Brasilia 1: Sugar Cane Processing Plant

So we just got back from Brasilia (the capital of Brazil) and Rio. We were there for a short trip, but man we packed it full of stuff! We visited a sugar cane processing plant (lots of sugar is grown here), a tomato processing plant and a corn processing plant. At the sugar one they make regular sugar, as well as ethanol. The first two presses of the sugar cane (it looks sort of like a stick of bamboo, but shorter and solid) is used to make sugar, and the next five are used to make ethanol. It was a really crazy plant. I'll post the tomato and corn in another post. For now, let me tell you about our trip to Brasilia with pictures.

Emus here (statues), because there are snakes that endanger the workers in the fields of sugarcane. Emus eat snakes.

Handsome couple in our safety helmets, yes? We also donned hair nets and face masks later. Luckily you can't see the sweat pouring down our faces here. It was hot.

There were a lot of neat pictures of the factory. I couldn't figure out which were the best, so I thought this one of me might be good. Behind me is the machine that sort of dumps the sugar cane into the area to be crushed. I think.

We are standing on a platform and there is some sort of machinery behind us, but the stuff in front is the stuff that does the actual crushing of the cane. Remember? First two presses are for sugar, the rest are for ethanol? You can see four boxes in a line sort of near the middle of the picture. Those are the presses. There are more, hidden.

The left of the image you can sort of see a clear film with blue stuff printed on it. This is how the bags start, flat roll of film. This machine makes it into a cylinder and fills it with sugar. Then it's on that little conveyor belt, and off to a truck to be shipped!

Each bag is 1 ton of sugar. The warehouse was insanely huge. And also had one of the stickiest floors I've been on in a while. 

A gift at the end of our tour. A bag of sugar for each of us. Then we got to carry around the 2kg bag for the rest of our trip. 

I forget what this machine does. But pretty, right?

We also stopped by a guy's house (a worker from the plant) because he was making pamonhas. It was a really nice family process. But we arrived thinking we were eating them soon after we got there. Which really meant (Brazil's not so good with time, sometimes) that they'd be ready in 4 hours. So we left.

When we got to the office in the morning they were waiting for us! Yummy snack.

I also saw this GREAT looking bird. I chased it around the property trying to get a good picture. It was lunchtime, so all the workers were watching me. Luckily I don't understand much of what they say. Anyway, this bird was about 2 feet tall. Neat right? The people didn't act like it was anything special, so maybe it wasn't.

Also the whole campus had these great fishtail palms. They were different than lots of the ones I've seen in the states. More like a palm tree. But they were fruiting while we were there. Pretty berries right? Not good for eating though (or so I was told. I'll try them eventually).

A post with no pictures

We're in Rio right now and I don't have the cord to upload any pictures. Also we're not done with the trip yet, so I don't know what other great things I'll see. But for now I'm going to write down what we've seen, because most of it I haven't gotten great pictures of.

Leeet's see... We arrived here on a 5AM flight, which means we got to see the sunrise from the airplane, which was nice. We went straight to a cliff to go...HANGLIDING! Well I went hang gliding, Toby went para gliding since he had never done that before. Both were awesome. There are a lot of pictures, so more on that later. After that we were picked up by the world's happiest Brazilian (a friend of Toby's parents) and she brought us to her house, where we're staying, for breakfast. Deeelicious, like Brazlilians do: coffee, cheese, bread, fruit, juice, anything else I would have asked for I'm sure I would have received. We then watched her play a little tennis (okay, maybe this post isn't the most exciting one ever), and she's really good. I've mostly seen my family play tennis, and although I think we have a few good players mixed in there, they always have to play with the rest of us, who are horrible... So this lady we're staying with (Suely is her name) seemed semi-pro! Then she took us on a great city tour. We saw the Sugarloaf (big ole rock, we're not sure why it's named like that), downtown Rio, the largest slum in Rio, and the largest slum in South America. Rio is a really beautiful city. We're much further south than where we live, but it's surprisingly hot! Much hotter than Recife. Or at least it seems.

Okay... well, this is a horrible post. Breakfast is on the table (again), and we're off to see the Christ statue (which was a gift from France, who knew?), and do some other things, but I'm not sure what.

A few things

A still haven't gotten to my old photos, and I don't have enough common photos for a full themed post. And maybe I just don't have a good idea either. So here we go with this. Happy Easter. That just happened, so it's a good topic. We went to the beach, had some beers, fried fish and made pizza for dinner. Peeps for dessert, thanks to Mom and Dad. Because we didn't have any family around, and aren't sure about what church/where to go to church, it wasn't the most 'Easter-y' Easter. But we talked to family on Skype, so there was still that aspect.

Most everyone we know here is Catholic, and I'm pretty sure they know we're Catholic too. But as much and they all carry around their rosaries and say their prayers, no one has invited us to church. Maybe it's not a thing to do here. I haven't even heard a mention of going to church, but again, possibly people here are just more spiritual in general and don't feel the 'you're-supposed-to-go-to-church'-ness that Americans feel. I have no idea. Eventually I'd like to find my way over to a church. I used to be able to say the rosary in Spanish, so a full mass in Portuguese should be a breeze, right?

Okay, okay, I'm getting to the point, the pictures. They'll be below, but first, another note: we're going to Brasilia (the capital of Brasil) and Rio de Janeiro later this week. Just for a few days, and a lot of it's for work, but we're pretty excited. We'll be doing some sugar cane research in Brasilia and sightseeing in Rio. To let you know where we are on the map, Brasilia is 2,100 km southwest from us. Rio is 2,300 km south down the coast of Brasil from us. Brasilia and Rio are 1,100 km apart. So we'll be flying to the interior, back to the coast, and then home up the coast. But all far away.

Finally: here are the pictures:

I walked to the airport to pick up Toby when he came back from the states. I saw the first protected sea turtle  nest on the way (the walk to the airport ain't shabby). There are sea turtles EVERYWHERE (I mean, in the water, not so much walking around the streets), so I've been surprised to not see more of these. 

On my walk I also saw this amazing beehive! I've never seen a real natural beehive in person. First one. Very cool, right? I'd like to climb that tree and get me some honey.

Also on the walk: passed by the Recife 4X4 club. This was one little guy parked on the street. 

Haha, an Easter surprise! Something I'm sure I'd never see in the US, a feather stuck inside by package of eggs. 

Toby's pizza: Brazilian sausage, ham and mozzarella. And lots of sauce. 

My pizza: half two-cheese white (mozz and quiejo do coalho, a brazilian cheese), which was the least favorite, and half Hawaiian: red sauce, fresh pineapple and ham.

Drinks

Well, I lost my laptop this week. And that's what I've been working on since we arrived in Brazil, so I have no pictures to blog with. When I say lost, I mean it like "We lost great-grandma, she just had to go sky-diving". I revived it earlier today long enough to grab some work files, but not transfer photos. So for now, just some thoughts, with photos that we took the first time we visited Brazil.

The thoughts, what are they about? They're about drinks. Probably could have guessed from the title, huh? As you may recall earlier, I have a tough time getting water to drink here. People seldom offer me water. I have to beg. And usually I still don't get it. A lot of people here pride themselves on their juices, but I'm pretty sure one or two times I've been fed pre-packaged juice, under the guise of fresh-squeezed. I ain't having it. I'd rather have water. The problem is, here, water costs just as much as anything else (at, say a restaurant...at home I'm sure it's cheaper). The tap water isn't drinkable, so when out to eat, why not get a beer, coconut water or soda. It's all pretty much the same price. It makes sense to me. But in people's homes, I just can't seem to get water either. Must be habit of the people. Along with things like reading (family is almost to the point of worried that I haven't tried to plug in the TV yet) and exercise (also worried that I walk too much...?) the "healthier" option isn't really the most common one. Not saying the US is any different, probably the same. Except for the water. 

Anyway. I'll drink these fun drinks when they're offered to me. Below we're drinking something that I haven't had since our first visit: caldo de cana, sugarcane water. It is deeelicious. I first had it after a day of sightseeing, and man, it was refreshing and a jolt of sugar that got me back on my feet. So good. Probably  not very good for you. But natural, at least.

Also, coconut water is one of my favorite drinks. In the grocery store it's actually not cheap (coconuts are EVERYWHERE, how is this not cheaper!), and it has additives, sugar and preservatives, so I stay away. But on the beach or walking around, there's not much better than drinking it out of the coconut. Yum. And, I mean, I don't think it needs to be said that I like the beer here. Another favorite drink. More on drinks later (as I type I realize that there's a lot to talk about on this subject).

Home Sweet Home

Okay, here she is, all unpacked! Not necessarily where everything should be (like all art is sitting on the floor), but that will come with time. I'm in the market for some rugs, and maybe a new coffee table, I think ours is too small for our giant living room. We're having a tough time fitting our TV where it's supposed to go (in the TV room! We have a TV room, how neat is that!). We might have to cut out the middle of a shelf. But we're not sure if that means the rest of the shelf will fall down. Trial and error. I guess that might be our process.

Also, my 'office' is in the living room, which is fine, but I went to plug in my computer and found that there are no grounded outlets in the living room. So that got me looking. There are absolutely no outlets in the whole living room and about a 10 foot reach beyond. I've only found ONE grounded plug in the whole apartments (except for, I assume, the outlets that the fridge and washer are plugged in to), in the larger guest bedroom. What in the world? This apartment is hilarious sometimes.

Here are some pictures of the house:

There's so much space between the chairs and the coffee table... Maybe a rug will bring it all closer together? Also, that nice red bookshelf, that's most likely not it's permanent home. 

OH the start of a garden! Cilantro is sold in the grocery store with the roots attached, so I thought it's try and revive it. Mint and rosemary I bought yesterday for $2 (about $1.65 USD) and in the toilet paper tubes: papaya!

Giant TV would go right in the middle here... Taking out most of the middle shelf. Also, see those light bulbs off the ceiling? Any ideas on how to cover those guys up? I like the eco-friendly bulbs, but not how they stick out.

After the TV goes in I'm rearranging all this stuff, which I think is so much fun to do.

So much shelving and storage in this place. This feels a little cluttered to me right now, but it'll get there.

The room with the only grounded outlet. Also the bedroom with the best view. So maybe it would make a good office? But also if guests come, it's the room they'll be staying in...so that means no office while guests are in.  

The smaller guest bedroom. I made great covers for the AC holes, but they don't like to stay in while the wind is blowing. I'll revamp them later.

Our bedroom. It's mostly bed.

The kitchen. It's a super old style kitchen... But TONS of storage. Shelves as far as the eye can see.

Gone Fishin'

Hey yall! We got a new boat! It's a pretty sweet little yacht, in a beautiful turquoise blue with a yellow bottom. We haven't named her yet, but on the drawing board are: Blue Footed Booby, Suzi, the Minnow. All sorts of good names out there, it'll be hard to come up with something that we like and is somewhat readable down here (where they ain't speaking the right language). Here she is in all her glory:

That's a pretty sweet weed wacker motor, eh?

The gal with all her riggings, two anchors, keel and rudder (used to be a sailboat), live well (it's just a hole in the boat), and long sticks to steer with incase we run out of motor.

This sucker is really hard to steer. And keep in the water. I'm putting all my dirty-shirted might into it.

Some catches if the day. Nothing big enough to eat yet, but we're getting there. 

Rolling her up on the beach on coconut trunks. This image is misleading; it takes about 7 men to roll it.

Our fishing paddles. 

PUUUUFFER FIIISH! We caught three of these our first time out.

Fellow fishermen, to give you an idea of what the boat looks like in the water. Looks like a door, no?

Just pictures and captions.

I just realized I haven't posted in a while. Our stuff arrived and I've been working on that non-stop! Here's a catcher-upper.

Toby's cousin Renata, one of our closest friends here, took me to Recife's city center shopping area a while ago. It's really crazy, tons of vendors, stores just JAM packed with every sort of good you could imagine. The food section looked like a lot more fun to me, but we spent a lot of time in the notebook/hair accessory and jewelry part of town. I'll put up more pictures when I go back and visit the fruit section. Renata is inside the store here in the yellow dress. Also, note the store is called "a lot more". I have no idea how you could top that.

I have never seen so many leaks as I have here. This one that finally got some work done had been leaking (releasing a sizable stream of water into the road non-stop) since we moved in. I've noticed about 4 more, just on my walk to Jiu Jitsu. No idea whether it's a busted pipe or some sort of magical moving spring that's moving around the city. I guess fixing them is one way to keep cool on the job?

I've walked by this tree every other day for a while now, it's on the way to Jiu Jitsu. Toby's called it everything from a mango tree (which are huge magnolia-like trees, they look nothing like this) to a coconut palm (which, again, look mildly similar but not very. I do love his inability to spot a plant, it's cute). I've seen it in different stages of fruiting, and kept thinking it looked like a papaya, but thought there was no way that tree could support all those full size papayas (called mamao here).

Well, it is in fact a papaya tree. I did a little more research. They are apparently easy to grow from seed (from storebought fruit, no less), so I'm planting some as soon as my 'compost' looks brown enough to call dirt. The papayas in the photo are young. The trees fruit year round and grow to fruiting stage in less than a year. They fruit year round and grow well here. Here we come papaya tree.