Brazil Travel Blog

You might think it’s an optical illusion but the fact is that a sizeable number of tower blocks on Santos’ beachfront are anything but straight. Take an unstable soil and add a pinch of property developer’s negligence and you end up with nearly one hundred buildings that in some cases are leaning even more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In actual fact, Italian specialists that worked on the Tower of Pisa were brought in to help secure the buildings in Santos.

The apartments are inhabited and structural engineers give assurances that the blocks are not going to collapse. I wouldn’t spend a night in one of those apartments!

One popular urban legend in Santos goes on saying that the collapse of a building would trigger the domino effect, giving a completely new visual (building-free) to Santos beachfront. Specialists deny such catastrophe could ever happen, as the buildings tend to collapse vertically.

The Antiques and Crafts Fair at Praça (square) Benedito Calixto is São Paulo’s modest answer to Buenos Aires’ San Telmo’s fair. It runs every Saturday during most of the day.

The square is not large and can be visited in a morning, with more than enough time for a coffee, a beer or any other drink. All sorts of old (and odd) objects can be found along the way, providing endless amusement to the visitors.

In the middle of the square there is a food court where you can listen to the old guard playing samba.

- website of the Féria de Artes, Cultura e Lazer da Praça Benedito Calixto.

- How to get to the Praça Benedito Calixto using public transportation:

Enlarge map

Although dengue fever is definitely a very serious issue, we open a break here at the blog for a touch of humor (the serious stuff on dengue fever can be read at this other entry: 10 facts about dengue fever in Brazil)

For copyright issues I won’t reproduce here the cartoons published by the satirical website Kibe Loco, but I will give you the links to four recent cartoons with the same theme: dengue fever and Rio. I am providing translations of the texts appearing on the cartoons:

- Tourist, under the Rio heat, dress appropriately.
- Rio characters in time of dengue: Garota de Ipanema.
- Tourist attractions 2008.
- Mosquitoes are forever (007 against dengue fever).

The name of the newest Brazilian low-cost airline has just been announced; it’s going to be called Azul (the Portuguese word for blue). The company belongs to David Neeleman, founder of the American JetBlue. We had already given details about the company at New Brazilian low-cost airline announced

I don’t want to show off, but readers of De viaje a Brasil (the Spanish counterpart of this blog) had known the name of the company for a few weeks now. Our speculations at the end of ¿De verdad que “tú eliges”? were correct!

With the name chosen, we hope Azul begins flying as soon as possible. Good luck to them!

Here’s a quick look at the main topics we wrote about on the blog during the month of April.

Out from our recent trip to Florianópolis, a few more entries: one dedicated to the absolutely fabulous Ilha do Campeche (Campeche island), one of the most beautiful beaches on the entire Brazil; another one dedicated to the unmissable Bar do Arante on the south of the island; a third entry on the Joaquina dunes, the cradle of sandboarding; and on a recent entry we reviewed the Box 32 bar in the centre of Florianópolis.

On the aviation news front, a new Brazilian low-cost airline was unveiled, Varig canceled its flights from Mexico, Madrid and Paris to Brazil and more flights to Lima were announced. And if you want to know what flying from Congonhas airport - right in the middle of São Paulo, is like, I published two videos showing the approach and take-off manouvres.

As the start of the Brazilian soccer (football) league approaches we wrote about the Soccer Championship 2008, with info on fixtures and practical information on going to a football game in Brazil.

There were plenty of pictures of Brazil: surfers, a candlelit dinner in Trancoso, Caraíva, the grocer’s and a spectacular sunrise from São Paulo

I published a Map of Arraial d’Ajuda and Porto Seguro.

Dengue fever was back on the agenda once again with news of an outbreak in Natal.

Enjoy!

Box 32 at the Municipal Market in the centre of Florianópolis, is one of the best known bars in all the region. As popular wisdom states no visit to the market is complete without a stop at the Box 32, we decided to pop in for a quick drink and a snack.

We won’t beat around the bush: the bar was quite a bit of a let down. We ordered the famous and smallish pastel de camarão (a kind of pastry filled with shrimp), price R$5,90. The snacks, on the best McDonald’s fashion, are already prepared, waiting for the customer to place an order. Our pastry came from the shelf of the pastries that had been prepared quite a while ago. It the truth be told, the pastry is filled to the brim with shrimps. But they were probably frozen shrimps, as any hint of tasty flavour was absent from them. We washed down the pastel with an incredibly expensive draught beer (R$5,10).

When it comes to taste, most of the bars at São Paulo’s Mercado Municipal would make the Box 32 extremely jealous. It could well be a bad day at the kitchen. We don’t know. We won’t find out as this was our first and last visit. But check out for yourselves. The wing of the market where the Box 32 is located is quite interesting, with a few fishmonger’s displaying their most recent catches.

Website: Box 32.

General information on Florianópolis here at the blog at Destination: Florianópolis.

The Brazil Travel Blog brings you every month a calendar for you to use on your computer desktop.

Here is the May 2008 calendar, with a house from the village of Ribeirão da Ilha, in Florianópolis, where many Portuguese inmigrants settled decades ago.

DOWNLOAD:

- Large size
- Small size

Remember, a new calendar every month!

Spectacular sunrise today - actually, less than an hour ago. With the end of the rainy season, magnificent sunrises become more of a common occurrence in São Paulo - during summer chances are the sky will be all covered with clouds. Mind you, you have to get up early to enjoy nature’s show (the photos were taken at 6:10 am).

Two airlines announce new flights to the capital of Peru, Lima.

TACA announces a direct flight to Lima from Rio de Janeiro from July 2 (the company has already direct flights from São Paulo to that destination). At the beginning, there will be four weekly flights.

LAN is increasing the number of flights from São Paulo to Lima to 10 weekly flights. It also promises improved connecting times in Lima for passengers flying to Caracas, Bogota and Quito.
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Read at Aquela Passagem!: TACA: Tarifa Promocional do Vôo Rio de Janeiro/Lima, LAN Aumenta Frequências para Peru.

Oh, how I love going to the sacolão (the greengrocer’s)! There are always plenty of photo opportunities and, if that wasn’t sufficient enough, hardly a visit goes by without the discovery of a new and strange variety of fruit (and believe me, there are far more exotic varieties of fruits and vegetables than the yam shown on the following photograph).

Last Sunday the guys at the greengrocer’s had piled up a phenomenal amount of oranges, on an obvious attempt at defying gravity. Actually, the sacolão has all to do with masses of piled fruits, everywhere. Do not miss the chance to visit a sacolão during your stay in Brazil.