In 16 days I’ll be hopping aboard a big ol’ airliner to make yet another trip south to Ubaúna, Brazil.

I was counting it up; since February 2004, I’ve made 9 trips — almost 100,000 miles — back and forth, spent 4 months of cumulative time on the ground there, eaten what seems like a ton of beans and rice, gotten dengue fever once, constipation twice, personally introduced more than 40 “gringos” to the place and have become know as “uncle Joe” to gazillions of little Brazilian kids.

That is what makes it so sweet…