Bonfim

As always, click all photos to embiggen.

We drove up to Petropolis from Rio Sunday afternoon. I got to the airport and thank goodness ran into a carload of MDP students also arriving, because I would never have figured out that I was meant to go to the rental car lot (or even that we were renting cars! I thought it anything they would have hired a bus for us or something). It took literal hours for us to all get into cars. We ended up with just a few little Fiats, and how we fit out luggage and ourselves in remains a miracle and a mystery. I can only say once again that I’m so glad that I was able to consolidate my bags.

We caravanned as far as a roadside fast food place called Casa de Aleman (which I am now starting to see everywhere). After a snack, we all split off to our respective destinations. The Rio MDP group split into three – one group going to Bonfim, another to Magala, and another to Teresopolis. It was dark by the time we arrived in Bonfim.

It turns out that we arrived during the July festival, so when we pulled in there was really loud music and a ton of people in the front yard. We dropped off my bag, and then were invited to the party. There were probably 50-75 people there, and there was a ton of food and alcohol, plus children’s games and dancing. It was really nice to show up to such a reception – even though it wasn’t meant for us. Admittedly we were all a bit anti-social – standing in a circle only talking to ourselves. But I take no responsibility for that, as I literally can’t talk to anyone anyway.

Sunset from my house on the first day.

Monday morning the other students came down and picked Myriam and I up, and then drove into Correas to buy SIM cards and get breakfast. Back up the hill to meet Robson for a little tour of the area. Then we had lunch at the place Myriam and I had eaten at the week before – with the massive fire and pots on it. In the afternoon, we met a few more people including the president of the producers association, and then went back into Correas to do some grocery shopping.

Bonfim Chapel

Getting a tour of the neighborhood

Tuesday we spent the day going around meeting more people. In the morning we drove into Itaipava to meet with the guys from EMATER. Lunch at the usual place. In the afternoon we met a mushroom farmer, which was neat because I got to learn how to farm mushrooms. There were eucalyptus logs stacked up like Lincoln logs. Each log had holes drilled along the length, and the holes were injected with smushed up shitake mushrooms. Then they were left in a greenhouse to grow. I got to try injecting a mushroom. We met a few other producers throughout the day, and then returned to the MDP student house to refine methodology in the afternoon.

Growing Shitake

Thursday we went up to the park. We were told that we would be going on a 3 hour hike to find all of the source locations of the water the producers here in Bonfim use. The MDP students need to GPS those locations for their research (and I’ll probably want to steal that data for mine). It ended up being a 6 hour, rather strenuous hike. However, it was absolutely gorgeous, and really incredible the amount of different ecosystems we went through. It was kind of cool to be hiking with ecologists and biologists as well, even with the language barrier. They had a much greater appreciation of the surroundings than the people I typically hike with (where we’re more appreciative of just aesthetics). There was a lot of scrambling over slippery rocks and clinging to muddy cliff faces. The environment was almost Jurassic Park like in areas. Gorgeous gorgeous though.

One of the water sources

Thick bamboo forest at the base, atlantic rainforest in the middle, scrub brush up top

View of Bonfim from the Park

Group at rest

Going the distance for the GPS readings

View of Bonfim from the Park

The next few days I went around doing interviews with some of the other students. I’m really jealous of their ability to do interviews in their native language. They’re really getting so much done, and the people here are so lovely and nice and accommodating.

Friday night we went into Itaipava to meet up with the group that’s in Magala. We ended up going to a bar (B Bar or something like that) with live music and stayed for several hours. The cover band was really good. They played mostly Brazilian songs, but did several very impressive covers of songs I knew, including the Stone Temple Pilots, Pink Floyd and Eric Clapton.

Saturday we went into Petropolis. There was a meeting between the park and the producers to discuss the redelimination in the afternoon, so we needed to go in for that, but we headed in a few hours early so we could do some sightseeing and get lunch at a new place. There was some kerfuffle with the bus, but we managed it eventually (and I now have a bus schedule). After parking, we walked around the historic center (which is fairly small). We saw the parks in the middle, and the cathedral. There was a wedding going on at the cathedral, so we stuck around to watch the bride come in. I was surprised to learn that it’s a Brazilian tradition for the bride to wait in the car out front until the very last minute. I would be fretting about my dress getting wrinkled.

Cathedral in Petrópolis

After lunch at an Italian place, we headed over to the medical/law school for the meeting. The campus was really, really nice. It was probably one of the nicer buildings I’ve been in since I got to Brazil. Very up to date campus. The meeting itself was pretty intense. There were a lot of emotions being thrown around. It started with a few words of introduction from the park, the government reps, and the presidents of the producers and residents associations. Then ICMBio gave a powerpoint summarizing the history of the park/community tensions, and some information on what would happen next. Then there was a call for public input, and a lot of people asked questions or gave testimony. It was clearly all very very important for what I’m supposed to be doing this summer, but of course I barely understood anything. They were speaking so fast! (As people tend to do when they get heated). But, I recorded almost the entire thing.

Sunday morning I got to sleep in for a little bit, and then we went in as a group to Petropolis again. This time we went to see Santos Dumont’s house. It’s a museum in the house where he used to live that tells the history of his life, and his invention of flight. Clearly there is some contention between the Americans and the Brazilians re: who invented the airplane. I thought the museum was really neat. There wasn’t too much on display, although I did learn a good amount from the plaques and such. The best part though was the design of the house, which I guess Dumont himself designed (with the help of an architect). It was basically the precursor to the modern loft, and is pretty much my dream house (for me now, as a single person, or at least a person with no kids). The stairs were clever, and the design was smart. The only thing it lacked was a kitchen (although there were clearly spaces that could have been put in), apparently because Santos Dumont ordered all of his meals from the hotel across the street, and built a window next to his kitchen table so the waiters could deliver without even being let in. Fancy guy.

Santos Dumont's House

Crystal Palace

We intended to go to the Bohemia factory to beer taste after, but on the walk over realized it closed at 6. So, while we tried to decide what to do instead, we walked over to see the Crystal Palace. At the palace, there was a popup bar and a live band, so we ended up staying there for a few rounds until the music ended. Then we all went home so we could be up and working again on Monday.

The next week I joined the students again to go around doing interviews, broked up by lunches at our usual spot. Monday afternoon some of the professors showed up to discuss some complaints re: professionalism, requirements and supervision. There was a lot of tension building to this meeting which was definitely full of some fireworks. Anyway, after all of that intensity, we all headed into Itaipava to get out of Bonfim, and get some giant pieces of chocolate cake.

Lunch from the usual place

On Tuesday I went to Dr. Antonio’s house to find more water sources that were in the other valley branch (as opposed to the ones that source water from the park where we had gone on our 6 hour hike last week). This turned out to be a 4 hour hike, although it was more just a hilly walk as there were well defined trails and roads throughout. Dr. Antonio led us around, and he is a ball of energy for a guy in his 70s. We saw about 7 water sources, and interviewed him for the water project. He also showed us his cows (he’s a diary farmer) and his cachaça distillery (he’s also a distiller). We got to taste test his latest batch, and at 88 proof, it was pretty intense for a midday tipple.

View towards Bonfim from Dr. Antonio's

Dr. Antonio's Cachaça Distillery. "If you're going to make booze, you should make it in paradise!" - Dr. Antonio

Friendly Cow Portrait

That second week was also filled with some attempts at refining/getting started on my project. This was rife with internal politics and awkwardness. I’ve gotten started at this point (which I’ll write more about in my next entry), but said internal politics and awkwardness continue to plague the process. It’s all been more than a little frustrating. That said, in the first two weeks in Bonfim, I learned a lot assisting the other MDP students with their projects, about research methods, data collection, Portuguese, rural production, and water use. They all headed back to Rio on that second Saturday, and their presence (both academic and social!) is definitely missed!

Typical afternoon of hard work at the picnic table

A Few Weeks in Rio

I wish I spoke Portuguese.

I arrived in Brazil about a month ago. My flight went overnight from Dulles to São Paulo, and after unloading some passengers in São Paulo continued on to Rio. Myriam, the other American here for the MDP, offered (or, was likely coercively asked) to pick me up at the airport. And thank God, because – recurring theme here – I wish I spoke Portuguese.

It has quickly become apparent that the delay in communications from Brazil is in large part due to the fact that none of them actually speak English. All prior communications with me have been done via Google Translate. Hopefully this means that I will learn to speak Portuguese in short order due to immersion. What it means now, though, is that I feel like I’m drowning. Emilia’s first sentence to me, to be fair, was in English. However it was “Good to meet you. Now we speak Portuguese.”

I took the bus with Myriam to her apartment in Copacabana, and then headed back across town to my first couchsurf, in Santa Theresa. While Copacabana is all high rises and flat streets, Santa Theresa is built into a steep hill with winding cobblestone passageways and old colonial-style houses. Copa feels very modern in comparison, while Santa Theresa has a bohemian hipster vibe (as supported by the organic cafes on every corner).

View from the front stoop of my couchsurf

Santa Teresa

Emilia, the admin assistant for the Rio MDP, knows EVERYONE in Santa Theresa, including my  host, Wanderley! Such a coincidence. She and her best friend Malu were straight champions and took me under their wing that first week, especially since I was absolutely cramping their style with my lack of Portuguese, and my jetlagged bedtimes (I keep speaking Spanish, but I think people are comprehending my gesticulation more so than my shitty Spanish, and they certainly aren’t getting my Portuglish -ie, attempting to use all random Portuguese nouns that I can remember within English sentences).

On my first day,  I took a walking tour of the Santa Teresa neighborhood and checked out the Parque de Ruinas. The park is a former rich lady’s residence, that is on the top of a hill with 360 degree views of Rio. The house was starting to crumble, but has been reinforced, and a café was added. The views are SPECTACULAR. Rio is a city that has been fortunate enough to be built into a really gorgeous landscape. For a person like me (who is interested in the intersection between urbanisation and conservation), this is a fascinating place.

 

Concert at the Parque das Ruinas

View from the Parque das Ruinas

Monday morning I woke up early to head into the MDP office and attempt to find the people I've been emailing. This was not a success, but after a day of lurking, I did find several MDP students. That afternoon they were planning to go down and check out the first of the protests that were scheduled to happen all across Brazil. They invited me to join them, although they were very concerned for my safety. The African students opted to not go at all due to safety and visa concerns. I admit, I was a bit nervous, especially because I had been reading about how violent these protests had been getting. Everything was fine though, and very exciting. A good introduction to Brazil.

We went to the start of the Rio protests and were there as people were amassing. There was a lot of chanting I couldn’t understand, and the students tried the best they could to translate. Then we joined in the beginning of the procession, although we left before things got violent. In the end 100,000 people were a part of the protest/march in Rio alone, and things got quite violent. There was a lot of vandalism, and cars set on fire, and buildings broken into. Tear gas and riot police everywhere. This pattern was repeated several times during my first two weeks, although things have settled somewhat. The protests continue though. Suffice to say that they have been very exciting to attend, and somewhat scary later, and that I am excited and feel fortunate to be here in Brazil during such an exciting time for the country.

Riot police prepping for protests 

Bank prepping for protest. Dumpster, not tank.

I spent a lot of free time/reading time on the beach during those first two weeks. It was pretty. Since it’s “winter” there weren't many people at the beach, but to me, it has been perfect beach weather. 85, sunny. The ocean is warm and the sand is soft. Not even a seashell or small stone or seaweed icky in sight.

Copacabana Beach

One evening I went up the Pão de Açucar to watch the sunset. Whisked away up the cable car, and made it just in time to grab a beer and some pão de quejito before sunset. The views were incredible. Incredible incredible. I’m so glad I googled and was given the recommendation to go here at sunset.

View of Rio from Pão de Açucar

Beer and Cheesy Bread!

Sunset from Pão de Açucar

For the final days of that first week I attended a seminar on sustainable development that the other MDP students were hosting. It was all in Portuguese, and I was quite lost and overwhelmed the whole time. I feel bad, because I didn’t get much out of it at all. But I tried to look like I was paying attention, and now and again attempted to translate words that seemed important.

Almost a week after arriving, I finally got to meet with Flavia and Rodrigo to discuss the summer plans in a bit more detail. Essentially, I learned that the Bonfim area is currently within the boundaries of the national park, but soon it won’t be. The neighborhood is being rezoned (after the long petitioning of the residents), and will become a protected area instead. This means that many restrictions currently placed on residents will be lifted. The school wants me to find out how their lives will change with this rezoning, and specifically, how these life changes will affect the land/area around Bonfim.

This is going to be very, very difficult for me, as I lack the language skills necessary for it. I hope I can figure out some sort of system where I can record people’s responses, and then play them back very slowly while I attempt to translate (or work with a translator). It should be very interesting, and humbling, at the least.

This first weekend I went up to the Bonfim area with Yara, a friend of the program. As far as I can gather, Yara is a very important person in Rio conservation circles, and seems to have been the former president of pretty much everything conservation related around here. She may or may not be an MDP professor. She and her husband, Charlie, live in Pedro do Rio, which is about a half hour drive north of Bonfim.

One night while I was there we went to watch the soccer game (Brazil vs. Italy) at their friends’ house. Charlie is from Italy (though he’s been living in Brazil for 30 something years), so he took a lot of flack from the others throughout the game. It was a good soccer game, but even more incredible was the house we were at! The house itself was huge and gorgeous, but the real star was the game room on the side. The game room had a bowling alley, a ping pong table and a pool table. And they were all the nicest equipment possible. The hosts kept apologizing that all of the equipment was from 1948, but obviously that made it such gorgeous quality. Plus, the only other person I know with a bowling alley in their house is Mr. Obama. The bowling alley was mahogany, the billiards table one of those old timey ones with the low hanging lights. It was such a treat to hang out in.

 

Bowling in someone's living room

The second day I went into Correas and Bonfim to go househunting for the summer – the whole point of the trip. Bonfim is gorgeous. It’s nestled into the mountains, and right up against the park. I took an earlier bus than expected, which ended up not taking me the whole way – it dropped me at the bottom of the hill, about 3 km from where I needed to be to meet Robson, my Bonfim contact. I started to walk up the hill, but then was passed by a truck hauling lettuce. Knowing that my destination was also the headquarters of the local vegetable coop, I hailed him down and got a ride the rest of the way. Very nice lettuce truck man. Robson showed me a few potential places to live. I managed to find a good one, and then it was back to Rio for another two weeks. 

Preview of my new digs

I moved into a new couchsurf, this time in Catete. I shared a bedroom with a French guy who was in Rio trying to start up a patisserie business. He introduced himself as Jeff, but in retrospect I have a feeling it may have been JF - as in Jean Francois or something. 

On Wednesday I went with Yara, Flavia and Myriam to the Seropedica campus of UFRRJ. It’s the actual, main campus of the university. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous and overrun with wild capybaras (which I found delightful). We went in because Yara and Flavia both had classes to teach, and I wanted to see the campus.  I spent an hour wandering around campus, and then sat through Flavia’s lecture on biodiversity. 

Capybara!

UFRRJ at Seropedica

On Thursday the weather looked like it would be good, and I knew I was going to be free, so I woke up early and went up Corcovado. I caught the first train (8:30), which was wise as I was at the summit with only about 10 other people. Based on other photographs I’ve seen, it looks like later in the day there are several hundred up there and you really have to fight to get any photos. The train itself was pretty cool. It was the first electric train in Brazil, and took about 20 minutes to get to the top of the mountain. There were a few stops along the way in various neighborhoods.

At the top of course is the Christo himself. It really is pretty amazing. The fact that it’s so big, and the fact that it’s there at all. Those two things together, coupled with the fact that it’s on such a precipitous cliff – it’s really quite an incredible feat. I hung out on the top for about an hour. It was warm, and uncrowded, but unfortunately as I had been headed up the mountain a thick fog had rolled in over Rio. I thought maybe it was early morning mists that would burn off, but the longer I waited the thicker the fog got. I did get a few photos in earlier on of the tops of the Sugarloaf and other peaks peaking through the fog, and by the time I left at 10 you couldn't even see those – just clouds. The Christo himself is high enough though that it was still sunny and gorgeous at the top.

Christo Redentor

Obligatory Photo

Foggy view from Corcovado

On Saturday I went to Ipanema beach, got a coconut, and sat for a while reading through a few of the pdfs I’ve been meant to get through. 

Studying

I walked over to the rocks on the Copacabana side just in time for a fantastic sunset. While I was sitting on the rocks watch the sunset, Jeff/JF, my French roommate, showed up. Small world. We watched the sunset together and then walked back to Catete, stopping for a beer on Copacabana on the way. When we got back his friend called and asked if we were interested in going out to Lapa. Of course I was, so I tagged along. We had a drink in Lapa (although I still haven’t “been out” in Lapa since I don't know anyone here to go clubbing with), and then his friend suggested samba school. I was thrilled, and we piled into a cab.

Ipanema Sunset

Rocks to watch the sunset from

The school wasn’t quite ready to start when we pulled in at 11pm (silly), so we went across the street for the strongest and cheapest caprinhas I’ve ever had (5R$). Back across the street and a 10R$ cover for the samba school. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, as I had been told we were going to a samba school. I thought maybe we were taking a class or something. Not so. There was a massive live band, and a ton of samba performers. It was (or so I was told, since I haven’t experienced it myself), Carnival-lite. These are the same troupes that perform for carnival, so we were just seeing them during their offseason rehearsal performances – kind of like a scrimmage.

Samba Band

The samba was incredible. Everyone on the sidelines was dancing too, and I made a valiant effort to join in. We were there until about 4am, although the samba wasn’t done yet. Finally Jeff/JF had had enough and suggested we go home. I was glad he did, because I was exhausted. I just didn’t want to suggest leaving yet as I was having fun, and also didn’t want to be the lame killjoy. 

Samba

Samba

Samba

Samba

Sunday I walked to Centro and learned very quickly that Centro is not a place to go on the weekends. It was utterly abandoned and every shop was boarded up. Super creepy. On Sunday night I went with my couchsurfing host to meet his friends at a restaurant/bar down the street to watch the final match in the Confederations Cup. Spain vs. Brazil – a matchup that hasn’t happened for years. It was the two dream teams of soccer, so I was pretty excited to watch a good game. The first half was pretty incredible. Brazil scored in the second minute (Fred) with a goal that bordered on being a dangerous play. One other goal for Brazil in the first half, an amazing left hook off Neymar. The second half was more boring. More scoring for Brazil, and it was like Spain got tired and gave up. But, a fun night, and I’m glad I got to watch the game with other people.

Tuesday I ran into Yara on my way home because she was headed to her daughter’s apartment, which was just down the block from where I was staying. She ended up taking me along to meet her daughter, and then I ended up at dinner with the two of them and Charlie. Yara’s daughter, Marina, is my age and a doctor in the first year of her residency. Towards the end of dinner, Marina realized a friend of hers, Thomas, was in town, so she called him up. He met us right as Yara and Charlie left, and I hung out with them for a few more hours. Towards the end of the night, Marina offered me her apartment as a place to stay. She said she was going to have a busy week, and probably wouldn’t even be sleeping there, so she needed someone to feed the cats. 

On Wednesday, I spent the morning repacking my things and moved to Marina's. I managed to fit my smaller suitcase inside of the larger suitcase, and I was so thrilled. When I packed to come to Brazil, I ended up taking two cases because of the weight limit on the plane. I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, because I would only need to move them once – from my initial place in Rio to Bonfim, and then back to Dublin. However, that has turned out not to be the case, as I’ve gone from Santa Teresa to Petropolis to Catete to Marina’s to Bonfim, and it’s only the beginning of July. Not only are the two cases inconvenient, but they make me look like the world’s biggest over packer.  So I was excited to be able to consolidate.

Wednesday afternoon I "celebrated" the 4th in Flamengo park. It was my first 4th sans celebration and other Americans. Weird.

Happy 4th!

Sugarloaf from Flamengo Park

Thursday I headed to the Banco de Brazil museum to see the Elles exhibit. The museum is really cool. It’s an old old bank, so all of the exhibit rooms are inside of old bank vaults – some of the doors even had the giant combination locks on the outside. The elevator was a cage that needed an operator. That alone was worth a visit. The exhibit was interesting – it was on female artists in modern movements, basically from 1900 to the late 70s. Interesting work, although the majority was a bit intense and confusing.

Sunday I woke up, packed my things (into one bag again!) and then headed over to the airport parking lot where I was meant to meet everyone to drive up to Petropolis. I’ll pick up here the next chance I have to write.

Me on the Escadaria Selarón 

Lapa