The Adventures of the Playmos

Now that all those concerned know the story, I can share a little bit about the Adventures of the Playmos. Last September, I headed to the Netherlands for the wedding of two good friends of mine. The bride, a flatmate from my days at the University of Manchester, and the groom, a fellow traveller that I met in Central America ten years ago this month ... hey! almost exactly to the day [happy tenth anniversary Pablo - who knew that all this would happen since our days playing cards and frightening off the wild dogs of Cuchumatan in Todos Santos??]! I didn't exactly introduce the two to each other, but they met because of me following a string of rather humourous events in which teeth were brushed, Dutch alcohol whose name I can never remember was consumed, and phone calls were made.

In Manchester, I lived in a student flat with nine other grad students and a few hanger ons hailing from all around the world. We bonded immediately and intensely and have made a point of meeting up in either official [when there is a general call to arms] or unofficial [when sub-groups meet without a general call] reunions. Fortunately weddings provide rather good opportunities for these encounters. So last September, a month before moving to Brazil, I headed to the Netherlands for the fourth set of flatmate nuptials. During the reception, the band of flatmates and demimates [those who spent an awful lot of time in the flat, but didn't actually live there] hatched the plan to kidnap [playmonap ?] the Playmobil Bride and Groom who were the mascots of the wedding. We decided that the Playmos would travel the world for one year and that an album of their adventures would be given to the real bride and groom on their first year anniversary. Oh yes! We were a clever bunch!

So for the past twelve months, the Playmobride and Playmogroom have been having quite the honeymoon visiting lots of different locations in Italy, Cuba, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, India, England, and Greece. I suspect that they also made it to Pakistan! As for the Brazil portion of their adventure -- I think that I had just as much fun as they did! Here are a few of my favourite playmoshoots from the last year:


Clockwise from top left: Salvador, Bahia; Museu Ipiranga, São Paulo; Celebrating São João in Caruaru, Pernambuco; and Rio de Janeiro.