Some pre-carnaval fun in Rio

So, here I am in Rio de Janeiro, aka "Cidade Maravilhosa" (Marvelous City). Apologies for my complete lack of humbleness, but the city is indeed marvelous! I came down here for a long overdue birthday season. It has been a long long time since I last spent my big day with darling mom & dad, family and great friends. That will be next week.

However, if you are familiar with the moving dates for the yearly national party of carnaval, you will connect the dots and realize that my birthday is always very close to carnaval and that I can't help but just enjoy ther whole atmosphere that carnaval brings. As I wrote a bit earlier it has been a long time since I last had my birthday in these shores, which leads you to also realise that it has been another long while since I last spent carnaval in Rio. I had forgotten how fun it is, how "family and friendly user it can be!"

This morning, around 11 AM, Joel and I went out to join the "Bloco de rua" that was parading along the next street from where we are staying. "Bloco de rua" is something VERY Brazilian. In those, one has a moving band playing various samba themed lyrics along a pre determined area of the neighborhood and behind this band, comes a whole bunch of followers singing those songs and having fun. In most cases, these followers might be wearing costumes. Blocos de rua are all over the Country during the carnaval season. Rio has about 500 of them spread all over town.

Ours this morning was named "Imaginou? Entao amassa" and it paraded along Jose Linhares street finishing right at the beach in Leblon. The neighborhood of Leblon comes right after Ipanema. It was indeed loads of fun. Very family oriented and family friendly. There, one finds their primary school friend and teacher, the girl who lives down the road, the guys you always see in the morning when you are buying your bread, the man who sells pop corn outside your child's school... get the idea of the whole atmosphere we had? Really cool very carioca like (cariocas are the natives from Rio) ... so much fun.

As Joel and I were about to return home, we met my darling niece Ana, her gorgeous son Eduardo and my sister in law... didn't I tell you it is a family affair? Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The crowd

 

A foreigner fitting in and having fun.

My gorgeous niece Ana

and her son Eduardo, 

my only grand nephew.

A brand new canvas

Happy New Year to you!

And here we have a new year in front of us... The way I see a new year is like a brand new plain canvas ready to be painted as we wish because should we not do it our way, life quickly takes care of painting it its own way, right?

As I welcomed 2012 standing by one of the Lakes at the Lake District in good old England, freezing to death... oh mine... that was really cold... watching the fire works open beautiful color splashes in that dark dark sky, I for the first time in my life, had a fast rewind and went back to exactly 365 days earlier, when the five of us were at one of the Pacific beaches here in Panama, welcoming 2011. In that very moment, I had no idea how I would paint my 2011's canvas. Yes I had some plans, some goals but had no idea, of course, how they would lay opened... and then I fast forwarded to the Lake District and you know what? I loved my 2011! What an excellent year it was... oh man, I loved it... amen to the fact God unveiled it as He did.

It wasn't an easy year, of course... life is not easy and the more we get involved with stuff, the less easy it gets, but that is just part of being alive, right?

The year had several highlights like my parents vising us here in Panama, the family reunion celebrating their 64th anniversary (can you believe it? 64 years!!), Joel and I together and on our own being able to visit the girls and David a few times, the Photo Club I founded being invited by the United Nations for a photo exhibition, spending scaring 4.5 hours with Joel at an emergency room in the US which lead to a surgery the day after we landed back in Panama ... the list goes on and on and that is good, it shows life is moving on.

From my own perspective, two things touched me directly... a turning point in my professional life and the realization of a long awaited dream/ curiosity ... cool stuff to say the least!

The first being that photography has always been a big part of my life, since I was 6 or 7... I've done different things throughout my days but photography has always had its own place in heart. So, I realized that enough was enough and voilá, in September my own photo studio was opened... yeahyyy. Wow, loads of adrenaline, loads of support from dear husband and family and the doors of "Odila Coelho Braga Photography" studio are now a reality! Thank you dad for teaching me photography and the art of dreaming and thank you mom for teaching me to plan for my dream!

The second was... a visit to Istanbul! Yes your read it right, Istanbul, Turkey. It happened in May! My curiosity for Istanbul started when I was in primary school. I remember vividly the day the teacher taught us about the fall of Constantinople, the rise of the Ottoman Empire closing the spice trade land route in 1453 which eventually lead to the discovery of the Americas, therefore my Darling home Country of Brazil. At the time, I was impressed to learn about the powerful impact the closure of the spice trade route had on world History and Geography and was very curious to visit this influential city! Well, many years flew by and I finally had the chance to land in spectacular Istanbul.

Enjoy some of the pictures I took while savoring the streets and smells of this magical end of Europe and beginning of Asia or the other way round, whichever attracts you the most and oh yes, may you enjoy painting your 2012 canvas.

 A very weird self portrait.

 Tulip, the Ottoman flower

 The so important spices

 

  

Gamboa Rainforest

  Two years later… just great… we have already been here in Panama for two years… The other day, we had a dinner party to celebrate it. Mom, my artistic director, came from Rio de Janeiro not only to be here celebrating it with us, as well as to help me with the bi-national decoration and menu for the evening. Our lives have settled well here and routine, whatever one calls routine, has been rolling well. Joel travels like crazy and I sometimes come with him and sometimes not. All good good.

Just over a year ago I founded a Photo Club here in Panama. We go out once a month to shoot a specific part of town and a few days later, we gather to talk about our best pictures, which are uploaded onto our blog (www.clubdefotosenpanama.blogspot.com)

May's outing was to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. We went on a three-hour tour which was part by boat, right on the Panama Canal and part walking right through the rainforest. 

 

 

 

Needless to say that I LOVED it!! Riding a small boat in the Canal, right next to some giant container vessels was 

A  M  A  Z  I  N  G!!! 

Went under a narrow bridge used by vehicles and the Panama Canal Railroad. 

Small islands that residents are birds and monkeys, who of course, are happy to let us know they enjoy being monkeys.

 

Other islets where crocodile families live their day by day proliferating peacefully… 

 

 

 

WW II ruins stuck right in the middle of the rainforest, where Americans used to base a radio station… really cool.