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“To Belém & Back” reading in são paulo

The author’s first book reading in a foreign country was a success in São Paulo, Brazil. The book, To Belém & Back, about a long trip into Brazil’s backlands, was launched in São Paulo in 2015. As a book reading necessitates using much English, the event was generously attended, with […]


são paulo reading of “To Belém & Back”

You are cordially invited, if in São Paulo, Brazil, to attend a book reading of To Belém & Back this Sunday, January 20th. This will be the first book reading in Brazil after the book’s launch and since it won a coveted * Star review from the industry leader Publishers […]


last stretch to belém 2

Upon leaving Dona Romana and her home of cataclysmic faith in central Tocantins, the final push to Brazil’s northernmost parts entered a most precarious phase. There was only one road north now, the infamously decrepit and dangerous Belém-Brasília, “about which the Quatro Rodas listing for Paraiso de Tocantins warns ‘avoid […]


cataclysmic faith in tocantins

“As we approached Natividade, Tocantins’ oldest and most enigmatic town dating back to 1734, a strange translucent whiteness hovered overhead as if a wide, diffuse light was gathering above. […] Although Natividade is the only historically preserved colonial backwater in the state, it is so unassuming, so far off the […]


bananal island, to

Bananal Island is the largest fluvial island in the world, with a violent history.  Only several years before our visit, the local Javaés Indians had ransacked and taken over the park occupying the northern third of the island (on the Araguaia River, a massive Amazon tributary) they did not already […]


goiás interiors IV 4

Several hours north of Brasília is one of Brazil’s best run national parks, where I spent an otherworldly long weekend.  “I have a a theory that many of Brazil’s best kept secrets – such as Worm Farm Inn – are at the end of a long dirt road…. So it […]


disneyland of art, take 5 2

Inhotim, a contemporary art complex with 22 galleries and dozens of sculptures among 1 million sq. meters of botanic gardens, is world-class, alone justifying a visit to Minas Gerais.  I returned, as a birthday present, on a free Wednesday, when there are more people interacting with the art.  [please hover over […]


goiás interiors III

“Due, maybe, to the fatalistic roads or to the shimmering quality of light in the high, semi-dry savanna of Central Brazil, we were quickly entering a mystic nation within a nation.  The first premonitions were in Pirenópolis, another historic gold-boom town like Goiás Velho, only more spiritual.” – To Belém […]


wonder kids 3 2

Grade school kids perform for parents and teachers, here in the heart of Brazil.  As poet Elizabeth Bishop observed, speaking of Brazil where she lived for two decades: “And children are really loved more than any place else…” ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]


wonder kids 2 2

Freed from waiting in the parade line, the kids take to the demonstration fields…  Kids being kids, they fool around, spectate, cry, hug, and hear speeches, while teachers help out, here in the interior of Minas Gerais. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]