From Brazil to Britt, Ontario

June and July became a whirlwind of Portuguese, Project Runway and quality kayak time.

InJune, Isaac and I went to FICA, an environmental film festival in Goias, Brazil. He was there with Puffing Away and I was there to ride his coattails.

We wandered the small town, taking in the colonial architecture in the morning and the air conditioned screenings in the dead heat of the afternoon. Every evening we met up with the other international filmmakers for long dinners that stretched late into the night. We met interesting people from all over, in fact, I'm staying at Nadia's apartment this week in Paris (Nadia is a documentary filmmaker, very cool or "muito legal" as they say in Brazil).

After spending a few weeks working in a secret locale (don't ask me anything about Project Runway! a.k.a., Wha...?), I took off with the King-Wulff clan for a kayaking expedition in Georgian Bay. It was pretty spectacular. It feels funny to travel such long distances by arm (stroke! stroke!) but you also feel quite lithe, floating atop the water, barely breaking the surface. My paddle was often scraping the rocks below (in some places it's so shallow!) and still, the kayak would just glide along.

Sometimes the landscape seemed surreal. It's all smooth humps of rolling rocks, shot through with lightning bolts of granite or pink quartz. On a clear, cloudless day (of which we had many), everything seems to hug the horizon - the trees, the reflection on the glassy water, the rocks and islands. Everything above and below is just vast space, blues and greens.

One thing I could have done without was mosquito hour. At times, I'd hear the hellish chord of 10 different tones of "bzzzt!" right in my ear. Clouds of mosquitos (30? 40?) would just orbit my face like it was a Twinkie or a steak. Just as you think you will lose your mind...they disappear. Only to reappear at the exact same time the next night. Like me, with this blog. Now that I'm back to being wired (albeit on a different continent) hopefully I can keep you posted a little better than I have been.