Promise kept!

As promised, finally took some footage of the famous figueira tree Florianopolis' centro (downtown). I ran out of batteries twice while filming this cause it's so big. Also cause I wasted all my batteries on 7 time F1 Champion Michael Schumacher and his faithful go kart (which died on him during the 2nd heat). Its probably a good thing that I ran out of power cause I probably would have kept walking around that tree in wonderment forever despite my fear of the street toughs who are also attracted to it's aura. My camera would have probably just looooooved that though. You see technically, walking around the tree 3 times with someone, engages you both in instant matrimony without the option for a prenup. That's just what my FujiFilm FinePix s1000 would have wanted. She's been after data bank account since day one. Maxing out my memory cards all the time. Begging me to take her to pictures of fancy restaurants... I am sick and tired of her free-uploading ways. I'm getting rid of her the first indecent pro-photo shoot I get.

Enjoy the video:


Here is a bronze plaque to commemorate the planting of the tree. As the enlightened of you already know; the bronze plaque will soon be accepted as the #1 indicator of historical importance known to man. I'm not sure where I read that but I think it was on a stone plaque somewhere. Anyway please take the time to stare at this picture in frustration. A rough translation conjured up by "google translate" and I is offered below.

From Figuiera Tree in Centro Florianopolis

Much has been written, in prose and verse, of our traditional fig tree. This majestic lush green canopy gives the "November 15" square more grace and beauty, always keeping it beautiful and splendid!

It was a summer morning, sunny and full of life in the month of February 1891, that the young fig, perhaps twenty years old, was removed from the garden of the matrix, and affectionately replanted here. (a chronical of Tolentino's major Alvaro de Souza)


Some more pics are provided below. The one right under this is going to be my blog header for a while. I took it using my panoramic setting. You like?

From Figuiera Tree in Centro Florianopolis

From Figuiera Tree in Centro Florianopolis

From Figuiera Tree in Centro Florianopolis

From Figuiera Tree in Centro Florianopolis

That's all for now.

Older stuff

Here are some pictures and videos from last weekend and some from longer ago that I haven't had a chance to put up till now.

This first video is from Praia Mole a beach close to my place; one of the nicest in Florianopolis. I have some decent footage of surfing but this one impressed me the most:



This is a picture from last Friday's dinner. We had a Brazilian BBQ. Basically a BBBQ consists of rolling some meat in seasoned sea salt, cooking it over a grill then removing most of the salt. The results are delicious... salty, but delicious. I eat BBBQ twice that week. Once for lunch and once for dinner. The meats vary from pork to beef, chicken and ox. Cuts or types of meat vary too from sausage to ribs to fillet mignon and even chicken heart. Chicken hearts are pretty good but sometimes the arteries are a bit long so you cut them off. The first time I heard of this I laughed my ass off cause you see this whole tray of little hearts and your like "Nahhh, those can't be... what the .. thats a lot of chickens!". Anyway, BBBQs are great and they even have indoor electric grills to do them on. Not the safest but soo good! Beside me in the picture you have Marlon and Gislaine (who may be moving to Ottawa) Luciano and Nilda (who hosted aaaand who you may recognize from previous episodes) .




Here is some food that I bought for R$6. (About $3.30 CDN at todays rate). The cookware and dinnerware behind came up to about $90 in all.



I usually eat lunch with some people from work at a State government building that has a "by the Kilo" cafeteria. On the days that there is something really good I will often pick up an extra helping for dinner. This dinner cost me less than $2.



The price of food in general varies a lot. You can easily pay well over $20CDN for a meal but I avoid those places like the plague. I would go bankrupt in about 45 seconds if I started living that life style. For instance, electronics and automobiles here are not cheap! Everything gets taxed heavily, especially if it was imported.


This frog was tiny. How the hell did it get up to the second floor window; and why was this such a desirable place to go... so much that he went so far out of his way to get there?




Thats all for now. Next post I will try to get some good pics and vids of this tree:



I saw it last weekend but didn't have my camera with me. It's downtown in this magical sweet little inner city park. I'm my favorite place on the island so far. The type of tree is the "Figueira". Fig tree I think. I saw may of them in Spain.