Hidden...

I've been away for a while, busy with lots of different things. Among them, the fact that I've "unretired": I'm back to office work. I don't know how this will work out, but since I was invited, I had to try...
I stopped by to wish all of my blogger friends a Happy 2008!
I hope I can post more frequently next year...
P.S.: Can you find my noisy friends in the picture?

Escape to the Orient

Guess where I've been recently...
(More on this later, I'll wait for your guesses...)





Update: Sorry if I mislead you (well, to tell the truth, I meant it...).
I didn't have to travel far to see this temple. Actually I didn't travel East, but West, and only for 22 km, about 14 miles, from my home. This is the Zu Lai temple, located in Cotia, a town in the greater São Paulo. It was built just a few years ago. (You can find more pictures here.)
They have a vegetarian cafeteria, a coffee shop, a gift shop, a small museum, and besides the Buddhist activities, they also teach several classes there: Tai Chi, Chinese language, vegetarian cooking, Shiitake mushroom cultivation, Kung Fu...
Surprised? Well, I was, too. A recent tourism ad says that if you can't find something in São Paulo, is because it doesn't exist. I guess this can be used as evidence...

Pick a color...

More about the flower show: it was sponsored by a flower growers association, from a region in the greater São Paulo. Most of the farmers in that region are Japanese or of Japanese descent.

It was not all about orchids, as you can see...

Not my garden...

On Saturday my wife and I went to a flower show. I'll tell more about it later, for now I'll just say that I never saw so many orchids together before!

Refreshing

I haven't posted anything for a long time. The reasons? Lots of work, some "blogger's block", and even connection problems with my provider.
But the water kept flowing...

Cactus flower?

My wife saw this plant at a friend's house and liked the way its long leaves grow from other leaves. Our friend gave her a leaf, and the plant developed well. What we didn't know was that it blooms - it happened for the first time 2 years later. The flowers are very delicate and last only for a couple of days. I searched on the Web and found that it's a cactacea, Lepismium houlletianum, also known as Rhipsalis houlletiana and a few other names. I couldn't find a common name, though - probably because it's not a very common house plant...

Boo!

Was the barn surprised to see me?

Marathon

Look at their bodies: all muscles, not a bit of fat. Look at their faces: total concentration. More than 33km gone, but still more than 8 to go. And most of the thousands of runners are still in their way in, almost half a race behind...
My compliments to the winners of the São Paulo marathon, run yesterday: Reuben Chepwek, from Kenya (# 8, Michael Mislay, #3, from Tanzania, was second) and Jacquiline Chebor, also from Kenya (Marizete dos Santos, from Brazil, was second). And to all those who participated, even if just for fun.
(The race passes just one block from my home, so that's all the distance I had to run, I mean, walk...)

The Bandeirante's House

Bandeirantes were the explorers who, from the 16th to the 18th century, leaving mainly from São Paulo, went deep inland looking for natives they could enslave, and for precious metals and stones. Soon they found that the natives didn't make good slaves, because they refused to work. They found some mines, but not all the gold or the emeralds they hoped for. The lasting result of their travels, though, was that they explored and colonized a great part of the current Brazilian territory (which by the treaties in effect at that time should belong to Spain) for the Portuguese crown.

This house, near the Pinheiros river in São Paulo (and at walking distance from my home), never belonged to a bandeirante, and was probably built in the mid 18th century. It is a taipa house: the thick walls are built of compacted earth.

In 1954, when the city celebrated its 4th centennial, the house was restored and furnished to resemble a typical house of that period. Later it was decided that this was not the best approach from a museology point of view, so today it is used for temporary exhibitions.

St. Francis of Assisi Church - Pampulha

Pope Benedict XVI is in São Paulo, and today he canonized Friar Antonio de Santana Galvão as Brazil's first native-born saint. I intended to post a picture of the Pope here today, but his popemobile passed by me so fast I didn't know whether I should watch him pass or take the picture, and faster than I could decide he was gone; all I got was a picture of the back of his head. Oh, well, this is not my first Pope, I hope I'll have other chances...
So, to celebrate the visit, I decided to post the pictures of this church instead.

Located by the Pampulha lake in Belo Horizonte, it was designed by Oscar Niemeyer (who'll be turning 100 in December). Built in 1943 in one of the most conservative Catholic regions in the country, its modern style resulted in it not being consecrated for 17 years. Another reason, maybe, was the fact that both Niemeyer and Candido Portinari, who did all the paintings, were well known communists...
When I visited it, four years ago, it was in a sad state of conservation, but fortunately it has been restored since then.

More guesses, anyone?

Inspired by my friend Cris's post, I decided to ask a similar question. Who can tell me what are these fruits that grow from the trunk of their trees?
The first one is edible as it is (and there's nothing like eating them picked right from the tree), and also makes good jam and liqueur.
The second one I must confess I'd never seen before, and unfortunately there were no ripe fruits to photograph. As for its use, I could use Cris's hint...

Capim dourado - Golden grass

The beautiful natural gold color and shine of this plant were unknown outside its native region of Jalapão, in the state of Tocantins, until recently.
As I was driving on Sunday to the nice country restaurant that Cris showed in her blog recently, my wife saw these articles displayed on the sidewalk, and asked me to stop there on our way back. She only had to ask once because, while she was interested in browsing, I had already spotted the nice photo opportunity...

Jangadas

These fragile-looking rafts are a common site in Northeast Brazil. If you're lucky to catch them returning from open sea, you can buy the freshest fish you'll ever find, and have it prepared right there on the beach, at a price so low you won't believe it...
This day, though, the jangadas were ashore - time for the fishermen to be with their families, at last!