Saturday, 27 February 2010
some final thoughts on Brasil...
So, as it´s time to move on now, let´s leave you with a few things we noticed about Brazil, and a few of the MANY things we´ll miss...
In the main, I reckon we'll miss the drinks - guaraná, coco gelado, all the incredible fruit juices and the ice-cold beer... in all my time in Brazil I was never served a crap drink once. Oh how hard will it be to get used to London drinks again! We´ll miss speaking and hearing Portuguese. And the breakfasts! And eating at por kilo places (a genius idea that I can´t believe hasn´t taken off elsewhere)! And açai!
After seven weeks in Brazil, we´ve become able to distinguish a few of the regional accents. Mainly the bizarre one you get round Sao Paulo state and some parts of the south, where, for some reason, they sound like they´re either from the US or from the West Country (ie "Salvadorrr"). This accent wasn´t Becka´s favourite.
And I reckon I could make a good stab at where someone comes from as well. It was fascinating seeing how the looks changed through the country - largely black in Salvador, overwhelmingly white in the south (even Becka got taken for a native of Santa Catarina once), a whole different thing again in Amazonia - I became strangely obsessed in Pernambuco and Paraíba with the look of the locals (wide faces with almost comically rounded eyebrows). It seemed like the ridiculous hotness was mainly a Rio thing, but the obsession with looking good and being healthy certainly seemed nationwide. Brazil also seemed full of older guys who had definitely "done well for themselves" on the partner front...
Everyone seems to know the lyrics to all samba songs. It was a bit of a mystery as to how exactly, but it probably helps that they always seem to be subtitled on telly! Many of these lyrics expressed how brilliant it was being from Brazil, and I can definitely see why they would think that if they´d grown up there.
They´ve definitely got their own thing going on musically. Far from hearing the usual international pop hits everywhere, the music we heard was almost always local, (with the exception of Mariah Carey´s version of "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was ubiquitous) whether it be forró, frevo, brega, choro, samba or axé... Rock didn´t seem that big anywhere except in the Amazon, of all places!
Brazilians aren´t generally too hung up on spelling. Something to do with it being mainly an "oral" culture, or something, but you would get Santa Teresa/Santa Tereza, Rui Barbosa/Ruy Barbosa etc... even Mario Zagalo/Zagallo can´t escape this relaxed attitude to spelling, and he won the World Cup four times! So basically - it doesn´t matter how it´s spelt! It´s pronounced the same, right? Cool! I reckon I´ll take this Brazilian attitude back with me to my job in London! (No?)
Chocolate isn´t that big in Brazil. I guess it´s just too hot! I was excited however to get hold of a bar of Diamante Negro ("Ooooh! Black Diamond!") which was named after Brazil´s legendary striker from the 1938 World Cup, Leonidas. Still going strong... Wonder if people will be eating "Rooney" chocolate bars in 70 years´time? (oh, the name "Wayne Rooney" is very difficult indeed for Brazilians to pronounce, by the way).
The 10% service tax got kind of annoying. Especially as we usually got the WORST service in the places that charged it, and the best service in the places that didn´t!
They need to get over manioc! It´s in everything - and to be honest, in a lot of the more (in our opinion) overrated dishes (actually, we couldn´t quite see what the fuss was about with carne do sol - a bit tough, and tapioca - kind of like getting a crepe, only a worse version)
"Na frente" - aarghhh!!! If we never hear this again, that´s fine by us! Whenever we asked for directions, we would be told this, it seemed to mean anything from "over the road" to "left, then right, then left again, about 15 minutes walk away".
They´re quite happy to go through your dirty laundry in Brazil. (Literally.) It gets pretty embarrassing in the laundries when they open your bag and start sifting through your dirty pants by hand... Still, you can get used to anything!
Religion is a huge part of everyday life. This has obviously been commented on before, but it was noticeable how much Christian graffiti you would see, often around the favelas, and it was unforgettable to get a close up view of the candomblé which is such a big part of the culture in Bahia, in particular...
They´ve started whipping up enthusiasm for the 2016 Olympics already. There are TV spots recounting famous Olympic moments of the past - the question is, are they gonna keep this up for the next six years??
We took some forms of transport we won´t forget in a hurry. Speedboats, beach buggies, canoes, kombis, frequently alarming, though nothing topped being given a lift in a car by a man driving while holding a baby in one hand... Fingers crossed we won´t be doing that again!!
Anyway, that´s quite enough about Brazil now, suffice to say we loved it, were sad to leave and definitely want to return, but we are in PERU now, and from what we´ve seen of Lima so far, we´re quite excited about it! More to follow on that, in the meantime we´ll leave you with this video of Iguazu falls...
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Jungle fever
We'd been told beforehand not to expect to see lots of animals, but we managed to see an impressive array of very un-cute creatures: snakes, scorpions, tarantulas - that kind of thing. On the first evening we went alligator spotting but because it was dark (and we were terrified), none of us got a really close look. Later Tarzan helpfully plucked one from the river and asked if we wanted a hold (I didn't). One of the highlights for Mauro was being the first in our group to catch a piranha fish. The buffet lunch featured fried piranhas too, so we also got to eat the day's catch (tasty but not much meat on them).
A two-hour trek into the jungle was another highlight. Tarzan showed us giant ants that leave you writhing in agony for 24 hours if bitten by them, huge termite mounds and hairy tarantulas, as well as lots of trees (obviously) and leaves with medicinal properties (which would come in handy later). As instructed, we'd all worn long sleeves and long trousers to avoid mosquito bites. Unfortunately my Topshop leggings proved not to be effective jungle-wear, which I realised on my return to our cabin. My legs were absolutely covered in bites.
Luckily I emerged from the heart of Malarone darkness within 24 hours, so was able to enjoy some other excursions. We visited some caboclos (natives), who welcomed us into their homes and had no problems with us taking close-up pictures of their children, as we tourists are wont to do! We got to taste lots of Amazonian fruit straight from the tree and I finally got to see where my favourite energy elixir comes from - the açai tree.
Mauro also got to grips (literally) with rowing through the swampy river, which was tough going at times but worth it when we got to hear the unsettling cry of the howler monkeys. It sounded like a loud bitter wind was blowing - only a lot more evil. The fact that the trees and water were completely still, with not a soul (or monkey) in sight, made it all the more eerie.
And so our four days in the jungle were up and we made our way back to the big city thoroughly satisfied with our jungle experience (and a few pounds lighter). We didn't get to see the pink dolphins as I was vomiting at the time, but we'd seen them off the Ilha do Mel so we weren't too disappointed. Aside from what we learned about the jungle itself, we met some great people and I've become remarkably blasé about a whole host of creatures that made me a nervous wreck a week ago. The frog that lived in our cistern, opposite the enormous unidentified insect on the wall, made me slightly anxious about using the loo at first, but by the last day I barely noticed they were there. What's more, back in Manaus, our low-budget hotel that smells of disinfectant now feels like absolute luxury!
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
prawns and buggies
Prawns are big in Natal. So big in fact that one of the biggest restaurants there is called, with brutal simplicity, "Camaroes" ("Prawns"). Although it's next door to a place called "Only Pizza" which advertises itself as selling "salads, fish and chicken", so what's in a name, eh? Talking of names, it looks like the spelling of "Drive Thru" causes one or two problems over here...
The best place we ate was, however, Mangai, where we went for our Valentine's meal (this is us after dinner, with local legends Lampião and Maria Bonita - kind of like Robin Hood/Bonnie & Clyde figures from the early 1900s):
Also big in Natal are dunes, and the beach buggies you need to get on to drive around them. All very exciting, if not cheap - it wasn't till we were fortunate enough to run into a couple of Seventh Day Adventists and could share a buggy with them that we could actually afford the ride! You can either go for com emoçao or sem emoçao, (literally "with emotion" or "without", but "with terror" or "without terror" might have been more accurate), and I think we must have got the former option, as it was more than enough emoçao for the pair of us, much to the Adventists' disappointment. It didn't deter them from insisting on driving us all the way back to our hostel afterwards, though, which reaffirmed our faith in humanity. I also came away with massive respect for the bugueiros, who we had previously had down as cheeky rip-off merchants, as it really did feel at the time as though you put your life in their hands!
Watching Carnaval on TV was hugely enjoyable - not sure who ended up winning the Rio one, but I was glad to see Robinho present and correct (and looking fairly OK about not being in Manchester at the moment), and Paris Hilton adding to the pantheon of legendary quotes to describe this awesome spectacle ("It's beautiful, I love it"). The samba schools each play and dance to a newly-composed song, three or four verses, over and over, for OVER AN HOUR. I'm thinking of suggesting this as the way forward for Jonny Cola & the A-Grades when I get back - after all, no one else is doing that in London, are they?? Though I don't know if we will be able to summon up a cast of thousands in outrageous costumes...
We moved on to Pipa yesterday, only to find a POST-Carnaval Carnaval going on (you really can't avoid Carnaval in Brazil, this much is true), which looked like this:
After a night out trying not to get sucked into a conversation with an incomprehensible local drunk with no teeth, and then finishing off our cans of beer surrounded by hormonal pre-teens trying to cop off with each other, it was a relief to get up today and go for a swim, accompanied by dolphins, no less! (OK, they were a few metres away, but it was still amazing). Also amazing is the pousada we're staying in (Pomar da Pipa) - here's me getting into some hammock action...
I am now in dire need of a haircut - many places in Natal offered "Mega-hair", but I didn't take them up on this. In other news, we have just started taking our malaria tablets!! TOUCH WOOD we don't start suffering any ill effects (vomiting, headaches, nightmares, beating each other up), especially not on the plane tomorrow, we could both do without that. The next time you hear from us we will be in Amazonas...!
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Pre-Carnaval in the North East
Not to be defeated in our search of some actual tranquilidade, Mauro became fixated with discovering some renowned beaches about 40km away from town, despite there being no public transport and only a dirt road for the last 10km. After a 90-minute ordeal... I mean bus-trip, we managed to find them - with the help of a Peruvian naturist called Jorge. An hour of sunshine later, the heavens opened and we found ourselves stranded in muddy paradise. Eventually Jorge managed to talk his (and our) way into the back of someone's jeep, and we ended up at his house in the middle of the countryside to dry off. Finally, with Mauro wearing Jorge's T-shirt, we weren't distraught to be on the bus out of Joâo Pessoa (which means 'John Person') heading north again towards Natal (which means 'Christmas). And after all that pre-Carnaval activity, I think we've finally found somewhere where we can chill out on the beach and watch the actual Carnaval on telly!
Friday, 5 February 2010
The Most Dangerous City On Our Trip
So when we eventually ventured out into the big bad city the next day, it was with a sense of wariness, which soon turned to excitement - Salvador is basically, one of the most exciting places I've ever been to, and we both felt overwhelmed in much the same way we did when we first arrived in Rio. Our first Bahian meal (acarajé, vatapá, moquecas and all) was again hugely exciting, and dangerous - another of the things we'd been warned about was the dendê (palm oil) used in most of the cooking, which tends to have a dire effect on foreign stomachs.