Saturday, January 29, 2011

The High Paradise of Alta Paraiso de Goias


Salutations most beloved humans,

Time is short, our rumps are required on the back of a motorcycle to transport us through these arid, tropical highlands of central Brasil to some kind of lovely waterfall.  We are now at a wee cafe that serves Internet in Alta Paraiso de Goias, 250km outside of Brasilia (a lot weirder and cooler than we thought it would be), a haven for ecotourism and the center of atypical spiritual groups in Brasil.

The last while has consisted of numerous lengthy lengthy bus rides to get us from Rio to Sao Paulo to Ouro Preto to Brasilia and to our current location.  We are having a small crisis in that the hard drive containing all of our photos from the trip has decided to transform from alive to dead....hopefully we can find a techno-schaman upon our return to bring it back (or atleast the files)... so you´ll have to settle for videos of where we are scrounged up from ze Youtube.



The second video has that popular Moby track from a number of years ago....if it doesn´t tickle you correctly or it rubs your fur in the opposite direction of how you like it, just turn down the sound and activate a tune of your choosing from iTunes...that´s what I did.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Hot Primate Injection

It is 6:43am and the bus station beckons.  We are groggy... forgive any errors of wit or syntax.

 For four months  Rio has been blessed with our hooves trotting about it's steep slopes and golden valleys, the Cariocas have come to trust us and every morning you can find them waiting out in the garden for us to pet them.  I think that means 1) Nobody has robbed us yet and 2) Our Portuguese no longer causes the spurting of blood & cerebral matter from the ears' of locals.  But yeah, we're going to the bus station now and we shan't be back for a number of weeks.  That's why you get two posts.

We will certainly plonk up some rambling and images on this marvelous bloog, but without the computers it will be tough to make the highly edited, professional video and audio to which you have grown accustomed.  But click below to get a hot primate injection.

The entrance to Tijuca National Park is a few hops away from our doorstep and it is there we go whenever we have a hankering to view primates, weird birds, big fruit, hefty lizards and an unending assortment of tropical foliage.

Knowing that there shan't be too many more opportunities to hang out in there, I wandered up with my chum, Nestor, last week and we were successfully able to interact with two species of monkey...including a type I hadn't seen yet.

This video begins at our home, moves to the middle of the forest and ends up at the Mirante Dona Marta.....a place that I believe is better than the Corcovado because
1) It's not so busy  
2) It costs nothing   
3) The view is wizzonkulous

Song:  Prelude - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Choice Cuts)
             buy it....the whole disc is amazing!




Take care, we're off to Sao Paulo, Ouro Preto, Brasilia, Salvador, Recife and more!

The Beast Beneath the Sheets

A month or so prior to the current moment, there was an incident involving a horrid creature as we were milliseconds away from being sucked into our pillows to be deposited in dreamland.  You are hearing about it now because over the weekend we found out what it was and the overall picture became thoroughly sinister.


*click*.  That's the sound of our lamp being switched off.  Peace reigns for a grand total of two minutes and thirty seven seconds until...*tickle tickle* That's the mobile sensation on my left leg beneath the brown sheets that are supposed to protect those who are under them.  The feeling occupies a fair bit of real estate down there, and suddenly the brain is fully awake.  It demands to know what is down there and implores the swift removal of whatever it happens to be.


The light goes back on, the sheets are ripped away, the heavy-eyed but lovely lady next to me enters the curiosity party.  The thing is red and it has a lot of legs..... it is 3 or more inches long and is now at the ankle, heading around the curve of the foot.  "What the hell is that thing??!" *kick kick* "T'isn't the tarantula or behemoth cockroach previously envisioned.  An unidentified jungle beast, it is flabbergasting and I know not how to react.  The wise thing would've been to reach for the camera and let it crawl all over me in order to get a successful Youtube video, but instead I flung my foot around like a maniac until it flew to the floor (the creature, not my foot), then I splattered it to a quivering paste with one of the Havaiana sandals near by.


After wiping up the goo with a tissue and stuffing it in the garbage, the next few hours were spent lying in the dark, wide awake, reenacting the scene and imagining that every single little cutaneous tingle was another one, even bigger, coming back to avenge it's brother/sister/cousin/child.  


Last weekend in Angra dos Reis with my splendid parents, the story was retold during a conversation on Brazilian critters.  Our gracious host, Paulo, was able to identify the bed invader as a LACRAIA....a Scolopendra (psycho centipede) that has a kind of venom which is used to paralyze it's prey.  It is not fatal to humans but can inflict serious pain, nausea, vomiting and fever....good times! (chunks of info also from my father's Blackberry)


Anyway, that's all.  It was on my leg but it is dead now.  There are some videos on Youtube, including one of a giant Lacraia killing a mouse.....go see for yourself as I refuse to taint the blog with it.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Laranjeiras Session

It might have been mentioned, but we only had contact with one person in Rio before arriving.
A disc jockey and record collector of high caliber who was dubbed Marcello when he emerged from the womb already armed with a pair of headphones and an instinct for hunting the hidden audio gems of this world.


The very first weekend after we alighted on Carioca turf he appeared floating outside our window and said "Come forth, children, I bestow upon thee two free tickets to an afrobeat concert at Circo Voador".  Our acceptance of said tickets was immediate, and the concert brought us nought but a hearty serving of merriment.


The months have now rapidly slipped by, Marcello has had numerous parties at numerous venues where we got to feel important because our names were on the guest list.  In March we'll be returning to Toronto as the effort to find ourselves with an extended visa has gone unrewarded.  Knowing that we'd be traveling for the next several weeks and returning home after Carnaval, it was decided that Marcello and myself would take the elevator to his secret audio lair in LaranjeirasBri and spend a healthy number of hours tinkering with records and yammering about our visions on particular elements in the realm of audio.  The final product is now available for you to absorb through your ear canals.  Do NOT put it in your nose.



                                      The Laranjeiras Session (W/Marcello Mb Groove) by Mogpaws on Mixcloud

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Magic Place Between Years

It shall be tricky to articulate the happenings of New Year's Eve because the amount of stimulation applied directly to the brain resulted in our minds(& 2000000 others) being splattered all over Copacabana beach. One will likely be able to find traces of cerebral residue in the sand for the next couple of centuries.

The amount of money spent on the fireworks display alone would probably have been sufficient to rectify many of the city's poverty & infrastructure problems, but boy are we glad they chose twenty minutes of colourful explosions instead! Rio knows how to party on any day of the year, but New Year's Eve exists on some separate festive strata that left us weeping & dumbstruck.

This evening is full of traditions too:
1) WHITE CLOTHING AS A SYMBOL OF RENEWAL-(rain & waves make white clothes see-through, 70% fantastic, 30% terrible depending on who's underpants and nipples become visible)

2) THROW FLOWERS INTO OCEAN FOR CANDOMBLE GODS TO GRANT YOUR WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR
-floracide ensures luck in the new year

3)SPECIFICALLY COLOURED UNDERGARMENTS FOR PASSION, WEALTH, LUCK... 

4) SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN / JUMPING OVER WAVES (James used this as a urinal just like 2 million other people, so I refrained from the ocean frolicking portion of the evening)

5)SWALLOWING GRAPES AND MAKING WISHES WITH EACH GULP!



our vantage point of the fireworks


It would be nice to tell you more about our specific NYE in Rio, but that would require writing by us & reading by you... but in short, you must experience this at least once in your life as it is truly an unforgettable night!