So this year’s winter journey takes us to South America.
We begin with a flight from Ottawa to Chicago. After a 10-hour flight from Chicago, we meet our niece Manoella at Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo,
We then fly south to Florianopolis. The original idea was to fly to Porto Alegre – where Maria’s family live – but the airport there is still closed from the floods earlier this year.
Florianopolis – more accurately, Santa Catarina Island – is a popular vacation spot. We take a 90-minute boat ride to Campeche Island. This departs from the fishing village of Barra do Lagoa.
The port is inhabited by some kind of sea-bird that looks like a genetically-modified penguin.
Campeche island is a nature reserve.
Racoon-like animals called coatis roam the beach, raiding the picnic baskets of the unwary.
It’s not difficult to spend the day here.
The weather wasn’t this great on our first day: rainy, windy, cloudy, and cool.
On another sunny day, we head into Florianopolis for the day.
We visit the Mercado Público for lunch.
A samba band entertains the diners in our restaurant.
Which reminds me – Sergio Mendes passed away recently. He’s probably most well-known outside of Brazil for popularizing the Brazilian classic Mas Que Nada. See you in another life, Sergio.
Interestingly enough, Paul McCartney is playing here at Ressacada Stadium – well, tonight, in fact.
A man staying in our pousada is a sound engineer involved in the performance.
After five days in Florianopolis, we take a deluxe intercity bus to Porto Alegre. The trip takes about six hours.
In Porto Alegre, we stay at Maria’s sister Lucia’s place in town for a few days.
Sight or Insight of the Day
The November 5th US presidential election draws ever closer.
It’s a coin-toss between a fairly unremarkable, articulate professional woman and an unhinged, low-IQ man-child narcissist with two impeachments, multiple criminal indictments at the state and federal levels, and a felony conviction. This doddering spray tanned old fool is, to boot, an insurrectionist, a threat to democracy worldwide, a misogynist, racist, a compulsive serial liar, a rapist, and possible child molester. With a private army of gun-toting nutjobs.
Man, if we were Americans, this would be a tough one. Decisions, decisions.
Fun fact: the photo above originally featured a Biden sign before being manipulated into a Trump sign. Just goes to show how no truth is safe from the machinations of people with an agenda.