Brazil Travel Blog

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).

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.

Passengers beware! Brazil airline Varig has just announced it is cancelling all its flights from Mexico City, Madrid and Paris to Brazil. The flight from Mexico City to São Paulo will cease to operate on May 11, the flight from Madrid to São Paulo on May 12, and the flight from Paris to São Paulo on June 9. Be very careful as chances are the company will continue selling tickets for dates beyond the ones they will be operating flights on those routes.

Once again, we have to advice travellers to be extra careful when buying flights with Varig. The company announces and cancels routes on a whim, and the passenger is always caught unawares.

David Neeleman, founder of the U.S. airline JetBlue, has publicly announced the creation of a new Brazilian low-cost airline. The name of the company hasn’t been defined yet. In actual fact, the first marketing drive by the new company was to launch of a contest to choose the name of the new company. The public will choose, through the você escolhe website, the name of the new company (vote opened only to holders of a Brazilian CPF card). The person who suggests the name that will eventually become the chosen one will win the right to fly with the airline for free during the rest of his life!

David Neeleman has eluded stringent government regulations preventing the investment of foreign nationals and companies on the commercial aviation sector because he was actually born in São Paulo and is a Brazilian passport holder.

The arrival of a new company is to be welcome, in times when the duopoly GOL/TAM seems to asfixiate any attempt to create of a real open market in Brazil. But the euphoria shown by some journalists seems a bit outplaced. We are all happy by the arrival of a new player, but only time will tell whether Neeleman is the King Midas some people have purported him to be.

As soon as we find out more about routes, prices and other aspects regarding the new company, we will let you know here at the Brazil Travel Blog.

Brazilian summer time comes to and end at midnight on Saturday 16. This change applies to the South, Southeast and Centre-West regions of the country (in the entry Territorial divisions there is a list of all the Brazilian states and the regions they belong to). Clocks will have to be put back one hour.

The easiest way to find out what time it is on any Brazilian state at a given time is to use the tool I explained at What time is it in Brazil?.

On June 18th, 1908, after 52 sailing the oceans (literally), the ship Kasato Maru arrived at the Port of Santos with a load of 781 Japanese inmigrants. Many ships followed the first one and hundreds of thousands of Japanese moved from the land of the rising sun to somewhat more tropical latitudes.

Today, it is estimated 1 million and a half Japanese descendants live in Brazil. 75% of them are found on the state of São Paulo. 10% on the state of Paraná. And the remaining 15% are spread through the states of Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. The population exchange works both ways. The Japanese Ministry of Justice estimates that in 2006 there were 313.000 Brazilians (descendants from Japanese emigrants) working in Japan (they are known as dekasseguis).

One hundred years later, Brazil gets ready to celebrate the hundreth anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese inmigrants in Brazil, and to pay homage to their vast contribution to the development of the Brazilian nation.

All the information related to the activities organized to celebrate the centenary can be found at the website of the Associação para Comemoração do Centenário da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil. The calendar of events has just been announced and can be consulted, month by month, at the following pages: January, February, March, April. As new months are added to the list we will do so as well at this blog.

The outstanding moment of the centenary celebrations will be the Japanese Culture Week, which will take place in São Paulo from 13 to 22 June and will be crowned with a big party on the 21 and 22 June (Saturday and Sunday) which will be attended by Nahurito, Crown Prince of Japan.

Usual readers of the blog are aware of how fond we are of Japanese culture in their Brazilian embodiment. The oriental quarter of Liberdade, in São Paulo, has popped up a few times at this blog:

- Liberdade Japanese quarter, São Paulo
- Toyo Matsuri in São Paulo
- Tanabata Matsuri in São Paulo

P.S.: thanks to the Press Office of the Centenary Association for the information pack they sent us.

The Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer will be 100 years-old tomorrow [Wikipedia entry].

His work can be found all throughout Brazil, with outstanding examples in Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Curitiba, Niterói, Río de Janeiro or São Paulo, among other places.

The website of the Fundação Oscar Niemeyer is a good starting point to learn more about the architect. In the section Arquitectura you can see a partial catalogue of his work.

The photographs on this entry belong to the church of São Francisco de Assis in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte in the Pampulha, Belo Horizonte. The project was ready in 1943 and earned Niemeyer a barrage of criticism from the catholic church, that refused to consecrate the building. When we visited the church it was in a sorry state - shocking for an outstanding work of art. In 2005, after our visit, the church was restored with the help of private companies.

Congratulations to the veteran master.

Among the things I hadn’t mentioned yet due to my holiday break it was the results of the South American World Travel Awards. Of the outlandish predictions I made when I first mentioned the contest a few months ago (World Travel Awards), one has come true. São Paulo’s airport [sic] was elected the best South American airport. As I had already pointed out, there is no way you can tell whether the award went to Congonhas airport (the choice would be in the worst possible taste after the TAM Airbus tragedy) or to Guarulhos airport. Common sense makes me think we are talking about the latter. An airport that is overcrowded, uncomfortable, obsolete, with no decent public transportation to get you there. Waiting for an expansion that never comes. Is this the best airport in South America? I dread to think what things are like on the rest of the continent!

Of course, it never crossed my mind that initiatives like the World Travel Awards were nothing other than marketing campaings. What surprises me is to see such glaring mistakes being made.

The Cow Parade is in Rio - the cows visited São Paulo in 2005. The ruminants will graze on the streets of Rio until 26 November. On the official website you can check a list of cows by geographical location. If you click on Map, on the left hand side corner of the page, you will be able to download a map in PDF format with the location of the cows.

It’s a free event open to everyone.

The TIM Festival is one of the most important dates on the calendar for music fans. The festival will take place at the end of October simulatenously in Rio de Janeiro (October 26 and 27), São Paulo (October 25 to 29), Curitiba (October 31) and Vitória (October 27 to 29). Among the line-up, people like Björk, Arctic Monkeys, Neneh Cherry and The Killers. Do not expect affordable tickets, you won’t find them. Complete info on the festival on its website.