Author: gfielder

Just a short post about our rental car.  The Celta that we rented from Budget at the airport in Rio has a bad light switch.  Because of this, I haven’t been able to use the headlights.  This isn’t a big problem around here – the streets in Volta Redonda are lighted up pretty well.  The…

There’s another early evening thunderstorm in progress right now.  The air is cooling off nicely and Monica just put coffee on the table – mmmmmm.  I’ve been fairly busy the last couple days, but not doing anything that anyone else might think too interesting.  I have made a number of observations about this area that…

Hey, we’re on vacation!  Why not take a trip to the beach?  From where we are, the closest beaches are in Angra dos Reis, a coastal area that has 365 islands (really!).  The largest island is Ilha Grande.  We have visited that island a few times.  Cinesio’s family has a beach house in Pereque, a…

It was warm today – as warm as it has been since I have been here.  I took a walk this afternoon and saw a sign that said the temperature was 30 C – that’s 86 F.  Not uncomfortably hot, but nicely warm.  I did notice that I was the only person walking on the…

Juiz de Fora is a city in Minas Gerais, a state immediately to the north of Rio de Janiero state. According to Google Maps, which works well here in Brasil, it is 183km and should take 2 hours and 40 minutes.  We did it in 2 hours and 15 minutes.  Why?  Because I didn’t know…

Greetings, folks that are measuring temperatures in the single digits (celsius).  Okay, enough gloating.  Here’s a quick weather report – it’s warm and a bit humid.  There’s a chance of a thunderstorm later.  The weather will probably be the same every day here for the next few months – it’s summer time here.  I just…

Well, we are back in Brasil again.  We flew out on Delta at 1pm on the 30th, arriving at our house almost exactly 24 hours after beginning the trip.  It is not often that a trip here goes without surprises, but this one went pretty well.  We had to wait about a half hour for…

Okay, I don’t watch the TV news at all, but I listen to the radio.  I’ve also seen some stuff on the ‘net news sites that I check occasionally.  It seems that the dirtballs that have been shooting rockets at Israeli civilians are finally getting some payoff on their explosive investment.  We have already seen,…

Merry Christmas!!! It’s December 25!  I hope everyone is having a nice time with family and friends.  We had our Christmas yesterday, in the Brazilian tradition.  We had an awesome dinner and opened presents after.  My lovely wife cooked much more food than the six of us could possibly eat, and dessert could have been…

It’s the twenty-third of December.  If you’re not yet ready for Christmas, you’ve got one day left – and that’s likely to be a short one.  As far as I know, I’m about done.  I went to the post office today and sent a package that will surely arrive after Christmas.  That’s okay, because the…