We have been home a 2 weeks now and it is time to close this chapter on such a wonderful life.
I want to say thank you so much to Elaine's family for all that they did for us. I want to thank Adriana for being our chauffeur from the moment we stepped off the airplane in Vitoria to the time we had to re-board to return to the United States. I may have teased Adriana a little bit when it came to her driving. But to be honest, her driving was fantastic. I'm glad I don't have to drive on the streets that Adriana faces every day.
I want to say thank you to Mr. Bellinelli for providing us with all the things he did for us. I am especially grateful for our trip to a Brazilian machine shop as well as the Sugar cane facility.
I want to say thank you for all the beer and wine that Mr. Bellinelli and Adriana provided. And a special thanks for the beer in the blue can. It had a familiar taste and I was glad to see it in the refrigerator.
I want to say thank you so much to Mrs. Bellinelli for her hospitality. I found myself overwhelmed at times by the amount of food laid before me each day. I really appreciated the caipirinhas that she made for me. They were my favorite drinks on our trip.
I really appreciated exploring the beach with her and finding the small creatures among the rocks.
Thank you so much Luciano for the nights that you paid for our dinners and drinks.
Thank you Luciano for the Ana Carolina T-shirts. I really do listen to her CD's every day on my way to work. I have almost memorized one of them by heart.
Oh yes and thank you Giovanni for your tours around the lake house and on the boat. It was a lot of fun going out on the boat with you and capturing the images at sunset.
Thank you all so much.
I look forward to seeing all of you again real soon.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Well, we are home now. It would only be right to pick up where I left off on that last Friday when we went to spend our last weekend with the family at the lake house. It was our last chance to do everything one more time. Elaine and I jumped at the opportunity to go to the beach in the morning with Mrs. Bellinelli. We went to the beach four times. Each time was like a new experience. It was the first time I saw the beach and rocks and coral as the tide was out when we got there. Unfortunately I didn't bring the camera to capture this new experience. Next time I will travel with a lighter pocket camera. You just never know when a photo-op will present itself.
Mrs. Bellinelli took me on tour of the rocks. Exploring for the different sea creatures that lived in the coral and rocks. She knew exactly where to look to find some different crabs. Some that hid in shells and some that didn't. She showed me some algae that you really didn't appreciate until you picked it up and held it in your hands to see and feel the little balls of color that hung from the branch-like material much like tiny grapes on a vine.
As you would expect, I soaked up the sun until it was time to go. We went to the lake house just in time to see the sunset. Giovanni took me out on the boat for some colorful photo-ops.
We toured the star-shaped lake from corner to corner as the sun was setting over the mountain.
I think it was the first chance that I actually got to see a colorful sunset in all the time we were there. It was finally a chance to just sit back, relax and just take it all in.
It was home-made pizza night and Mrs. Bellinelli made a pizza recipe passed down to her from her mother. She has yet to share how it is done. The crust was made with potatoes. There were tomatoes, onions and sardines on top. It was a delicious pizza. Yes, with sardines. Did I mention I like sardines. Ask grandma and I am sure she will tell you how grandpa and I ate sardines right out of the can as a treat after grocery shopping.
When it was time to settle down, we sat out on the dock for a little bit to take in the night sky and a few of the many stars to be seen on a partially cloudy night. I took a night photo of the sky as it was lit up by the city to the south-east of us.
The cities are so well lit and defined in Brazil. Rochester is very small as I compared the many houses, street lights and roads.
Saturday was my last chance to explore with the camera. I went hunting for largato. (Lizards) They become much easier to see and find as I knew what to look for. I took the opportunity to photograph the many colored buterflies.
I missed the ever elusive flourescent green butterfly.
For dinner Saturday, Adriana treated us to her octopus dish.
I really enjoyed watching how she prepared the dish. She had four small octopuses to cook in a pressure cooker. That was a little different than what we are used to here. Her main pot was a heavy clay pot. She used a lot of garlic and onions that were slowly cooked in oil over the wood fire on the veranda.
As dinner cooked, Giovanni got to show us a science project from school. He had a pop bottle that he filled with baking soda and vinegar.
Oh yes, we know this formula well, but we never shot bottle rockets with the mixture. It reminded me of the water rockets Danny and I made in scouts. I think I will send Giovanni a link to build those bottle rockets too.
We spent the evening on the dock again looking at the Milky-way for one last time.
Sunday was a special day for Giovanni. It was his First Communion. I got to play photographer again. What was really great was that I got a front row seat with my big camera. The people were really helpful and wanted to make sure I got all of my best photos. I was advised that one young lady at the church was the head photographer and I could follow her to take photos. I opted for unobtrusive flash-free photos. After a while I found myself surrounded by many photographers that thought nothing of using a flash in church and my head photographer became a face in the crowd.
I must admit it got very hot in the church and I almost felt like I was going to pass out from kneeling to long in the front row.
After Giovanni's First Communion we got to go to the ice cream parlor one last time for a dish of our favorite ice cream. I am kind of partial to the passion fruit flavored ice cream and miss it now.
Mrs. Bellinelli took me on tour of the rocks. Exploring for the different sea creatures that lived in the coral and rocks. She knew exactly where to look to find some different crabs. Some that hid in shells and some that didn't. She showed me some algae that you really didn't appreciate until you picked it up and held it in your hands to see and feel the little balls of color that hung from the branch-like material much like tiny grapes on a vine.
As you would expect, I soaked up the sun until it was time to go. We went to the lake house just in time to see the sunset. Giovanni took me out on the boat for some colorful photo-ops.
We toured the star-shaped lake from corner to corner as the sun was setting over the mountain.
I think it was the first chance that I actually got to see a colorful sunset in all the time we were there. It was finally a chance to just sit back, relax and just take it all in.
It was home-made pizza night and Mrs. Bellinelli made a pizza recipe passed down to her from her mother. She has yet to share how it is done. The crust was made with potatoes. There were tomatoes, onions and sardines on top. It was a delicious pizza. Yes, with sardines. Did I mention I like sardines. Ask grandma and I am sure she will tell you how grandpa and I ate sardines right out of the can as a treat after grocery shopping.
When it was time to settle down, we sat out on the dock for a little bit to take in the night sky and a few of the many stars to be seen on a partially cloudy night. I took a night photo of the sky as it was lit up by the city to the south-east of us.
The cities are so well lit and defined in Brazil. Rochester is very small as I compared the many houses, street lights and roads.
Saturday was my last chance to explore with the camera. I went hunting for largato. (Lizards) They become much easier to see and find as I knew what to look for. I took the opportunity to photograph the many colored buterflies.
I missed the ever elusive flourescent green butterfly.
For dinner Saturday, Adriana treated us to her octopus dish.
I really enjoyed watching how she prepared the dish. She had four small octopuses to cook in a pressure cooker. That was a little different than what we are used to here. Her main pot was a heavy clay pot. She used a lot of garlic and onions that were slowly cooked in oil over the wood fire on the veranda.
As dinner cooked, Giovanni got to show us a science project from school. He had a pop bottle that he filled with baking soda and vinegar.
Oh yes, we know this formula well, but we never shot bottle rockets with the mixture. It reminded me of the water rockets Danny and I made in scouts. I think I will send Giovanni a link to build those bottle rockets too.
We spent the evening on the dock again looking at the Milky-way for one last time.
Sunday was a special day for Giovanni. It was his First Communion. I got to play photographer again. What was really great was that I got a front row seat with my big camera. The people were really helpful and wanted to make sure I got all of my best photos. I was advised that one young lady at the church was the head photographer and I could follow her to take photos. I opted for unobtrusive flash-free photos. After a while I found myself surrounded by many photographers that thought nothing of using a flash in church and my head photographer became a face in the crowd.
I must admit it got very hot in the church and I almost felt like I was going to pass out from kneeling to long in the front row.
After Giovanni's First Communion we got to go to the ice cream parlor one last time for a dish of our favorite ice cream. I am kind of partial to the passion fruit flavored ice cream and miss it now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
