Recent Adventures

It was billed “The Disneyland of Robots.” I thought it was quite a name to live up to as we headed out of Campinas a few weeks back for a weekend adventure. And yet, in a very bizarre way, it did. Well, it wasn’t quite Disneyland. In fact, it was in essence some guy with a large house who has been collecting odd trinkets for the last 40 years or so and has turned his house into a virtual museum. There were robots that he had pieced together that played tennis, others that rode bicycles, and the requisite (to the delight of a 5-year old) fire-breathing robot dinosaur. But it wasn’t the robots that saved this place from disappointing, but the trinkets. There were all sorts of things: old fashioned phones, pinball machines, Egyptian mummy tourist glitz, magazine articles (oddly focused on youth), a running waterfall, and even a 5 story tower all crammed inside every nook and cranny of this place. Many of the objects were covered with dust of the 30+ years that they’ve been in the house – quite an experience.

Last week we headed out of Campinas to the East coast near Salvador. We visited a Turtle rescue center in a small beach resort village called Praia de Forte. Unfortunately the weather was not in our favor, lots of rain and howling wind. We did see some nice Turtles, but after a few days of getting waterlogged we headed back to Salvador.

From Salvador we headed east to Morere. How do you head east from the East coast? You take a 1-hour ferry across the bay, a 2-hour bus ride down the peninsula, and 1-hour ride in a 15-foot speedboat across a very rough intercoastal channel to an island called Boipeba. In Boipeba, a tiny (~2,000 person) island village, one of the local 10 or 12-year old boys will meet you at the boat dock and offer to carry your luggage in a wheel barrel the 0.5 kilometers across the town to the tractor park. Cars are not allowed on the island, but tractors are for farming purposes. So, the last part of our journey was in a cart pulled by a tractor, across the final 5 or so kilometers of sand dune that separates Boipeba and Morere.

Morere was an interesting place. Very remote and really beautiful. We had a mix of rain and sun. Unfortunately the rain drowned our camera so we have few pictures but we made up for it in video. The whole town only has 250 residents and a half dozen or so restaurants. Many of these were actually set up on someone’s porch, with the family cooking you dinner out of their kitchen. We had to “suffer” by surviving on the local fare, which primarily consists of fish, shrimp, lobster or octopus cooked in a stew with coconut milk and vegetables (Yum! But the kids survived on grilled cheese sandwiches).

After Morere we spent an overnight in Salvador. Salvador is very Brazilian– bustling, beach-y, and beautiful. The historical part of the city features a great market where you can buy all sorts of local crafts and artwork.

And the streets of the historic district are lined with picturesque, small houses painted in every shade of pastel.

Johnny (in the picture above) has taken after either his uncle Val or uncle Charlie, depending on who you ask. No matter where we go, he always lags a bit behind searching. He is constantly combing the streets for treasures and the payphones for change. In addition to the many bolts, wires, and other “treasures” he digs up, he has found R$15.50 to date across various locations. If this keeps up, I may be able to retire early.