My friends from the Jungle

so cuuuuuute!

Worms in my pocket
Spiders in the pan
Frogs in the shower
Mice smarter than men

Scorpions in my shoes
Snakes around my arm
Moths on the screen
Millipede doing no harm

Meet my friends from the jungle
They are oh so sweet
Only mosquitoes do bungle
When they want to eat

Before I came here
I envisioned the bush
Piranhas for breakfast
Tigers in a rush

Monkeys dancing samba
Crocos joinging in
Parakeets singing blues
Carnivores eating my skin

But now only

Worms in my pocket
Spiders in the pan
Frogs in the shower
Mice smarter than men

Scorpions in my shoes
Snakes around my arm
Moths on the screen
Millipede doing no harm

In the "Jungle"

planting palm trees

Now I`m an official tree hugger in the Atlantic Rainforest! That means that I am in the middle of nowhere, in a very very green nowhere sourrounded by farms and forest. The project I am helping with tries to make the conservation of the Atlantic Rainforest (which has been more destroyed than the Amazon Rainforest!) more attractive than its destruction. Not so easy because the local farmers need to make money. Well we are working on it, there is a research center, a tree nursery and reforestation, community work, education, an organic farm... Lots of means to reach this goal but still a long way to go. Anyways, I enjoy being surrounded by this wonderful nature, 2 walking hours away from the next village. And its really fun taking care of the baby trees and making some graphics. The best is, everyday I discover new animals - well, maybe not the animals you might think of (tigers and crocos)but lots of butterflies, snakes, scorpions, frogs, worms...

Farm of Hope

The Fazenda is almost like an art museum

My visit of the Fazenda da Esperanca made me really excited! I never saw a community working together like this, giving their time, money and lives for people in need. What had begun with a sad story of drug-addicted people has turned into a huge success story of Fazendas helping people in more then 60 countries! Just Wonderful!

Carneval in Diamantina

Carrrrnewow!

So, first of all, I didn`t stay in any of the famous places like Rio, Salvador or even Olinda. Instead I ended up in Diamantina with a group of crazy Germans. It was lots of fun and a new experience. Diamantina is a small historic miner`s city, very beautiful but normally rather unexciting. This however changes when its time for carvenal! Most of the local croud get out of the city, make sure they don`t leave anything in their flats so that they can rent them to plenty, plenty of mostly young Brazilians who are coming to town to party almost straight for five days... It`s a crazy, chaotic mess that starts in your room (7 people in one little room), grows in the flat (one bathroom for 25 people, no real kitchen, only beer, chachaca and caipirinha to drink) and expands to the streets, other apartments and whereever the wave of madness takes you!

Visiting the Pataxó

Looking pretty much like a real Pataxó

Beautiful Horizont

Finally I got to see why the city is called Belo Horizonte...

Travelling through time and stuff...

In São Paulo everybody has a tatoo, but this one is the coolest!

Yesterday I arrived at São Paulo and was immediately won by this city. Contrary to my expectations it didn’t feel too crowded, violent and menacing. Well, I am also lucky because I stay in the center where I can most of the things on foot and yesterday we only went to really cool, relaxed places: the Museo do Arte do São Paulo, a little street fair with good old live Samba music and after some caipirinhas with different cachaças we walked to a great samba funk dance club only three blocks away. Perfect and long day!
While enjoying our Caipirinhas at Kiki’s place, I felt glad to be with so smart international students again because several interesting discussions arouse... I learned about the complex political situation in Columbia (despite the Colombian parapolitics scandal president Uribe is still popular), we were discussing the ideal government term (are 4 years enough to make a change but if not how many years should a political leader run a country?) and finally touched down at the number one topic: globalization. No new insights but I got the hint to watch a good little educative movie about the story of stuff. If you haven`t seen it yet, check it out! I learned some new things for example that in the US 99% of the purchased products become trash after 6 months. Even if the numbers aren´t totally correct, this is really scary. And then I reflected my present trip and realized that my stuff comes and goes. I have already broken one camera, lost a cell phone (after 3 days!), have been stolen a bike, trashed one pair of shoes, given away three books and received three books in return, bought 5 shirts and lost 2 and so on and so on. It is really not easy to limit your stuff yet be prepared for all kinds of different situations while travelling for 6 months. Well, it´s easy if your are very disciplined... By the way, this reminds me of a great Brazilian movie I saw this week: The man who defeated the devil is a poetic film about a fearleass man travelling through northeast Brazil. He is riding on his horse with nothing more than what he´s wearing experiencing the most amazing adventures. This guy is definitely my hero!

Ouro Preto & Mariana

ALthough it was rainy it was so beautiful!

Florianopolis & Ilha do Mel

Beautiful, awesome, adorable landscapes...

Jonville & Blumenau

This is the (Southern) Brazilian view of their German ancestors

Curitiba

Being surrounded by Brazilians who don't like samba

After a looooooong bus ride - 2 1/2 days - I finally arrived in Curitiba and spent some time at Rodrigos couch. It was full of activity, riding bikes and drinking good beer. The South of Brazil feels like a different country. At the beginning I had to remember that I am still in Brazil. And it was freezing cold: 14 - 20 degrees!

Ótimo 2009!

My favourite "Brazilian" car!

Pretty spontaneously and unprepared, Kiki and I went to Praia do Forte (close to Salvador) to spend New Year's Eve there. It turned out to be a very long and fun night, since we didn't find a place to sleep...