Meet Piloto

Hello! My name is Piloto. I am one of the newer members of the farm and I love it here. In this photo I am busy making sure that the Coconut Tree Humberto planted this morning is secure. He planted three this morning and they are going in front of the new fence he is helping his father build in front of the new porch that was just recently constructed. There is alot of work being done on the farm these days and it is so exciting!

Two days ago, the family invited me and my mother along on a fishing trip! It was one of my first trips back into the mato, or the forest. There was so much to see, smell and explore I occassionally got lost. The family is nice enough to call me when they hear me whimpering so that I find my way back to the group. Here you can see me following Humberto with the fishing poles down the trail to the fishing spot.

While the family fished, I ran ALL over the place. I followed my mom into the forest, I climbed up big rocks and looked down over the beautiful pond. At one point I got so excited, Humberto's dad tossed me into the lake! I had so much fun swimming back to land! I also was so happy when he petted me and said I was a good boy!

We weren't having much luck so we decided to go for a hike deeper into the forest to show Becky what it was like. There were monkeys and all sorts of birds that she had never seen before all around. I think she liked it alot! Humberto's parents' land stretches from the road all the way back to a river that we didn't make it to during our trip. The land has plenty of space for cows, horses, as well as sugar, rice, corn and various other things to grow. The land used to be an old Papaya hacienda, or fazenda in Portuguese, so out in the back there are tons of trees that the family keeps trying to destroy, but they keep growing like weeds. Further back there is coffee, cocao and all sorts of plants.

I had fun on this part of the hike! I felt like a big dog! By this time my mother had completely wandered off so I was left with the group to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble. At one point they walked through an ants nest.... those crazy kind of Amazon ants that could carry an entire tree, or cow, back to their home. Luckily noone got hurt. While they got all the ants off of Humberto's dad's shirt I currled up in a ball under some leaves near a tree trunk to take a nap. These little legs of mine can't handle a loooong walk. Humberto decided to give me a lift back to the fishing spot, however. He's a nice guy.

When we headed back to the fishing spot to pick up our stuff, of COURSE Humberto and his father decided it would be a good idea to keep fishing, see if we could catch anything else since Becky seemed to be only good at catching her hook on the trees, various plants, and Humberto's shirt. However, she did catch some type of little blue fish! I was getting kind of tired by this point. I decided to hang out and listen to them go on and on about the big fish they used to catch, the big fish they knew were there somewhere in the water and be photographic for Becky. She likes to take photos of me.

We ended up getting back to the farm VERY late, the sunset was beautiful. (Becky says she will put pictures up on Facebook later this week of the sunset as well as the rest of the trip). I got a little nervous becuse we had to walk past all of these huge cows that looked like they wanted to eat me!

Becky said she wanted to put a few pictures of my parents on here for you as well, so here is my father Negão, or big black guy and my mother, whose name sounds like Perra, or female dog. They are both very young, less than a year old!

Everything is going well for Becky and Humberto! She is having a great time getting to know what life is like on the farm! She made borinkel (totally spelled wrong), a dish her grandmother used to make for both she and Humberto that is a traditional meal in the Netherlands. Everyone loved it! She used the family's secret recipe sausage for it! mmmmmm! Humberto is busy busy busy working either on the farm or with his brother. They are super busy making contracts and such for the agricultural import/export business.

She also has a Brazil phone number finally! To get it, check facebook or call her mother! She misses everyone so much and hopes that this blog post was fun for you to read :) Beijos pra todos!!!