I was travelling in Brazil and my tents zipper wouldn’t zip up anymore and let in many mosquitoes. So I bought a replacement zipper in Sao Paulo and took the tent to a seamstress shop. The shops window opened up onto the street and was covered by massive white iron bars. Inside the window was a room...

The last night of carnival it rained. For a moment the music ceased and the streets cleared. Crowds huddled beneath the food shacks and sheltered under brightly painted umbrellas. The cobbled streets glistened beneath sheets of rainwater; giant puddles began to slosh against the sidewalks. I could...

I tend to judge a new city heavily on two criteria: music and food. So it's no surprise (at least to me!) that Salvador, Brazil is pretty much my favorite place in the world.

While São Paolo is the industrial capital of Brazil, and Rio is probably the most popular tourist destination, most Brazilians...

Departure From France - Sorry it's in French...hope someone still knows how to read that!!!

Ceci est une histoire de ma famille, d'un voyage au départ de la France, vers le Brésil. Ma famille: Léo=Mon père, Diane=Ma mère, Hugo=Moi meme, Indi=ma soeur

Nous sommes une famille Canadienne Francaise qui...

So now that the truth is out--that I am a RESIDENT of NATAL in the Northeast of Brazil--this, I realize, puts me in a very priveleged position to TRAVEL to a million little beach towns up and down the coast. So here it is, another personal revelation, I am announcing my plan, here and now, to...

Okay, coming clean with everything. Full disclosure.

I AM NOT TRAVELLING IN BRAZIL. I ACTUALLY LIVE HERE.

Phwew. I feel better.

 For one, I have finally admitted it to myself. I am not travelling. I live here. Natal is my home.

My children live here. They go to school here. They have lots...

Brazil seems far away this morning.

It could be the six inches of snow on the ground.

Or maybe it's the fact I never really connected with anyone or anything there the way I always do when I travel.

But still, there are some things I can't get out of my head, some things that will only begin to make...

We were standing in what was described to us as the "press box," ready to capture and transmit Caetano Veloso's concert in real time, when Dilma showed up and the floor began to tremble. My colleague from Atlanta made another comment about the dais holding many more working revelers than the 250 person...

The first thought that occurs to me as I’m sitting in the backseat of a taxi, speeding through the streets of Recife, is that I could easily like a country where nine out of 10 people wear flip flops.

A strange first thought, and apropos of nothing, but I’ve been running through airports...

Senador Georgino Avelino is a small, Potiguar (literally "shrimp eater" in tupi, and the name for people of this region) town on Brazil's northeastern coast. Shrimp thrives in the mangrove swamps that flourish in this region. We were going there to find out when the next presentation...

Last Friday I went to a cool party in Central London, just behind Piccadilly Circus, at an exclusive private club with the theme of Casino Royal, champagne, roulette, gambling tables, state-of-the-art architecture and, inescapably, music all night long. Outcome of the evening? I need to move to...

She was a brazilian dime
& I was primed like Kevin Kline
preparing to ’act’ in Grand Canyon,
the 1991 film:
ready to be empathetic... visibly seducted, 
and married.
She was a brazilian dime
& that is not even NEAR
the description of how fine
this brazilian dime really was.
Her walk down...

The darkest, stickiest, richest mud in the universe squeezes through our toes as thousands of fiddler crabs scatter from burrows, to obscure destinations, as we come ashore. Smoke from the wood fire of the fish camp carries the smell of roasting corn. As we approach, two young fishermen in front of...

OK I started working on this story from a couple of years ago but not sure if it would work so well as an article, especially since Varig is no longer in business.  So I decided to post it here and see what people think. Enjoy.

           ...

In 19 days I will be traveling to Cuiaba in Mato Grosso, central Brazil for my wedding. At first, having two weddings seemed like a simple way to avoid worrying about obtaining visas for everyone in her family to come here, or vice versa. Little did I know how complicated it could be.

The first time I...

I just got up from my hammock turned the light back on, grabbed my pad, pen and retractable pencil from the wooden draw in the wardrobe and checked the watch - 23:57.

I've decided to write something now for the blog.  For some time now I've grown out of the habit of feeling that new experience,...

Fruit is intelligent. More accurately fruit trees are intelligent.

Just as the last of the ruddy, cashew fruit harvest, falls into bags and baskets... Just as the thought of sucking one more of those succulent wonders seems redundant, an almost unbearable excess... as...

By a weird twist, my trip to Guiné-Bissau has been posponed, and I am taking an unexpected detour to Marquette, Michigan. With all of these travel plan changes, I was still in Natal to catch the thrilling, final performance and art exhibit by local artist, Marcelo Gandhi,...

Some of São Paulo
A motley trio with Dudu Maia—guitar, pandeiro, cavaquinho—smile delivering the demanding riffs of Chorinho or a cool Sambinha at Feira Moderna in the Vila Madalena, and lovely, happy souls grabbing waists to whirl in and out of cavaquinho solos, Chopp, a shot of cachaça—icons...

  It is one of importance to me. The rewards for giving is the giving itself, and the more one can give the more one can receive. It is great to feel me to have contributed to something by giving my most precious asset.... Time! I am glad I have the skills to help out and glad to have the chance...