Brazilian State Flags: Minas Gerais

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Little puppy Sophia

I have a really hard time catching a good picture of her. She's constantly moving when she's awake, and she gets really bad red-eye in pictures too. So most of my photos of her are when she's sleeping. But she's sweet that way. She's learning to be a little Brazilian dog. She swims in the ocean very well, we went to a waterfall the other day and she sort of liked it. She digs in the sand like a champ. Little Maria Sophia.

Ilha de Itamaraca & Fort Orange

We had some of my childhood friends as guests during New Year's. They had done a ton of research before they came, and had so many touristy places to visit on their list that we'd never even heard of (or, I guess I hadn't heard of, Toby knows the area a lot better). One of the places was Ilha de Itamaraca, an island. There is an old dutch fort there, Fort Orange, a small beach, and a little town. We ended up never making it to the small town, but instead went to a little lake, called Blue Lake, which was great! It had a zipline (and the shakiest structure I've ever been on holding it up), and around the lake there was a little snack bar, and maybe a little hotel, I forget. The zipline was R$5 (so, like USD$2.50) so we all did it. Affordable fun. After a full day of sweating and salt water, the lake was reeeefreshing. A good place to visit, but we'll have to see the downtown too sometime to get the full impression.

Brazilian State Flags: Mato Grosso do Sul

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

You got a hole in the road?

If you live in Brazil, you just fill it with stuff. This one actually has a sign. 'Operation "tapa" Hole'. I didn't know what the world 'tapa' meant, so I just now google translated it. It says it means slap. Haha, Operation Slap the Hole. That's right, they just don't like them here. Holes. I don't even know how holes this big get in the roads in the first place.

Holes tend to stay for a long time. For the first few months (like 4?) we lived here I walked past a leaky hole on the way to the grocery store every day. It ran a consistent stream of water for like 4 months. Then for like two weeks there were guys in the hole fixing it. It's still a little bit of a hole, but they fixed the leak.

But where I was getting, normally, if there is a hole (I guess this one was big enough to warrant a sign) they just shove some stuff in it until it's tall enough to stick out of the top. Like palm branches is a normal thing. It's so people don't see the hole and drive into it. Makes sense, right?

Porto de Galinhas holiday visit

We had a bajillion guests over the winter holidays, so we took a few more trips to Porto de Galinhas for touristing. We're getting pretty used to the tourist stuff, shopping and the normal trip out to the reef- which, let me stop myself mid-sentence, has changed. They used to have a wonderful conservation program set up; you had to watch an informative video before going on the reef, only a certain number of people were allowed at a time, and only for an allotted amount of time. All that is gone. Even the structure that held the information is gone. I have no idea why. Oh well. Back to the subject, I've been going more off the tourist track while I snorkel lately. I've been playing around with the waterproof camera, checking out the bottom sides of boats, stuff like that.

Brazilian State Flags: Mato Grosso

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia.