words, words, words

Something weird is going on in Brazil, and I hope it is just saber-rattling.  The President of Brazil is claiming that they need to protect themselves from people stealing their offshore oil. This announcement comes as the U.S. Navy is reestablishing the U.S. Fourth Fleet, a fleet that will patrol the Caribbean and Latin America.

“The (Brazilian) Navy plays an important role in protecting our subsalt reserves, because the men of Fourth Fleet are almost there on top of the subsalt areas,” Lula said in a speech inaugurating a new oil platform in southern Brazil.”

“Our Navy has to be the guardian of our offshore oil platforms to protect our patrimony, because before you know it some wise guy will come along and say: ‘This is mine, it’s at the bottom of the ocean anyway, so it’s mine.’”

Please let’s not have another war, and not have it been over oil… again!  I thought we were finished with this crap.

(That said, I like the use of the phrase “wise guy”, it harknes back to an age when gangsters at least had snappy lingo.)

Going to cafe’s in Brazil is a bit tricky, and after looking online for a guide to ordering coffee, I am only more confused.  So I’m going to launch an independent study.

I’ll post my research.

See, I think it is regional so it might be a bit of a challenge.

For example, what is a “carioca”, or “pingado”?

And would you order a carioca in Rio?

Any advice would be welcome.

I woke up today with a distinct reminder that time is slipping away.  I need to hustle.  There is a lot I want to see and do.

We just returned from another competition. This one was the Arena Búzios 2008. It was in Búzios, which is the beautiful are a few hours from Rio.

I got second in my weight division and second in the absolute. The bling collection just keeps growing…

Bit of a rainy day in Rio, but it is still warm. It was good to get out of Rio for a couple of days and see some more of Rio de Janeiro state. Also, the contest was almost entirely devoid of grigoes, so everyone got to compete against Brazilians this time.

The International Masters and Seniors Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition ended a few days ago. I wound up getting third in my weight division, and had a really bad draw for the absolute. I fought the biggest dude I´ve ever seen at a competition. He was 125 kilos of muscle. However, I did actually fight him, instead of backing out. Apparently a couple of other people looked at him and said ´no thanks´. So now, I won´t be scared to fight big dudes. They have feelings too!

Other than myself, the guys from my academy did really well and my instructor Flavio Ferreira, won his division in black belt.

I´ve been going to the beach, have seen the Big Jesus at Corcovado and went up Sugarloaf. Rio is such a beatuiful city. The people are really nice, too. Hopefully the surf will pick back up and I will get a board.   I´ve been eating heaps of Acaí!!!

The International Master & Senior Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2008 starts in Rio on Thursday.

I”m going to be competing in the Pesado / Heavy category for Master’s.  It is the Mundials for the … mature… eh hem.

Of course, I”ve got both of my knees injured and am still two kilos over my weight, so my goals are to make weigh-in and not get any further injuries… oh… and to win my division.  But I’m being realistic about it.  I haven’t had a chance to really prepare for this competition.  So I have reasonable expections.  In fact, this is the least prepared I’ve ever been for any competition.

I procrastinated long enough about writing about the Pantanal.

It was really a great experience.  We flew into Cuiaba and were met with by our guide, Vincente.  A super-nice, and a little bit goofy guide, who then took us on long drive to the lodge where we were staying.  Along the way we saw giant river otters, crab eating foxes, millions of caymans and all sorts of birds — everything from Hyacinth macaws to kingfishers to jaibaru storks.  The giant otters were very cool, being very giant and very rare.

We arrived at Pousada Onca, and then got up at 3:30 in the morning for a night saffari. But we didn’t see anything more than a fox, probably the animals were sleeping.

Then after finishing sleeping we went to Porto Jofre where we took a couple of long boat rides looking for jaguars. We saw a lot of birds and had a really good fish lunch, but no-dice on the jaguars.   After that we had dinner and another night safari where we saw a deer.  From that point on we did a bunch  of hikes, and Vincente said he saw an onca, but nobody else did.  I did have a really serious allergy problem when he said he saw it, so perhaps I’m allergic to jaguars.  We were almost attacked by a deer, which was very strange.  It was being chased by something and almost ran into us on a dirt road.  It must have thought that were less dangerous than the animal chasing it, but it was almost close enough to touch.

One of the big highlights of the trip for me was a visit to an abandoned research station, where they had all sorts of animals in jars that they had left behind.  Very creepy and very cool!

Pantanal is a mecca for bird watchers, who are an interesting, if eclectic bunch.  They travel with spreadsheets and lots of equipment hoping to see all manner of birds. 

From the Pantanal we went to Chapada de Guimaraes, which is a city in the mountains outside of Cuiaba (Cuiaba being the world’s most boring city).  It was really nice and we did a couple of really cool hikes and went swimming in a waterfall.

Some pictures are below.

Pantanal

Current temperature in Porto Alegre, Brazil: 8°C
Current temperature in Juneau, Alaska: 8°C

I just saw this and it made me smile.

In other news, I went by the gym today, to congratulate my instructor, Flávio Ferreira. (He has been winning everything lately, and just won the his black belt category at the Brasileiros.)

Turns out the cold I have is actually a virus, and a lot of people have it. Vale Tudo, one of the guys at the gym, was also sitting out and not training.  He told me that even his finger joints are sore. This jives with my symptoms, as it seems like all my joints ache, knees, back, even my feet. I know it isn’t dengue, even though it has been going around, because I’ve already had that. However, this is a crappy nagging illness.

This is the world’s longest lasting cold.  I am really sick of being sick.  Every morning I feel like crap.  So I’ve been reading.

I just finished reading, “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway (#45)… I forgot how nice it was to read an easy book. Hemingway is always a treat. This was a good exploration of the “Lost Generation” as well as a study of the mating habits of drunken expatriates. I read it a bunch of years ago, but it was good to re-read it.