Guaramiranga
Guaramiranga
Guaramiranga
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Going back Home
What a wonderfull trip. Teaching my students here in Fortaleza was beautiful last week. I was teaching at a cultural center in an area in Fortaleza named Bom Jardim. The cultural center has teachers for music, theatre, dance, visual arts etc. It was founded to uplift the community as Bom Jardim is a hard area to live in due to drug trafficking and shootings. The students are the most beautifull and eager to learn students that I have taught in a long time as has been my experience with almost all of my teaching experiences in Brasil. We had a culminating concert with another group from the school of music from Guaramiranga where I went after to teach as well. We all had a blast! During this week I also participated in a concert with my friends band Donna Zefinha in a theatre here in Fortaleza. Donna Zefinha was awarded money for a project where they call upon two other bands in the city to meet and talk about the music market today, then present a concert with all three bands playing seperately then together in the end. Very uplifting...
On Saturday after my show with the students from Bom Jardim we went to Guaramiranga which is a town up in the mountains a couple hours away from Fortaleza where my friend teaches at the school of arts there in the town. This place was absolutely gorgeous as it is nestled in a national preserved park. Many hiking trails, waterfalls, extremely lush mountain tropical rainforest. Coffee, bana trees, fruits galore.....i taught at the school there three days, and everyday Luke and I went out after lunch to a different trail everyday. I think I´m going to build my house there:) Enjoy the pictures!!!!
On Saturday after my show with the students from Bom Jardim we went to Guaramiranga which is a town up in the mountains a couple hours away from Fortaleza where my friend teaches at the school of arts there in the town. This place was absolutely gorgeous as it is nestled in a national preserved park. Many hiking trails, waterfalls, extremely lush mountain tropical rainforest. Coffee, bana trees, fruits galore.....i taught at the school there three days, and everyday Luke and I went out after lunch to a different trail everyday. I think I´m going to build my house there:) Enjoy the pictures!!!!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Week 2.5
After Fortaleza we went together with the band to the southernmost point of the state of Ceara to the city of Juazeiro. There was a festival of Santo Antonio where our friends band played one night with me coming onstage as a special guest to play a few songs with them. It was a very nice event, big stages, ok turnout. My friends also performed a comedy/circus show that they have performed for 15 years as they also grew in theatre. They performed in a small theatre and also invited me up to play for a tune as a surprise guest from the audience, all the while pretending that we didn~t know eachother and that I appeared to be a tourist who just wanted to play drums. I pretended to not speak any portuguese or know how to play drums. Then we got into the song, the band stopped at the end and i kept going and played a crazy solo, then they presented me afterwords. It was hilarious! After the two shows and staying in a hotel with the whole group we drove back to Fortaleza where the next day Luke and I decided to go by ourselves to Canoa Quebrada for the week.
Canoa Quebrada was a 3 hour bus-ride south of Fortaleza and is a beautiful beach town with hilly cobble-stone streets, great reggae bars, and beautiful beaches. Luke and I found a pousdada(hotel\hostel) for 20 bucks a day including breakfast right on the back. We slept to the sound of the waves everyday. We´d open our doors and be looking a hundred yards down right into the ocean. Truly beautiful. Our schedule for the remaining week at Canoa was as follows:
-wake up and have breakfast on the beach,
-go to one of the many beach huts and hang with food and drinks and our local friends
-lunch for 2 dollars
-siesta
-wake up and take a stroll around town and sit down for dinner
-go back to room and drink some cashaca and head out for the night to listen and dance to music
-go to sleep to the sunrise
During our nights out we met many wonderfull people, i played one night with the local band in one of the bars for an hour on drumset. As it is a small town it doesn´t get crowded until the weekend as everyone from surrounding smaller towns come to hang out and party. On Friday and Saturday everyone is on the main street where there are many different restaurants and bars and music clubs, then by 1 a.m. everybody walks down to the beach to one hut on the beach where they dance reggae all night until the sun comes up right in front of you on the ocean. The sunrise to reggae and bonfire and incredible friends was an incredible time. I made some musical contacts as well. We left this Sunday back to Fortaleza where I started today(Monday) my teaching job in a neighborhood in Fortaleza called Bom Jardim.
I will be teaching here from 9-12p.m. at a cultural center in Bom Jardim Monday through Friday, presenting my students with another group of musicians from Guaramiranga on Saturday, then Luke and I will leave to Guaramiranga on Saturday.
Guaramiranga is close to Fortaleza, mabybe an hour away, up in the mountains. A town of about 7 thousand. I will teach there two days as well. I might be teaching a couple night in Fortaleza this week as well for a seperate organization for the arts.
While here in Fortaleza this week we hope to go see music out in the city, go to markets, spend time with our friends, go to beach, etc.... Enjoy the pictures, more later!!!
Canoa Quebrada was a 3 hour bus-ride south of Fortaleza and is a beautiful beach town with hilly cobble-stone streets, great reggae bars, and beautiful beaches. Luke and I found a pousdada(hotel\hostel) for 20 bucks a day including breakfast right on the back. We slept to the sound of the waves everyday. We´d open our doors and be looking a hundred yards down right into the ocean. Truly beautiful. Our schedule for the remaining week at Canoa was as follows:
-wake up and have breakfast on the beach,
-go to one of the many beach huts and hang with food and drinks and our local friends
-lunch for 2 dollars
-siesta
-wake up and take a stroll around town and sit down for dinner
-go back to room and drink some cashaca and head out for the night to listen and dance to music
-go to sleep to the sunrise
During our nights out we met many wonderfull people, i played one night with the local band in one of the bars for an hour on drumset. As it is a small town it doesn´t get crowded until the weekend as everyone from surrounding smaller towns come to hang out and party. On Friday and Saturday everyone is on the main street where there are many different restaurants and bars and music clubs, then by 1 a.m. everybody walks down to the beach to one hut on the beach where they dance reggae all night until the sun comes up right in front of you on the ocean. The sunrise to reggae and bonfire and incredible friends was an incredible time. I made some musical contacts as well. We left this Sunday back to Fortaleza where I started today(Monday) my teaching job in a neighborhood in Fortaleza called Bom Jardim.
I will be teaching here from 9-12p.m. at a cultural center in Bom Jardim Monday through Friday, presenting my students with another group of musicians from Guaramiranga on Saturday, then Luke and I will leave to Guaramiranga on Saturday.
Guaramiranga is close to Fortaleza, mabybe an hour away, up in the mountains. A town of about 7 thousand. I will teach there two days as well. I might be teaching a couple night in Fortaleza this week as well for a seperate organization for the arts.
While here in Fortaleza this week we hope to go see music out in the city, go to markets, spend time with our friends, go to beach, etc.... Enjoy the pictures, more later!!!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Week One
On our arrival to Fortaleza, Capital of the state of Ceara we met up with my friends Marcio and Orlangelo who are brothers. They have a band that I work with here and are dear friends of mine. Marcio hooked me up with a sweet deal in a communal condominium that he his wife and daughter, and brother lives. we have an apartment right next to him. We stayed in Fortaleza for a few days relaxing. Its been raining a lot which is really needed in this state as it is part of the poorest region in Brazil. The dry land here is called the Sertao. It is the home of Brasil´s cowboys, and many indigineous cultures as well. In the northeast of Brasil there are many many different forms of music. The north and northeast is much different than the brasillian cultures of the Amazonas and the south. With this in mind Luke and I went to a Forro party in Fortaleza during the first few days we were here. Forro which translates as ``For All``, is an all night party where Forro bands play for the dancing crowds of the northeast. Lukes First!!! Danced all night.... Much different than the Samba you´ll find in the south even though there is samba here as well. Soon after we left for Itapipoca to the north in the interior where i have been before. Marcio and Orlangelo have houses built there with their families, it is a town of 10.000 people with mountains on the sides. They have a great market there where surrounding farms sell their goods. A few days in Itapipoca is always good, family and fun. I saw numerous people that i hadn~t seen since four years ago. The lake nearby was huge as it has been raining a lot so we went there for a day and relaxed.....Marcio luke and I left soon afterwords to the north to the coastal town of Jijoca where Marcio had to work. Next to Jijoca is the small communal beach town of Jericuacuara, Jeri for short. This is an incredible beach town with only sand roads and the best beaches and sunset that I have ever seen. Here you will find yourself surrounded by sand-dunes lakes and beach. The north is famous for this area. We stayed for two nights and came back to Fortaleza today as we have to go tomorrow with the band who i will be playing with friday and saturday in Juazeiro in the south of Ceara for the festival of Saint Anthony~which i will explain later. Juaziero is the mecca for all Ceara culture...we will be seeing many many things there that will blow our minds!!! more later. enjoy the photos!!!
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