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Hi Everyone:

I just posted this to my email list, but it is not efficient. No one on Telus is receiving it, for example. So I thought I'd repost it here.

Brazil

Instead of adventures such as going to the Amazon Jungle or the Galapagos, in Brazil we decided to focus of visiting a few coastal cities searching for sun and sand.  Distances are huge we picked four cities:  Rio, Salvador, Recife and Fortaleza. We left off Sao Paulo, the city of 25 million people, mas o meno and Manaus, the gateway to the Amazon adventures.  Rio, with 13 million people, is large enough for us. It turned out that the other cities were quite large as well, all with populations of around two to four million people.

Brazilian beaches are magnificent. In Rio, the famous Ipanema and Copacabana are dramatic – long curves of sand, heavy surf, aqua-marine waters and a wonderful skyline of literally hundreds of high rise apartments. The beaches were packed on the weekend, at Copacabana with families, and at Ipanema with gorgeous young men and women letting it all hang out. Everyone else lets it all hang out, including some of the not-so-tall and lean and tan and lovely.  For people in their late teens and twenties, Ipanema on Saturday afternoon was the place to be – wall to wall socializing, young men playing football, lovely bodies’ sun tanning and everyone eating and drinking. Vendors are everywhere, selling sarongs, beads, fresh corn, drinks and anything else you might need.  

As we flew from city to city up the Atlantic coast, we could see miles and miles of the beaches from the air. The temperatures rose the further north we went, so by the farthest northern city, Fortaleza it was 25 degrees by 7 am and the temperature moved higher as the day progressed. Because of the heat people live differently – rising very early by our standards, staying indoors in the middle of the day and then going out later in the evening.

In all four cities the beaches were packed early in the morning. Each city had variations of lovely broad walkways, sometimes up to 20 metres wide, made of bricks or paving stones. Brazil has a running culture, at least for the beach, and probably middle-class, areas we visited. For example at 6 am in Fortaleza I counted 100 people in around one block or around 2,000 people on the beach sidewalks. It felt like a 10k race day, with all sorts of small groups of people jogging or walking. There were young moms with kids in strollers, older people strolling, and aerobics classes in the open air. Small groups of 20 or more people wearing the same gear were stretching on brought-in mats. Juice and water vendors were out in full. Tennis, soccer and volleyball teams were at it as well. And so, I started running in our last week – bought some quick-dry shorts and tops and I was off – at 6 am, with hundreds of others. Going early enough meant I didn’t need to slather on the sun-tan lotion and could be back by seven – an hour’s exercise in before breakfast. By eight most of the activity stopped as people went to work and the day heated up.

Unfortunately, Ken didn’t join me at first because - joy of joys -he had an emergency root canal in Recife.  It turned out Damao, the dentist, was eighty years old, and had nine sons, five of whom were also dentists. Damao did an excellent job, treated Ken to an all-you-can-eat lobster feast right after the root canal and then drove him home. Damao also visited our hotel the next day at 7am before we caught our plane to check Ken’s tooth. All this for 500 reals – about $300 Canadian. How’s that for service?

The food was generally great in Brazil. After the instant coffee ordeal of Ecuador, good coffee was welcomed. Brazilians eat a lot of sugar – in fact Recife is a major sugar production area. The breakfast buffets had four or five cakes available for breakfast. Brazilians are also famous for their fresh juices and serve these un-sugared so people add their own liquid sugar. In Salvador, we found a fabulous Swiss/Brazilian restaurant and ate there almost every night. The owner, Kurt was Brazilian-born of German parents, spent twenty years in Zurich, and was now back home on a small beach in Salvador cooking delicious traditional Brazilian meals with his wife, Dora. Besides that, we had lots of excellent shrimp and seafood.

Brazilian wine is another matter. A wine expert we met explained that they add sugar to their wine. It tasted like soda pop - so we looked forward to Argentina, and better wine.  Food is definitely more expensive than Ecuador, and kilo restaurants abound in Rio – not our favourite way to eat. We also had some bad over-priced tourist food – hard to avoid when we were in tourist areas. Fresh cashew and Brazil nuts were available in small stalls or by beach vendors as well.

One of our best memories is sitting in beach chairs in Recife, reading our novels, when a fish-seller walked up and showed us a plate of several fresh fish, caught that day. We picked a couple and our new beach-side friend proceeded to peel a potato and cook our fish and chips in front of us in his little green and yellow cart, hand-painted peixe frites. Delicious! We enjoyed Recife the most – not because it’s the most famous city, or because it has the best attractions, but because it is not a tourist city, and we could simply enjoy the beaches without being harassed.  We found the beach culture had another side – dozens of vendors pushing their wares, beggars and the constant well-meaning theft-warnings invasive. People rode by on bicycles loaded down with speakers, or in cars with loudspeakers blaring music and promotional messages.  We were constantly handed election flyers for the mayoral process although obviously, tourists do not vote.

Brazil also has drug problems. We were warned about crack cocaine in Salvador and sex-tourism in Salvador and Fortaleza. One hotel had a large plaque stating that sex with minors is illegal and Ken said there were signs in the men’s washrooms as well. Poverty is everywhere: we drove by the favellas in Rio on our way to the airport – there the poor live high up, while in Fortaleza they live on the beaches. With 180 million people Brazil is doing many things right. For example, Brazilian air is amazingly clean because diesel fuel is generally not used. The skies are blue; the air in the big cities didn’t stink. Brazilians have other conservation measures in place as well, and the economy is strong.

We found communication somewhat difficult. We did take some Spanish lessons, and although Portuguese and Spanish are similar, we had to get by with our few Portuguese phrases. We didn’t meet many other travelers – mainly because of our decision to travel to cities rather than take tours, but we didn’t see many tourists either, except in Rio. September/October is definitely not high season. We prefer it this way. 

Apparently Fortaleza receives many visitors from Portugal; in fact many have bought summer homes there. Brazil’s population mix and traditions are very different depending on the region. Our tour guide told us that, although originally a Dutch colony, Fortaleza’s population is 90% Portuguese and Indian origin, while Sao Paulo has a huge Italian population and heritage. Salvador is 80% African roots, and has a sad history, with about five million slaves landing there from Africa between the 17^th and 19^th centuries. Today they still practice, Candomble, an African voodoo tradition. We also heard much more music in Salvador – but were disappointed not to hear a lot of traditional Brazilian music, as we weren’t much interested in the late night bar scene.

We also visited World Heritage Sites in Pelourinho and Olinda, wonderful art galleries in Rio and museums in Salvador, many churches, and lots of lovely squares.  We visited Brazil one last time form the Argentinean border to see the Brazilian side of Iguacu Falls and the Parque des Aves. See the world-famous falls and the rare birds, although not totally in the wild, completed our Brazilian experience. And so we left Brazil with great suntans and with memories of our walks and jogs along magnificent beaches, and of their excellent food.

We spent yesterday in our typical fashion - a bus to somewhere - this time to Palermo - and then a three or four hour walk.  Today we explored the Palermo parks.  Wandering through the Japanese Gardens, we marveled at the beauty of Japanese design. There is never a fixed point horizon in a Japanese garden.  Every angle is beautiful.  We enjoyed our first Japanese food in four months, and then walked slowly around the lagoons to the rose gardens, which unfortunately were closed.   We took a quick bus home and went for a glass of wine in one of the ten best bars in the world - in the Marriott Park Plaza.  It was lovely, but top ten?   Well.  Then - out for a tango show where we met a great couple form Sao Paulo- out later for food before finally arriving home at 12:30.  We are strating to live the lifestyle and loving it.  Up early tomorrow for Iguazu Falls.

I'm going to attempt to put part of the tango show on You Tube - a first for me if it works, and you can see and hear how great it is.

M.

Well, after our pleasant five-hour coach ride we arrived at Mar del Plata and fairly quickly found a good apart-hotel to rent.  We had expected a smallish seaside resort town, so were quite surprized at the size of the town. We found out later that the population is 700,000 year round, but it swells to 3 million during the December to March season.  Mar del Plata is the home town of Astor Piazziola, the famed Argentenian composer.  It has a large middle class, and some gorgeous larger homes, somewhat like Shaughessy in size and style, and very interesting architecture.  We hadn't seen much single family homes in Argentina - and this town seemed like a great place to live.

The town has about 25 miles of waterfront! They have done a magnificent job of creating wonderful walkways for miles up and down the beach.  We walked about two hours in one direction one day, and later that evening explored the other end and some of the older neighbourhoods.  Mar del Plata also has lovely plaza and parks along the waterside. We brought our bathing suits and hoped to spend a couple of days sunning and enjoying beach life.

Unfortunately, what they forgot to mention is that the winds from Antartica blow in for most of the year, and it was cold! The first day was pretty good weather-wise.  Our city tour the next day focused on the fish wharves, the Grotto of Lourdes, and the seaviews, but the weather proceeded to rain. The forecast predicted more of the same, for several days, which meant that our planned bird watching was out,  So we quickly went to plan B.  Why suffer in the rain?  Within a half-hour we checked out and were on the coach back to B.A. Mar del Plata is a great place, but only in the summer.  Next time!Again, maazing buildings now being lovingly restored.

Hi:

We decided to go to Mal del Plata for a few days.  As B.A.is on the Rio del Plata, but there is no beach, so we took a coach bus to Mar del Plata.  It was a five hour drive through pampas country - like prairie country, really - flat grass covered grounds with wind-breaks of lovely trees everywhere.  We saw lots of beef-on-the-hoof - cows and horses.  The luxury coach has what are called "cama" seats.  These seats have extendable leg rests and go right back into camas or beds.  Very comfortable and quite private, with curtains everywhere if you want.  The airlines charge almost triple the fare for foreigners, so many people take the bus.  $25. US each for the ride.  We arrived without a reservation, and found an aparthotel for around $60 US a night, with a complete kitchen. 

Lots of build-in energy conservation methods here.  The lights in the halls only go on when you press a button in a general area and go off after a few minutes.  The hot-water for the tub, etc. is controlled in the kitchen and generated only when needed.  The gas stove also has safety features on the walls and the stoves in both BA and here are lit by matches.  Argentenian hotels are generally of a much higher nature than Brazil, for example.  Little extras in every place we have been.  Good bedside lighting and general lighting, which we had to push for in Brazil, proper mirrors, drapes - all sorts of things that make quite a difference when we are living in a place, not just passing through.

M.