south america trip

Ok here is a few impressions of Brazil with lots of generalizations (so i hope no-one take ofence)

The good -

1. Brazilian people are warm and friendly with big hearts. They are more open, less suspicious, less stressed, and more social than Australians. It was wonderful to be able to talk to people without the underlying reservation attached to interpersonal communication between strangers. I even was allowed to talk and play with children.

However, brazil is changing - more people reside in high rise apartments with its high security and more formalized communication and interaction. And, like the first world, the computer is becoming the dominant form of communication. Que pena! (what a shame)

Brazilians socialising at sunset in Fortaleza

2. Artistic talent - Brazil is full of talented artists especially musicians. Some of the musicians i listened to in restaurants or cafes were just amazing. Of course there are bad musicians too, but there is a good one is usually just around the corner. These guys/girls could earn better money in Australia.

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4 Food -- there are some fantastic fruits that i had never heard of (acai, goiba, acerola etc). Also the fish, from the amazon is fantastic. Mochecha (fish stew) .. yum. And tapioca is great, either savoury with egg, ham and cheese or as a sweet with chocolate or sweetened condensed milk.

mocheca and caiparinha

5 Services - public transport is very good, albeit you risk your life taking a bus in Belem. Flying is fine and well organized, but booking a flight is a nightmare - see below. The banks work fine for using ATMs, but talking to a teller will usually mean queuing fo 15 minutes or so.

The bad -

1. service levels in Brazil are poor by international standards. Most cultures don´t like having to hiss or whistle to a waiter to get their attention. If you don´t do this, you often wont get served. And there is a culture of people pushing in, in queues - i hate that. And in Brazil, they never have change! Seriously, they expect the customer to have the right money and will shake their heads if you pull out a 50 or even a 20. They`re just plain lazy when it comes to organisation. Advice for new travellers - just stare them down! they´ll find it eventually.

Also, most of the stores (including cafes ) have a separate cashier. So you have to pay first and then order... no wait... you order when you pay..... and then refine your order when you order.....Very confusing, especially if you dont have portugese. But wait there´s more... the bars and nightclubs operate on a pay later system, so make sure you have enough cash because there might be a service charge for entertainment.

2. Multiple music, noise. I wish they wouldn´t be constantly bombarded with someone else´s music. Brazil means being bombarded with 2 or 3 lots of music and/or the television. Brazilians dont mind imposing their music on you even if its crap or from a crappy sound system... in the bus, in an internet cafe, anywhere. And those talented musicians that i spoke of, would be much better if they weren´t competing with the talented musician in the restaurant next door. Here on the beach in Natal - 3 music boxes playing music.. and this guy can still dance!!

maradonna - and the juke boxes

3. Services - the phone system sucks! I wo`t bother explaining the complexities of using the system - take international roaming!

Airline booking sucks! Foreigners need a special number to make an internet booking - i heard this frustration from many travellers.

Extending or changing a visa sucks!, - you get no help from the Federal Police.

The ugly -

1. Pollution, pollution, pollution - who gave Brazil plastic? someone take it away from them ... and paper too! These people are not responsible in its use. People nonchalantly throw their rubbish in the street, out the bus window or wherever. Its disgusting. The lack of personal pride in community or even in private space is absolutely stunning.

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There is a poor standard of public drainage and sewage infrastructure which means that there is a lot of polluted discharge going into rivers, the ocean. Most beaches close to a city are not suitable for swimming due to pollution - i got an ear infection in Natal.

pollution discharged straight into the amazon

2. Domestic violence - there is a macho culture for Brazilian men - women are often beaten, especially in the north. I heard this from many women and saw it happening in the street in Sao Luis. Brazilian women love western men and its not just for economic reasons - they also perceive that we´re kind - no kidding!.

Sao Luis was a treat - the old town is crammed with old buildings and walking around the streets is like being in that time - cobblestone streets and 18th and 19th century buildings. Some are renovated and some run down. But the town has real character.

sao luis

avenida dom pedro in sao luis

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And the people are very friendly. You just have to sit in the square and strike up a conversation - a bit of Portuguese is necessary for this. On the Friday there was a festival, and I was with a group of 5 girls chatting and teaching me how to speak. We were heading to a forro bar when I bumped into a French guy who i met on the bus . He was delighted and thought I was Mr popular with my girls. Some of my nights in Brazil have been like this and others are quite lonely and isolated.

celia - a friendly girl in sao luis

Across the bay from Sao Luis is an old town called Alcantarra - also cool for its history. The wealthy Portuguese preferred to live here across the bay from Sao Luis and their homes were quite magnificent. But then the town fell derelict. And it has a pelourinho - a place where they use to whip slaves. The magnificent and historical architecture of Brazil has the blood and sweat of African and native indio slaves.

derelict church and pelourinho

derelict building in alcantara

Fortaleza was also great fun, including the hostel where everyone sat around and talked most of the time. The girls here are also friendly, although prostitution is pretty big. A lot of italians come here for the girls, because they can also speak the language - Italian is very close to portuguese. Everyone gathers on the foreshore near the beach and the atmosphere is fantastic - lots of people skating, falling off and just a great sense of community.

Brazilians socializing at sunset in Fortaleza

Natal, like Fortaleza and Sao Luis is quite poor. I met this couple on their honeymoon (he is canadian and she is brazilian from belem). We hung out together on the beach each day.

joe and celia

the beach - natal

beach vendors in natal

OMG but the girls get friendlier in each town - i hung out with these girls for a few nights.

friendly girls - ponta negra

10 Sept - after 2 more days in the boat down the amazon, and about 4 days of sleeping in a hammock, it was good to get into a real bed. I stayed in Belem for a few days and then took a 3 day trip to Soure, at the mouth of the Amazon.

Belem is another big city that´s quite dirty and poor, but the people are interesting. I was here for Brazilian independence day. There was some more gang violence (i saw some flare up in Salvador too). Noone hurt that i could see but there were about 50-60 boys being held by the police and it was about to flare again but for the presence of 100s of police. I was in amongst the crowd but it was not cool to take photos since you dont want to stand out as a tourist (and therefore a target).

They reckon that scientists have not classified all the fish in the Amazon and they get their information from the fish markets in Belem and that new species sometimes emerge (not sure if this is true or not). But the markets are pretty interesting nonetheless.

fish markets in belem

Fish market in Belem

processing acai

Took a 3 day trip to Soure which was an interesting town and experience. They don´t get many gringoes here. I stayed in a fantastic pousada on a farm on the outskirts of town. - a 3 kilometre walk to town is down grass or dirt streets, with locals sitting out under trees and buffalo and horses grazing in the street. Here is some pics. It cost about $A30 per night, including an amazing breakfast.

beautiful pousada in soure

breakfast in soure

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macaw

Sourè has an amazing community atmosphere and everyone was very friendly. The streets are mainly grass and there are buffalo and horses grazing.

football in the streets of soure

a typical street in soure

The locals are not sure how to talk to an estrangeiro. I love the term `estrangeiro` - it just means foreigner, whereas from english it sounds like you´re strange (both of which are probably true). So people say to me - ´Voce è estrangeiro?` and I reply- ´Sim, eu sou o estrangeiro - eu sou Australiano`. (you are a foreigner - yes i am, i am australian).

On the first night in Sourè I met some locals (a drunk Argentinian who said he was speaking portugese but i couldn´t understand him at all) and then a guy and 3 girls. We went to a semi-open-air nightclub playing electro brazilian dance music (not my style) . I was the only estrangeiro, the oldest person and the tallest. The nightclub included multiple screens and extensive lighting. The toilets were against a wall out the back (the girls were screened by a piece of canvas) and there was a butcher shop (acougue) in the middle (go figure) with meat hanging out in the open. As in many places, there is an expectation that i pay for everything - and so i paid for entry and drinks for my 5 new friends (total cost for the night about $A60)

Next stop - Sao Luis

18 Aug - flew from Salvador to Manaus. I stayed in a really cool hostel and met lots of interesting people. The language in these hostels is an interesting combination of portugese, spanish and english (portanhol or engulese). The hostel is near a magnificent opera house (built during the rubber boom in 1890s) and the area has some fairly seedy parts. A nearby gay bar attracts a huge and colourful crowd of trannies, hookers, druggies and gays who gather in the street around 10pm for 11pm opening. Some of these guys are quite attractive! (no i´m not inclined that way).

Fellow travellers in the hostel organised the purchase of cachaça, ice, sugar and limes (for making caipirinhas) and we partied in the hostel. Brazilian guys really like western (ie blonde) women.

Manaus is a noticably poorer. There are about 3 million people here (so i´m told) and there seems to be about 2 million street venders selling everything from pirated music, movies (including porn which mainly pertains to blonde women), sunglasses and other nicknacks. Unfortunately, there is a culture of throwing all the rubbish into the street which goes directly into the amazon.

Went on a jungle tour on the River Solomôes. Saw river dolphins, jacarè (caymen) and monkeys. Fished for piranha again (like i did in the pantanal) but this time i got bitten when taking a piranha off the hook. It really crunched my finger and there was a fair bit of blood. Nonetheless the scars have been a great talking point.

piranha amazon

In the jungle, i ate cocunut worms.

eating a cocunut grub in amazon

Overall, i found it a bit touristy and crowded with europeans and americans but i met some interesting people. On the last day we visited a family that lives on the river - I chatted with this beatiful little girl who makes jewellery and sells it to tourists.

angelica amazon

3 more days in Manaus and then i decided to take the slow boat down the amazon. This involves purchase of a hammock for sleeping - put up in the mid deck of the boat. You can get a cabin, but its dearer and less fun and since the boat is moving constantly, its better to catch the breeze in a hammock. There are about 150 people on board as well as cargo in the lower deck. Sleeping fairly closely with others is not everyone´s idea of fun, but i really enjoyed the experience. I did have the young boys leg draped over me at one point during the night and i kicked the other neighbour in the head in the middle of the night. But all is forgiven and people are very friendly. Most of the passengers are brazilians going to next town for work or returing home. 2nd night included a 2am police search of the boat with machine guns and a dog sniffing for drugs. The children on the boat were great! I made them talk to me - here are some pics of them!

brazilian children - amazon boat trip

brazilian child - amazon boat trip

the boys on the amazon boat

Boat is a great way to appreciate the magnitude of this river. It is just enormous and i cant even estimate the volume of water in comparison to say, the River Murray in high flow - i was thinking 60 - 80 times more but i really cant tell.

I broke my 5 day journey into 3 and 2 days with a stop in Santarem. Another big river (the Tapajos) feeds into the Amazon here and it´s clearer than the main Amazon. (for several kilometers the 2 rivers flow together side by side without merging due to different temperatures). I went to Alter do Chao and then arranged to stay with an indigenous family (with 5 other people) for a few days in Jamarauua. This is upstream in the Tapajos where the river forms a massive lake before joining the amazon. It has beautiful sandy beaches (the lake is so big, when its windy, small waves are formed - i actually bodysurfed for a short distance).

beach on the rio tapejos

We did a jungle hike and saw monkeys, huge tarantula spiders. The highlight was cooling off in a beautiful clean stream.

big tree in amazon jungle

cooling off

My trip to Recife in pernambucco was interesting to say the least. It rained nearly every day... and heavily. I saw little of the city and surroundings as a result. On the positive side, i met interesting and friendly people in the hostel and since much of our time was spent indoors i got to hang out and practice portugese. A group of us went to Porto de Galinhas and spent much of our time in cafes/restaurants to keep out of the rain. Same with Olinda.

church in historic olinda

There was some sunny days and in any case it was warm even when it rained. I did manage some beach time - and why not with beautiful girls like this?

on the beach in recife

day trip to porto de galinhas (port of chickens)

When i went out one evening to go to the shop I couldn´t get home because the road and pathway were a metre deep with water - i found shelter in an outdoor restaurant and stayed there drinking beer for 4 hours, watching the rain. In any case, I was completely wet when i got back to the hostel.

Recife is a poor and dirty town, except for upmarket Boa Viagem with its mostly white residents who live in high density apartments and access to fairly clean beaches. However, i found it fairly sterile and you cant swim at the beach anyway because of the sharks (see photo)

no swimming in recife

Then to Natal. The bus trip was an adventure. By this time the flooding in pernambucco was quite extensive and the 3 hour bus trip took 6 hours. Traffic was banked up for kilometres as water traversed the main road. Locals took on the role of traffic cops - see their reaction when the bus driver said he didn´t want to cross - they got really angry. And then, our bus nearly got washed away as we crossed - you can feel it in the video (that i cant seem to upload here). I could see houses under water and the news said that many people had died.

In Natal, for the first time i found accomodation difficult due to school holidays. I found a hotel instead of my favoured hostel. Then got my second bout of food poisoning. This one was not as extreme as the last but it lasted 4 days. And so, I saw about as much of Natal as Recife with much of the time lying in bed. But on the last night, i partied in a local dance club - lots of lindas mulheres.

At this point i lost my camera to a backpack full of water. Not because of the rain but because i left the lid of my water bottle loose in my bag. From Natal on, my pics are poorer. Camera´s in Brazil are really expensive - my $A250 camera would be about $R800 here, so i just bought a cheapie to get me through.

2 more weeks of school in salvador studying portugese- here is my class photo

portugues class in salvador

Portugese classes are fun. No english or other languages are allowed. Joking around is fine, so long as it´s in portugese and the teacher (Isis -beautiful dark girl in the photo) teaches pick up lines.