Blogs from Brazil, South America - page 550

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Traveling without an itinerary is freeing. At the same time, it can be exceedingly difficult to buy your bus ticket without a destination. I left the uninteresting town of Capelinha and headed to Turmalina, 40km north. The further I travel in this direction, the hotter it gets, and the city was toasty. I spent most of my time in the city sitting around the central plaza - which always contains at least 3 elderly men passing the time. One directed my to the Hotel Turmalina, an old building built behind a residence. Maria and her husband run the hotel. Maria is elderly, but sharp - her husband is a thin man with white hair, and suffers from Chagas disease he acquired as a younger man. A German/Italian NGO operates in the town, teaching agricultural alternatives, therefore ... read more

Rio, the marvellous city. One of the most visually stunning urbanities Ive ever seen, strung out between tropical mountaintops and the coast. Rio is the beach and the beach is rio, the beach culture totally pervades this city, with the footwear of choice (even, it seems, in the business district) is the havaiana sandal, invented here. And in one of the strange ironies in the class war (Brazil has the largest rich/poor gap in the world), the favelas, the poor, took the high ground...and the views. One of the most interesting tours ive taken is the tour into the favelas in Rio. After confirming that the profits from the tour went to community schools, and that it wasn{t such voyeurism as I´d feared, the tour completely changes your perspective on the ´slums.´ Of the many surprises ... read more

So this is going to be EXTREMELY short, but Brazil is amazing. It is really beautiful and everyone here just does pretty much whatever they want. Yesterday we went and played sand volleyball and I felt a little overdressed considering I had a swim suit that covered my entire butt. haha. We have gone to tons of great places and met some really nice people. We went to the presidential palace, house of the senate, congress, house of representatives and all kinds of places. We are staying in a youth hostel that is not exactly four star, but we can deal with it. There are six girls in our room and one shower with no curtain and we have to squeegee the floor of the bathroom when we are done. No big deal :) We head ... read more

I vaare oeyne er Rio de Janeiro enda fetere enn den evigvarende hypen rundt byen skulle tilsi. Utrolig fascinerende by. Og byens "stygge" elementer (fattigdom, slitasje m.m.) er med paa aa gjoere byen enda mer fascinerende. De store sosiale forskjellene ER en uting, uten tvil. Samtidig er disse forskjellene helt grunnleggende for dynamikken og livet i Brasil. Veldig vanskelig aa forklare dette, men vi kan proeve ved en senere anledning. Uansett, vi har opplevd mye forskjellig. Blant annet var vi paa tur i favela (fattigbydelene som i all hovedsak ligger oppover langs aas-sidene her i byen) og digert, ekstravagant bryllup paa en og samme dag. Livet i favelaene virker slett ikke saa trist og elendig som mange tror. Det er derimot et samfunn hvor folk har knappere pengeressurser enn andre steder, men som er rikt paa ... read more