Domingo (Sunday): A Day of Rest?

In Minas Gerais, the sky brightens and dawn breaks at about 5:30AM – 5:45 AM BST.   Saturday night, I intentionally left the drapes open with the intent of being awakened by dawn breaking over the eastern hills surrounding Uberlandia.  After an 8 hour sleep, my plan worked to perfection.  About 6:30AM, I was up and ready for the day.  Prior to going down for breakfast, I opted to take an hour long, leisurely walk around town, with my trusty camera at my side, to see what the city offered at such an early hour.  (NOTE: Saturday, 9/21 was Uberlandia's first day of spring.)

There were only 3 or 4 people out at that hour; that I saw anyway.  They were walking their dogs, casually strolling to Sunday services, heading back from the market with some groceries, and coming home (possibly) from a long night of partying (festejando?). 

             

The birds were out in full force and a cacophony of songs filled the air.  The bem-te-vie was collecting nesting materials.  The English sparrows were chirping; which is expected from them.  But there was a call, a loud, raucous call, echoing off the buildings that I hadn’t heard before.  It seemed to be coming from about 2 blocks way, and it also seemed to be coming from high up in the trees or from atop a high rise building.

Persistence and patience paid off!  I located the source.  There were 3 or 4 native ibis calling louder than any of the other birds.  The natives refer to them as curicaca.  The common name is buff necked ibis.  Unfortunately, my 300mm telephoto wasn’t strong enough to get a close up of them about 150 up in a stand of palm trees.   (See below.)

1st Photo:  My image of the curicaca.                    2nd Image: Buff necked ibis courtesy of  Google.

   
   

Upon returning to the hotel, I had breakfast and then went off to the gym to get in a workout.  Surprisingly, even at 8:30AM, the dry heat caused me to be parched about 1km into my 2km walk.  (The .5 liter bottle of water I drank didn’t seem to help.)  My home (Tampa, FL) has 90+ degrees temperatures, but the humidity is always 70%+ in the summer and early fall.  The temperature here is probably about the same, but the humidity is easily < 20%. 

After returning to the hotel, I spent about 6 – 7 hours reading through our largest document, which is 35 – 40 pages.  Before we send it to Ipe, I wanted to ensure that the format and terminology were consistent, grammar was proper, and spelling was in order.  At about 8:30PM, 12 of us went to a pizza place (Sapateria do Pizza) and had a nice sit down dinner.  All of the pizza choices were named after sapatos (shoes).  We tasted about 8 – 10 different pizzas with toppings such as shrimp, salmon, tuna, sausage, tomato & basil, and chicken & peas.  The last pizza was a "dessert" pizza with a thin layer of chocolate.

Monday will arrive soon, and I’ve had a long day.  Boa noite.

P.S. -  Thank you for continuing to join me on my assignment via my blog.  My wish is that you (the reader) take away a feeling of Brazilian culture and get a true sense of the cerrado’s natural beauty.  I encourage you to add Comments if / when you feel motivated.

1st Image:  Purple flower of the ipe.  //  2nd Image:  Native bem-te-vie bird

        

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