Mid Term Check In
This year I will be doing a considerable amount of travel I will be working on various 
research projects, some intensive reading, and will ultimately be producing a video project.  
Much of my research is based in movement theory, including capoeira.  I will also be 
following a paper trail in South America beginning in Cajamarca while researching the early 
life of the author Carlos Castaneda.  I will be traveling across Brazil by way of the Amazon 
and down the coast to Sao Paulo.  I will be spending about two months each in Peru and 
Brazil and if my budget allows, I will continue on to Argentina, Chile and beyond.  I am 
presently engaged in making travel arrangements and trying to prepare for as smooth a trip 
as one could hope to expect (passports, visas, shots, insurance, travel research, 
reservations and contacts abroad).   I am also currently studying language (Spanish and 
Portuguese), and trying to help my mother set up an arts-related non-profit.  

I am reading and drawing from these and other texts not listed here:  

Wizard of the Upper Amazon by F. Bruce Lamb
Dance of the Four Winds by Alberto Viloldo
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research by Donald T. Campbell and Julian C. 
Stanley
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Handbook I: Cognitive Domain)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Incorporating Caporiera:  Phenomenology of a Movement Discipline by Greg Downey
Capoeira: Strategies for Status, Power and Identity by Iria D’Aquino
Footprints:  Peru 
Lonely Planet:  South America on a Shoestring
The Rough Guide to Brazil
A Concise History of Brazil by Boris Fausto
Culture Shock Brazil by Volker Poelzl
About a dozen books by Carlos Castaneda 
About a dozen more related to or about Carlos Castaneda
Hundreds of articles and abstracts about Carlos Castaneda

I am still looking for anyone heading my way to travel with.  My plans look like this 
right now.

In Peru, I plan to explore the coastal region around Chiclayo and Trujillo for the first 
five weeks.  I will make a few trips to and possibly stay for awhile in Cajamarca to begin 
my preliminary research.  I would like to visit the Ashaninka village at Mariankari Bajo 
for up to a month or more and travel to Machu Picchu further to the south.  Eventually I 
will head north to Iquitos and follow the river to Leticia/Tabatinga.  (to continue in 
Brazil a Visa is needed within 90 days of entering the country)

I will continue through Brazil to Manuas.  While in the Amazon I intend to visit the 
Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve.  From there I will travel to Belem and Fortaleza 
and down the coast stopping in Salvador for about a month.  I will visit Rio and finally 
Sao Paulo.  If my funds hold out I will go to Chile (possibly through Argentina) and out 
to Easter Island (I am interested by dual leads about the ancient bird men (Peruvian and 
Chilean).

-- 

 - dashiell