our personal carnival

This year we varied our Carnival experience a bit. We have in prior years gone to the Sambadromo, sitting in the bleacher areas, jumping and dancing the whole night long. One year as a tourist, I participated in 'the choris line,' at the Sambadromo wearing a headdress of red feathers and marching in the rain at 3 in the morning with four hundred or so strangers. With 'legal' tickets to the Sambadromo now ranging from US$57 to US$ 259.00 in the open bleacher areas, and 'special' tickets ranging up in the thousands, not many real Cariocas get any closer to this celebration than their TV set. After witnessing the line of cars exiting the city the Thursday before Carnival, I am not sure that they have any wish to get any closer to the touristy Carnival.

This year we joined Paulo and Rosa Lopez in the Blocos BABALO, a Santa Teresa street celebrations for the people, and by the people. The blocos are making a come back. For many years, you could not find a street parade. Now there seems to be an abundance of them. I think that the 'blocos' of Ipanema and Copacabana are still to be avoided. Put on for tourists, by the tourist, these media driven blocos miss the flavor of the block parties of the interior that we enjoyed this year.

In bloco Badalo that marched down a main street in Centro, the majority of the participants were neighbors. They know each other by name. They know where their neighbor lives and the names of his children. They dressed in costumes, 'fantasias', made for the children by their mothers, or aunts or a neighbor. They had their own Samba called 'Meu Rio de Janeiro". Composed by, you've go it, some of the neighbors. This is the real Carnival, this is the real Rio. I loved it.

Aggressive Greens and other colors

It is true that the seasonal changes in Brazil are very subtle and that the green during all seasons is very aggressive, but I wanted to show you some of the patches of color that appear throughout the year within this prevailing green. The majority of my photos are taken from our veranda, or along the roads around Nova Friburgo. I have thousands of photos of flowers cultivated and otherwise, and no I won't show them all to you, for now the photos are only of the flowering trees that grow in the forest locally. Whenever the blossoms appear, I can't help but stop and take a photo - well many photos - the shock of the color variations is so profound. I don't have a good reference guide for the names of all of these trees, but I know that the tree with the pink flower that blooms in June is commonly called a Faux Cherry or Cerejeira-ornamental (Prunus Serrulata); the deep orange blossoms (January) are Espatodea, Bisnaqueira (Spathodea Campanulata); and the yellow (nearly all year round) is Falso-barbatimao, canafistula (Cassua leptophylla)

photos of tree cutting - FINALLY the photos

Sorry there seemed to be a technical problem with me posting the photos but I think I have it now!

Clearing the trees, Brasilian style

After four years of living in Brasil, I can still be astonished by how things are done around here. I am a friend of Rosemary. We are bound tightly together in all our differences by our sameness as American women living in a foreign land. Camillo and I live in the mountains above Nova Friburgo. Our house has a view of the Valley Stucky (Vale Stucky) ending with the high peaks of Serra do Mar. We think it is the best view in all of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The land in this area is all preserve of Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlantica) and we can not cut trees without permission from the governing body of IBMA, well unless, of course, the tree is deemed dead by a local specialist in tree removal.

We had such a tree. It was a tall tree. Down the hill from the house; its top as high as the house, so let’s call it a four-five story tree It was a Eucalyptus to be exact. It looked half dead for about the last three years but we watched it closely to make sure we didn’t just think it should get new leaves while it thought itself in hibernation. Trees in our forest do that, they bloom or leaf out one year in June and the next year in February and then it won’t leaf or bloom at all for several years. This tree though, had leaves on only one branch, way at the top, and during one of our sudden bursts of wind it would drop small branches. IBMA rules or no, we decided that we needed to take the tree down.
Last Thursday morning a tree removal specialist and his helper showed up before breakfast. (In some mysterious communication system between the locals, they find out when they are needed.) He rested a tall wooden ladder against the base of the tree, took off his flip-flops, climbed the ladder to the top then jumped to the tree like one of Rosemary’s little monkeys, with a combination of shimmy and use of small branches in one minute flat he was at the top of the tree. He pulled a long curved machete from his pants and began to take the top branches down. Then he scooted down, taking off lower branches as he went. I have to insert here that there were no safety lines, harnesses or safety boots like tree trimmers in the states have. About half way down, and it seemed hanging by his toes, he tied a rope around the tree, chopped the tree in half and his helper pulled it to the ground. Neat as a pin and no power equipment used to disturb the silence of the forest. I took pictures if you are interested in the process.

Walking home from the gym

Yesterday I went to my gym to take photos of the "guys." They were posing and clowning around. They also wanted the site address to check out the photos but I won't post them. They are just bad. I need to return on Monday and try again.








I did take photos of the green stuff on my walk home.

Some people expect Rio to be like Hawaii with air perfumed by plumeria and pikake blossoms.
No such luck. Someone described the green as an aggressive green.

Upon observation, it seems to be a monotone of green. Everything is the same shade of green, no greys, no silvers, no pale leaf greens, just green-green.





"And little Molly Dolittle walked and walked . . . and everything was green . . . and more green."
I made this up

"No white nor red was ever seen
So am'rous as this lovely green.
Fond Lovers, cruel as their Flame
Cut in these Trees their Mistress name." . . .

"Mean while the Mind, from Pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness: The Mind, that Ocean where each kind Does streight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other Worlds, and other Seas, Annihilating all that's made To a green Thought in a green Shade"

Andrew Marvel



Back to my task at hand. Well on the underside of leaves it is possible to find some color.




You have to hunt for flowers or climb the trees to find them.





We shouldn't complain though, the green does detract from the typical Stalinist-type architecture.