Text below by Bethanie Walder:

Black swans and pink flamingos glide across the lake in front of us. Black and pink swan paddleboats, that is, powered by the cycling legs of locals out for a casual float in the long, narrow lake in Piracicaba’s “Central Park.” Just three blocks along the river from our new apartment, the park boasts paved walking/running trails; a serene lake; exercise stations; shady gazebos with quiet park benches underneath; lots and lots of walkers and joggers; a handful of stray dogs and cats; and a glorious amount of common birds that are completely uncommon to us – greater kiskadee, blue and white swallows, white-rumped swallow, southern caracara, neo-tropic cormorants, and more.

The birding makes our workout go a lot faster. We walked over to the park, jump ropes in hand, to do one of our “Monkey Bars” workouts. We found a nice shady spot that wasn’t very busy, just overlooking the paddle boat rental station, and therefore the lake and all its birds.

We arrived in Piracicaba, Brazil on Wednesday, thanks to a grant Marcel received to teach at ESALQ-USP (Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz" – University of Sao Paulo Piracicaba campus) for the next 5 months. A huge thanks to both Fernanda D. Abra and Katia Ferraz for helping make this whole project happen, and for helping us get set up here. Katia is the professor Marcel is working with, and Fernanda is one of his students.

Marcel will be teaching conservation biology with an emphasis on road ecology. Since arriving, we’ve met several other professors, three of whom work in the same field as me, so it looks like they might “put me to work” too – so much for that six month vacation I was fantasizing about! But it’s a great opportunity for me to learn about forest/watershed restoration and motorized recreation issues in Brazil, and to keep myself busy while I learn Portuguese.

After our workout we wandered back, checking out the pedestrian street along the river (Rua do Porto – or Port Street). The street is lined with restaurants, but none are open this morning. There’s also a large pedestrian bridge immediately west of our apartment (we’re one block off the river and our windows overlook this bridge – it’s a great way to maintain our bearings when wandering around the city). The river is low, as there’s a severe drought at the moment, and it does not smell very good due to trash and questionable runoff from town. We did, however, see a few egrets and some black-necked stilts from the bridge.

But it's not just the birds that remind us we're in the tropics. The fresh fruits are amazing! Passion fruit, mango, papaya, guava – muito delicioso! On Friday evening I even tried making tapioca crepes. Messed up a bit, but I’ll try again soon, with fresh tapioca flour that Katia gave us.

Closed out our first few days in Brazil sitting in our living room listening to a band that was playing outside at the corner bar. Though it’s beautiful weather here right now and we could easily keep our windows open, the number of mosquitos and the surprising lack of window screens makes that a nonviable option at least at certain times of the day. While we listened to the music, I watched Marcel jumping around batting at mosquitos (no malaria here, but there is dengue fever, so we have to be careful). 

Speaking of music, we’re also regularly treated to car radios on the street below that are so loud they make our windows rattle as if they will fall out of the walls, while car alarms on the street are triggered as well. It’s highly entertaining!

Click here for more images from our life in Brazil.

Some large format prints (limited edition) are now for sale at Freshwater Studio & Gallery in Missoula, Montana.

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All content © 2014 Marcel Huijser

Image below: Fernanda Abra, Marcel Huijser and Bethanie Walder doing Monkey Bar Gym exercises in "central park" Piracicaba, Brazil

Fernanda Abra, Marcel Huijser and Bethanie Walder doing Monkey Bar Gym exercises in "central park" Piracicaba, BrazilFernanda Abra, Marcel Huijser and Bethanie Walder doing Monkey Bar Gym exercises in "central park" Piracicaba, Brazil

Image below: Fernanda Abra and Bethanie Walder at Piracicaba river, Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brazil

Fernanda Abra and Bethanie Walder at Piracicaba river, Piracicaba, São Paulo State, BrazilFernanda Abra and Bethanie Walder at Piracicaba river, Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brazil