soldeace's photostream  

Taken at the Hotel Ypê, Itatiaia National Park, Brazil.
Tangara cayana (left, Portuguese: saíra-amarela)
Tangara seledon (right, Portuguese: saíra-sete-cores)

Photo taken in a belvedere, Mirante do Último Adeus (English: Last Farewell Belvedere) with two sides that offer full view of the park, and this is the "ugly" side of it :)

The old man waits for his bus -- or maybe he's just taking a rest from his motorcycle ride throughout the historical villages of Minas Gerais - Brazil.

I had spent an hour by the lake when he walked by. "Good afternoon", the stranger said with a gentle voice and a notepad on his hands. After a few seconds staring to nothing at all, he writes down some numbers as a young runner passes by. "Two more and we are done!", he shouted without looking back.

We started to talk. The man is the kind of person who thinks twice, maybe thrice before shooting his phrases with a rifleman's precision. And because of precision, he doesn't need too many words. The kind of company you'd love walk with in a zen retirement in the mountains.

He teaches physical education. He's a trainer. He was a runner. A medalist runner, once famous throughout the continent but silenced through decades by a political force majeure.

I immediately brandished my camera and started shooting like crazy. After a few 'clicks', I hear "Kid, you better be not frigging taking pictures of me, are you?". I felt a chill down my spine, but I kept myself centered and answered with a grin: "Nah, you're not that famous. I'm actually photographing birds". And I did, a very large and famous bird, a new friend whose name I prefer to guard to myself, but you may call him the 'silenced runner'.