Best of Brazil

I am currently in Bolivia (I realize I haven’t been on top of updating my next destination via my blog) and loving it.  It’s only been a couple of days, and I don’t feel ready to describe it yet; in fact, I don’t think there are any words in the English language that could adequately describe the landscape and the people.

I’m eating well on about $3 USD a day, trying to speak Spanish (looking into taking a course), and bracing myself for the next place, Potosi, the world’s highest city.

Below is an incomplete list of some of my favorites in Brazil.  I figure I’ll do a list for each South American country that I visit.

Rio’s version of botelloning (aka, drinking outside)

Running culture in Rio (nobody stares at you like they do in other cities in SA)

All-you-can-eat sushi in Liberdade neighborhood in Sao Paolo

Sao Paolo loyalty

Bodies in Rio–simply insane!

Tapioca= best street food in Brazil

Sweet, caramel corn with condensed milk

Quiejo coehlo= grilled cheese on a skewer with oregano and molasses (typical and highly addictive beach snack)

Vendors on Salvador’s beaches

craftsmen in Salvador

Mercado Municipal in Sao Paolo

Vik Muniz exhibit in MASP

dessert carts

drinking coconut water straight out of the coconut on the beach in Rio and Salvador

acaraje=shrimp fritters

late night beach, ahem, festivities in Rio

the Rio accent

befriending Nilda in Sao Paolo

boat trip in Arraial de Cabo

making it out of Lencois alive

clubbing till 6 AM in Rio

swimming in the rain in Salvador

lingering restaurants (table-turning doesn’t exist)

Azul airlines’ (Jetblue’s sister company) unlimited snacks (far cry from JetBlue practices)

the hospitable, warm, gregarious people

In Gil’s Hands: Discovering The Pantanal

The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland system.  Boasting some 650 bird species and 80 mammal species (jaguars, powerful, elusive, and fierce, rule the land), it is twenty times the size of the Florida Everglades.

I hadn’t considered a trip to The Pantanal until I decided that Bolivia would follow Brazil.  Once I determined my route, it made sense to visit the ecosystem on my way out of the country.  I pre-arranged a tour with Gil, and when I arrived at the airport, he had a young American couple thinking about joining the tour as well.

It was 2:45 PM.  Gil wanted to get us all on a 3 PM bus out of Campo Grande.  Meagan and Greg, the couple from Maine, and I boarded the bus, and  I soon had the opportunity to remark on what a small world it is when I learned that Meagan and Ihad both graduated from Bucknell University–she in ’07 and me in ’03. 

I was happy to have travel companions for this leg of the journey, and Meagan and Greg turned out to be very cool people, indeed.

Our decision to take the immediate bus was a wise one as we were the only people on the tour for the better part of the trip.  Two sweet Danish girls joined us, but it wasn’t until the last leg of our Pantanal tour that the number of travelers rose substantially (and the food quality declined noticeably). 

Our guide, Luiz, was an English-speaking Brazilian who, with his wife, Cida, owned the pousada (guest house) where we were to stay for the three nights and three day tour.  Taking us out on a boat ride down the Rio Paraguai, Luiz pointed stopped the boat to point out swimming sea otters, tree-swinging monkeys, capybara (world’s largest rodent), tiger herons, vultures, storks (the symbol of The Pantanal), marsh deer, a 1m-long iquana, and loads of caiman (fish-eating small alligator).

Boat ride up RioParaguai

Using bamboo fishing poles, we fished for piranha and saved most of them for dinner, though we caught so many (I’m the proud fisherwoman of the largest one that morning!), we shared a few with the lingering and anxious caiman.  (And thanks to Meagan and Greg’s 98% DEET insect repellent, I barely got bitten by the feisty and persistent mosquitos.)

In the afternoon, following a lunch where vegetables were plentiful (thank God!), we went horse-back riding through the vast land, now dry. 

The following day included a jeep safari ride, a long walk through the jungle and savannahs, and lunch at an outdoor bar and cafe.  Before this adventure, I’d never considered myself a bird person.  Before, they barely interested me, but it was quite a thrill to be so close to so many rarely-seen-elsewhere species.  We didn’t spot any jaguars or anacondas, but it was a worthwhile trip and one that now has me itching to head to Bolivia’s slice of the Amazon, in spite of the fact that I probably saw much more wildlife in The Pantanal than I’ll get to see in The Amazon.

Salvador`s Scene

I`ve been in Salvador da Bahia for several days now.  Standing in sharp contrast to Rio de Janeiro, the Bahia region is more colorful (literally the buildings and dress are noticeably brighter), lively, and unique (a big city that hasn`t lost its roots).  It`s also cheaper than both Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, which makes my pockets happy.

Salvador oozes with culture unlike any other place I`ve seen.  (I`d insert a few pictures here for reference if the computer I`m working from would allow me to do so.)

Like Rio, Salvador is a beach city, with 900km+ of coastline to explore.  Although the beaches here are not as pretty as Ipanema and Leblon beaches in Rio, spending a day at one of the many beaches in the area is definitely a must-do activity and something I have been doing a lot of as I`ve been ill since arriving in Salvador.

A fever and chills, sore throat, and excruciating headache hasn`t stop me from wasting away hours on the beaches, soaking in the fascinating beach culture.

Drinking coco (coconut water straight out of the coconut, which will be chopped open for you to savor the meat once the water is gone) is a popular activity.  Quiejo coalho, my favorite beach snack, is addictive!  It reminds me of halloumi, the sort of rubbery (bad but best way of describing it), salty Greek cheese that doesn`t melt.  It is grilled on a skewer and sprinkled with oregano and sometimes drizzled with molasses.  At only R$2, it is a daily indulgence.

The Pelourhino, the heart of the city (and also the supposedly very dangerous place), is filled with old churches, colonial buildings that have been made into shops and restaurants, teenagers dancing, and barely-dressed children begging.

In the late afternoon, the squares are overflowing with stands, where people are selling everything from acaraje (shrimp fritters, the most famous street food in Salvador) to enormous paintings.  And at night, the center is alive with live music (reggae is huge here).

It is an artsy city, to be sure, the streets dotted with art galleries and artists working outside.  Original cotton T-shirts with sweet designs and canvas bags thoughtfully-decorated are on every corner.  It doesn`t seem as easy to bargain here as in other places I`ve been, like China for example, but it can be done.

One afternoon earlier this week, when it seemed the medicine I was regularly swallowing had alleviated my aches and pains, I headed into the Pelhourino with Mitchel, a guy from New Zealand, currently based in London but moving to NYC in the fall (follow that?) and watched him test out his bargaining skills.

We headed to an open market, where I intended to browse but not buy.  On my last day in Rio, I got talked into buying fancy earrings on the beach simply because Isaac was such a stellar salesperson (I can be a sucker for a compliment) and finally met my price.  I figure if I start buying things now, I`ll never have room in my backpack by the time I get to Chile, the fourth country on my agenda.

Mitchel did quite well with the cool ring lady, who let me get a picture with her.  I admired some of the wooden pipes in the stand next to hers, and when I indicated as much, the maker, a short, dark-skinned, long-time dreadlocks man with some serious stoner eyes, told me that here in Bahia he was free.  To get high.

I didn`t buy anything from him, but I did manage to let him talk me into getting a picture of him in front of his creations.  (It is necessary to ask before taking photos of people in Brazil and maybe most of South America, and as Erin and I have discovered, many people refuse to be photographed.)

Mitchel`s bargainning for a beach towel was met with failure.  The man selling the items shook his head and looked insulted when Mitchel named his price.  When Mitchel persisted, the man gestured towards his mouth and said, comida.

For the number of people living in poverty here, it is astonishing how much certain services cost.  To ride a city bus, for example, is R$2.20 (no air-conditioning) or R$4 (air-conditioning).  Travel from one city to the next, as I believe I mentioned in a previous post, is also quite costly.

I can understand why the man selling the beach towels did not want to lower his price, but he didn`t make a sale with Mitchel.  As for me, I`m holding out on making any purchases (save for safety-ensuring taxi rides and pricey Pantanal tours) until I get to Bolivia, on or around July 13th.