Samba, Everywhere
Rio de Janeiro - March 3, 2003

Everywhere we go we hear the samba. It is mostly percussion, people playing joyous rhythms on just about anything…..a tin can, an enormous tribal drum, a penny whistle. Crowds gather easily, we have found ourselves on several occasions in the midst of a seething, dancing, mob….headed….somewhere. Sometimes with floats and folks in costume. And this is just the preamble. Carnival hasn't even started yet.

Our Tara and Tarot workshop has 21 attendants. It is sweltering hot but the temperature cannot match the warmth of love that we all swim in. Such a delightful and delighted culture.

Our pilgrims have made friends they will never forget and we are all feeling treasured and taken care of, loved up, inspired.

We have had hours at the beach, a Tara morning in a cave temple, a stroll through the upper forest to a spring "shower"…..a pipe of water coming out of the earth about 30 feet above us, directed to pummel and massage anyone who stands under it. Cariokas (what people of Rio call themselves) stroll along the forest road in their bathing suits and join us for a refreshing moment.

Maria's work has broadened and deepened, the music of her 22 Arcanum is fantastic and it has been recorded on a CD. We will make it available Om Tare and Ah Tarot.

It was a bit of a jog getting out of Maui. And on arrival we found that our trusty Compuserve address doesn't work. Alas. So I have signed up to a local Brazilian server where I can access the Internet anywhere in the country. Anywhere we are going, that is.

We send you Saudades (wishes for your good health) And Beijos (kisses)

Prema and Anahata

We have been in Brazil almost a month now and I have finally managed to organize our photo site. Now I can start to write captions. The first set I assembled to illustrate the diary article, "Samba, Everywhere". For those of you who have already visited the site you will find things more organized, more photos added to each album. And now....you have captions. As you can imagine this is all a time consuming process and since our Brazilian friends are always eager to see what we have put up on the web, the photos will always go up before the captions are written. I will try to keep you informed. I was thinking of just posting the captions on our web site.....rather than sending them out to the whole diary list....would that be more efficient for you?

To access the photos go to http://photo.epson.com
The email identifier is travelinglight21@yahoo.com
Photo Captions - Album #1. Samba, Everywhere

1) Christ on the Mountain. This statue is very large ..... around 30 feet high. It stands on a high peak just behind the town in front of the forest area. We took this photo when we went to the forest for our "little shower". It is one of the most precious things about the city.... At any turn you may see the Christ appear out of the clouds

2) This picture of Rio is also taken from the forest road. There are a number of turnouts with stunning vistas. You can see that there is a lake right in the middle of things. With the ocean at its feet and the mountains at it's back, enormous ancient trees lining most of the streets, nature is not very far away in Rio.

3) Our darling Mekare settled on a foot massage during our "little shower" walk. The water is from mountain springs, it is cold and fabulously vigourous. The forest is a wonder of blazing blue butterflies and bird song. The air is cooler and lighter . The mind opens to the limitless horizon with the Atlantic Ocean winking through the trees.

4) Coconut water is one of our favorite treats. In restaurants it is often delivered "in the shell", cold and refreshing. We were headed out of the forest when we spied this vendor.

5) Maria Ache is prime mover in our stay in Rio. She had come to a Lama Foundation Dances of Universal Peace camp in 1998 and met Anahata and I. That was the seed of our first visit to Brazil in 99, to teach Tara and other dances. Maria and her mother Vera became very committed to the Tara Dance practice and she joined us in the 2001 pilgrimage to India and Nepal. Now she leads a very successful Tara Dance group in Rio. She is the focalizer of the Tarot dances. Seen here in this photo with her 8 year old son Joao.

6) Jorge, Vera, Isabel Jorge and Isabel have been front and center in managing the many details of the pilgrimage. Jorge was assigned the job of being Anahata and my personal driver as he has a little Fiat with fabulous air-conditioning. He is a professional photographer and we will be posting some of his marvelous photos on the web as soon as we get them printed and scanned. In the meantime you have to make due with my digital camera antics. Isabel is a darling woman, a professional actress, a powerhouse of organizational abilities. She is the one who sees to the logistics of our ever changing plans. Vera is Maria's mother. One of our pilgrims (Mekare) has stayed in her little apartment near Copacabana beach for this pilgrimage. She is the grand mistress of the Tarot in Brazil and gave us many points of interest during our workshop.

7) Aimee, Jorge and Mekare Our five pilgrims have been just wonderful to have as friends and accomplices in all our adventures. Aimee and Mekare are seen here with our adorable Jorge. Aimee is the principle teacher of The Mountain School at the Abode of the Message in upstate New York. Mekare is one of our leading Tara Dance teachers based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and thinking to rent an apartment in Rio cha cha cha.

8 Vera Vanda Trishana Vanda is a freewheeling writer, born in England to English parents, she was conceived in Rio and this is a homecoming for her. Her current residence is a houseboat in Sausalito. Trishana is one of our precious Tara Dance teachers and island friends living in Kauai, Hawaii.

9) Yvonne was a professional dance teacher until an illness gave her the gift of not being able to dance. She became a very successful psychotherapist in Atlanta, Georgia. One of her focuses is Sand Box therapy. She is our crone....over 60 and has found her dancing feet once again. On this pilgrimage the conditions have been challenging because of the extreme heat and the flexibility of Carioka scheduling. Our pilgrims have been champions, never complaining, adapting with great good humor.

10) Dinners at some of the charming restaurants in Rio were one of our greatest entertainments the first week of our stay. In this photo we find Jorge's ever present camera eye turned on Lucilia. Jorge is in love with Lucilia who fortunately returns his adoration.

11) Rui (pronounced rHui) is in love with Maria. Fabulous, amorous kissing in public is common in Rio. In fact all kinds of kissing is common, hugging too. Rui was such a blessing, often accompanying us through the samba streets, making sure we all had what we needed. He really made us feel protected and treasured. Lucky Maria.

12) Mekare and Anahata easily got into the cuddle spirit. It also helped that Mekare sampled a Caparinia, a local spirit mixed with fruit juice. As our dear Vanda announced one evening, a very efficient drink. We were all pretty conservative when it came to this particular local pastime. We were also fortunate that although we heard stories of drunks and their antics we were never treated to any uncomfortable displays.

13) Music was always part of the feast and if there was a corner somewhere our group was always ready to tickle the floor, we had to practice our samba, after all. Patricia had just arrived from Sao Paulo to be in Carnival with us. Anahata and I had stayed with her and her partner on our last visit.

14) Is it a Bosa Nova? A samba? Most of the time the locals know the music and sing along with great feeling.

15) You won't find me in many pictures. I like being behind the camera. But here's one for my fans. In Maria's garden.