Six months ago today we set foot in the United States for the first time in over a year and a half. It was 5:55am on a Tuesday morning. Back in Brazil The evening before, our hosts had given us a ride to the airport amid some other errands they had to run. Everything we … Read more
Returning to the United States
January 1st, 2015 | Posted by in About | Border Crossings | Brazil | Celebrations | Dogs | Speedbumps | The Places We've Been | United States - (6 Comments)Paulista Lofted Studio
June 25th, 2014 | Posted by in Brazil | Lodging | Speedbumps | The Places We've Been - (2 Comments)When our host for the month of June let us know days before our arrival that he was cancelling our reservation, a mad dash to find replacement lodging ensued. Were it not for World Cup tickets in Natal and flights booked to depart from Recife (two cities in the northeastern part of the country), we … Read more
Just north of Recife, one of Brazil’s top 10 largest cities, sits Olinda, one of Brazil’s best-preserved colonial cities. One rolls straight into the other with Olinda being a large and highly visited part of Recife’s metropolitan area. Founded in 1535, the beautiful coastal town’s historic centre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in … Read more
A Day at the World Cup: USA vs. Ghana
June 22nd, 2014 | Posted by in Brazil | Sports | The Places We've Been - (1 Comments)6:30AM – Leave our apartment in Paulista, just north of Recife proper. 7:00AM 7:20AM – Pick up our new friend Eric in historic Olinda, about 8 miles south of Paulista. 7:20AM to 11:15AM – Driving, driving, driving northward to Natal, blasting our “American Music” playlist the whole time. CCR, Skynyrd, the Boss, Nelly, Tom Petty, … Read more
The Idiot’s World Cup 2014 Primer
June 15th, 2014 | Posted by in Brazil | The Places We've Been - (1 Comments)(AKA American’s Guide to the World Cup 2014, because let’s be honest, we are the only ones who need it.) What Is It? Every four years since 1930 a group of the world’s best national teams from the world’s most popular sport get together to fight it out for top honors, a shiny trophy, and … Read more
Situated right where Ipanema and Copacabana meet each other a small peninsula juts out into the Atlantic. This is Arpoador. Besides creating one of Rio’s best surfing spots below, rolling out consistent breakers of normally up to three meters, Arpoador is open to the public to scale and lounge upon. Locals and tourists alike can … Read more
Rio de Janeiro House
June 10th, 2014 | Posted by in Brazil | Lodging | The Places We've Been - (1 Comments)Our house for the month of May was perched amid lush greenery one street from the base of Morro Dois Irmãos between Leblon and Vidigal (more on the location itself in our Everyday Essentials post). It was a fairly large house split into a number of apartments, at least 7 that we know of, and … Read more
Cachaça Cachaça is to Brazil what tequila (or mezcal!) is to Mexico, what vodka is to Russia, what rum is to the Caribbean – that is to say, it is Brazil’s most common distilled alcohol. Also called pinga or aguardente depending on where you are, cachaça dates to at least the sixteenth century and is distilled … Read more
Everyday Essentials: Rio de Janeiro
May 28th, 2014 | Posted by in Brazil | Everyday Essentials | Lodging | The Places We've Been - (6 Comments)This is a series detailing some of what appear at first to be more mundane details of a place, but will hopefully be illuminating as insights into the grind behind the “glamour.” Location and Safety Rio de Janeiro is a big place with a lot of variation in neighborhoods. Our rental this month, which we … Read more