Posts tagged with "strange"

One of the big stories in the news this week is about Ed Stafford, a thirty-four year-old Brit who spent two and a half years walking the entire length of the Amazon River and just arrived at the end, in Belém. He ended his miraculous journey after briefly passing out, shortly before reaching the Atlantic coast. 

Stafford says that the purpose of his trip was to bring attention to the plight of the Amazon, where he saw huge swaths of forest destroyed by ranchers. He encountered more than a few difficulties in the rainforest, and suffered over 50,000 mosquito bites, as well as scorpion, wasp, and snake bites. He and his companion, a Peruvian, survived on rice, beans, and fish, including piranhas.

To read more in Portuguese about the end of Ed’s trip, click here.

To read more about Ed’s incredible journey in English, check out his blog and watch his videos.

Yesterday, O Globo reported that a young woman’s life was spared because of a R$1 coin tucked under her clothes.

Luciana Duarte de Sousa broke up with her boyfriend of a year, who didn’t take the news very well. He followed her, pulled out a gun, and shot her at point-blank range. Incredibly, the bullet hit the coin, and Luciana wasn’t even injured. In shock, she removed the coin from her skin, which had prevented the bullet from killing her. The shooter has been arrested.

To read the story in Portuguese, click here.

Bonus: how do you say “coin” in Portuguese?

There are plenty of weird but true stories that come out of Brazil, and this one is no exception. This week, a man thought to have been killed in a car crash showed up at his own funeral.

Ademir Jorge Gonçalves, age 59, was out drinking with friends in Santo Antônio da Platina, Paraná when relatives believed he was killed in a car accident. They mistakenly identified the body, and set up a funeral for the following day, which happened to be Dia dos Finados, when Brazilians honor the dead. In the meantime, a supersticious friend burned all of Ademir’s clothes and his mattress.

But the next morning, another friend warned Ademir about the mix-up, and Ademir showed up at his own funeral, still drunk, to explain to his confused relatives. The body was later correctly identified, and Ademir went home to an apartment without a bed or any clothes!

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