I want to thank everyone who has sent me a message concerning the death of my lovely cat. It really helped me to start to come to terms with his death. I cried for him last night. I remembered all the funny little things he did: the way he used to play ´´fetch´´ with the metal clasps from wine bottles, the way he always directed you to whether to throw the thing into the bathtub or the kitchen, the time he climbed into the back of a removal van and ended up on the Cape, the way he used to like to nest in your underwear while you were taking a dump, how he climbed into the bathtub after you had showered and licked the water off the bathtub walls, the way he would stretch out ... read more

My cat of thirteen years has had an accident. His name is ´Boy´. It seems he fell out of a tree yesterday morning and banged his head on something. Katie and Richard, luckily found him at about 4:00am. His temperature was ten degrees below normal. They took him to a cat hospital where they have run tests: nothing broken, no internal bleeding, but he can only use his front legs, as of last night. I´m waiting now to hear updates on his condition via email. Almitra is in Boston and is going to stay extra days to see what to do. It´s obviously outrageously expensive to keep him in the cat hospital. Almitra is contacting her friend, who has been Boy´s vet for years, to get his opinion on what to do. I feel terrible being ... read more

Well, it´s the end of another first class day, but tinged with a hint of sadness. The weather was excellent for the first half of the day, clouds gathering during the late afternoon, and now, 7:30, it´s torrential rain. All the giant puddles that showed signs of shrinkage earlier today have been well and truly refilled. Tomorrow´s inevitable heat will create the perfect conditions for mosquitos to breed, including the ones that give you Dengue fever, the current scariest disease of the day. Some kid has just come down with the disease, a friend of Gabi and Adriannas, to much consternation here. I guess he contracted the disease in Recfife, buty started to show symtoms when he arrived here, and he´s being shipped to Recife for treatment, although there is no really effective treatment out there. ... read more

I got my first snorkle set up yesterday, and even though it was a bit cloudy, so visibility wasn´t the best, what fun I had! A great way to eradicate the unpleasantness of Pousada N´Janda. I must remember to publish warnings about this scoundrel on every internet forum from here to Timbuktu! The first main event was swimming into a giant school of fish, seeing the whole shape of the school, the edges as clear as a bubble. It´s just great to be inside one of these hive like bubbles. I couldn´t keep up and soon the edge swept past me. The second major thing was a giant sting ray resting on the rocks about seven or eight feet, including the tail. I hovered over him for a while, till he got bored of me ... read more

What a great couple of days I´ve had! Started meeting people finally that spoke a little english, which was quite a relief after a week of portospanofrancosign language. Oh to speak engloportospanofrancosign language again! So if Friday´s events were fun, Saturday´s were even more fascinating. Andre and Julio and I hit three more festas on Saturday, with me finally getting back to the pousada at 4:30 am all danced out! They had taken me to the local favella parties, the places that gringo´s don´t go unaccompanied, but with Julio and Andre I was given a ´free´ pass. What incredible scenes! I don´t mean my atrocious, though amusing, attempts to dance in the forro style. I must have snapped a few people´s toes in my clumsy eforts to blend. I´m meeting everyone at the parties, including Fernando ... read more