Research Visit to Brazil

I just returned from a one month post as a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo at  São Carlos, where I was working with my friend and former colleague Jo Ueyama. You can read about the work-side of our activities in Brazil here: http://www.sp-river.blogspot.com/. But it wasn't all work - I also spent a weekend on the São Sebastian beaches and went to Rio for Carnival weekend. Here are some photos:

The scenery on the drive between São Paulo and São Sebastian is spectacular, here you can see a forest waterfall in the Sierra Del Mar mountains.

Thanks to the hospitality of Jo's friends from USP, we were able to stay in a great little cottage in the forest, surrounded by forest, flowers and cool animals.

 

There was a creek behind the cottagee that you can swim in, here you see a swimmers-eye-view of Delano (our host, on the right) and Jo.

Here you can see some of the cool flora and fauna.

Compared to Rio the São Sebastian beaches were quiet and laid back, here's a shot of the beach at sunset.

In contrast, Rio was more glamerous and developed, though still very beautiful. Here is Copa Cabana beach where I stayed for the weekend.

Here is the younger, busier Ipanema Beach.

And here's a photo of me at the Ipanema Bloco parade with Alessandro, one of my hosts and other friends. What a great trip!

Visit to Shanghai and Brazil

Wow, its been a long time since I posted here. I am currently on a research visit to the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and have been really, really busy. On the way to Brazil, I had a nice day in Shanghai, some photos of which are shown below:

Jade Buddha Temple

One of Many Impressive Statues of the Buddha

Monks Singing a Prayer

Caren Having a Beer in a Bar with Fishtank Tables

We had a great day shopping in Shanghai's art district, visiting the Jade Buddha temple and then having some drinks in this wierd bar with fish-tanks as tables.