Brazil, where hearts were entertaining June

So I arrived in Sao Paulo this morning at about 6:30 AM after a fun-filled flight next to a kid who spoke four languages and had three passports and would not. stop. talking. Judging from my experience at the airport, Brazil is a country fraught with bureaucracy. The line for going through customs was one of the most inane, inefficient systems I have ever witnessed--it snaked around like six times and at the end there was ONE guy taking literally hundreds of people's forms and then just throwing them into a box next to him. We finally made it through and met our driver, Eduardo, in front of the airport Pizza Hut. The Pizza Hut smelled worse than any eating establishment I have ever encountered and didn't appear to be selling pizza so much as ham and cheese sandwiches....

We piled into a very small, very tin can-like VW and then sped away from the airport and into the outskirts of sprawling Sao Paulo. If there was a car even 50 yards ahead of us, Eduardo decided it would be a good idea to pass it by racing up the left lane, despite the fact that we were often on a curvy mountain pass. A bit terrifying but the landscape was significantly distracting in its beauty. The two words that come to mind are leafy--long, high grass and dense foliage (it is the rainforest, after all)--and dusty--bumpy dirt roads and crumbling facades. We passed a ton of dogs, most of them seemingly stray and trotting nonchalantly across our path.

After about an hour we arrived at our destination: IPE (Insituto de Pesquisas Ecologicas). The accommodations have exceeded everybody's wildest expectations; I feel like I'm staying at a resort. We're sleeping in tidy little double rooms (with a shared bathroom in between each two) in a beautiful, two-story brick and wood building with red-painted shutters and a wrap-around veranda. It looks over a small garden with benches and and a grassy lawn, which gives way to a hill (grazed by cows and a braying donkey) that slopes into a valley, at the base of which is shimmering reservoir. This evening we watched the brilliantly orange sun set behind the opposite rim of the valley--truly spectacular (see picture above).

Up a short hill in the other direction are the classroom/labs and the dining hall, which is staffed by a friendly team of local women who cook mostly local, organic food--much from the organic garden on the premises. We're served breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two coffee breaks. Today lunch consisted of: grilled beef with onions, two types of rice (white and brown with chopped vegetables), red beans, lettuce and tomato salad, a sort of broccoli bread-cake, an assortment of fresh fruit, fresh squeezed juices (pineapple and acerola), and a gelatinous mush (for lack of a better word) made of I think sweet potato and orange for dessert. This afternoon's coffee break offered coffee, mate tea, and a delicious, moist coconut cake, and dinner is at seven! I'm in heaven.

The weather, too, is just about perfect: warm and sunny but also breezy and dry. Without the sun the air has a bit of a bite to it, but I'm pretty comfortable in flip-flops and a sweatshirt. Tomorrow we take our first hike, through our immediate environs in order to orientate ourselves a bit and start to brainstorm topics for our individual research projects, which seem to be the focus of the class. Still not exactly sure of what the academics here entail, but I am clear on the fact that we will have a good amount of free time in which to make use of the reservoir (swimming, kayaking), bikes, etc. and that we are going to spend one full week at the beach, which should be great.

It seems that life here is going to be relaxing and very healthy--sleeping and rising with the sun (and the huge flocks of squawking parakeets), hearty, nutritious meals, lots of sun and outdoor exercise. So far, so good, but that said, it feels a lot like a dream at present. We'll see what happens when (if!) reality sets in. Here's hoping I don't wake up!