The West Nashville Gringo

Life in Cáceres Begins - The First Month

2007-10-17T09:52:00.001-03:00

It's been a little over a month since we made our cross country move and we are now settling in. There have been a few hiccups along the way.

Take phone and internet service for example. After more than three weeks and four different installers, we believe that we finally have everything working properly. Things don't usually get done right the first time in Brazil. Our street is a great example of that.

The morning after arriving here, we found this hole dug out in front of our garage. The workers told us that they are preparing the road to be paved and they needed to dig this hole to see about water drainage.

It's almost a month later and it's still not paved and they've dug up that hole three times. Next year is an election year so the mayor is scrambling to pretty up the city and make people think he is actually doing something. Sounds like things are the same all over the world.

Course it gets worse when it rains. See for yourself

We had been here a couple of days when the rain poured down. It was a welcome relief from the continuous 100 degree heat but it made a real mess in front of the house.

Inside the house wasn't much different. The house had been empty for several months and many of the ceramic roof tiles were broken or cracked. We were scrambling for buckets for Lewis's room, our room and the kitchen. Thankfully all the broken tiles have been replaced.

That's great news because our rainy season is just beginning. Between now and the first of April we will get about 24 feet of rain. I'm not joking.

Even though we've had these difficulties, we are growing to love Cáceres. I think we will stay for a long, long time.

Getting Ready To Move

2007-09-10T12:15:00.000-03:00

Now has come the time to say goodbye to the beach and move to the jungle. We've been living in Balneário Camboriú for about a year and a half. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. We are moving to Cáceres, Mato Grosso (which means "thick jungle") right at the heart of the Pantanal wetlands.

Last week we spent a week there preparing for the move. Here are some highlights:

This is our new home. It is the nicest house we could find and we really like it. There are several fruit trees such as coconuts, acerola, cashew (it is a fruit) and pomagranates. It is a little larger than our present house (thank goodness!) and it has a nice yard which we have missed. There is also an office space for me.

While we were there we decided to go fishing. It was a beautiful and hot day on the river but we had a wonderful time. Anna borrowed my camera and took some nice photos.

This is an eagle that we watched for about a half an hour. He would swoop down and grab fish out of the water.

We threw a prianha to this Jabaru stork. They stand well over three feet tall. He washed the fish first and then ate it. It was pretty amazing to watch.

This was Anna's first fish of the day, a nice big barbado catfish. They are real fighters but Anna wouldn't give up. Lewis caught seven piranhas that day. Marilze caught a dorado and is still bragging about it.

Everybody wanted to see the caiman crocodiles. Anna took this very nice shot.

Our last evening there, Anna took this stunning picture. There is no sunset like the Pantanal.

If you want to see more photos, just head to my flickr page at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/

To Russia With Love

2007-07-10T10:27:00.001-03:00

I published this on my fishing blog as well because it is one of those stories that deserves to be mentioned more than once.

Everybody has at least one unbelievable story to tell. I have a new one it might just be one of the most unbelievable stories I have ever heard.

About two months ago, Eric Hanson, a longtime friend, was traveling to Russia. He was flying on S7 airlines and during the flight decided to look at their inflight magazine.

He started flipping through the pages and since it was in Russian (which he doesn't speak), he was just really looking at the pictures. He opened to an article that was apparently about piranhas. Being an avid hunter and fisherman it piqued his interest. When he turned to page 114 he saw something completely unexpected.

That is really me in the bottom left hand corner holding a piranha. Eric was shocked to say the least. He mailed me a copy of it when he returned home.

Evidently S7 copied this picture from either our website or my Flickr page. Either way, they didn't ask permission but I figure Russia is probably a lot like Brazil and they could care less.

It would have been nice if they had mentioned our business or fishing in the Pantanal but they didn't. They didn't even mention my name or Brazil.

I've written S7 requesting they acknowledge what they did and at least mention our website.

I'm not holding my breath.

You can see more of our pictures at:

http://www.fishbigfish.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/sets/72157600059492377/

AWOL or MIA?

2007-07-10T10:21:00.000-03:00

OK, I haven't published anything for over two months and I sincerely apologize. My good friend Kerry Woo (the master blogger) told me this is a major no-no.

I do have an excuse. After my laser surgery, my vision in one eye came perfectly into focus. The other is perfectly out of focus. As you can imagine, this has caused me some difficulties. I can't drive well at night and I get disoriented when I do. I also have extreme difficulty reading.

These last two months may be the longest stretch of my life I have gone without reading a book. I have equal difficulty reading the computer screen.

It has gotten better as my mind has evidently compensated. I will have surgery on the other eye in a couple of weeks that will hopefully correct it.

I apologize for not posting. I will try to post as much as possible. After the surgery it should be more often.

Celebrating 20 Years

2007-04-27T10:39:00.000-03:00

On wednesday this week, Marilze and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. We decided to get away for a couple of days and visit Canasvieiras beach in Florianopolis. Floripa (as the locals call it) is an island and our state capital. It is beautiful and we had a great time.

We stayed right on the beach and our balcony overlooked the ocean. This is the view from our balcony. It was overcast and a little chilly but that didn't bother us.

We were shocked at how few people were there. The stores didn't open until almost 5pm. Most of the time we were the only people on the beach. We felt like we had it all to ourselves.

We've been fortunate enough to have 20 very good years together and I expect to have many more.

A Request From The United Nations

2007-04-27T08:37:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I received an email from Franz Dejon of the United Nations Energy Program requesting the use of some of my Pantanal photographs. They have asked to use them for Biodiversity Day which is May 22. They are hoping to bring awareness to issues like global warming and it's effect on different ecosystems.

While I don't agree with them completely about global warming, I am all for anything that increases awareness of the Pantanal wetlands.

Back in the day I was published a few times by the Westview for some sports photos but the photos they have asked for were from my first attempt at wildlife photos.

It's an honor just to be asked to be a part of this event. You can find out more about Biodiversity Day at this link:

http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/outreach/awareness/biodiv-day-2007.shtml

A Blog Can Be A Dangerous Thing

2007-04-24T06:04:00.000-03:00

I could write a blog solely telling stories about Mike Christian and never run out of material. Mike is a friend who I've known since college and he is the type of person who will say anything to anybody at anytime. He is more fun to hang out with than anybody I know. "A sense of entitlement" comes to mind when I think about Mike. Not that he thinks the world owes him anything. It's just that he's not going to play by your rules. Or anybody else's.

After working merchandising for a couple of Christian bands (and starving) he got some gigs with bigger groups. He's traveled with David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper, Tim McGraw and many others. He's been on the road with Lynyrd Skynyrd for the last couple of years.

Now he has started writing a blog. This from a guy who wouldn't email me a few months ago because he didn't like typing.

He's blogging about working behind the scenes at the Rowdy Friends Tour, which includes Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr and .38 Special.

He has some great road stories. My favorite is the one where I guy walked up to his booth and said, "Give me a medium t-shirt and a 2X for my old lady".

I can only imagine what he is going to blog about. He'll probably write something he shouldn't and get fired. Whatever he does, it should be a fun ride.

Check out his blog at:

www.nashvegasvending.blogspot.com

And his Flickr page has some excellent photos of the tour:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishbigfish/

That's Bull

2007-04-23T17:09:00.000-03:00

Saturday, just two days after my LASIK surgery, I was feeling pretty good so Marilze and I decided to drive to Blumenau, a city about 40 miles from us that was founded by German immigrants.

On our way back I decided to stop at a tourist store. Kind of our version of Stucky's. This place had a small donkey for kids to ride and this huge bull that actually had a saddle on its back. They would let you climb up if you wanted but I wasn't about to do that. I'm still suffering with back problems from a mechanical bull ride six years ago.

They let me hold the reins and Marilze snapped the picture. This is by far the biggest Brahma bull I have ever seen. The hump in the middle of its back is called the cupim and is absolutely delicious. When I first tried it (more than 20 years ago) I thought it would be tough but it is more tender than any other cut of beef.

I tried to get Marilze to climb up on it so I could take a picture. Since I have no picture to show, you can imagine what here response was.

Going Under The Knife

2007-04-19T04:37:00.000-03:00

I haven't been writing much this week because I was working updating our fishing video and preparing to update our website. The new website should be up by the weekend and you can see the new video in the post below this one.

I have also been visiting my eye doctor. Just before we got married (almost 20 years ago) I got some fiberglass insulation in my right eye. About 7 or 8 years later, tiny piece of it started working their way back out of my eye. It was a painful as you can imagine and left a lot scars.

I went through a procedure where they shave off the top layer of your eye to reduce the thickness of the scars. More pain. Excruciating pain.

I have had a lot of problems with nightblindness, especially driving at night. I see halos around streetlights and headlights. It can be really annoying. My eye doctor said I was a good candidate for PTK, a type of LASIK surgery.

I will have the surgery in about 3 1/2 hours. He is also going to correct my vision so I won't have to wear glasses any longer. I've been wearing glasses for over 30 years so the idea of not having to wear them is awesome.

I will give regular updates about how I am doing. According to my doctor, my recuperation time is about two weeks.

New Video for Rio de Vida Fishing Excursions

2007-04-18T16:43:00.001-03:00

Check out our new video with all new scenes and clips from our Pantanal fishing excursions. Our website is being overhauled as well and should be up by the weekend.

If this gets your heart pumping about fishing the Pantanal, pick up the phone and call us - 1-800-582-2105 and reserve your place for the fishing adventure of a lifetime.

Beach Hopping

2007-04-07T09:21:00.000-03:00

Since this week was spring break, we decided to enjoy our surroundings a little and visit several of the beaches around where we live. On Wednesday we went snorkeling at Lagoinha Beach. It was amazing. Swimming with thousands of fish in crystal clear water. I don't have any pictures of that because I forgot to take my waterproof camera but I definitely will next time.

On Thursday we went to Florianopolis. That is the capital of our state (Santa Catarina) and the city is an island. We had never visited the beaches there and they were spectacular. We saw these huge sand dunes where you can rent snowboards to ride down them. Anna and Marilze thought it would be easy to slide down them. It wasn't.

Right next to the dunes was Joaquina Beach. It was beautiful.

There were huge waves and a lot of surfers. They were holding a surfing competition and some of the surfers were excellent.

We bought grilled cheese sticks from this guy. Believe it or not, he had charcoal burning inside that can and would hold cheese on wooden sticks inside the can until they were grilled. It was pretty good.

Florianopolis not only has beautiful beaches but is surrounded by high hills where you can take some spectacular photos.

We had a great time. Marilze and I plan to go back in a few weeks for our 20th anniversary. This time we'll leave the kids at home.

You can see more of my photos at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo

Odd things you see traveling

2007-03-30T11:20:00.000-03:00

Whenever I travel, I enjoy looking at the natural beauty of where I am but I also love the weird and odd things you find along the way. This house is definitely one of them. It is just a couple of blocks from Pr. Jorge's house and the owners saw fit to put some art on the roof.

The object on the right is a cuia or a hollowed out gourd. People from the south of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina use these to drink chimarrão which is a steaming hot green tea also known at maté. They put no sugar in the tea and they drink it using a bomba or metal straw. The best are made of either silver or stainless steel.

Once filled a person will drink everything in the cuia and then refill it with hot water. He then passes it on to the next person. Everyone uses the same straw. It is highly cultural. I´ve been to shops and restaurants where the owner will off his for you to drink from.

When you travel to the south of Brazil you will see this everywhere you go but generally not on people´s roofs.

The object in the middle is a rooster. Can´t figure that one out.

Everywhere you go in Brazil you will find hamburger stands that are known as pitdogs. Don´t know why they call them that but most of the time the hamburgers are lousy. When we lived in Goias they would put peas, corn and potato sticks on your burger. I once asked for onions and they looked at me like I was an idiot.

Pitdogs in Brazil come in all shapes and sizes but this one is shaped like a giant Coke can. What´s really weird is that it is right in front of the house where I always stay in Passo Fundo and I´d never seen it before this trip.

Didn´t eat the burgers there so I have no idea if they are any good.

This is the most explainitory bathroom sign I have ever seen in my life. We stopped at a gas station in Lages, Santa Catarina on the way to Passo Fundo. I saw this and didn´t think to take a picture. On the way home we stopped there again and this time I was prepared.

The sign says: "Don´t urinate on the floor - Throw toilet paper in the trash (Brazilian plumbing doesn´t allow us to put paper in the toilet) - Flush after use - Maintain this bathroom clean"

Coming 'Round The Mountain

2007-03-28T10:59:00.000-03:00

We had a great trip down to Passo Fundo and on the way back we decided to go the long way home and visit Rastro River Mountain. Pretty spectacular place but better than the view was the road driving down it.

It is an 8km stretch (about 5 miles) and has 284 curves. Most of them are hairpin curves that trucks and buses have to stop, back up and maneuver in order to get around. There is no way to see how twisted the road actually is unless you were to photograph it from a helicopter or plane.

It is also extremely narrow without any shoulder. Trucks and buses passing each other would have to slow down to a crawl to make sure they didn't rub.

This is in the coldest region of Brazil and it snows pretty often. It was hard enough to navigate it on a sunny day much less with snow or ice.

What surprised us more than anything was the wildlife. There is a station on top of the mountain and immediately a group of guaxinim came running up to us.

They are from the raccoon family and they would eat right out of your hand. I started thinking about when I had to have rabies shots a few years ago and stayed away form them.

We rounded a curve when we saw this rascal sitting on the retaining wall. Thankfully there was an observation point about 500 ft after we passed him. Jânio and I ran up to him to take pictures. We were in the middle of a narrow two lane road with buses and trucks coming from both directions but we really weren't thinking at the moment.

People told us that this species is aggressive but as soon as I began to take his picture, he turned his back on us. I started yelling at him and he turned around and gave me this look. A truck was coming by then so we had to get out of there.

All in all it was a lot of fun and we had a great time seeing a part of Brazil I didn't even know existed.

Road Trip!

2007-03-23T06:45:00.000-03:00

Tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM, I'll be hitting the road once again heading down south to the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. I am going to Passo Fundo to visit two of my favorite people in the world, Pr. Jorge and his wife Soni.

Last year I went to visit them for the first time to help them start a church and just fell in love with this couple. Actually you can't not fall in love with them.

Soni may be, besides my mother of course, the best cook on the face of the earth. She always comes up with things I've never heard of and they are always delicious. Jorge is no slouch cooking himself.

His slow cooked ribs are something every human should consume at least once in their lifetime. The Gaúchos (people from Rio Grando do Sul) are well known for knowing how to cook meat, especially ribs. Jorge poured a pound of rock salt on the back of this rack and then let it cook for about six hours without ever turning it. The salt transformed into a thick sheet that he broke off just before beginning to slice the ribs.

I thought they would be too salty to eat but I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely the best ribs I had ever eaten.

Pr. Luís, his wife Edna, and Pr. Jânio and Lúcia who are visiting with us will be along for the trip. It should be a great time.

The drive there is through a beautiful mountain range so I will be taking plenty of photos to share.

Big Crocodiles in the Pantanal

2007-03-21T10:16:00.000-03:00

One of the best things about visiting the Pantanal area of Brazil is the wildlife. There are more than 30 million caiman crocodiles. We went out a couple of nights looking for them. There were more than I ever dreamed of.

Our indian guide Arnildo could spot them a mile away. It was great fun and I can't wait to get back up there to do it again.

Dorado Fishing

2007-03-20T12:58:00.000-03:00

I put this video up on our FishBigFish blog but I wanted to put it on this one as well. Rogerio and I had a great time and fishing for dorado might just be one of the best things on earth.

The audio is in Portuguese because I was the only one there who speaks English.

Hope you enjoy.

Back at the Beach

2007-03-19T10:52:00.000-03:00

Rogerio and I got back about 3am Friday morning from our week long trip to the Pantanal. It was great. We got in a few days of fishing as well as all the meetings we needed to get things in line for this season's fishing trips.

That was my first fish I caught there. It's a five lb dorado. Dorado is one of the fightingest fish I've ever seen. It makes 2-3 feet leaps out of the water trying to jump off your hook. They are beautiful and pretty tasty as well. We ate a ton of fish and I ate caiman crocodile for the first time. Delicious.

All in all, one of the best trips of my life. Can't wait to get back up there again.

I'll be reporting on the details of the trip on my other blog at www.fishbigfish.blogspot.com

Heading North

2007-03-07T06:46:00.000-03:00

The last few days I have been pretty lax about updating this blog. I have been really busy because I am heading to the Pantanal wetlands tomorrow.

This is one place I love to visit. As some of you know we are starting a fishing tour business to take Americans fishing on the Paraguay River, which is the main watersource of the Pantanal. Just so you can grasp what this place is like, it is 25 times larger than the Florida Everglades.

I honestly had never seen as much wildlife as I did on my last trip there. It is pretty amazing. And there are millions of caiman crocodiles.

This is my favorite picture I've ever taken. I was about 5 feet away from this badboy. 'Course I was in a boat. Mama didn't raise no fool.

Anyway, Rogerio and I are heading up there for a week of meetings with government officials, hotel owners, tourist agencies, etc. We are also planning on 3 or 4 days of heavy fishing.

I plan on blogging throughout the trip if possible. No wifi there but there are a couple of internet cafes.

If you want to see my other photos from the Pantanal, they are on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo

You can also check out our site for Brazilian fishing excursions at:

http://www.fishbigfish.com

And our fishing blog at:

http://fishbigfish.blogspot.com

US - Brazil Ethanol Partnership

2007-03-02T10:54:00.000-03:00

Today's edition of USAToday has an article about the US and Brazil entering into a partnership to increase the production of ethanol for use in automobiles.

Over the years I have had a lot of Americans ask me about alcohol car use. I keep hearing these wild numbers given in the press and for the most part, they are not true.

The US and Brazil together produce about 70% of the world's ethanol. Both countries want that to increase to weaken dependency on foreign petroleum. Last week President Lula was in Washington to discuss this and President Bush will be here next week. Pretty much everyone in South America wants this to happen except Hugo Chavez. He says that Bush's trip here is "destined for the depths of defeat".

Brazil started producing ethanol for fuel in 1975 under the direction of General Emilio Garrastazu Médici during the time the military ruled the government. His idea was to break our dependence on oil as petroleum was not yet being produced here. Now Brazil is 100% independent for most fossil fuels other than diesel and some petroleum bi-products.

While most US ethanol comes from corn, ours is from sugar cane. It is relatively cheap to produce and process. Ethanol production has created over 1 million jobs in the country.

In the beginning, ethanol sold for about 1/3 the price of gasoline. This was an incentive to get more Brazilians buying alcohol burning cars because a gasoline engine cannot burn pure ethanol safely. Today's Brazilian gasoline is a mixture of 76% gasoline and 24% ethanol and cars seem to have no problem.

The early ethanol cars caused a lot of problems. This is a picture of a 1992 Chevrolet Opala Dipolomata. Our first car in Brazil was just like one this except is was a 1988 model. Back then they didn't change much from year to year. There is very little difference between the 1992 model and the 1972, the first year it was produced.

Because ethanol is harder to ignite than gasoline, our car had a small 1 liter gas tank under the hood that would be injected into the carburetor to help it start. On cold mornings (50 degrees or so), even the gasoline wouldn't help. As soon as we were able we sold that car and bought one that burned gasoline. I've never owned another ethanol car.

In 2003, they began introducing flex engines that will burn ethanol or gasoline. In 2004, 11% of new cars were produced with flex engines. A year later the number jumped to 80%. This year Fiat has introduced a new car with that not only runs off ethanol and gasoline but also natural gas.

The main problem I have with ethanol is the price gouging that is going on here. It is extremely less expensive to produce ethanol than gasoline but the price is nearly the same.

I stopped by my local BR station and took a photo of their price board. You have to understand those prices are in Reias (pronounced hey-ice) and are for liters, not gallons. Here is a conversion:

Regular Gasoline - R$2.58/ltr = US$4.57/gal
Super Gasoline - R$2.62/ltr = US$4.65/gal
Premium Gasoline - R$3.00/ltr = US$5.32/gal
Ethanol (Alcohol) - R$1.799/ltr = US$3.19/gal
Diesel - R$1.989/ltr = US$3.52/gal

Don't cry to me about what you are paying at the pump! It looks like ethanol is a great deal less expensive than gasoline but the numbers are deceptive because ethanol produces 30% less miles per gallon than gasoline. That makes the cost of the ethanol jump to US$4.19. While that is still a significant savings, you can buy alcohol for human consumption at roughly the same price.

At one point in the mid 90's, ethanol was more expensive to run than gasoline so manufacturers all but abandoned producing alcohol engines. Not until the flex engines were introduced was there a significant rise in production.

Taxes and greed have caused the price of ethanol to be nearly double what they should be. Natural gas costs less than half to operate and many people are converting their cars, though the cost is high and prohibitive for most Brazilians.

I think ethanol is a great alternative and the infrastructure is in place for it to continue to grow and develop. If the government would convince the ethanol producers to lower their prices to close to where they should be, Brazil will see tremendous growth in this industry and become a world leader in renewable fuel sources and that is not even including bio diesel, which is quickly on the rise.

Check out the article in USA Today. I think you will find it interesting.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-01-us-brazil-ethanol_x.htm

Brazil's First Saint

2007-02-27T06:32:00.000-03:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about St. Anthony and how young ladies here in Brazil bury images of him upside down in order to get a husband. This week I learned of something else that honestly seems stranger than that.

Brazil is getting it's first official saint, São Galvão. Antônio Galvão de França born in 1739, in Guaratinguetá, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. In 1774 he founded the Monastery of Light and worked the next 28 years as its pricipal architect and builder. He died in 1822 and was buried in the monastery's chapel.

Now for the strange part of the story. For some reason, many years ago nuns at the Monastery of Light began to print small pictures of São Galvão on tiny pieces of paper. On the back is printed a short prayer that is attributed to the new saint.

These tiny "prayer cards" are then neatly folded and placed into capsules. These capsules are then swallowed by the faithful who believe they have healing power. There have been two claims of miraculous healing after taking the capsules those were enough to get Galvão his sainthood.

The nuns normally produce 90,000 capsules a day but are now doubling production to meet the demand now that Galvão is being canonized.

I find it difficult to understand how people can honestly believe this but somebody is swalling 100k pills.

Please understand that I am not catholic bashing, just sharing some interesting cultural things that sound strange to me. I have many wonderful friends and family members who are Roman Catholic and love the Lord but this is just beyond comprehension to me.

I will be posting about some ridiculous things that evangelicals are doing here as well (you probably won't believe me).

Somewhere out there is probably somebody selling Billy Graham's used napkins.

The End Of Summer

2007-02-26T12:45:00.000-03:00

Saturday night we turned our clocks back an hour as our Daylights Savings Time period has come to an end. Officials say that the country saves 4% electricity due to the time change but I honestly don't see how since almost no one has air conditioning.

The best news for us is that the tourists are leaving the city. While they bring a lot of money, they also bring a lot of traffic. We are looking forward to things getting back to normal.

Buses have been rolling out of here around the clock, heading to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. During the last couple of months it was easier to find someone speaking Spanish than Portuguese.

They'll be back in a few weeks for Easter vacation but that only lasts for a week. Until then I am looking forward to a 2 mile drive not taking 45 minutes.

A Stroll In The Park

2007-02-24T06:43:00.000-03:00

This is Barigüi Park in the city of Curitiba, Parnana, which is about three hours from where we live. This public park, whose indigenous name means "river of thorny fruit", located near the center of this ultra-modern metropolis, was established in 1972 to give curitibanos (residents of Curitiba) a place of beauty, nature and wildlife to enjoy. Many families spend afternoons and weekends taking walks, bike riding, picnicking and watching nature. This week the Lopes family saw more than they expected.

On Tuesday of this week, Marcos Lopes (37) and his two young daughters, Gabriela (8) and Amanda (5), were bike riding through the park. A small stray dog began running alongside of them and then ran into the edge of the water. Suddenly a caiman crocodile sprang from the water and grabbed the helpless dog and within moments consumed it.

City officials admit that there are three caiman (called jacaré) living in the waters of the park, although locals claim that there are at least two others, but they admit they know little about them including what sex they are.

Paulinho Dalmaz, superintendent of Works and Services for the Secretary of the Environment of Curtiba (how do you fit that on a business card?), says that there is nothing to worry about as these caiman are harmless. When asked about what they were feeding the reptiles, Dalmaz responded that they were being left to their own devices. He says there are plenty of fish, birds and small animals for them to feed on.

Nothing to worry about? What if a small child strays from its family and moves towards the water. There are no barriers in the park to keep this from happening. What bureaucratic genius thought it would be a good idea to allow live crocodiles in the middle of a public park.

I have come into close contact with caiman and they are not friendly. The above picture is one I took back in August during a visit to the Pantanal. These are amazing animals and should be seen by the public but in zoos or better yet in wildlife habitats.

While caiman are not near as scary as some of the things I have seen come out of Shelby Park, I have a tremendous respect for them. They are fast, huge and fierce hunters. The city officials of Curitiba need to remove them and relocate them to a more suitable environment before there is tragedy.

You can see other wildlife photos I took during my most recent trip to the Pantanal at this link

http://flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/sets/72157594481782901/

One Man's Quest

2007-02-23T10:06:00.000-03:00

I wrote several weeks ago about Martin Strel, the man who has swam just about every major river in the world. He is now attempting the Amazon. He started out three weeks ago in Atalaya Peru and today entered Brazil in the city of Tabatinga, some 2200 km (1375 miles) into his 5430 km (3400 miles) trek.

Because of severe 2nd degree burns caused by exposure to the sun, he has had to start wearing a pillowcase as a mask to protect his face and neck. He was using sunblock but it was getting into his eyes and causing him discomfort.

He is averaging over 85 km (53 miles) per day. I can't begin imagine that. A couple of laps around the pool and I'm exhausted.

The entire trip will take 70 days to complete. He will enter Columbia today for a short distance and then reenter Brazil. He hopes to finish at the mouth of the Amazon in Belém Brazil on April 11th.

You can follow the action live at

http://www.amazonswim.com

And you can find out more about Martin Strel at his website

http://www.martinstrel.com/main.php?L=2

Carnaval 2007 - Nothing To Celebrate

2007-02-20T07:04:00.000-03:00

It's Carnaval time in Brazil once again. Today is the last day of the the four-day celebration. Actually today is the only day that is an actual holiday but all government offices, banks, post offices and many businesses were closed yesterday as well giving most Brazilians a 4-day weekend.

Most of the larger cities in Brazil have constructed permanent stadiums called Sambodromos that are used exclusively for the four days of festivities. Many of these cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador have spent millions on constructing these arenas yet they also have some of the greatest levels of poverty.

The Samba (dance) clubs spend the entire year in preparation for the event, developing floats, storylines and costume concepts. While there is much that is visually beautiful, there is a greater dark side to this event.

Part of the problem is that most of the people participating in Carnaval are from the poorest class. They save during the entire year in order to purchase the materials needed for their lavish costumes. In recent years there have been many reports of drug trafficking and theft in order to finance their costumes.

Each year there are numerous reports of murder and rape with extremely high estimates of others not reported. Muggings and assaults are common as many of the participants are intoxicated and become easy targets.

Our TV networks broadcast the events from the Sambodromos round the clock while many of the participants are semi or completely nude. Add to that the rampant immorality that takes place and you begin to see that for many of us in Brazil, Carnaval is no reason to celebrate.

Heavy Metal

2007-02-19T11:24:00.000-03:00

My good friend Kerry Woo, better known as Wonderdawg, blogged these days about Chinese New Years. Where I live, we don't have many Chinese people and the Chinese food is pretty terrible but it has to be better than this

This guy is celebrating the new year by ripping a pan lid in half with his teeth. His teeth don't look that good to begin with so I can only imagine what they look like now.

As I saw this picture I was whisked back in time to one of my most glorious moments when I appeared on The Ralph Emery Show performing as "The Human Can Opener" during a stupid human tricks contest. I made my family proud as I bit an empty Dr. Pepper can in half on the air. Dan McDaniels was left speechless.

I didn't win anything but for several days afterward I was recognized on the street. It was my true 15 minutes of fame.

I gave up biting cans in half a few years ago, though occasionally I do it just to prove to someone that I can. After seeing this photo I realize that I am sadly a rank amateur in comparison to this guy.

Bigger Is Better

2007-02-18T11:02:00.000-03:00

A couple of weeks ago I snapped these shots. This is a pizza box from Big Pizza. They serve the biggest pizza I have ever seen. Just so you can get an idea, the box is sitting on a six-eye stove. Here's a shot of the pizza.

Big pizza comes with four different toppings. Essentially they are four medium pizzas made on the same crust. It's a lot of pizza.

This one had calabreza (a Brazilian sausage similar to peperoni), margarita (cheese, tomatoes & oregano - no tequila), gaúcho (seasoned steak) and corn. Yes, corn. Brazilians love corn on everything. Years ago every pizza and hamburger was served with corn. I can't figure it out.

For most part pizza here is pretty nasty but the Big Pizza is about the best we've had. There are some Pizza Huts and Dominos in Brazil but none near us. After 10 years we finally live near a Subway. I'm not complaining.

Happy Valentines (A day late)

2007-02-15T22:06:00.001-03:00

One of the weird things about living outside the US is that the holidays generally fall on different days of the year. Christmas, New Years and Mother's Day are the same. The rest aren't even close. Father's Day in the US is in June while Brazil celebrates it in August. I have tried to turn that into two presents a year but so far it hasn't worked.

The first year or so living here we tried to remember and celebrate all of them. We've since given up on that, other than Thanksgiving, and just go with the Brazilian holidays. Valentines Day was one of the casualties. Yesterday I remembered but we didn't do anything special except go to the beach.

Most Brazilians have never heard of St. Valentine. The patron saint for lovers here is St. Anthony.

Saint Anthony is known as "the marriage saint". Someone who is constantly trying to match make others is known as a "Saint Anthony".

His feast day is a day later on the 13th of June. In the past women would buy statues of St. Anthony and bury him in the ground upside down. They would then pray to St. Anthony and say they would only turn him rightside up if he sends them a good husband. Sounds like extorsion to me.

I asked my wife about it and she said this still goes on, though I've never seen anyone do it. I bet there must be about a million of these buried around the country. I you had some way of finding them, you could dig 'em up, resell them and make a buck or two.

I really wonder about this. Seems like an awful lot of work to me. There's a many a Dickson County girl that found a husband using nothing more than a tubetop, some cheap perfume and a fifth of Mad Dog. Sounds a whole lot easier and much more effective to me.

Down Memory Lane

2007-02-15T05:11:00.001-03:00

Day 45 of 365
Originally uploaded by Wonderdawg777.

The other day I wrote about my uncle Roy's pink elephant. Kerry Woo over at Wonderdawg graciously took a snapshot of it and blogged about it. Here it is in all it's glory. Thanks Kerry!

http://www.wonderdawg777.blogspot.com

Celebrate Your Skivvies

2007-02-13T22:41:00.000-03:00

This is beyond bizarre. Twelve models showed up at the bus station in Brasilia (our capital) dressed only in their undergarments. They were there to promote the acceptance of National Underwear Day. They wanted to educate the people on the importance of underwear by the way of an impromptu fashion show.

Can you imagine showing up at the Greyhound station on 8th ave dressed only in your tidy-whities? Actually, you probably wouldn't even be noticed there.

National Underwear Day? How about "National We Won't Make You Pay So Many Taxes Day". I'd like to see that.

Before you judge Brazil too harshly, I need to tell you that August 9th is National Underwear Day in the US. Better buy some new Fruit of the Loom.

http://www.nationalunderwearday.com/

Driving in Style - Brazil 1970

2007-02-13T17:54:00.000-03:00

When we arrived for church Sunday night, this beauty was sitting across the street from where we are presently meeting. This is a 1970 VW Sedan. I had never seen one before, that I know of and this was was in pretty close to mint condition. Somebody had taken care of this ride.

In 1970 while the Big Three in the US were pushing Chargers, Camaros, Mustangs and other gas guzzlers, Volks was showcasing this 96.3 cubic inch luxury car. I know it looks like something from the Cold War Soviet Union era but this was considered a high end set of wheels back then.

The sign in the back window says its for sale. It didn't say for how much and I didn't care enough to call. Who knows, back in the day Roy may have sold a few of these over at McPherson's Motors, home of fine cars. If a pink elephant can help you sell Yugos, this heap should be no problem.

Portuguese Spoken Here

2007-02-10T06:42:00.000-03:00

Over at Wonderdawg Blog

http://www.wonderdawg777.blogspot.com/

Kerry Woo has written that Nashville Metro Council has voted to make English the official language. I applaud them. Too many US government agencies have bent over backwards offering every official government document in every conceivable language. It is an expense that is unnecessary and inhibits the integration of immigrants into the culture.

Here in Brazil, everything is in Portuguese. When I took my driver's test, it was in Portuguese. There wasn't even a Spanish version available. When I have to visit the Federal Police (our INS) I can't ask for a translator. No Brazilian government documents are translated into English (or any other language) unless they are specifically for tourists or international business. Until 10 years ago when DirecTV came to Brazil, there was no English language television in the country.

This has made Brazil a true melting pot. People who immigrate here become Brazilians. I have neighbors and friends that are from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, etc and all of them have one thing in common. They speak Portuguese because you can't function in this country without learning the language.

This compels immigrants to integrate themselves into the culture.

Years ago I met an American who was married to a Brazilian woman. He decided to move to Brazil but refused to learn the language. For two years she translated everything for him, including television programs (it was something to see). Finally they returned to the US because he said he couldn't adapt to the the culture. The real reason was he refused to adapt by simply learning the language.

A couple of years ago we went to Atlanta to visit a Brazilian church there. For three days we ate Brazilian food in Brazilian restaurants, shopped in Brazilian markets, watched Brazilian television and spoke only Portuguese. I was absolutely amazed and how they had transplanted their own culture there. Most of them spoke no English and had no desire to.

I find this type of mentality detrimental to a culture. Language is one thing we must hold in common. It has worked wonderfully here in Brazil. My hope is the US will do the same.

Thanks Nashville Metro Council for making a stand.

City Workers Weedeating

2007-02-09T10:18:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we returned home to find city workers weedeating our street. This is the first time we have seen this. What was incredible to me was the screen they drag with them that assures no flying debris will hit a car or pedestrian.

This was new to me. I wonder who thought of this. It makes sense but someone had to come up with the idea and then build the screen.

This is the first city I've seen in Brazil that actually does your trimming for you.

In Goias we would just throw some alcohol on the grass and set fire to it. (I am not joking) It killed off snakes, scorpions and bugs in vacant lots making living there a little more pleasant.

Grandpa Saves Grandson From Anaconda

2007-02-09T09:42:00.000-03:00

This sixteen foot-long anaconda attacked 8 year old Mateus Pereira as he was playing in a creek on his grandfather's ranch in Cosmorama São Paulo (about 250 miles NW of São Paulo city). The 77 lb snake wrapped itself around the boy and then bit him in the chest requiring 21 stitches.

Other kids playing nearby ran to get help. Mateus' grandfather, Joaquim Pereira began beating the snake with a rock and fought with it for more than thirty minutes before freeing his grandson.

Mateus was then rushed to the hospital for treatment. His is now home resting and should make a full recovery.

Though the bite of an anaconda is not poisonous, they will try to suffocate their victims by coiling around them. Attacks on humans are rare.

Read the full story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/02/08/snake.attack.ap/index.html

This may be the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life

2007-02-08T04:43:00.000-03:00

This is Scott Wiese, or at least that's what his name is for the time being. He is from Forsyth IL and claims to be a huge Bears fan. So huge in fact that last week he made a public statement that if the Bears lost to the Colts in the Super Bowl, he would legally change his name to Peyton Manning.

Wiese made this ridiculous statement in a bar full of people who all witnessed him signing a document to the effect (more than 200 people).

Monday morning, the day after the Colts victory, Wiese started proceedings to change his name to Peyton Manning. He claims this sacrifice proves what a huge Bears fan he is. It proves to me that he is a couple of bricks shy of a load.

If I was Peyton Manning (the real one) I would sue to keep someone this stupid from being able to have the same name as me.

They'll probably end up making a DirecTV commercial together.

One more comment about the storm

2007-02-07T13:14:00.000-03:00

This is a piece of PVC that used to fit under the overhang of the roof of the apartment building across the street from our house. During last nights storm it flew some 100 feet or more to land on our third story balcony. It was some storm.

The Storm Cometh

2007-02-07T12:45:00.000-03:00

Since moving to the coast we have heard tales of terrible storms in this region. So far we haven't even seen much rain. Back in Goias we averaged 24 feet of rain over a six month period each year (that is correct, 24 feet). We hadn't seen much action until last night.

Yesterday was incredibly hot. Hotter than any place I have ever been in my life (and I've been near the equator). It was muggy and awful. A cool wind started blowing in from the south at about 6pm. Marilze decided to walk to the mall with kids. Good thing I stayed home.

A little before 7 it started to rain and the wind started blowing. I came upstairs to my office to check for water. The wind was blowing rain through cracks in the door jam. I started stuffing towels inside the door jam when the lights went off. I hurried to unplug everything. We've lost many appliances and electronics to energy spikes after the lights go off.

While I was unplugging the freezer, I heard a loud boom. I looked outside to see the roof of the apartment building across the street from our house, crash to the ground.

This is the best shot I could get of the roof but in these photos you can see the aftermath.

Here you can see broken roof tiles and part of the gutters.

There was a lot of damage around town as well. Several buildings had their signs destroys. We were without lights for 12 hours.

You can see more pictures of the damage on my Flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo

Congrats to Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning!!

2007-02-06T08:43:00.000-03:00

I started posting this yesterday when I heard an explosion and our electricity went off.

Evidently a transformer blew out. Too many people in the city right now for the grid to be able to handle.

Anyway, Sunday night I stayed up til 1:30 am to see Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning hoist the Lombardi trophy. Both of them are class guys and both deserved it.

It was a rainy messy game and not nearly as close as the score might suggest. For the most part the Colts just dominated and then settled for field goals.

Unfortunately we don't get to see exactly the same broadcast as in the US. No Super Bowl commercials and I had to choose between either a pair of Brazilian commentators who know little about the game or Shannon Sharpe and some guy named Spiro that I never heard of before. Everytime something would happen in the game they would have to explain the rules a dozen times. I am sure this helps the international audience understand the game more but I found it very distracting.

I have never been a true Colts fan but I am glad to see Peyton and Tony both got the monkeys off their backs.

This Ain't Gatlinburg

2007-02-02T17:57:00.000-03:00

This afternoon, the wife and I decided to drive across the river to where all the fishermen live. We buy fish directly from them so we can get it just as they bring it in. We bought some shrimp, salmon and some fish that tastes good but I don't know it's name.

We decided to take the scenic route back to look at the beaches. Brazil has more beaches than any other country in the world. I have no idea how many beaches there are around here but there are a lot of them. We got out and walked around this one for a moment and I took a few pictures.

On the way back, I saw a sign that someone had chalets to rent. We've had a few people ask about coming here and staying on the beach so I decided to take a look. This is what I found.

Just across the way were these beauties:

These badboys have asbestos roofs. They must be hotter than the prison sweatbox in Cool Hand Luke. I can't imagine traveling to one of the world's most beautiful places and staying in one of these dumps but all of them were full.

These chalets made the old La Hacienda Motel on Murfreesboro rd look like Opryland Hotel.

Thank goodness the chalet where we stayed on our honeymoon in Gatlinburg didn't look like this. Marilze probably would have gone back to Brazil on her own.

Elvis Is My Neighbor

2007-02-01T15:25:00.000-03:00

I really should have written about this a long time ago but I guess I've been holding it in my back pocket until a day came that I didn't have anything in particular that I wanted to write about.

Two blocks from where we live is a house like none other I have seen in Brazil. Actually the only thing close to it is in Memphis. Graceland in Brazil.

It seems that this lawyer from out of state visited the US several years ago and one place he had to see was the home of the king. While he was there he had a revelation. Take Graceland back to Brazil. So he did.

He bought a piece of land and build a replica, though not very exact. He used it as a summer home for several years and now it houses an insurance agency. Tourists take pictures of it regularly.

Now what would possess a man to do something like this, I don't know. It seems very bizarre to me but every time I pass it (several times a day) I can't help but think about Tennessee and home so I'm kind of glad it's here.

I wonder if he has a zebra-skinned sofa?

UPDATE - Lottery Winner's Wife Arrested

2007-01-31T08:29:00.000-03:00

Last week I wrote about René Senna, the 54 year-old man who had won R$56 million reais in the Mega Sena lottery back in 2005. He was murdered while drinking a beer at a local bar in his city.

Yesterday his 29 year-old wife, Adriana Almeira was arrested for the crime. She is being held without bail. Evidence was also shown proving that she was cheating on her double-amputee husband.

If convicted, Almeira would probably get the maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and be out in eight years. I will update more as the story unfolds.

Don't Ask Me

2007-01-30T12:41:00.000-03:00

We had been living in this house for a few weeks when we heard a dog howling. I looked out the window and saw this scene:

I had to do a double-take. Thankfully my camera was close by. Here's a closeup:

To this day, I can't figure out how the dog got up there unless some mean kid did it. There is no way he could climb up there. I looked out a few minutes later and it was gone. There were no splat marks near the house that I could see so someone must have helped him down.

I've felt like this poor guy a few times in my life. In a position where there is no way up and you're afraid to go down. I guess we all need help now and then.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

2007-01-29T12:17:00.000-03:00

I thought I had gotten used to things having strange names in Brazil and seeing confusing product names. We once lived in a city that had a stationary store called "Sniff". I talked to the owner and asked him why he named it that. He said he liked the way the word sounded.

I thought I had seen it all until Saturday when we stopped into our local Angeloni grocery store to pick up a few items. While Marilze was shopping, I just started wandering around, as I usually do, trying to find some decent junk food. I was walking by the frozen foods when I looked up and saw this can:

Sucky brand orange juice. I just start cracking up in the store. Who was the marketing genius who came up with this name? Did no one do any product research? Are they thinking of exporting it to the US?

To be fair, the word for juice is suco (pronounced soo-coe) and this product would be pronounced sookie but man, what a bad choice for a name.

When we lived in Goias there was an offbrand of Koolaid there called "Suks". I wished I had one of the packets but I only tried it once and the only thing I can say about it is at least they were honest about their product when they named it.

Tchau Lissa!

2007-01-26T10:50:00.000-03:00

Our niece, Lissa, is on her way home to São José do Rio Preto SP after spending almost a month with us. Marilze and I got up at 5am to take her to the bus station. Her bus was supposed to arrive at 6 am but it was almost an hour late. Actually, buses usually arrive on time so this was unexpected.

Lissa (pronounced like "Lisa" in English) is a really sweet young lady and she has been a real joy to have around the house. She has about a 13 hour bus ride ahead of her but it was a super nice bus. The seats reclined back like a Lazyboy. They handed out pillows and blankets, just like on an airplane and they even had an "in-flight" type magazine for the passengers. We miss her already and pray she has a safe trip home.

Saudade Lissa. Volte logo. (We miss you Lissa. Come back soon)

Thank you Treo

2007-01-26T10:26:00.000-03:00

Last night Marilze asked me to go for a walk with her down by the beach. I grabbed my camera and cellphone and we headed out. We got there just as the sun was going down. I grabbed by Konica-Minolta DIMAGE Z5 and got ready to take some pictures.

Now this camera was trashed by a lot of reviewers when it first came out and I've had to send it back to the factory one because the auto-focus quit working. But other than that I have been more than pleased with it.

As I get ready to take my first shot, an alarm on my camera goes off. Then the screen shows that there is no memory card. I had been copying pictures from the SD card earlier and I forgot to put it back in the camera.

I was packing it up when I suddenly realized that I had my cellphone with me. My Treo 650 and it had a PNY 2 gig SD card sitting in it's memory slot.

I took the SD card out as quickly as possible, which was quite a job because of its second skin case.

Now usually this memory card is loaded with a movie or some TV shows that I watch when standing in line at the bank, post office, lottery house, any government office, etc. When I lived in Nashville I got upset if there were three or four people ahead of me. Now as soon as I see the line I have to determine if I will be there waiting enough time to watch an episode of Newhart or Stargate.

I had about 400 meg free on the card so I took about 140 pics. I have always loved my Treo but this just made me love it more. Here is an example of what I would have missed if not for my Treo. You can see more on my Flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo

A Little Sightseeing

2007-01-25T09:31:00.000-03:00

Yesterday we took our niece Lissa on a little sightseeing trip around town. First we went to Morro de Careca (Bald Hill). It's a strange sensation when you get there. You feel like you are on top of the world and the view is breathtaking. Here is a photo I took of Balneário from the hill. You can see Praia dos Amores (Lover's Beach) in the foreground.

Here is a picture of Lissa and Anna that I took while on the hill.

From the other side of the hill you can get a great view of Praia Brava (Angry Beach)

We had a great time and I took about 250 pictures. The best ones are on my Flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo

My Ocean View

2007-01-24T19:18:00.000-03:00

Moving to the south of Brazil was a real experience. After living almost 10 years in cattle country and having never lived anywhere near the beach, I was a little unsure of the move. Add to the fact that I get sunburned in the shade and you can understand my apprehension.

But one of the joys I have found of living on the coast is being able to see the ocean. Thankfully I have an ocean view from my office balcony. Let me share it with you. Here it is.

OK, I know it's kinda hard to see. And it's obstructed. Let me point it out to you.

Alright. It's more obstructed than a seat at Wrigley field but it is my view. It would be a lot better except for this main obstruction.

You can see from this zoomed in photo how this electrical pole blocks me from having a better view. It is aggravating but I have found a way around it. If I lean way over the edge, I get a view more like this:

To be honest, I only leaned over the railing to take this photo cause I'm not too keen on falling three stories.

I know it's not much of a view but I do enjoy looking at it from time to time during the day. Sure beats looking out your window and seeing Tidwell Tires.

It Doesn't Pay To Play

2007-01-23T10:56:00.000-03:00

Over the past week or so I have been ragging on the lottery here in Brazil as well as people who play. Actually my rants have been about the people who stand in long lines in order to play.

René Senna was one of those people. This 54 year-old farm worker from the little town of Rio Bonito RJ, stood in line back in 2005, wrote down six numbers and won R$56 million reais (about US$25,000,000).

He was overjoyed. He bought the biggest farm in the city (R$9 million), shacked up with a 29 year-old hairdresser and her three kids from two previous marriages and then proceeded to live his life as he had before. Work a little during the day and then visit a local watering hole to drink and talk with his buddies.

Hole is the right word. This place would make Virginia's Tavern (that used to be where White Castle is now on Charlotte Pike) look like the Wild Horse Saloon. Here's a guy worth more than his entire city and he's throwing back cold ones in a dirt road beer joint. Go figure.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, he's relaxing, nursing a Kaiser (our version of Old Milwaukee) when a fight breaks out and René ends up dead. No witnesses. No one else injured.

This just days after his young wife, Adriana Almeira, had moved out of their home and he threatened to divorce her. Rumors were also floating around that she was having an affair with one of his six body guards, none of which were around at the time of the shooting.

René's 20 year-old daughter, Renata, has been the most vocal. She has requested a full investigation into her step-mother's love life trying to prove her affair and her motive for murder.

The widow, on the other hand, is demanding that Renata take a DNA test and has stated that René believed that Renata wasn't actually his own flesh and blood but the result of an illicit affair between his first wife and another man.

When the widow was brought in for questioning, a lynch mob surrounded the police station demanding justice for their fallen friend. I guess they were upset that no one was going to be around to pick up future bar tabs.

The crowd was dispersed after officers fired a pistol several times in the air and the sprayed the crowd with pepper spray. Two cars were destroyed in the melee.

OK, so René had a pocketful of cash but not too much sense. I guess money can buy you love and happiness but not brain cells.

A Childhood Dream Come True

2007-01-22T07:23:00.000-03:00

I grew up reading comics. Lots of comics. Thousands of comics. Most of them are stored in boxes in my sister's attic. As a kid I dreamed of a TV show that would show my heroes weekly. I guess I wasn't the only one.

I've watched just about every comic turned TV show or movie. Even the bad stuff. Thankfully in the last few years, it has mainly been good. Last week Smallville took a huge step forward to becoming one of the best.

Smallville is a huge hit here in Brazil. It is one of the most popular shows on television. I constantly have people ask me if there really is a city named Smallville in the US.

I've been watching Smallville from the beginning, all the while wishing they could get over the teen angst of Clark and Lana and move on to the Superman saga. They did even better than that last Thursday night.

Flash. Green Arrow. Aquaman. Cyborg. Superman. The Justice League.

Now I know what you're thinking. Why in the world would a 43 year-old man want to watch a show about superheroes? I wish I could think of something cool to say but I can't. These are simply the shows I wanted to watch when I was 12 but they didn't exist.

I guess I'm not alone since Heroes (my new favorite show this season) is a huge hit. I guess there are a lot of us out there who have dreamed of this kind of TV program only to have to settle for another version of Law and Order or CSI.

My thanks to NBC and CW for bringing us this type of programming. Please produce more. There are more than kids watching.

I Wish I Would Have Stayed Awake

2007-01-22T06:36:00.000-03:00

I can't believe I missed the comeback.

Like many UT fans, I automatically started following the Colts when they drafted Peyton Manning. Never really cared for them before. I liked Johnny U as a kid but not much more than that.

Now no one player, not even Manning, could take away my allegiance to the Skins but still I follow his stats more than any other player. He just makes the game of football fun.

Last night must have been a lot of fun but I missed it. I fell asleep.

There are two main reasons for that. One, the game didn't start here until 10pm. The second is that I was on pain medication for my back -- the reason I didn't post anything yesterday.

In the second quarter, right after Asante Samuel's interception-turned-touchdown and a score of 21-3, my eyes started getting heavy. I couldn't resist. I wanted to watch but I drifted off.

Now I wish I would have stuck needles in my arm to stay awake. One of the greatest comebacks in NFL playoff history and I was snoozing.

Now Manning and his Colts are headed to the Show to meet the Bears. There is no way I'm going to sleep through that.

Congrats to Peyton, Tony Dungy and the rest of the Colts. You guys deserve it.

Man To Swim The Amazon

2007-01-20T06:44:00.000-03:00

Martink Strel is a marathon swimmer. Actually, he is an insane marathon swimmer. He swam the entire Danube, then the Mississippi, then the Yangtze and now he is going to take on the Amazon. World's longest river. Three-thousand three-hundred and seventy-five miles.

This 52 year-old man is going to try to achieve this feat in 70 days, swimming an average of 11-12 hours a day. He heads out from the jungle settlement in Atalaya Peru on the first of February and plans to enter the Atlantic Ocean on April 11th.

What does he plan on doing about the caiman crocodiles and piranhas? He will have a staff on board an accompanying boat that will through buckets of blood into the river to attract the piranhas and any other flesh eating fish away from Strel.

Worse than that is the dreaded Candiru or toothpick fish. Known as the "vampire fish of Brazil".

The candiru is attracted by urine. Someone swimming 11-12 hours a day might have to do that. Once attracted, the candiru swim for body orifices where it enters and attaches itself inside the body using spiny bones that cover it's body. There it remains as a parasite feeding on its host. It is the only know human parasite that is a vertebrate. (I'm getting dizzy thinking about it)

Knowing all this, Strel moves forward. His website will have live video feeds from the Amazon. I personally think he's nuts but more power to him. I hope he makes it. And I hope he does it parasite-free.

http://www.amazonswim.com/

Observations from my balcony Pt 1

2007-01-19T07:03:00.000-03:00

I am fortunate enough to have a balcony off the side of my home office. During the day I will get up several times and walk outside to look around a bit. I can see the ocean, although it is an obstructed view, but it gives me time to think and relax before returning to work.

The other day as I was standing there looking over my neighborhood, it struck me how many satellite dishes I saw. I mean, there were a lot of them.

With the advent of DirecTV and digital cable, most large dishes in the US have been relegated to Dickerson Road type trailer parks. Not so in Brazil.

We have two pay satellite services, DirecTV and Sky, who have recently merged into one. Many people opt for one of these instead of cable because there are more channels.

But regular satellite service is different. You pay no monthly fee. You just buy a dish and receiver (about US$150), set them up and you get 18 channels for free. Forever.

This happened because there are many regions of the country where there is no reception because there are not enough transmitter towers. So they developed a co-op satellite system with the networks to provide basic programing via satellite to the whole country.

Here in Balneário Camboriú, which is one of the most modern cities in Brazil, we can't pick up any broadcast channel well, including the powerhouse network Globo so most of my neighbors have opted for a dish. Here is the proof. All of these photos were taken from my balcony.

This one is mine. You can see many more dishes that I can see from my balcony at my Flickr site. From time to time, I'll be updating and adding more dish photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/sets/72157594480671078/

Hanging out the laundry

2007-01-18T14:55:00.000-03:00

I was driving home from Rogerio's house when I decided to turn down a street I normally never use. It was one of those inspiring moments a blogger lives for.

Last week I wrote about how most Brazilians won't use a dryer. In a city with hundreds of thousands of tourists, there isn't always a good place to hang your clothes so they improvise. Here is the jewel I found.

I don't know who these people are or where they got this flag from but I was so shocked I nearly ran off the road. At first I thought it was a beach towel but it was really a flag. I'd love to know the story behind this one.

Quiet day at the Beach

2007-01-17T06:18:00.000-03:00

As I have mentioned in other posts, this is now our tourist season. Our city has a population of about 40,000 and it is an awesome place to live. We have one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, we are 20 minutes away from the largest amusement part in South America and it's considered to be in the top three cities in Brazil for restaurants.

After living in much more rural areas, moving to a modern city like this one has been a true culture shock. We've felt at times like we had moved to another country.

But for three months out of the year, people from all over South America pour into our town. Everyone kept telling us this was coming but nothing could prepare us for actually living through it. Right now there are about a half a million tourists here. You can't get near a grocery store, restaurants are packed and traffic is a nightmare. A drive that normally takes 5 minutes now takes up to 45 minutes.

Double-click on this picture and you can see how many people you can actually cram on the beach.

Now I don't like crowds. I don't like feeling crowded. I can't imagine sitting in the middle of this mass of sweaty humanity. Doesn't seem like fun or a vacation to me. I can think of a whole lot of other things I would prefer to be doing.

The tourists will be here for about another 6 weeks or so. We are learning to deal with it. Soon we'll have it all to ourselves again. No matter what, it beats Hermitage Landing any day of the week.

Check out my new photos from Balneário at my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/

I guess I shouldn't have run my mouth

2007-01-16T11:21:00.000-03:00

This is me. Its 9:17 am and as you can see, I am not very happy. I have been forced by the powers that be to go to a lottery house. Why?

Because Celesc, our electric company, has nothing better to do than to make us try to figure out each month where we can pay our phone bills.

Normally you pay your bills in a bank. Most of the time you can set them up for automatic deposit. But not in Balneário Camboriú. Each month is a cat and mouse game trying to figure out where you can pay your bill.

Some months you can pay at your bank. Most of the time you can pay at your local grocery store, except for right now, with over a half a million tourists in the city, they've decided that the only place they will allow you to give them money is at a lottery station.

Thankfully I had my Treo in my pocket and was able to take this shot of my view from the end of the line. I counted 17 people ahead of me, all with dreams of hitting the number and making it rich.

To be fair, about half of these people were in the same situation as me. Poor slobs just wanting to make sure their lights stay on, but almost every one took advantage of the situation and decided to play.

Finally, at 9:36 I hold the fruit of my fruitless labor in my hands. My reciept for $277.05 reias (about US$130). The line moved faster than I expected but it was still frustrating.

And I didn't play the lotto. If it had been Powerball I probably would have but the Mega Sena pot is still too small to get me excited enough to play. Plus I keep thinking about that fool and his money thing.

Just to prove a point

2007-01-15T21:47:00.000-03:00

This afternoon we had to go to the bank and then pick up a few things downtown. When I saw this, I was thankful that I was carrying my Bushnell Digital Camera with me.

This more than proves my point that these people are addicted to the Lotto. First off it's 3pm on a Monday afternoon and it's about a 100 degrees in the shade, much less standing out in the sun. Second, the drawing isn't until Wednesday night so these people are trying to get an early jump on buying their tickets (don't these people have jobs?)

But most important, someone won last week so the total is only 17 million reias (about $7.5 million US dollars). Now I know that will buy a lot of beans and rice but let's be serious. I ain't standing in that line unless the pot breaks 100 million. And even then I'd only be doing it to make my wife happy.

Can you imagine what would happen if we had Powerball here?

I Knew This Day Was Coming....

2007-01-15T07:12:00.000-03:00

A little over 17 years ago, when I found out that my first child was a baby girl, I knew that someday some boy was going to start hanging around too much and made a nuisance of himself. That day has come.

Rodrigo actually started his pursuit of my little girl while I was out of the country (I have to give him props on that - smart move on his part). But he did man up and ask permission to date her when I got home. This past Saturday night, he took it a step further.

Since he is still breathing and has no gaping wounds in his body, you can understand that this doesn't mean what you think it means. This is the Brazilian version of going steady. Instead of giving your girl your Cohn High School class ring, you both wear what appear to be wedding bands on your right hand. I see it as Rodrigo trying to mark his territory but that's ok by me because that just means I only have to keep my eye on one of these rascals.

I guess that Rodrigo is a good enough kid. He's a hard worker and helps support his family. He's very involved in our church. He is a gaucho, which is someone from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the state right below us. I guess the best thing I can say about him is that he's not from Fairview.

Still doesn't settle too well with me though...

A Day At The Beach

2007-01-14T11:17:00.000-03:00

Living in Balneário Camboriú, we’ve gotten pretty used to going to the beach. Our house is only two blocks away but everyone wanted to spend Saturday at the beach so we packed up some stuff and headed to the next city down the road, Itapema.

You might as why we would do that if we had a beach so close by. The answer is simple. More than 700,000 Argentineans, Paraguayans, Uruguayans and Brazilians. This is one of the most popular tourist cities in Brazil and the beaches are simply packed. It’s hard to see the sand for all the umbrellas.

Ilhotas Beach in Itapema is another story. As you can see in this photo, it has not yet been discovered by tourists.

The sand runs along about a mile stretch before ending in a giant rock formation.

As the surf comes crashing in, it produces some spectacular spray

You can see more of my photos from Itapema at my Flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/

I guess having your own TV show isn't enough...

2007-01-13T15:41:00.000-03:00

We spent the day at the beach today. I'll post pictures and comments tomorrow. In the meantime, thought you might get a kick out of this. This week Germany announced the opening of the Sponge Bob Amusment Park. Not to be out done, right here in Balneário Camboriú we've got our own Sponge Bob's car wash. And Bob ain't cheap either. I'd let them was my car as long as they'd promise to sing the goofy goober song while they did it.

UPDATE: I was looking over the blog when I realized something. Right below the phone number is a sign that says "Attention" and then has a crossed "E". That means "no parking" (não estacione). Course there is a parked car right in front of it. Evidence of a common saying here: There are no laws in Brazil, only suggestions...

The Brazilian Way of Life Part 1

2007-01-12T10:22:00.000-03:00

This morning I got up and and it was raining. That was no surprise. We are in the middle of our rainy season and it had been raining all night. Yesterday afternoon while the sun was out, Marilze (my old lady), hung out clothes to dry on the line. We didn't get home til after midnight and by then it had already been raining several hours.

So all of these clothes ended up hanging out all night in the pouring rain. You might wonder why, especially if were to turn slightly to the right and see this:

Our brand new Brastemp electric dryer that my parents gave us for Christmas. It's not a Whirlpool from Allen & Bean but it's the best Brazil has to offer. Why is it sitting there not being used? Because it uses too much electricity. Marilze says she will only use it when necessary.

While we grew up in a land and time of cheap energy, my wife grew up with hyperinflation. There were several years where the inflation rate was 100,000% a year. That would mean that prices doubled every two or three days. There were wage increases but they were monthly and didn't keep up with rising prices.

Just to show you how pervasive this way of thinking is, I don't know anyone who has a dryer except us. Of course that's not a question I normally ask people but I've never seen one in somebody else's house and I always see their unmentionables hanging on their clotheslines. Because dryers use too much electricity.

Maybe one day I can get her to splurge and do a load a two. I keep telling her she should live a little. She does put the towels in the dryer. After 11 years drying on the clothesline, they were all stiff as a board but now they're soft as can be. I guess that's her version the good life.

Brazilian Home Cooking

2007-01-12T06:40:00.000-03:00

One of the best things about living in Brazil is the food and last night, Miriam Soares, my business partner's wife, invited us over for some homemade caldo de feijão or bean stew.

Now I know that doesn't sound nearly as appetizing as white beans and cornbread from Wendall Smith's but let me tell you, this is some good eating. Miriam is from the centro-oeste or midwest region of Brazil where they are known for their cooking. And she is an excellent cook.

Miriam loaded her caldo down with linguiça (sliced sausages) and pork ribs and let it cook for several hours. She served it with chopped green onions, grated cheese, fresh bread and ample amounts of hot sauce.

It´s the morning after now and my digestive system is telling me that I am too old to eat like that at 11:00 PM. It was worth it. And I´ll probably do it again.

Lion Hunt Gone Bad Video

2007-01-11T10:48:00.000-03:00

This is the video I mentioned in the YouTube post earlier. I hope this guy had an extra pair of drawers with him.

YouTube.com - BANNED IN BRAZIL

2007-01-11T09:58:00.000-03:00

So I guess by now you have heard the uproar over YouTube and how some Brazilian judges wanted to get their names in the paper.

If this is news to you, let me fill you in. Seems that an Brazilian supermodel named Daniela Cicarelli and her banker boyfriend Renato Malzoni went on vacation to Cadiz Spain. Evidently things got a little romantic on the beach and, well, things happened. Now being a supermodel, she should realize that paparazzi would be following her around. Maybe she wanted an audience. I don't know. Don't really care but someone filmed the whole thing and then uploaded on the web.

As with everything salacious on the internet, it went from site to site until YouTube made it famous. Brazilians by the thousands were uploading and watching. Then Ms. Cicarelli got modest. YouTube was making money off her indiscretion and she wanted a piece of it. A suit was filed in a Brazilian court, she claims, by her boyfriend back in September. A Brazilian judge ordered YouTube to remove all copies of the video from their site. They did but more were uploaded. The case now goes before a panel of three judge who will decide whether or not to fine YouTube US$119,000 a day until they install filters that would prevent this video from reappearing.

Remember, this is all taking place in Brazilian courts which have no authority in the US and can't do a cotton-pickin' thing to make YouTube pay up. Evidently they were feeling a little frustrated so on Tuesday, they shut down any access to YouTube for the entire country. I know that's not nearly as heartbreaking as when they tore down the BelAir Drive In but I was trying to watch a video of a lion hunt gone wrong and was shut out because of these bureaucrats.

Thankfully, a few hours later, Supreme Court Justice Enio Santarelli decided he wanted his name in the papers as well and lifted the ban. Freedom returned to South America.

Now I know that many a West Nashvillian has done what Ms. Cicarelli and Mr. Malzone did, albeit probably at Collins Lake or off Annex down by the ferryboat, instead of Cadiz Spain. Thankfully there is no known video footage of such escapades presently on YouTube. They'd probably have to pay us US$119,000 to watch.

Lotto Mania Brasileira

2007-01-11T07:35:00.000-03:00

One thing I have learned since moving to Brazil is that Brazilians love the lottery. Love it may be putting it mild. Obsessed. Yeah that sounds more like it. I mean they like it so much that they had to invent jogo do bicho so that people who could play the lottery not by choosing numbers but by choosing one of 25 different animals.

When we lived up north in Goias, you would see a people standing in line at the licensed lottery houses, called lotericas (the only place where you can legally purchase lottery tickets) waiting to buy their chance at a better future. Sometimes 5 or maybe 10. More than at Charlotte Park Market but really not that many. Some of them weren't even playing the lotto because you can also pay many of your bills there. Occasionally the local governments like to play games with you and make you pay your light or water bill there as well. For only one month. That usually entails an hour or two wait in line -- a pastime that Brazilians seem to love even more than playing the lottery. I'll talk about paying bills in Brazil in another rant soon.
Anyway, after moving even further south to Santa Catarina, we have found that people in this state take the lotto seriously. Very seriously. They have incorporated their two favorite pastimes into an artform. Yesterday the Mega Sena (our version of Powerball) hit 50,000,000 reias (about US$22,000,000). We headed to our local Angeloni Supermarket which also has a lotérica in the store. I was anticipating some serious lines. I wasn't disappointed. Here is the evidence thanks to my Treo. This is the front of the lotérica. You can see about 10 or so in line. Not too unusual.

This is moving around to the front door. It´s Powerball-fever, Brazilian style. No big deal.

Moving around you can see that the line moves out to the front of the store. This is no bigger than your average line at the bank. Still nothing worthy of a post.

Walking out the front door I see the line has snaked out of the building and up the handicap ramp into the store. Now we are talking some serious lottery players. Getting at the end of this line means probably losing your job and needing to hit just to pay rent.

I took this last one from the upper handicap ramp just to show how much the Catarinense (people from Santa Catarina) love to stand in line and believe they are going to win it big.

BTW, somebody in São João da Barra, RJ played 15,17,23,33,39 and 49 and won 52 million reias. Guess he picked the right day to stand in line.