The Big Field Trip_Brazil

Brazil

...Like many South Americans, Brazilians love their grilled meat. This passion is best illustrated by the churrascaria, a Brazilian-style steakhouse that provides an all-you-can-eat, pants-splitting, artery-clogging, orgy of barbecue goodness. We ate churrasco several times in Brazil and even attempted to reproduce it at our rental home. The results were passable, but I couldn’t wait to get back to Santa Fe so I could rig up a churrasco set-up in my oh-so-versatile (is it a smoker? an oven?) Weber grill. To me, the defining features of proper Brazilian churrasco are that the meat is (1) minimally seasoned and (2) cooked over wood or natural charcoal rotisserie style...

Brazilian Mangrove Forests

...While most trees would die within hours in the choking saltwater of the sea, mangrove trees thrive there. Mangroves help the environment and people by blocking tsunamis, creating land, helping poverty, providing habitat for fish, absorbing carbon from the air, and filtering pollution from the water. Unfortunately, mangroves forests are one of the most threatened biomes in the world....

São Paolo, Brazil

…We left Arraial yesterday, running with our tails between our legs. Although this past week has not been kind to us, I hope that when we look back on our stay in Brazil we remember the fun times. Right now we’re just glad to be safe in São Paolo and leaving for North Africa in the morning. On Friday night while I was at my last guitar lesson with Neto, two young men in masks broke into our home in Arraial. One held Jason and the kids at gunpoint in the bedroom while the other ransacked the house. They waved their pistols brazenly at each in turn—even little Cruz—while Jason tried to get them to stay calm. We had just packed in preparation for our flight to São Paolo, so our backpacks and valuables were all conveniently lined up by the front door. The thieves got away with the entire loot: both laptops, the iPod, speakers, eReader, video camera, cash we had just withdrawn for the trip, even our stinking travel-sized cribbage board. Everything but the camera and audio recorder, which I had taken with me to my guitar lesson with Neto. It was all just stuff, though. We’re feeling very fortunate that no one was hurt…

Homeschool Corner

Brazilian Churrasco

Awards & Publications

About Us / Contact

"Hamams and Sacrificial Altars”

SLAB, Fall 2016

"Which God Is Ours"

Summer 2016 Colere

"The Mysterious Crotch-Grabbing Handshake: Hard Lessons in Vietnam" 2015 Literal Latte Essay Award

"Halloween in Bulgaria"

2015 Travelers' Tales Solas Awards

"Thanksgiving on the Bosphorus"

Santa Fe Writers Project, February 2016:

"Garlic Naan for Hanuman"

Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition 2015:

"Escaping the Swine Flu, Nearly"

Halfway Down the Stairs, December 2015:

"Farewell to the Highlands"

Your Life Is A Trip, October 2015:

"Homeward Bound"

Your Life Is A Trip, May 2015:

The Big Field Trip

"Escaping the Great Mosque of Uqba" World Press Review, April 2015:

"Homeschooling on the Road"

International Living, August 2014:

AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS

Stories and Photos from

The Big Field Trip

Front-page feature story

Santa Fe New Mexican, March 2015:

"Which God Is Ours?"

2015 Travelers' Tales Solas Award and

published in Asia Literary Review, Spring 2015:

"The Scorpion Whisperer"

Eventus Magazine, June 2014:

The Big Field Trip

What do you get when two blissfully-ignorant lovebirds get the harebrained idea to schlep three children,

five backpacks, a guitar, and a garlic press on a two-year journey around the world?

Awards & Publications

About Us / Contact