fionaistravelling

It's April 2025, I've been home for nearly three months, and I promised myself that I would spend six months reflecting on my travels before I did anything else. I've been connecting with my family - my nieces and great niece and my sister... I've been doing lots of cycling along the beautiful river path near where I live, I've been continuing with my Portuguese classes in the hope that current-Fiona will pick up what travelling-Fiona wanted for me, which was to go back to Brazil and Peru....  I've been sorting out my photos and videos - a long job, helped by setting up a Monday morning 'get that project done' club - my ADHD finds it hard to get down to doing specific things without other people around me.  I've got lots of 'themes' in my photos and have got three talks set up , two on zoom and one real (neither of which i've actually properly written yet, but the first 2 are still a couple of weeks off...). I've been invited to help...

I've usually been telling you where I am when I'm writing, but I'm going to be telling you what I'm LISTENING TO as well today, as I'm absolutely loving it...... This blog is writing about stuff that happened in early to mid May. I'm actually writing it on 22nd June  [you will notice it's being posted out at the beginning of August but maybe we'll gloss over that for now], on the slow boat RONDONIA between Manaus and Belem, and listening to ISLE OF KLEZBOS:   Bonia Shur's Nigun & Cartagena Chosidl   from their cd Yiddish Silver Screen, available on Bandcamp to listen to and to buy of course. Cartagena Chosidl is a little bit topical - they invented a Klezmer tune with a Colombian beat - here it is for your delectation. I heard their bandleader and drummer Eve Secular talking about this on the 6th June 2024 episode of Klezmer Podcast this month and have been listening wall to wall ever since.   (Other music recs in the Klezmer world I got into th...

Happy New Government Day 5th July 2024.  .  I'm back in Sao Luis now - I was here for a month in April and HAD to come back for their amazing Sao Joao festival. Here's a video showing a tiny bit of a Bumba Meu Boi play .... 100 different community groups in the state of Maranhao put on their own versions of this play, all telling the same story, all totally different. (A trip to Sao Luis in June is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, tell me if you want to come here and I'll join you!) As regular readers will know,  I am doing a particular sort of 'participative tourism' as far as I can and was actually IN a Bumba Meu Boi play last week...(!) As well as - visiting museums and art galleries, - going to carnival in Salvador, - climbing mountains way out of my comfort zone in Chapada Diamantina, - being part of a sunset candlelit boat procession at the Festejo de Divino Espirito Santo in Alvaraes near Tefe, and - watching the Corpus Cristi procession in Cusco, I've - bee...

It's two years today 6th June, as I'm putting the finishing touches to this blog post, since Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were murdered in the  Brazilian Amazon, by people involved in illegal fishing.   And a lot of things changed on that date.  MANY environmental defenders and journalists have been murdered before and since, but their deaths were widely reported and have had - and continue to have - wide repercussions throughout Brazil and through the world.   The issues continue.... here's an  article about the ongoing danger for environmental journalists , and here's an article about the Dom Phillips Foundation  being set up by Dom's widow Ale who I was lucky enough to meet when I was in Salvador in March this year.  For those who don't know, Dom's sister Sian was my choir leader for ten years and I play music with her; and her speech at her brother's funeral  committing to keep Dom's message alive inspired me to organise a festival...