One of Brazil’s remotest national parks, Seven Cities, is an archaeological and geological wonder, named after the mythological Lost Seven Cities. Founded in 1961, it is located in the northeast’s Piauí state, and occupies an arid middleground between the Brazilian cerrado (or dry savanna) and caatinga, or semi-desert, which is […]
Brazil is full of surprises, beyond the memes of beach, jungle, and soccer. One of the country’s greater natural wonders (among many) is the Sheets of Maranhão, in the far northern state of the same name. The national park encompasses one of the world’s rarest and most perplexing ecosystems. The […]
Alcântara – which Atlas and I toured one day, after a 90 minute catamaran sail from São Luis – is one of the most curious enigmas (of many) in Brazil. Like the country, it contains both the very old and the very (even overly) new. “Alcântara, built with the sugar […]
São Luis, MA (Maranhão), is located on Brazil’s remote northern coast. The roads are so poor for most of the northern coast that tourists never drive there, only fly. After the slow and rocky ferry crossing, Atlas and I arrived past nine o’clock and still found ourselves eighteen kilometers from […]
Chapter 19 of To Belém & Back describes a fascinating encounter one night in a remote part of the Amazon. While no batuque was currently planned, Dona Fatima implied that it was for lack of “materials,” the righting of which could motivate a gathering that very night. So I immediately […]
“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. […]
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 […]
