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Fezelas

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

By the end of the trip, I am sure the Brazil to Morocco move will be one of the strangest taken.  My head spun for a week afterward wanting to be on a beach in Brazil and having difficulty making the adjustment to the ancient medina of Fez.  It has 9000 alleys none of which can honestly be called a street and 800,000 residents.  I don’t recall seeing any alleys wider than 5 meters, but I certainly did not see all 9000.  Many were less than a meter wide in places.  There are few instances where the alleys ran straight for more than a few meters and there are many locations where you cannot look up and see the sky.  The medina was supposedly designed… designed to protect the residents and confuse the attackers.  Damn… the place is sounding better to me just reading this!  Unfortunately, add in the hordes of people (mainly locals), the vendors and their overflowing wares, the beggars, the million sickly cats, the smoke and all the smelly waste left behind and you have what I “affectionately” (not) call The Rat Trap. 

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Sao Paulo

Friday, August 31st, 2007

Now here is a city with a horrible reputation.  I have never heard anything good about the place.  So, up it went on my list of places to go.  Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world with a population and area about equal to the New York City metropolitan area – 18+ million folks.  As exciting as New York can be due to its immensity, I found the same with Sao Paulo.  It has a pulse of a very large and busy city.  In human terms, Type A personality all the way.  But whereas New Yorkers OFTEN(!!!) come across with a very bad attitude, Paulistas are one very happy lot.  We found the expected poverty of a Brazilian city, but we found a lot better things, too, and my last 36 hours in New York let me see a lot more problems here than there.  (I failed to write much in Brazil, but I will try and remedy this now that I have my computer again… in the meantime, I am now at JFK headed for Morocco riding one very big cultural shock wave… I already miss Brazil and Latin America a lot.)

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Earthquakes and Lack Thereof

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
Like the North American continent, South America is partially very active seismic-wise and partially stable - West and East.  Randy and I discussed earthquakes a bit in Brazil because there are so many buildings in Brazil that could never withstand ... [Continue reading this entry]

Brazil Blur

Sunday, August 12th, 2007

Just a quick note to say that we are having a great trip here in Brazil.  Too good of a time for the blog.  Sao Paulo was way better than any book says it is.  We looked for dangerous people ... [Continue reading this entry]

From the Center of the Universe

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
New York City, that is... Well, I am on the road again.  I am writing from the world's most expensive internet "cafe" (Kinko's - no food/drinks allowed) - $18 per hour (Bolivia = 25 cents!!!!).  I love NYC, but the prices ... [Continue reading this entry]

Home

Thursday, June 7th, 2007
Well the first week has gone very well.  The shock of America wore off quick and I have settled in.  I have been busy with taxes, the storage pods, reconnecting with friends and the next leg.  The next leg is a ... [Continue reading this entry]