“It was high time to take Atlas on another adventure, something on the order of Bananal Island, and it didn’t take long to settle on just such an opportunity, another isle no less. Belém sits across from Isla de Marajó, the largest delta island in the world, bigger than Switzerland. […]
Inhotim, a major contemporary art complex in the midst of extensive botanic gardens, is less than an hour from Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. Here are shots previously unpublished, from 2013-2015 when taking photographs was not yet encouraged in the galleries. Inhotim is a wonder to behold, alone […]
As I tease the reader at book’s start: “Belém, a decaying colonial city at the mouth of the monstrous Amazon River, the capital of Pará, and one of Brazil’s oldest ports. I like places that time has passed by, for no better reason than I identify with them.” [To Belém […]
Over 40 enthusiastic participants attended author Ben Batchelder’s free-wheeling presentation in mid-town Manhattan. Hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce and Earthdog Press, the registration rate was so strong that no follow-up canvassing occurred, as the event was already reaching capacity. [Photo credits, kindness of Ruthe Phillips] The subject, “How […]
You’re cordially invited to a talk that Brazilianist Ben Batchelder is giving in mid-town Manhattan on Thursday, April 25th, starting at 6pm. It will be a multimedia presentation on how lost a gringo can get in Brazil’s vast and remote interiors. You don’t have to be a confirmed Brazil […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
