domingo, novembro 18, 2007

Horses Xing

Not that you would ever see a sign indicating that anywhere around here. Although I was unaware of it at the time I was living in the States, there is some kind of law prohibiting farm animals inside city limits. I never thought much about it, but it would seem rather striking to see chickens and pigs wandering around down town Lansing or Grand Rapids. There is no such law here, however, and I would be hard pressed to think of a day that I have gone out on the street here and not see at least one rooster on the sidewalk or a horse tied up on the side of the road, nibbling the grass. The farther outside the city you go, the less restrained the animals are, until you start finding them wandering around on the road, just waiting to scare the bajeezes out of you as you come around a sharp turn. I only hit one deer with my car in MI and I cannot imagine the damage a full grown horse would do to the tiny cars we drive around here. Luckily, the pot holes are so bad in most of the roads, the speeds you need to drive at will most likely allow you to stop in time.

domingo, novembro 11, 2007

In the middle of nowhere

These photos are more of the Praia do Forte area. We happen to have some friends who live there - not in the main store littered walking area plaza, but across the highway and back up the back roads a ways. This is the main stretch of road to get to and from their house. Most of the rest of it is more the state of a two-track, complete with pot holes and large ponds in the middle of it (see below). I would say this would be a good place to buy a small lot and retire to, but development has picked up so much that I doubt it would be quite this nice and secluded 10 years from now.

sábado, novembro 10, 2007

Moto-Taxi


Outside of the big city area of Salvador, taxis are far and few between. It just is not cost effective to run a large taxi service with cars in areas where people don't need to take transportation to many places during the day. What you end up with, then, are motorcycle taxis, which will take you short distances on the back of a motor bike for a relatively low cost. This particular stand is in Praia do Forte, right in the middle of the public walking area full of little shops and restaurants. There isn't much to do in Praia except walk around and window shop, go to the beach, or go to the TAMAR area. If you get sick of one beach, you can take a moto-taxi to another one. In the mean time, the drivers can sit here on their nice covered platform and drink beer.

domingo, novembro 04, 2007

Maintenance

Obviously, all lights need to be changed once in a while. You know, the ones in your house are so easy to do, but what about your friendly neighborhood traffic light? I know these things need to be fixed once in a while, yet I could not think of any time in my memory that I actually SAW one being worked on, or a light bulb being changed, or anything, in the States. It was just like some kind of magical state that they remained in perfect working order, always.

Not here. This scene is taking place during the end of rush hour here, on one of the only TWO major routs to get ANYWHERE>>> The Orla. And not only did they decide to do this one particular light (I cannot recall if it was burned out, but it might have been) at this time, but they proceeded to do the rest of them in this stretch over the next several days, always it seems, at the same time. Just to give any non-locals a perspective : This is a two lane in each direction road that runs along the ocean - no way to turn off or go around. One lane was completely blocked by this truck.