northeast brazil

so tired. just pictures for now. today we landed in manaus (if you google "night view of the earth," it's basically the dead center of the really dark part of south america), tomorrow we're leaving for a four day amazonian expedition on which i was promised unlimited capirinhas (the drink of brazil: lime, sugar cane, cachasa. delicious & dangerous!) to get over my fear of giant spiders, also promised.

michael's dad asked us to post a photo of the car engine so our readers can help diagnose its problems.  here tis.
(our real car is parked halfway across the country. we'll post photos when we fly back to it)

leaving arraial d'ajuda

our fish's interpretation of a "smart casual" dress code was this stunning french fry skirt

someone convinced me to get on a boat to stay on an island, boipepa for a day.

"i don't believe in coddling" -my favorite coolie

boipepa is portugese for "ghost town in the middle of freakin nowhere"

our lovely accomodations in boipepa

view from the tent didn't suck

mangroves - we took a canoe tour

mangrove muck

 night view of manaus frojm our hotel balcony - that's the opera house in the distance.

after we return from the amazon........... there will be opera!

another random note: at dinner, an indian fellow traveling all the way from hyderabad asks if we know where the nearest ATM is. we don't, but he sits with us for the duration of dinner and as it turns out, he works in the very same computer programming niche as michael. so the two of them had a conversation in a totally different language.  the world is a very small place!