Okay, ready? We take off late Thursday.
So, why Brazil? Because we’re not going to Bolivia. Now that may require a bit of explanation. I’d gotten the notion that we should go to Bolivia, so that when I told people we were going there I’d get to hear, “You’re going where?” Pretty much nobody goes to Bolivia.
So, I found a travel agent and we worked through multiple drafts of itineraries, before arriving at one that looked great. I was about to book the trip when I noticed that virtually everywhere we were going was very high altitude. While I’d survived at heights in Cuzco in Peru, it would be wrong to say I thrived there. So, after a (very short) discussion with Carol, we decide uh-uh.
I felt like a complete dolt. My travel agent had not hid the altitude from me. It was there all along, but I just hadn’t focused on it. So, I contacted our agent, told him I felt stupid, but we weren’t going to do Bolivia. He’d been so helpful, though, I told him, we’d like to have him plan a trip someplace else for us (in retrospect, he may well not have regarded this as good news), where would he suggest? Brazil.
So, that’s why we’re going to Brazil. The more I explored, though, the more I came to feel that this would be an even better trip for us than Bolivia. We’ve decide to spend time in Salvador de Bahia (an area still heavily influenced by African culture), Rio (because, well, it’s Rio) and a large game area called The Pantanal (on the map below, it’s near Cuiaba, west of Brasilia and near Bolivia). We passed up going to other places we might have, most noticeably, Iguazu Falls, which everyone says is spectacular, because, well, we can’t do everything.
Following my normal policy, I’ve stolen information shamelessly from many different websites. I feel justified in doing this, because I’m doing it selflessly, for your benefit, not mine. But will I get the thanks I deserve? Probably not. So, here’s some stuff.
The Federative Republic of Brazil is simultaneously South America’s largest country (by both population and geographical size) as well as one of its most diverse and fascinating. It is filled to the brim with intriguing people, plants and animals as well as liberal doses of history, religion, culture and sporting greatness. (Okay, so this is puffery. Remember, I just plagiarized this, I didn’t write it.) Brazil is a mega-country: fifth in the world in area, sixth in population, tenth in economic production, seventh in steel production, the world’s fourth largest agricultural exporter, and increasingly an industrial power.
The most densely populated parts of Brazil are in the south-central regions, which include major urban conglomerates like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Because of the rapid growth experienced by this country in terms of urban development, industrialization and population at the beginning of the 21st century, Brazil is facing a number of social, environmental and political challenges. However, it is also because of this growth that it is doing so well in terms of its economy. In fact, it is one of the world’s largest and most significant economies. It is also the only Portuguese-speaking country in both North and South America.
This Portuguese heritage dates back to the 1700’s, when Brazil was first colonized by this European nation. During its rich and complex history, slavery was a major part of the Brazilian heritage, although this was never formally recorded in the annals of history. Slaves were brought to the country across the Pacific Ocean from Africa. Therefore, there is also a large proportion of Brazilian inhabitants that have an African heritage. Others of European and Asian descent immigrated to Brazil in the 19th century. These ones were mainly from Japan, Poland, Spain, Italy and Germany. Therefore, this country is now a melting pot of ethnic and cultural diversity. Despite such diversity, Brazil maintains strong national pride and religious devotion. The vast majority, approximately 75%, of the population is Roman Catholic, while the rest are largely Christian or subscribe to the various African-based beliefs.
In terms of the local culture, Brazil continues to be influenced by the traditions and customs of the Portuguese. This is evident in the architecture, music, literature, cuisine, dance, religion and theatre of the country.
It’s really not possible here to summarize the history of Brazil, which in the twentieth century included a period of some twenty years of military rule which ended in 1985. There followed periods of extreme financial difficulty, including inflation, which in the early 1990s reached an annual rate of 5000%. The last twenty years have involved attempts to get the economy in order and address issues of poverty, health, education, the rural landless and political scandals. The best short history I found is at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/brazil/history.
The politics of Brazil take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The political and administrative organization of Brazil comprises the federal government, the states, the federal district and the municipalities.
The federal government exercises control over the central government and is divided into three independent branches: executive, legislative and judicial. Executive power is exercised by the President, advised by a cabinet. Legislative power is vested upon the National Congress, a two-chamber legislature comprising the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Judicial power is exercised by the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Federal Court, the Superior Court of Justice and other Superior Courts, the National Justice Council and the Regional Federal Courts.
The states are autonomous sub-national entities with their own constitutions and governments that, together with the other federal units, form the Federative Republic of Brazil. Currently, Brazil is divided politically and administratively into 27 federal units, being 26 states and one federal district. The executive power is exercised by a governor elected to a four-year term. The judiciary is exercised by courts of first and second instance addressing the common justice. Each State has a unicameral legislature with deputies who vote state laws.
Brazil enjoys an extensive coastline that measures almost 7500 kilometres (or more than 4600 miles). Its other borders are made up of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. In fact, Ecuador and Chile are the only South American countries with which Brazil does not share its borders. There are various groups of islands that also belong to Brazil, such as Saint Peter, Trindade and Fernando de Noronha, amongst others. Its entire area measures exactly 8,514,876.599 square kilometres or 3,287,612 square miles.
Apart from being geographically large, Brazil is also naturally diverse. It comprises dense rain forests and jungles, expanses of coastline, towering mountains, oceanic archipelagos (or clusters of islands), rivers, scrublands and rolling plains. Because of such a variation in habitats available to plants and animals, Brazil boasts a rich array of fauna and flora. In fact,
scientists estimate that this South American country is home to about four million different species. Particularly extensive are this country’s populations of birds and amphibians.
Finally: a quick, two-part quiz to see whether you’re really old enough to be reading this blog. In the movie “Charley’s Aunt,” what actor famously said, “I’m Charley’s aunt, from Brazil, where the ______ [fill in the blank] come from”?
And, by the way, should you decide to go to Bolivia, let me know, because I’ve got a helluva good itinerary (and travel agent) for you.
February 5
Up very early to go on a last dawn patrol walk at 6:15. Lovely cool morning with a beautiful sky, so a good opportunity for some final photos, some of which are below, including some more “puddle shots.”
Breakfast at the hotel and met with our group in the lobby. Jennifer had me read the fake blog I’d written, giving a very irreverent view of what we’d seen and poking fun at many members of our group. It was very well received and everyone wanted copies, which I promised to send to them when I get back home.
Van to the airport, where we cleared all hurdles two and a half hours before flight time. Sat with four members of our group, and passed the time over coffee and conversation. Now aboard our short flight to Miami, where we will spend the evening in Ft. Lauderdale with our close friends, Len and Elyse.
Reflections on the trip. Overall, terrific. Love Havana, excellent planning and very helpful support from staff and our leader, and great accommodations. Memorable moments were the first dance performance, showing of Raul’s photos, meeting with with Claudia Corrales, viewing of Luis Ernest Donas’ 13-minute short film “Oslo”, the Flamenco dance performance by Irene Rodriguez and final evening slide show. Just walking the streets of Havana was a great treat.
This trip was considerably different from my earlier one. First, having Carol with me made it infinitely more enjoyable. This trip was more focused on the subjects of art and music, whereas the first one was a general trip. The first trip included Trinidad as well as Havana, whereas this one was only in Havana. Our connection with the photographers on this trip, especially Eduardo, was much different and better than it was on the first trip, as was the connection to the Cuban photographic group that was our sponsor. I had anticipated that the “art “would include more of media other than photography, i.e. painting, sculpture, etc. I also thought there would be more pure music involved, rather than music with dance. That said, the events that were planned were really excellent and provided opportunities that we would not otherwise have had.
It helped greatly that our group got along very well, and was small. Though we were nine, we frequently were broken into two groups, and two of the nine members often did not participate. My impression was that the dance group of eleven pretty-much operated as one group, and I think this would have made the trip much less enjoyable for us.
This trip was not a “workshop,” so there was not formal instruction. Nonetheless, I think I learned a fair amount from talking to and observing others on the trip, from viewing images of other photographers and simply from shooting and thinking about what I was doing and, too often, failing to do. I know that I’d benefit from more formal workshops; virtually everyone else in the group had done many of them. I may do some of that in the future. Or not. I am enjoying the photography I’m doing and I’m just not sure that I want to complicate things by actually learning something.
Having completed the travel part of the trip, I now have a month or more of working on my photos to look forward to. And I do look forward to that. In a real sense, I don’t know what I have in the photos I’ve taken. The photos in the blog are a random selection of some that I picked out from viewing tiny thumbnails and, other than a bit of cropping I was able to do have not gone through the post-production phase, which helps greatly (I hope) to improve the images.
Thank all of you who took the time to email me or to write comments on the blog. I hope you enjoyed Cuba, and that you’ll decide to tag along with Carol and me when we visit Brazil in late April/early May.
Hasta luego.
Feb 4
Our last day in Cuba, as tomorrow is just a travel day.
After breakfast, we set out in our van for a beach with an old beach house and changing rooms. Carol and I were unenthusiastic about this outing and almost skipped it, except that we thought we should go because a lot of work had been put into setting it up. The workshop has arranged for three body-building guys to come and model for us. This type of photography is not really my thing, as I prefer to shoot candid street scenes. Or the kids playing handball against a green wall near the beach. Still, it’s somewhat interesting, and from working with Pedro, one of our Cuban photographers, I do get some ideas for posing that may be helpful, should I do this type of work again. Carol was content to find a shady area and read the book she’d brought along for that purpose.
After the ride back to the hotel, Carol and I have the concierge book a lunch reservation for us at Doña Eutimia, which Nadina raved about. We walked the 15 or so minutes to the Cathedral Plaza and located the restaurant in an alley off of the plaza. Food was great, the best we’ve had. Turned about it was the two of us and a group of 33 Americans, there on tour. Not the ideal mix, but the group was not boisterous, and the food was clearly worth it.
Walked back to the hotel and, while Carol napped, I went down to the lobby and sat with the instructor of the dance group, Elizabeth, who was explaining and showing some of her incredible photos, and the unique way she prints them. Very interesting.
I got Carol, and we went walking with Eduardo and Nadina. We encountered a neat wedding procession, the bride sitting on the back ledge of a bright pink 50s Cadillac.
We continued on to a neighborhood, where we saw more street scenes that we’ve found to be so engaging in Havana. Eduardo took us up to the roof of a former hotel that had been converted to many apartments. Eduardo engaged the residents in easy conversation and we were welcome. From the roof, we could see the capital and surrounding crumbling buildings. We photographed some children and gave them candy and pens we’d brought. A light drizzle started and we walked back to the hotel using as many overhangs as possible for cover.
Back at the hotel, we showered and dressed for our final show and dinner. We walked to the National Museum of International Art and went upstairs for cocktails with both groups and guests invited by the Workshop. Carol and I were able to visit Luis Ernesto Donas, the film maker whose work we admired so much, and we exchanged contact information with him. We assembled in an attractive meeting space, where we had a short dance presentation by two young women. There followed a slide show that Dustin and Jennifer had out together of candid shots of our group during the week. After that, we viewed two slide shows of eight images from each member of our group. (This was my first show at The National Museum of Art in Cuba.) It was interesting to see everyone’s work, some of which was quite excellent. I was comfortable that my images were certainly of comparable quality to those of others in the group. Pedro, one of the Cuban photographers, told me that he liked my work and particularly like an image of a woman reflected in a puddle, which he said he would have liked to have taken.
We proceeded to a large group dinner on the roof of the Ambos Mundos hotel, where I had stayed last April. The dinner was fair, at best, and the place so noisy that you could barely hear to speak to the person next to you, who, for me, was Joanne, a person from the dance group, who lives in OklahomaCity and who we’d met early on the trip and liked very much. Afterwards, Tony was going to take us to a club he knew, but it was not having music last night, so we continued back to the hotel and had a drink on the roof with half a dozen people, including a lady who didn’t shut up the whole time we were up there.
February 3
After breakfast at the hotel and a short meeting, our group, down to six because three have opted to go off on their own today, piles into the van for a drive to Cojinar, a small village outside Havana, where Earnest Hemingway lived, boated, drank and wrote. A bar we stop in has many photos of him. We wander around town for half an hour, observing and taking some photos.
At 10:15, we meet and go to the home of a famous Cuban photographer, Raul Corrales. Corrales was a photographer of the revolution, and a very close friend of another famous revolution photographer, Korda, whose daughter I visited with on my April trip to Cuba. It was interesting to hear about Korda from Corrales’ granddaughter, Claudia Corrales, who was our hostess. She said that Korda was like an uncle to her, and was very different from her grandfather, the latter being quiet and serious, while Korda was out-going and fun.
Claudia told us about her famous grandfather, who managed to push his way into photography, starting as one who cleaned up a studio. More interesting, though, was Claudia’s discussion of her own evolution as a photographer. Now 26, beautiful and charming, she originally stayed away from photography, not wanting to follow in the footsteps of her famous grandfather or her less famous (and less accomplished) father. About three years ago she drifted into photography and now is developing her own distinctive voice, producing quite engaging work, originally in black and white, but now moving into color. She spoke of the difficulties of being compared to her grandfather, but our sense is that she is well on her way to finding her own personal style. The time we spent with her was quite delightful.
After that, we had another hour to wander around town. The “beach” area was a pile of litter, but we found some interesting people to photograph, including two men in a butcher shop with a pig’s head hanging in front of them. We bought a small gift for Jasper, which may or may not make it back in one piece, but seemed worth a try, given its modest price.
br />
 <
<
The group met and lunched at a good-enough restaurant, called Las Brisas, then climbed back in the van to head back to Havana. We were told that we were going to see a short, 13-minute film that a young filmmaker had made. We were not excited at the prospect, but were dazzled by the short film, called Oslo, about an elderly, senile woman, who wanted to see snow. The filmmaker, Luis Ernesto Donas, was present and incredibly warm and humble in response to our questions. He said that he’d been inspired by the work of the painter Andrew Wyeth, and the film definitely had the feel of Wyeth’s work. Several of us said that the movie was reminiscent of Amour, a fabulous French film. He said that his work had been compared to Amour, though Oslo actually had been made before Amour. The original music complemented the film beautifully. Luis been given 250 CUCs to make the film as a graduate student and had gotten the Norwegian Embassy to contribute another 500 in honor of the 100th anniversary of reaching the South Pole by Admunsen, a Dane. Afterwards, I told Jennifer (in private) that I’d like to help with a contribution towards the making of his next film, which he had discussed with us. What a treat.
We walked around town, getting back to the hotel around 3:30. Carol had scheduled a massage for the afternoon, and I wasted an incredible and frustrating amount of time trying to get images together for the final evening tomorrow.
Carol and I went to dinner at La Guarida, which Jennifer had recommended to us. Located on the third floor of an old apartment building, it’s an elegant spot with excellent food; a very fine choice for dinner. (I had actually eaten lunch there with our group in April.)
We returned to the hotel, and an earlier night than the past two. A very good day, with a nice change of pace from the one we’d kept in Havana.
February 2
Breakfast buffet with Marjorie. Today is our “day off”. We’ve been given a host of possibilities, and the guides are at our disposal. Carol and I manage to nab Eduardo for ourselves, and we spend a delightful morning wandering the streets of Old Havana, Havana Vieja, with him, with no goal other than to experience the somewhat sleepy Sunday street scene.
Eduardo is 36 years old, and spends about half the year guiding for the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, and the rest of the year photographing for himself. We and his twin brother show and sell their work together. Eduardo has a wonderful warm, friendly and easy manner, and Carol and I are ready to adopt him. We wander into the beautiful old and restored Raquel Hotel, which Eduardo had not known before. Mtoe hotel has only 26 rooms, all of which are named for Biblical characters and have mezzuzot outside each room. There is magnificent stained glass and grill work all around the hotel. We go up to the roof in the vintage elevator with a handsome grate door.
We stop whenever the spirit moves us, chat with people on the street, photograph children and give them pens and candy that we’ve brought along for that purpose. We also do to a dance studio where Eduardo and his brother, Orlando, show their photographs. After a couple hours, Eduardo drops us at the National Art Museum, where Carol and I want to see the contemporary Cuban art. We spend a bit of time looking around, but are too tired from the walking to do it justice. Sandwich lunch at the museum, then walk back to the hotel and relax.
At 2PM, we meet Eduardo and his brother. We spend some time looking through his various portfolios on an iPad. He’s very good, and much of the work, particularly the black and white photos, is excellent. We very happily buy a black and white piece (for about $350) that Carol and I both like, and which will both serve as a remembrance of the trip, and also support Eduardo and his family. If you want to check out Eduardo and Armando’s website, here it is http://www.peoyectosiamesphotos.com
Carol was going together a massage, but there was a miscommunication on time, so we just hung out at the hotel, until 4:30, when we took a taxi to the Teatro Mella in the Vedado area. We met Eduardo there and got excellent tickets for the flamenco performance. Eduardo sat elsewhere and, as a local, paid about 1/20 of the price, but since our tickets were $11 each, we did not mind. Four others from our group were there, independently. The performance was extraordinary and memorable; incredible dancing with great passion and considerable variety in the numbers. The female star, Irene Rodriguez, was particularly outstanding. I have no photographs, because taking pictures was prohibited.
We met Eduardo afterwards, and he helped to get us into a cab, headed towards Vistamar, a paladar (restaurant) that Eduardo and the concierge at our hotel had recommended, independently in Miramar. They were right. We had an excellent dinner outside by the sea, and were entertained by a guitarist/singer who was very pleasant to listen to. We bought one of his CDs.
After dinner, we took a taxi to the Jazz Cafe, where we arrived 45 minutes before the music began. I liked the saxophonist and keyboard players in the first group we heard, but Carol did not like the group. Neither of us cared particularly for the long opening number of the second group, so we left in time to retire at midnight at the hotel.
So, to recap, our day off started with breakfast at 8 AM, continued with a great 2-hour walk with Eduardo in Havana Vieja, included a stop to view contemporary Cuban art at a museum, a meeting with Eduardo and his brother at which we purchased a photograph, an incredible flamenco dance concert, a lovely dinner by the sea with guitar music and jazz music until our return to the hotel around midnight. A very relaxing day off. And I don’t really give a damn who won the Super Bowl, anyway.
|
|
