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January 28, 2013 | in Central & South America, Travel

Viva Brasil, The Pantanal Part 1: Appreciating the Unappreciated

tapir pantanal brazil

Some places on this majestically overwhelming planet are grossly under-appreciated.  It’s hard not to include the Usual Suspects in a Bucket List: The Amazon… seeing the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle… going on an African safari… Of course they’re incredible. But what about the lesser-known, equally impressive natural wonders that are ordained to exist in the […]

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September 7, 2012 | in Central & South America, Travel

Viva Brasil, Amazon Part 4: Sunrise to Sunset

Sunrise, Take 2

Day #11,053: Our alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5am.  The jungle was still dark, and the first birds were just beginning to shriek when BAM!  Something big hit our roof.  Mr. M & I looked at each other, eyes wide and still foggy with sleep.  Whatever it was scrambled around up there, […]

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September 2, 2012 | in Central & South America, Travel

Viva Brasil, The Amazon: Of Courage (…and Stupidity)

Botos cor de rosa

If there’s one thing that scares me more than losing a toe to a piranha, it’s the threat of regret. After a day spent eating grubs and swinging on jungle vines and visiting with pink river dolphins, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of wanting to swim in the Rio Negro. So as the sun set over the tea-colored Amazon, in I went.

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August 25, 2012 | in Central & South America, Travel

Viva Brasil, Amazon Part Two: A Taste of the Jungle

Tiririca Coboclos Village, Amazon

Day # 11,051: Our second day in the Amazon, and breakfast proved to be much more entertaining than I had imagined: the lodge does a great job of serving up local Amazonian cuisine, and breakfast was one of the highlights.  Fried plantains, tapioca pancakes made from the ubiquitous local manioc plant (points for style, but […]

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August 24, 2012 | in Central & South America, Travel

Viva Brasil, Amazon Part 1: Welcome to the Jungle

Purty!  And worth the climb until another couple started climbing up, I felt the structure shaking, and determined we'd had all the view we needed.

Day #11,050: The Amazon is one of those places I’ve had a high school crush on for quite some time.  The sort of desperate infatuation that one assumes can only exist from afar, never to be realized.  Or so you think.  Somehow on this morning I woke up- next to my real high school crush, […]

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