The Perils of Florida Living

Florida has thousands of miles of gorgeous sandy beaches and tropical temperature waters but many dangers lurk beneath the deep. Sharks also seem to be all around lately as the last time I went to the beach near my house I saw the posts above warning bathers from a migrating school of "spinner" sharks (image below) very close to the coast. They are called spinners because they leap out of the water in a rotating motion when they grab prey, hopefully just fish. Needless to say I didn't even dip my toe in the water as the idea of sharks nearby terrify me. I did look intently at the ocean all afternoon that day but didn't catch any glimpses of the so-called spinners.

This past Sunday I was chatting with someone at the gym and he tells me that at another beach a few miles from my house beach-goers could see sharks (spinners?) very close to shore trying to attack seabirds that were too dumb to know not to float right before the waves. S-C-A-R-Y!

Palm Beach Zoo

I took these photos a few weeks ago when I spent a beautifully sunny Sunday morning visiting the Palm Beach Zoo here in Florida. The zoo is a gorgeous park where the enclosures are mostly very large outdoor natural settings, with plenty of space, foliage and water sources for the animals to roam. I am sure that a large Siberian Tiger still feels trapped no matter how large the enclosure is but it sure beats most zoos that I have visited in recent years - and I love zoos. There are no steel bars in any of the pens but simple wire mesh giving a very open feel for the spectators. You can stare at a stunning spotted leopard from a few feet away, almost too close for comfort. The animals at this zoo were all bred in captivity and are often traded with other zoos when they come of age so to avoid inbreeding. One of the most unusual animals I saw there was a white alligator - a real freak of nature - that was set in a temporary indoor exhibition to avoid the caustic Florida sun on it's delicate hide. The keeper told me that he is one of about 1o survivors from a nest found 20 odd years ago somewhere in the American South. She said that they all would have perished in the wild because of it's lack of skin pigment had they not been rescued. If the sun didn't kill them first other alligators would have finished them off because of their white appearance. Note: they are not Albino alligators by the way. They are actually just white skinned - with blue eyes (!) - whether an Albino's eye color is pink.

Florida Flamingos

I finally got to see some real flamingos here in Florida, though it was at the zoo and not quite out in the wild as I had hoped. I keep seeing all these tacky touristy souvenirs with images of pink flamingos and I wonder where the hell are these birds ?!

I went to the gorgeous Palm Beach Zoo this past Sunday and was awed by the beautiful surroundings of the park, but more on that on another post. I took some pictures of the flamingo enclosure there, though I am not sure whether they are captive or not as it was an wide open area surrounded by a moat. It was a nice & sunny winter day here in Florida and a perfect day to be outside near nature. The funny thing was that three days later we had a tornado watch and a twister apparently went through some area of Fort Lauderdale.

Florida Life

I was driving around on Sunday when I spotted this sign by a small lake not too far from my neighborhood. Florida is notorious for it's alligator attacks and every now and then I'll watch incidents in the news of people or pets being killed by these huge gators. What struck me about this particular sign, besides being the first one I see, is that is located a few hundred yards from a kid's playground, near a public park. The are so many interconnected canals here in South Florida where alligators might travel so one never really knows where they might pop up. Scary!

Cheeky Monkey Tire Cover

Very cute spare tire cover I saw while stopped in a traffic light in Rio. It says "Preserve Nature" next to the drawing of a very charming cheeky monkey.

Love it!

Cool Shop in Rio - Alessa

I was in a cab last week, going through Rua Nascimento Silva in Ipanema, when I spotted this really cool place that I wasn't even sure what it was. Maybe an architectural firm or a design studio? I had to find out and went there a couple of days later to check it out. It's belongs to Alessa - a women's clothing label and fashion atelier - by designer Alessandra Migani . Birds of all shapes, sizes and hailing from all continents decorate the facade of their shop and the effect is awe-striking. They are decals that were individually applied to the outside wall, forming a breath-taking collage of pheasants, peacocks, parrots and eagles. Birds were also the inspiration for Alessa's Spring/Summer 2008 collection, featured in many of their new runway pieces.

This is surely one of my favorite shop designs in Rio!

Wild in the City - More Fauna in Rio

I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, lived abroad for almost as many years and returned for regular visits from time-to-time to see family and friends. My family always lived in the city but as a kid we went to parks and nature walks quite often, so I am pretty used to seeing animals in their natural habitat. But I must say that I had never seen so many wild fauna in Rio as I have in the past few weeks. Actually I had never seen monkeys or toucans in the wild anywhere. And I did not go looking for them - it just happens to be there. I feel like I am in that Simpson's episode when they come to Rio and wild monkeys are everywhere!

I went to Jardin Botanico, our beautiful 1808 botanical garden, this past Sunday. I just wanted to chill and "commune" with nature and was awed by the animal life I saw in a matter of 90 minutes there. I first spotted the elegant white egret, that can be found at many watering spots in the city. It was feeding in one the small ponds in the garden - spear-fishing I may say. Then the turtles - OK, no big deal. Soon, I spot high up in the trees a couple of toucans (!), with bright yellow chest feathers. I was like "Oh, my God! Toucans!!" This was really a first for me as I didn't even know we had toucans in Rio de Janeiro. Then the piece-de-resistance came along. Suddenly coming down from the trees, there must have been over a dozen monkeys (Capuchin?), attracted by the noise of the people, probably in expectation of food. They were quite playful and not too afraid of us, getting a little too close for my personal comfort. I tried to film them with my Sony camera and it would have come out great if I had remembered that I am supposed to record in the horizontal position only...

If you tilt your head to the left you can watch a little of my monkey adventure. If in Rio, you must go to Jardin Botanico for a break from "Ipanema Life". I cannot guarantee you will see all these animals there but the odds are quite high for what I experienced this weekend.