My 6 weeks off

These 6 weeks happened in 3 chunks:

Check out the Photo Albums for the respective photos.

Part I
Vanessa and I spent a couple days in Chicago and two weeks in Canada, visiting Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and a ton of people. It was great to see everyone! (or as close to everyone as was possible) And it was fun to show Vanessa a little piece of Canada and Canadian life.

Part II
I met up with my bro Dave in Yellowstone National Park and we spent a week driving around and hiking in the park. The park really is as spectacular as everyone says. Dave joked after our first day that "We've been here a day and already seen all four seasons"; It was hot as summer when the sun was out and shining in full force, but then the clouds would roll in and it would pour rain for about 5 min and then turn into hail; on the same day we did a hike into the mountains and into snow. During our week in the park we saw bison, deer, elk, pronghorn, a moose, bighorn sheep, a yellow-bellied marmot, a total of 10 bears (including a mother and 2 cubs as well as 2 grizzlies), and a bald eagle!!

Part III
I spent my last two weeks travelling the south of Brasil. This is an area where Italians, Germans, Swiss, Poles, and other eastern europeans settled. It is the more developed part of Brasil. There are many more well-constructed cities and infrastructures to support them. I spent a little time in various places checking out the cities, but as always still preferred to find the hills, valleys, and waterfalls in the regions.
Something quite different in the south is a tea-like drink called chimarrão. It is made of a dried leaf called erva mate, but unlike tea, you fill your cup (actually they use gourds) with the leaf and then add water. You drink the tea through what is called a bomba. A bomba is straw-like but is closed off at the bottom; instead of an opening at the bottom there are little holes in the bottom of the "straw" that allow the water to pass through but not the leaves. I ended up spending an evening hanging out with some guys drinking chimarrão. It is tradition to pass the gourd around like a pipe all night long and just keep refilling it with hot water.
Some people refer to Brasil as many countries in one; In particular, this is a comparison of the north and south of the country -the geography, climate, and people. It was definitely interesting to see the "other Brasil".