http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Adri/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Adri en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:02:31 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:02:31 +0000 A Remembrance of Things Past In RIO In the interest of economizing blog space since when herersquos a summary of all the stuff I did in Rio that was not related to social project. Or at least these experiences were ldquosocial projectsrdquo of a different sort Lots of photos get psyched. So in Rio I stayed in this great little hostel called Botafogo Easy Hostel right near the Bo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Botafogo/blog-302744.html Oh friends you have GOT to check this out My good friend Mark who I met the very first time I came to Brasil is starting a new music and dance group called Six Morsquo with five other Brasilian guys Anjo Kassius Cello Kimus Logullo and Vaan Loo Mark. Jokingly they are calling themselves the new Boy Band Brasileiro. Except that they are all men not boys professionals in their fiel http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-301865.html Projeto MorrinhoToday the ldquoTour of Justicerdquo continues with a visit to Projeto Morrinho . Projeto Morrinho is located in the favela Vila Pereira da Silva close to the neighborhood Laranjeiras where coincidentally the seat of CDI is also located. Note Irsquoll be coming back to CDI this afternoon to meet with Rodrigo Baggio stay tuned My friend Carlos coowns a bed and breakfa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Centro/blog-300995.html That means ldquothey said I came back lsquobrazilianizedrsquordquo. Thanks Carmen Miranda . My dad is back in the States and I think he has officially been ldquoBrazilianizedrdquo. Cachaa and caipirinhas shrimp in a pumpkin po de queijo agua de cco cake and fruit and of course brigadeiro basically chocolate frosting balls rolled in sprinkles. Not to mention his growin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Ipanema/blog-300797.html CDI Rio de JaneiroThis morning bright and early at 8 am Dad and I headed over to the center of Rio de Janeiro to meet up with Maurcio director of CDI Europe and Marisa one of the RJ metro area coordinators to visit two EICS Citizenship and Information Technology Schools. Right now CDI is having its semiannual international meeting in which coordinators from all the countries in whic http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Centro/blog-300700.html Our mission today is to visit Projeto gua Solar located in Traras about 20 minutes upriver from Po de Aucar. Another project of EcoEngenho this one uses solar energy to pump water from the So Francisco River up to cisterns on a hilltop. The water runs down through a series of hoses to drip irrigate one hectare of land. Little holes are punched in the hoses so a tiny amount of water provi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Alagoas/blog-298141.html After a long day of travel we headed to the closest town Po de Aucar to spend the night. Carlos took us to a little pousada in the center of town apparently the only one reliably operating. Po de Aucar used to be a tourist destination for its colonial architecture and its location on the So Francisco River. In recent years however lack of maintenance of historical buildings and of econ http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Alagoas/blog-298139.html Instituto EcoEngenho Instituto EcoEngenho was founded by Jos Roberto Fonseca in 2001. The goal of the NGO is to use technology for sustainable development taking advantage of renewable resources and innovative solutions oriented toward the needs and capabilities of marginalized communities. The program we visited is called H2Sol whose goal is to use ldquomicroirrigation systems to produce http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Alagoas/Macei-/blog-298130.html We arrived in Macei late this morning from So Paulo. Macei is a midsize city on the northeastern coast north of Salvador and south of Fortaleza. Apparently none of the U.S.published guidebooks consider it worth mentioning. Brazilians and Europeans however have long traveled here for its location amazing beaches to the north and south of the city the food and its notoverlyurban charac http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Alagoas/Macei-/blog-297003.html So Paulo has a big traffic problem. 12 million people and 5 million cars not counting the entire metro area make for nasty traffic jams even on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. One of the few positives of spending so much time in traffic is the opportunity for good conversation with carmates or taxi drivers. On our way from the Hpica Paulista to Praa Benedito Calixto Laura and I ha http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-293579.html My dad arrived in So Paulo today I picked him up at the airport at 7 amhellipok closer to 720 because American Airlines lied about the arrival time so I was wandering around the airport waiting for his flight to officially land when my cell phone rang. Hersquos like ldquoUm Adrirdquo Apparently my dad on very little sleep and with no knowledge of Portuguese figured out how to b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-293578.html This post is going to be divided into a few separate parts. First a recap of the workshop Lisa and Maia facilitated with Caf Igara for which I translated. Second relating a thoughtprovoking conversation with Silvia from last night about her vision for fostering change in the region. Third a mini current events recap which will continue unfolding as I learn more. The amazing Lisa and Ma http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/Mococa/blog-293572.html Today Lisa and Maia facilitated a workshop at Caf Igara. I wrote about it last time but Caf Igara is a group of women artisans in the town of Igara a few miles from the Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza about 1000 people. Some of the women who work and live on the farm also take part in the group Rita Rosangela Roberta and others who I donrsquot necessarily remember. Claudia who used to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/Mococa/blog-291947.html Today I arrived at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza an organic coffee plantation owned by Marcos and Silvia Croce. The Croces converted the farm to organic nearly six years ago after they retained ownership of the property from Silviarsquos family. Today the farm welcomes visitors from all over Brasil and abroad serves as a teaching site for organic and natural definitions forthcoming agricult http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/blog-291335.html Dear Readers Friends family randoms This is my fifth trip to Brasil. The first was in summer of 2005. I was in Chicago doing research for a sustainable development project located in the interior of So Paulo and became so enamored with the vision that I bought a ticket to Brasil. Armed with emails and phone numbers and not much else including any knowledge of Portuguese I arrived in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/blog-291217.html so i left off on thursday but didn't go into much detail about what had gone on that day specifically. i feel like i'm summarizing the last several days each time i write but i don't write about the present. so here's the last couple days again i went to the GYAN office on thursday and met barbara and jefferson two people who work there. barbara is my age and jefferson is a little older i thi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-15304.html I am really bad with keeping up with this journal. Although I havent gotten home until midnight the past three nights and had to get up around 7 so i guess its excusable noLets see...Sao Paulo itself is huge a bit overwhelming but in a good way. Im not really sure how to describe it because there are so many different areas. one good thing about having to cruise around in taxis is that i get t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-15019.html check out the photos on the previous entry. those from liberdade are from aftersushi tonight. liberdade is the japantown of sao paulo. its full of good japanese restaurants homeless people cops and trash flooding into the streets. check out the moon its a half moon but by half i mean the bottom half. weird. earlier today i got to meet laurent the chef involved in botanique and also one of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-14773.html so i'm going to see if the photos upload. finally. also note i deleted previous entries since i inadvertently included some things that shouldn't be public information. and there's no way to limit my blog to only my subscribers people on my email list. my bad. mom i'm getting some sleep hopefully the punto tim store will be open tomorrow so i can get a sim card. i want to see dollhouse when http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-14670.html long entry made short im exhausted. sao paulo is exhausting. i took the metro all over today and had fun walking around the paulista where all the banks and shopping malls are. then i tried to go to the huge central park which i cant remember how to spell got about halfway there and decided it was too difficult so i took the bus up to praca da se which is a piazza with a huge cathedral and a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-14639.html