We spent Sunday in the coastal town of Matinhos doing research in two informal settlements, Vila Progresso and Vila Nova. Vila Nova has been going through the regularization process for some years, while Vila Progresso is about to start. Below are some photos from Vila Progresso.
In Vila Nova my group had a certain area, about 6 blocks, to look for signs of recent improvement (fresh paint on houses for example) and we interviewed 5 households. "We" is a loose term, I certainly didn't do much speaking in Portuguese with the people, besides greeting and asking permission to take photos, as I was the photographer of the group. Since my photos from Vila Nova are all of fences and roofs, I deemed them too boring for the blog, and all the ones below are from Vila Progresso.
Today we went to Universidade Positivo to put all our information in one place, so I downloaded all my photos to the main drive. Thursday we begin working again on the actual meat of the project, Sunday was just data gathering/updating. I'll be mapping socio-economic data in Vila Nova. I might also be helping another student who is working independently but alongside us in updating the geo-spatial data for the areas, using GPS points she took on Sunday to make the GIS maps of the two settlements more accurate.
More to come as we progress!
My team was looking at environmental aspects of Vila Progresso, such as rivers and virgin forests. Here we are out and about, probably marking the location of some pictures I just took, while another group passes by.
One of the younger residents. She was very shy and I took this photo blind, holding the camera down inconspicuously. Very lucky to get such a good shot.
Your standard fence in Vila Progresso, though many have creative security measures like shards of broken glass along the top, and nearly all contain very protective dogs.
These guys were playing a Brazilian adapted game of cricket in the street. We saw other groups playing soccer of course; I especially liked the one kid playing goalie with his shoes on his hands for protection in place of gloves.
This would be from inside our bus back to Curitiba, and the lights are the tow truck pulling our butts off the freeway with us inside!!! The clutch blew out going up the mountain and we had to wait nearly 2 hours for another bus to arrive. Quite the day.
I'm back in Curitiba after three days in Florianópolis. On day one we took a bus tour across Ilha de Santa Catarina. The island is is very close to the continental mainland and the city of Florianópolis is split into two parts, one on the mainland and one on the island. The city has pressure to urbanize but much of the land is protected, though it doesn't seem that the protection has much legal power behind it.
The second day we had a series of lectures that gave us more information about the island. We were mixed with students from the Federal University of Santa Catarina. The lectures were in Portuguese with interspersed translations for us. This was very difficult.
Day three (today) was a workshop dealing with open space on the island. We were mixed with the UFSC students and split into three groups. My group looked at environmental issues, pressures, conflicts, and opportunities. We tried to find areas that were good for creating corridors of green space and areas that are vulnerable to urbanization, both formal and informal.
Overall, I felt this workshop was weak and I did not get much out of it. It was fun to see the island and some of the information from the lectures was interesting. I'm glad we did it, but it was so difficult to understand even simple things, like what our expected output was for today. I had fun talking to the students. They even got us into the cafeteria for lunch, which was a cool experience! Here is a picture of Group Three, our map is behind us on the wall. Calvin is on the far left, I'm on the far right, Jose is next to me, and the two girls and the other guy are from UFSC and I forget their names.
The journey is just as important as the destination.Calvin and I set out to Ilha do Mel (Island of Honey) at 7am on Saturday, and traveled a total of 10 hours by taxi, train, bus, boat, and foot to our hotel Pousada das Meninas on Ilha do Mel, and it was all completely worthwhile.
The trip started with some bad news.After the cab ride to the rodoviaria, we were told that the train did not continue to Paranaguá (as my Rough Guides book claimed it does on weekends, in reality it only goes that far on Sundays) and stopped at Morretes, and economy class was full.So, paying more and not going as far as we planned we sleepily got on board.Excited anyways about my first real trip on a train I watched Curitiba thin out to cattle farms in the morning light.Eventually we were in the Serra do Mar mountains, with thick vegetation and rocky peaks jutting up out of the green rolling hills and valleys.The ride was not as “vertigo-inducing” as my book claimed; it went a bit slow for that.But all the bridges and tunnels (which made the car pitch black) were cool, and some of the more mountainous views were unbelievable.Close to Morretes, children ran along side of the train hoping for some food.
We hopped off in the small town of Morrets and made our way to the bus station to figure out how to make it to the port city of Paranaguá.We walked around (pretty much all of) town for 20 minutes waiting for the bus.It was neat to see a small Brazilian town, where life is simple and there is no tourist infrastructure.We paid our small fare and squeezed on board and, sitting on the stairs at the rear exit, we began our third leg of the trip.As the bus made its stops along the highway we were granted an actual seat, but heat and stopped traffic kept us from enjoying this ride much.
Once in Paranaguá, we found the docks and began a mini-saga to find an ATM that would take our American cards so we could pay our way to the island.Eight banks later HSBC granted us some cash so we walked back to the docks and got our tickets to and from Ilha do Mel.An hour and a half on the choppy water of Paranaguá Bay watching cargo ships slide across the horizon we landed at our long awaited destination.
It did not disappoint.At all.In any way.
The island was amazing, especially since it was in the offseason and the numbers of visitors were low, mostly Brazilian surfers from our deducing.We walked down the main drag (sand trail) and found Pousada das Meninas and asked for the simplest room they had.We were guided up some narrow and steep stairs to a loft room with two beds and some space between them, over a common den-type area with our bathroom off the side.Very simple indeed.We hauled our butts while the sun set to the nearby light house, eager to enjoy the island while we could now that we were finally there.The view was stunning, if dim.Excited we found our way down the stone stairs from the lighthouse to the path and then to a restaurant for one of the best meals I’ve had so far, the shrimp “express platter” with shrimp, carrots, rice, beets, and lettuce with super fresh lemonade.Back to the hotel to relax and enjoy a cerveja while scribbling in my journal.A gecko hunted moths, rather successfully, inside the spherical paper lamp overhead.
We were in bed by 9:45, exhausted from the logistical gauntlet of the day and in preparation of our 6am alarm.Up and at ‘em as the sun broke over the horizon, we hustled back to the lighthouse for the sunrise.The clouds, wind, sea, and early morning greens were simply amazing.As the air warmed we made our way across a beach, Praia de Fora, and back to our hotel for breakfast where I enjoyed good banana bread, fresh fruit, and the best fresh orange juice I have ever had.
We headed back to Praia de Fora and began to scramble along the boulders out on Ponta do Joaquim.Lots of surfers.Bouldering was fun.Got my feet wet in the southern hemispheric Atlantic.Took some underwater photos of fish in a tide pool.Sat on the boulders taking photos, watching surfers and enjoying life.We then began the long walk to an old Portuguese fort; built in 1767 to guard against Spanish attacks.About 4K on the beach, walking quietly and independently, Calvin and I did our own thing along the way each stopping for various reasons.The fort was cool, right up against the waves, and sitting in the shade of a canon and drinking some água was very welcome.We didn’t stay at the fort long, and the walk back to our hotel didn’t seem as long as the walk out.We gathered our belongings (ie our jackets and toothbrushes) and checked out, grabbed a quick lunch, made for the dock, watched several ferries arrive and depart before getting on ours back to Paranaguá at 4:30.The sun set as we motored back to the mainland; small dolphins jumped in our wake.We took the direct (and express) bus to Curitiba and were in our hotel by 8:20pm (a slightly shorter return trip!), where we started sorting through our batches of 550+ photos each.
Ilha do Mel is HIGHLY recommended for anyone who is near it, that is anyone who is in southern Brazil.The lighthouse is almost too picturesque to be true and the feeling of the island is such good vibes.I’m not sure how it would be in summer, but I absolutely enjoyed every second I was there.The trip was so cool.We left the relative comfort Curitiba with clothes and cameras in our bags and a destination in mind.
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Today (Monday) was pretty tame, especially after the weekend.Hours of lectures that were given in Portuguese to local students and then translated for us, thus taking twice as long, made for a pretty lame day!I guess I need to remember that this is a graduate level program!It was still interesting, but just hard to get into it via translations.
So today we went to Universidade Livre do Meio Ambiente, the Open University of the Environment, or Unilivre, which is in a city park. The building is an amazing structure, in style of Swiss Family Robinson, with separate rooms and a spiral ramp walkway to an observation deck where you can look down on the quarry lake or see a distant view of the city’s skyline. The decking is made of old power/phone line poles. It is a remarkable, if drafty, place.
We had a lecture from Reinaldo Piloto, a civil engineer, about the city of Curitiba’s parques e praças (parks and plazas). There are a lot of parks in Curitiba, so it lasted a while. The main goal of most of the parks is to help the environmental integrity of the rivers. Many informal settlements are near rivers and parks can help prevent these from popping back up after the people are moved to housing projects by putting things like soccer fields and basketball courts where the houses would be. I thought it interesting that the main point sources for water pollution that they worry about here is residential, when in America we worry about more industrial or commercial polluters. Others provide flood mitigation with detention ponds, with no water level controls; the floods here are all flash floods.
We took the Linha Turismo to the Torre Panorâmica. The 360° views of the city were amazing! You could really see the lines of transit-oriented development and how the zoning around the bus BRT lines is so distinct; there are not many mid-rise buildings.
Dinner was awesome. We were approached by a few drifting hippie types, one of whom we have spoken to a few times before. We ended up inviting them to sit with us as they had the drink that Calvin bought for them as payment for a necklace. We all talked in a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish for a while until they finished the drink and moved on.
It’s actually getting cold now. I like it, but our sliding glass window doesn’t really shut 100% so we have to leave it cracked or the wind will howl through it, so I guess we’ll be getting all bundled and cozy in our beds from now on. We’re heading to Ilha do Mel for the weekend, so I won’t be able to post again until Sunday. The train ride is supposed to be amazing and vertigo-inducing and the island is an ecological preserve that you need to take a ferry to. Should be awesome.
A self-portrait on the spiral walkway up to the observation deck at Unilivre.
People participating in the program Lixo Que Não é Lixo, or trash that is not trash, in which 70% of the city's trash is recycled by its residents, who sort recyclables and exchange them for food.
View from the observation tower. 110 meters up (360 feet) and about 100 meters below the flight paths of planes landing at CWB! You can see the high density development along the transit axis here. It is amazing how it just stops, as the ares between the BRT (bus rapid transit) and the fast car lanes are what is zoned for such height.
Here is a TUBE! These things are awesome. You pay to enter the tube so when the bus comes you just walk right on, "sheltered from the rains and heats" as the video shown to us said.
This is a biarticulated bus. These red buses are the "Express" routes, but there are other "speedy" buses that go faster and only stop every 3km. These red ones have dedicated lanes, which people use for biking (those that bike) despite the fact that signs tell them it is illegal, but the transportation authority had no legal power to fine them. You can see a tube down the left side of the road.
A shot of Alameda Júlia da Costa, the road our hotel is on. This was taken from our hotel's roof, (which is where the pool is!) about 10 stories up.
Me showing a little land use love to Curitiba's zoning map at IPPUC (see last link on the right). I would have bought one if they sold them.
During the walk back to the flat. Looking up towards Centro Histórico, with Igreja Presbiteriana Independente and Igreja do Rosário standing tall at the end of the road.
Here is a shot of Curitiba's transportation amazingness. These two lanes in the middle are for buses only. There are several kinds of buses, distinguished by color; different buses travel at different speeds, stop more or less frequently, and go to different places.
You can see a bus in the distance at the bottom of this hill, these buses are the poster-children of Curitiba's public transit. They have these dedicated lanes and arrive very frequently, but don't make a ton of stops, and go fast. The stops are the famous "tubes." You step up and pay your fare, then enter the tube, the bus comes and a ramp lowers from the side of the bus as the doors open and you walk out of the tube and onto the bus. I'll have to get a good photo of some tube-action tomorrow.
The cars travel on the outside lanes. Some of the bigger boulevards (the lifelines of Curitiba's radial density growth) are arranged even cooler: there is the dedicated bus lane in either direction in the middle, then just outside of that is a lane for local car traffic, then outside of that more lanes for faster car traffic. The areas around these superhighways are zoned for the maximum density and taper off as you get away. So a 3D overhead of the city would show all the tall buildings in lines following these roads. No one who lives here is more than 500 meters from a bus line. It is absolutely tunning, and people use it!
Tomorrow we will go to the transportation agency; I'm curious to ask about bike use and planning. Not too many people here ride bikes. I'm the most excited person on the trip about all this transportation/land use business. I was all smiles while we were in that tube!
It is neat that I'm here long enough to need to go to the grocery store. I was psyched to buy some carrots! Also, bananas, apples, yogurt, and some amazing Brazilian granola/cereal bars.
This was my lunch yesterday in São Paulo, the traditional sausage sandwich, calabresa com queijo. Very tasty and well spiced, and the bread is so good too. Doesn't come with a lot of flair, but for around US$2 what do you expect?
A view of São Paulo from the air as my flight to Curitiba takes off. This isn't even looking at the main downtown area with the really big buildings and high density. The city is just so damn expansive! I can't get over how big it is. We joked when looking at a view from the tallest building in the city that everyone in my hometown would fit in one building here.
I'm safely in Curitiba! We begin our workshop for the next week today with a lecture from a Brazilian architect so it will be exciting to get into our work!
Curitiba is an amazing city. All of us are already falling in love with it. It is rich and vibrant, but much less overwhelming than Sao Paulo and has a much nicer vibe. Or hotel is amazing. Calvin and I have a mini-flat so to speak, with a very small kitchen (microwave, mini fridge, sink, and hotplate), a living room with couch, a room with our beds, and a balcony.
Spent yesterday on the short flight and then walking around the city. The fillet mignon sandwich was very good; the meat-diet continues. Had some good sides too, fried yucca and farinha. There seems to be a lot to do in our spare time, though I do think we'll be starting a group project that will reduce our ability to explore. There are two mountain ranges nearby which I hope will offer some exciting recreation opportunities.
I'm off to walk around for a bit before our lecture in the afternoon. Pictures will come tonight!
Another good day of touring São Paulo. Went to the Japanese neighborhood, walked through several Sunday markets, rode the subway a few times, went to two art galleries. One of the galleries is supposedly the best collection in the southern hemisphere, but the permanent collection was closed and we got screwed out of seeing works by Bosch, Rembrandt and Degas.
Good food today. I had a calabresa com queijo for lunch, which is a traditional Brazilian sausage sandwich with cheese. Very tasty! The bread your typical sandwich comes on is very good. A bit chewy but flaky too. A chicken coixina for dinner at a small lanchonete down the street from our hotel was good too. Apparently we are in a region of Brazilian cuisine that is one of the most carnivorous diets on the planet. EVERYTHING involves meat. "Com salada" on the end of a dish or sandwich simply means with lettuce and tomato; they do not understand the idea of serving vegetables in any substantial way.
Might try to get up early tomorrow to walk around a bit before heading to the airport for our flight to Curitiba!
Catedral Metropolitana na Praça da Sé. The cathedral holds 8,000 and the square (praça) is a huge concrete expanse with fountains and a few sculptures (complete with Jesus spraypainted on them). It took about 50 years to build the cathedral, replacing the 18th century one, which was demolished in 1920.
A pretty good example of an informal economy. Notice the smoke filtering in at the end of the street. A real-life residential fire from off to the right, too bad emergency vehicles in São Paulo can't get anywhere...
Here is a photo of some buildings in a large square in downtown São Paulo. Notice the helipad on top of the building at the far right. Helicopters are very big in São Paulo; reminds me of living next to the UNC hospital.
