Where Are You Continues, Again.....

Finally we got dad's Death Certificate yesterday... but we had to go to a place in the middle of freakin nowhere... to get it...
This was the road to the place.... over 30 mins driving on that road...





The view from the road...






Our car was the only vehicle on the road.... we caught attention of folks sitting on the front porch...


Some goats crossing the road...


All houses in that place are like those... and worse...


Some folks on foot...


Those trees are called "carnauba"... typical in the region... don't know much about it..

 

I am glad we are not in the rainy season here.. or that would be pure mud.... some houses are made with clay and sticks... and no power...



Others are made with brick... they don't have cars... maybe a small motorcycle... or scooter.... generally Honda 125 horse power...




We crossed two VERY narrow bridges... good for one vehicle only...


Finally.. 2 vehicles... we were almost there... a lot of dust in that place... and we had our windows open cause the car didn't have A/C...


The white thing on the ground is a water reservoir in the soil that the government builds... that holds water when it rains.... which happens only during the rain season... some folks have their own wells...
And we arrived at the small village where the registry "office" was.. so we could obtain the Death Certificate...

Sun is very strong there... some folks carry umbrellas...



The registry office was one tiny house to the right... no picture...
An old lady came to the door... and let us in... a tiny little room with a desk and a computer... she said she would call her son cause she didn't know how to type in the computer...
After a while her son came from a room behind the desk... the room looked like a bedroom... We gave them our documents and it took him almost 2 hrs to fill up one page form with the information...
I asked them if I could verify the info on the document before they printed...
And found wrong numbers in 5 different parts of the document...
Asked them to print again... and still.... the guy couldn't spell words correctly... even with me spelling the letters.... How can one working at a registry office not being able to read numbers right and can't spell words...? That's a REALLY FREAKIN BACWARDS PLACE....
Anyway... FINALLY... after over 2 hrs... we got the Death Certificate and left....

 

Back on the dirt dusty road...



See a skinny cactus... common in this area...



And more "carnauba" trees...



It doesn't rain in this region... about 3 months with some rain and sunny and hot and very hot the rest of the year....


Very common to see animals and people and horses on those roads....

 

On the road today... we went to another small town to take care of more paperwork.... The roads around here are in SUCH A BAD SHAPE.... vehicles have to drive anywhere to avoid them.. See the truck in front of us...? BTW... the left lane is opposite lane/ incoming traffic..


We were fixing to pass it... when the truck decided to move to the left to avoid more holes...


The road from there to Fortaleza in the state of Ceara is pretty much in that shape.. about 5 hrs driving on something like that.. it totally SUCKS!
That's why I find the roads in the USA soooo good!
And then... there are animals... on the roads around here.... and people.. and scooters.. and this and that...


Today I drove the car to the small town nearby..


And found a cow that didn't want to move out of an intersection.... Actually there were two... but one crossed quickly.. the other just stood there... and a guy came running and started yelling at it and throwing rocks till the cow left... Hey.. maybe that was an ox...? Not sure...

 

Last Wednesday I went to downtown.... did some more groceries at the street fair....
This is the transportation for people who live in the middle of nowhere and don't have any vehicle.... See the blue and white pick-up truck with folks in the back...?

 

Walking in the fair... more scooters than cars...



Food vendors at the street fair...




And the meat market...



A "tour" in the street fair...



This is "rapadura".... it's made out of cane... it's pure sugar.. not refined... people eat that in many ways...



The streets in Hidrolandia are very narrow... and get very busy on street fair days...



Some folks set tables and chairs outside on sidewalks and drink and chat...

 

This is a two way road... Folks walking on the road... it's about 14 miles between here and Hidrolandia... lots of folks walk that back and forth every day...



One of my dad's wife's son (not my brother) is a trucker... he drives a small truck in this region... that is him in the blue truck...

That's a very narrow bridge.... only one vehicle can pass at a time...

 

This is the central square in Hidrolandia... there's a church Catholic there...




The only bank in town.... it is always crowded... and a guy was trying to move an ATM machine thru the front door.. the only door... it was too big... they had to call the glass folks to remove the door...



Went back to the cemetery... that was a nice sunset...

 

The other day.. went to the house where my dad had his things... furniture, boxes with stuff... books and papers, documents... pictures, etc.... all very dusty...



This is what I found in one of the drawers...


The mother rat escaped... and left 3 (or more not sure) baby rats in there....
Went thru everything... moved furniture around.... to get access to the furniture covered with black plastic.. that's where folders with documents were... and pictures...



Dad had books and notebooks from the 50's...



Some pictures were practically destroyed.... those ones are not my parents' though... not sure who they are...



Brought piles of paperwork to my dad's wife's house and sorted everything... piles of trash, piles of documents, piles of pictures, etc, etc...



I intend to bring a lot of that to the USA... even got another luggage to carry all that.. and may need another bag...

 

The skinny guy on the left is my dad back in the 50's... he was an airplane pilot student...


It was his dream to become an airplane pilot... that is him again.. between those 2 ladies....



Unfortunately, he had to quit that career because he was "too" old... 27 or 28 yrs old... not sure...