Brasil in general: They are an advanced country with technology and infrastructure and the like that would impress anyone. The people are very friendly, even the Paulistas of Sao Paulo. It is evident that they are the economic powerhouse of South America, they export quite a lot to the surrounding countries and seem to have control of the fuel market in their neighboring countries. They are now exporting their ethanol fuel technologies as well. The food is outstanding. The scenery is beautiful in the parts I saw, and the sheer size of the country is daunting. Brasil also has the 5th largest population in the world. Portuguese is an interesting language and although spanish speakers can read it, the pronunciation is quite different. I learned the basics and often reverted to spanish but intend to learn more in the future.

The weather: 40s C so about 90s F during the day, never rained. We were lucky because other parts of Brasil are having record rainfalls and even landslides. Everywhere has AC and the beaches are never far so I was never uncomfortable.

Transportation: The metro was very clean and modern even with airconditioning! There was a station with four escalators down to the tracks, it might be some sort of record, not sure. The buses we took were fine as well with airconditioning, something we´re not used to in Argentina, even though it´s almost as hot there.

Praia Ipanema: a beautiful beach with warm blue water and great sand, in between two morros (mountains) and with large rockfaced islands off the coast it´s beautiful. The waves are large enough to make it entertaining to get in past them but they were breaking right on the sand it was almost scary to body surf them and too many people to surf in most places. I´m sure winter is the better time for surfing, less people but still warm water.

Praia Copacabana: many more people at this beach, it is the most famous beach in the world afterall. Very long, 7km, walked the whole thing. This is where all of the hotels are. The beach is very wide and every hundred meters there is bound to be a group of Cariocas (people of Rio) juggling a football (soccerball haha) in a circle. It´s no wonder they have won 5 World Cups. They also play futvolei, which is using a soccerball over a volleyball net…and never using your hands. They are quite skilled using their feet, head, shoulders, chest, knee and I saw volleys go for 5 minutes with two per side.

Praia Sao Corvado: very few people at this beach outside of the centro area, but great waves and the landing spot for hangliders coming from the National Park Tijuaca. The mountains just tower behind you.

Pao de Açucar: Amazing view from the top of this mountain of the landscape, the harbor, and neighbor city Niteroi. We took the gondola ride to the top and then walked down from the lower mountain instead of taking it back down. We found a great park at the bottom of the trail so it was worth it.

Cristo Redentor: This is the postcard of Rio, the monument of christ at the top of Corvocado. The view is great and you can see things that you couldnt from Pao de Açucar. The train ride to the top is neat because it takes you through the forest, villages, and is very steep.

Santa Teresa: This neighborhood is reached by the tram that takes you over the Arcos de Lapa which served as an aqueduct in the past.

Favelas: 20 percent of the population of Rio lives in favelas, communities that are self sufficient and usually self governed by gangs (although recently police forces have moved in permanently to some smaller favelas). The favelas are on the mountainsides and it´s amazing to see their lights at night. The city of Rio is expensive, it´s no surprise the favelas are so large. The Brasilian president, Lula, in his first term, gave 40 Reaies a month to families that kept their children in school and a few other things I can´t remember. This helped the Brasilian poor (mostly in the north of the country) tremendously but it´s evident that life is still rough for a portion of the population. The other portion is quite wealthy, making a drastic contrast.

Food: The steak is excellent. The fruit is fresh and there were twice as many options than I am used to. Açai is a fruit that they blend and mix with ice and a drink called Guarani…like a smoothie but better! Unfortunately I have read that açai won´t keep for more than a day and that is why it can´t be exported. Caiphrinhas are famous worldwide so I won´t explain but I had never had one until Brasil, they´re definitely better when you´re on the beach.

The reason for all of these fees is because the US charges Brasilians, etc. to enter the US, even if for a layover in an airport. It´s a reciprocity fee. Brasil decided to take it one step further though, and match the US on requiring a VISA and going through the process…just as the US does to Brasilians. It´s unfair because these countries are just passing the cost onto the common American or Brasilian.

In the south at the town of Chuy, half of the main drag is in Uruguay and the other side of the road is Brasil. I brought my passport with VISA just in case but it was possible to freely walk into Brasil. I´m sure they have border patrol beyond that town, which is a duty free zone. Also, unless you´re a US citizen, it´s not a big deal to pass into Brasil, so it´s not quite a US-Mexico border situation if you know what I mean.

I spent the month of January in the north of Uruguay in a small town called La Coronilla (20 kms south of Brazil), volunteering with a non profit organization called Karumbé, which means turtle in Guarani, the indigineous people of southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina. Karumbé consists of scientists, conservationists, grad students, and other volunteers. We stayed in a precarious shelter that could be described as a shed or a hut, but it helped make the experience, including the mosquitoes. I have never killed so many mosquitoes in my life or slept with only my nose exposed to survive them. All (sometimes 20 of us) shared the same bathroom and shower in our outhouse. We had a dry erase board with the day´s activities and all of the daily duties were on a rotation basis: cooking breakfast-lunch-dinner, cleaning the bathroom, etc. The time there seemed longer than it was because the days were long and we did a good bit each day. Not longer in a dragging sense but in a sense of more accomplishment. The night sky at our base was simply amazing. Very far from any major cities the light pollution is at a minimum and our town had a population of only 100ish. The moon would go down in the early night making it possible to see three universes pretty distinctly. Couldnt identify much since my knowledge is limited and itñs the southern hemisphere.

The turtles that we worked with were for the most part, juvenile ´tortugas verdes´-green turtles from about 3 to 8 years old. 70 percent of these turtles are born on Acension Island in the Atlantic between Africa and South America. The rest are born on islands off the coast of Brazil, yes that is a very large area. They come to the waters of Uruguay for feeding during the main stages of their growth.

Some of the things we would do at Karumbé were captures, sun up to sun down in the water with a net where we would try to catch as many turtles as we could. It is important to spot the turtle as soon as it is caught so it doesnñt drown. When they get caught, they expend so much energy they can drown in minutes. When they are feeding or resting they can stay underwater for hours. We caught 18 turtles one day at Carlitos playa which was a record. We keep the turtles in boxes until the end of the capture so we donñt catch the same ones again and throughout the day we examined and took records of all the turtles we caught. Weight, measurements, cleaned the turtles from barnacles, cleaned and treated wounds most times caused from the turtle bumping into rocks, and determined the general health of the turtle. We would also cut a very small piece of skin from their back leg and take a blood sample where they would be examined later. If the turtle is healthy, they are tagged on their front left and right flippers. We caught some that had been tagged before. There is an entire network where they can see where the turtle had been tagged, obtain records at that time of the turtle, track the movement, and more. Karumbé has also used tags with chips that theyçve used to track adults migrating from South Africa to Uruguay.

Other days we would do census´s involving 18 to 20km walks along the beach to see what animals have washed up. We would take pictures, measure, and mark the animal. We found more than you would think, from various birds, to dolphins, sea wolves, rays, to of course turtles such as the very large cabrezones and siette quillas or leatherbacks. Let´s just say I broke my Haviaianas sandals on these walks. The censo´s would start in either Brazil at the border town of Chuy and end in La Coronilla where our base was…or we would go from La Coronilla to the south to a town called Punta del Diablo. Punta del Diablo is a bohemian beach town with dirt roads and great beaches. I even ran into my friend Sonia from Argentina there. Quite a few Argentines make there way to this town for a beach vacation, a lot of the camping at the National Park Santa Teresa. I did both censuses and the scenery is quite different on each stretch. One time we did a census and camped behind a sand dune then did a capture the next day.

Most of the times are captures at places where there weren´t many people, but the people passing by would get an information session on what we were doing, as most people were curious.

On weekends, we would go the National Park Santa Teresa and set up the informational signs, put a healthy turtle in the pool, and pick up trash on the beach while promoting others to as well. At the end of the day we would release the turtle to the ocean. The day I did the ´liberacion´ we had more than 150 people gathered to watch.

As for the sick turtles, a lot of times they are guessing what is wrong with them. Whenever a beached turtle was found, you know there is something wrong. You can tell by the way the turtle floats if it´s healthy or not. We had up to 6 turtles in pools at the base. We would give antibiotics, feed the turtles blended algae through a tube if they weren´t eating, and monitor their progress. Some couldn´t even keep their head out of the water on their own, so we would put them in floats. If a turtle died, we would dissect it. Talk about a lot of flies and horrible smells. But this is necessary to try to determine the cause of death. In the cases I saw, the stomaches were full of trash from cigarrette butts, bottle caps, plastic in general. They confuse plastic in the water as jellyfish, a staple in their diet. It´s hard for them to pass plastics. They try giving them vaseline mixed with algae to help pass the plastic, with mixed results.

The people at Karumbé are from all over the world. Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Spain, England, and the US. We all spoke in spanish, the mother tongue of the project since it´s in Uruguay, though in it´s many variations and accents. Gus, one of the coordinators, is Brasilian so we learned his Portuguese-Castellano which was interesting and soon useful in Brasil.

It´s important to learn more about sea turtles as they are endangered and there is much to be learned about them still. Human development is a major threat, from the plastics in the water, to development on beaches (after hatching they find the water by light, and hotels on the beach disorient the hatchlings).

Our seats were in the Plateau Alta- the upper level section on the side of the field, but not where the barras bravas sit (their section is behind the goal on the upper level, called section “Popular”). Plateau Baja, the lower section was double the price, so that was a no go.

Sidenote: AC/DC played in the stadium three times the weekend prior and the grass was run down from the concert.

Stadium pictures and info on Wikipedia: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Monumental_Antonio_Vespucio_Liberti

From Montevideo we took a two hour bus ride further east to Punta del Este, a small peninsula on the Atlantic coast with great beaches. Punta del Este is also home to the famous hand sculpture. We were there for less than a day, just to walk the beaches and take pictures, as it’s easily the most expensive place in Uruguay.

The trip also proved true that Uruguayos love their mate even more than their Argentine neighbors as it seemed to be the norm to carry a thermos with hot water while sipping a mate, no matter where they were.

We found ourselves in a mix of tourists, high Argentine society, and polo fanatics. There were two matches, one on the auxiliary “cancha” and one in the main hippodromo (stadium). There were plenty of sponsors with their models and booths, from Mercedes Benz to Rolex. There were restaurants that were set up serving champagne and full meals. We opted for the general food court for “agua sin gas”.

We had second row seats and were treated to a great game- it was tied 14-14 at the end of the last “chukka”- period. There are normally 6 periods but when there are high handicapped players, as in this case, they play 8 in regular regulation. It went to a 9th chukka and the crowd was on their feet yelling. There is nothing like seeing 8 horses fly by you at full speed chasing a small little white ball with the two refs following a second or two later with their panting horses.

It’s interesting how the recipes derived in North America used down here turn out differently. Number one our stove doesn’t have a temperature setting so we have to guess. Also, the ingredients are exactly the same, and everything down to the water is slightly different. Elevation wouldn’t affect it since we’re at sea level here.

I told them how Thanksgiving was the welcoming feast between the european immigrants and the natives. Someone quickly pointed out that friendship didn’t last too long…so I told them how my grandmother always makes us say what we are thankful for and how people traditionally say grace. Well nobody wanted to say grace….and I was just fine with that. Argentines are not the most religious people I have found, for good reason, with the many political problems the church egged on/supported over the years. But you can bet you’ll find a picture of Jesús on everyone’s refrigerator.

In that time we moved to another place in barrio Recoleta, living with our Argentine roommates Natalia and Mauricio. They’re both attending University of Buenos Aires for psychology and anthropology respectively. A difference here is that the public schools don’t charge for tuition, to anyone. A lot of people flock here from other countries and receive a good education. It should be noted that while it’s “free” you must live in BsAs, one of the most expensive places on the continent, and they’re not paying for your room and board.

We didn’t have any trouble bonding with our new roommates over an asado held on our terrace. We also met one of their old roommates who is from the US as well. Mark’s a physical therapist and has been in SA traveling around, etc for 15 months. Here’s a picture of our roommate Mauricio, the asador (cook):

Then I was offered the ñoquis which this variety had pasta with tomato sauce but it can vary to include potatoes or bread crumbs. They told me that when the Italians immigrated to South America at the start of the 20th century (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay) they brought this little dish (along with everything else Italian- pizza, ice cream, everything). They went on to tell me that it is tradition to eat ñoquis on the 29th of each month because that is when people were low on money and this was a cheap, hearty fare. It was very tasty though! They also put a coin under my plate as well, an old superstition that is supposed to bring the person prosperity.

P.S. Amelia missed out on all this lunchtime fun because she wasn’t here!

I’ve also been able to play some futbol (soccer…) with some of the boys. Although our field is a concrete pad with cones as the goals it is much safer than playing in the street or some other unsupervised area.

Another thing we do is try to instill manners with the boys with the proper greetings, politeness, fair play, etc. There is a quite a bit of slang used in certain neighborhoods and it’s important for them to learn more correct ways of saying things.