The Island

We have the previlege to have a wonderful little apartment in the city of Governador Valadares, Brazil where we'll be spending a few months out of the year here. This location was chosen primarily because several members of our family lives here including my lovely mother.

The apartment is located on a beautiful island. In some ways living here in the island for the few months is like living in a small resort. Beautiful view of the mountain, great restaurants, great padaria (bakery), ice cream places and amazing place to do your exercise every day. One thing is for sure, you only stay sedentary living in the island, if you're a bit lazy or lacking motivation. Please allow us to share a bit of the island with you.

Banana tree... you may find several type of fruit trees growing in the island.

Rio Doce (sweet river)

This walking area makes a loop around the island

There is a bridge to come to the island. You can also take the balsa (passenger ferry) as well.... this ferry is made out of wood and there is no motor. There's a cable connecting from the mainland to the island and that's how the ferry goes back and forth all day long.

We lived on the 4th floor of this apartment complex.... you can actually see the outside covered area

Just an old beautiful tree.... another little one growing inside the trunk of the big tree too.... (nature is so amazing)

It can't get better than this for an area to exercise every day....(just beautiful location)

Beautiful view of the mountain walking around the island.

Paul pointing to the banana tree... it is amazing that these trees are in free land around the island.

 
We have a bit of fascination with these banana trees... they're so beautiful and it is such a joy to understand where our food comes from...

Does these trees looks ancient? I was always at awe to view such nature at the island...

Just so beautiful....

 
There are beautiful homes located at the island...... I love this one because it has an older look...

Don't you just love the vegetation around  the homes.... it is a truly tropical place

We hope that you had a glimpse of what a beautiful place where we spent about 4 and 1/2 months in the wintter of 2010. We'll be sharing more adventures... stay tuned and please feel free to share the contents of this blog.

Hang Gliding Tournament - Brazil/March 2009

Have you ever wished to do something really crazy and fun? Well... I wish I had the courage to fly on a Hang Glider. All the pilots looks like they're having an amazing time, flying like a bird. However, before I show some pictures of the Hang Gliding that happened in Governador Valadares from March 14th through the 20th, I would like to share with you if I  may a bit of history that surrounds this amazing sport.

"During the last part of the 19th century a German engineer made over Two-thousand successful flight on weight shift hang gliders. His name was Otto Lilienthal. The notes he kept of those experimental flights were a major source of inspiration for early aviation pioneers.

Unfortunately, once the Wright brothers achieved powered flight, Otto and hang gliding were largely forgotten. Forgotten that is until the late 1940‘s, when Dr Francis Rogallo (a NASA scientist) and his wife became interested in the gliding. Initially they worked in their spare time developing a flexible wing kite, which they patented in 1948. 


In the late 1950‘s NASA joined the "space race", and conducted a number of tests to see if the Rogallo wing could be used as a steerable recovery parachute for their space capsules.

When pictures of these trials were released, aviation enthusiasts in Australia and America immediately saw the potential of the Rogallo Flexwing for recreational flight. The hang glider was re-born. By the late 1960‘s enthusiasts, armed only with pictures cut out from magazines, were building their own bamboo and polythene Rogallos, and leaping off the nearest sand dune. With little or no information to go on, initial progress was often slow and hazardous.

Then in May 1971 the Otto Lilienthal Anniversary Meet was held in California. This event attracted enthusiasts from all over the country, and really caught the public‘s imagination." Excerpt history taken from the following site http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-hang-gliding.htm

This event continues to attract people from all over the world. During the tournament, Paul and I met pilots from Germany, Canada, United States, France and Hungary. We had a lot fun with them and we asked a ton of questions regarding this sport. Let's see some cool pictures of the tournament.

Pilots getting ready for a day of flying....

A beautiful scene....

Beautiful clear sky for flying.....

Pilot about to take off...

Same pilot took off and is flying...

Do you have the courage? Flying high in the clouds....

Flying... some pilots getting ready to fly...

Pilots and people watching the tournament...

Very cool....

Just had so much fun watching and taking pictures...

Flying...

Amazing...

Thank you for allowing us to share some beautiful sights watching the Hang Gliders. We learned a lot from them and we're still amazed and in awe of the beauty of this sport. Please drop a comment, we would love to hear from you.