Brazil Travel Blog

The finger-licking good brigadeiro (in Portuguese it means brigadier) is one of the best known and most typical Brazilian sweets. Born in São Paulo in the 40s (so the Portuguese Wikipedia tells us) when a group of housewives began cooking the delicacy to be served in meetings in support of brigadier Eduardo Gomes, at the time running for the presidency of Brazil.

Brigadeiro is a tiny and round sweet. Its basic ingredients are condensed milk, chocolate powder and butter. Once the ball is formed, it is rolled in chocolate sprinkles. Brigadeiros are mandatory at birthday parties.

Not recommended for weight watchers.

Few would question the supremacy of Brazilians when it comes to having a great time at the beach. A small detail that tells foreigners and locals apart at that scenery is that the former always take their towels to the beach while the latter don’t. Instead, they use the ubiquitous cangas, a truly versatile garment - very similar to oriental sarongs. You can lie on your canga or wrap it around your body in different forms.

The beach is, in actual fact, one of the handiest places to get hold of a canga. Rather sooner than later, someone will approach you offering a canga. You can buy them from R$10.

When in Brazil… wear a canga!

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.

Six long years of experiments, measurements, field work and such nonsense have allowed the team behind this blog - that is, myself, produce a valuable thesis. It will not grant you eternal happiness but it will get you closer to the most wonderful beaches in Brazil. If you want to find out more about the path to the perfect desert beach, keep reading.

The main secret in the magic formula to find the perfect beach usually has four wheels, pollutes the environment, and transforms perfectly normal people in real lunatics: the car. I’ve written about the car before - here in this blog and elsewhere. Suffice it to say that complex genetic mutations have transformed the average Brazilian DNA (especially the townie’s), that now contains the nucleotid of car dependency. There are no other worlds there where the car doesn’t take you. This dependency can be broken down as follows.

75,87% of Brazilians will not simply go to the beach unless they can reach it by car. For some, a 100-meter walk enters falls into the “can’t reach it by car” category. In some parts of the country an incredible display of cars parked on the beach itself can be seen, along with chairs and sunshades. The car owners do not seem too bothered by the corrosive effect of the salt and the sand.

10,83% of Brazilians are willing to walk a maximum of 10 minutes from the place where they park their cars to the beach. If the path to the beach is on a steep slow, that tolerance to physical exercise diminishes.

7,38% of Brazilians are willing to walk a maximum of 10 minutes from the place where public transportation drops them (bear in mind the 10,83% and 75,87% above do not contemplate the possibility of using public transportation).

Bear with me, we are getting to the juiciest bit of the formula. If we add the percentages above, what we have left is a residual 5,92% of Brazilians willing to walk as far as it takes (within limits) to get to the beach of their dreams. That 6% constitutes the only obstacle on the road to the desert beach.

The conclusion of this soundly underpinned theory is, therefore, that the longer you have to walk to get to a beach, the higher the chances are it will be completely deserted. A thirty-minute walk (”hike”, they call it), will grant you happiness.

I know the shrewdest among you will point out a failing on my analysis, given that it focuses exclusively on Brazilian tourists - the overwhelming majority of tourists in most part of the country. Yes, my study doesn’t not fully take into account the irritating habit foreign - Europeans and Australians in particular - tourists display: they are ready to walk as long as it takes to get to the places they have read about on the guides. Although the number of foreign tourists visiting Brazil is relatively small and is concentrated on a few pockets, the presence of foreign visitors at the not so desert beach is a possibility that cannot be ruled out altogether.

To reach to the conclusions of this study several tests were carried out during an extended period of time, with the following results:

• Cachadaço beach (Trindade, Río de Janeiro). A 25-minute walk from the final bus stop, 20 minutes from the car park. Number of tourists at the beach: 2. Number of Brazilian tourists: 0.
• Ponta do Apagafogo beach (Arraial d’Ajuda, Bahía). 10 minutes-walk from the ferryboat or 1 hour and a half from Arraial d’Ajuda. Number of tourists at the beach: 2. Number of Brazilian tourists: 2 (a young lovey-dovey couple that had found a “remote” place where they could put into practice their love-making techniques).
• Caburé beach (Maranhão). You can’t get anywhere near there by car. Number of tourists at the beach: 0.
• Porcos bay (Fernando de Noronha). You can only get there by boat or walking. Number of tourists on the beach: 0.
• praia Grande (Ubatuba). You can park your car right by the beach. Number of tourists at the beach: 3.285. Number of Brazilian tourists: 3.285.

I couldn’t finish this brainy meditation without mentioning the main two events that led me to write this text. The first event was the astounded look we got from an extremely friendly receptionist at our pousada in Arraial. We told here we wanted to walk to a beach that was a bit far from the village. “But that’s reeeeeeeeeeeeally far!” she replied, noticeably worried. “How far?”, we asked. Her answer was “an hour’s walk”.

The second event was a feature on Fernando de Noronha I saw when I was leafing through a travel magazine at a newspaper stand. The article had a list of unmissable things you had to do while in Noronha, that outstanding Brazilian paradise. On third (or was ir fourth?) place the following advice was given: “you must rent a buggy” to travel round the island (a tiny island). It will give you more freedom, we learn. Really, it’s got to be on the DNA. Because the very last thing that would cross my mind while at the idyllic Noronha would be to rent a relentless generator of carbon monoxide to get me to places where I can go using public transportation. Alright, there are a couple of places where you’ve got to walk 20 minutes from the final bus stop. But a taxi would get you a bit closer if a 15-minute walk sounded like a insurmountable barrier.

P.S.: a few disclaimers. First of all, please be aware of the tongue in cheek tone of this post. It is not to be taken too seriously. Second. Yes, there are many Europeans and Americans for whom life without a car would be meaningless. The big difference I see with Brazil is that abroad there is a larger share of the population willing to give up their car when their holiday is about being in touch with nature. And finally, no, no official body was willing to validate the data presented here.

If walking outdoors is your kind of thing, you are likely to come across a couple of quero-queros (Southern Lapwing, Vanellus chilensis), a very common bird in South America outside the Amazon basin and the Andean region.

Quero-queros build their nests on the ground. If someone comes close to the nests, they defend them very aggresively. Quero-queros gave us a bit of a rough time at the Lençóis Maranhenses last year. We were unlucky enough to find ourselves strolling along a succession of quero-quero nests for more than an hour. During that time, we were mercilessly harrassed by the birds, having to duck the entire time to avoid being hit by their spurs. When we left the proximity of a nest in the belief we were now on safe ground, we would invariably enter the proximity of yet another nest, being the target of yet more low-level flights. It was quite an unpleasant experience although completely understandable.

If you ever come across a couple of quero-queros defending their nests, go away as far as you can. They mean business.

To refer to cachaça as the national drink of Brazil might seem a bit of an exaggeration, but the truth is that there is no other alcoholic beverage as popular in Brazil as pinga is - another popular name for cachaça. Cachaça is a cane spirit with a strength from 38% to 51%. It is an essential ingredient of caipirinha.

Small distilleries all throughout Brazil produce cachaça. The top-quality ones have traditionally come from the state of Minas Gerais.

Veteran readers of this blog will remember a text I wrote some months ago on the Brazilian showers. We came back from our recent trip to Arraial with a new and fascinating adventure to share with you. I will be naming no names, especially because we made the unforgiveable mistake of not taking photographs of what we saw. I’ve had to use CGI to recreate the scene of the crime below.

I promise that, in spite of the comic undertones of the story, nothing here is invented.

We went through three different rooms in one of the pousadas where we stayed (notice the giveaway, in a few day’s time the shrewdest among you will be able to identify the place). The reasons for the change of room were unrelated to what it is being described here. All the rooms have an ample shower with hot water coming from a single boiler that feeds all the premises. After opening the tap [faucet], the hot water took anything between 5 to 10 minutes to reach the room. All that time, cold water was being wasted down the drain. What made the situation much worse was the peculiar labelling of the taps. The cold water tap was identified with the notorious F letter (cold is frio in Portuguese, so that’s what you would expect, no obscene language round the corner). So far, so good. But the hot water tap was also identified with the very same F letter. Did they not look nice together, the two F’s! Such an outstanding example of lack of imagination led to scenes of desperation.

1. I open the right-hand side F tap (which we would eventually discover it was the hot water tap). I wait for 5 minutes and as there is no sign whatsoever of the hot water I assume I’ve opened the wrong tap. The hot water tap must be the one on the left.

2. I open the left-hand side tap (cold water one). 5 minutes, and no hot water. 10 minutes, and no hot water. If I had waited for 2 hours I would have never had hot water coming out from that tap.

That day we took cold showers. We moved to a new room. First thing we checked, the shower. And there they were, the bastards. The two F’s sitting there about to take the piss out of us. Little did they knew we had mastered the magic secret of the double F.

1. I open the right-hand side tap (as we had discovered on our first room, it is the hot water tap). Nothing, 10 minutes and no hot water. I don’t believe it! (for you Brits out there, picture Victor Meldrew saying this).

2. I open the left-hand side tap (which, as we had discovered on the previous room, it is the cold water tap). 5 minutes and no hot water. No surprises here, it’s what we expected.

As I wasn’t having another cold shower, I got dressed and went down to reception to find out what was going on. After all, with the taps opened for so long, we might as well have emptied the reservoir that supplies Arraial. The owner of the pousada appeared and said there was no problem whatsoever, we just had to open the hot water tap and let the water flow. We told him that was impossible, we had unsuccesfully tried to do that. And then the had no alternative but to share with us a juicy secret that heralded our second change of room (in actual fact, the change was motivated for a more serious reason). The builder who installed the water pipes liked to have a good time, and on this particular room he single-handedly decided to change the order of the hot and cold water pipes. So, on room 2, the F tap on the left was the hot-water tap, unlike room 1 where the F tap on the left was the cold-water one. Likewise, now the F tap on the right was the cold-water tap, unlike room 1 where the F tap on the right was the hot-water one. Are you still there?

On the third room we skipped the empty -an -entire -reservoir -to -find -out -which -is -the -hot -water -tap stage and asked directly. Does room 3 belong to the category “the builder was in a funny mood that day” or does it follow the pattern of the rest of the pousada?

After such a jumble of Fs, room changes and cold showers I reached the inevitable conclusion: we were being the victims of a cruel vengeance orchestrated by “the system”, the Upper Council of the showering world, waiting for the moment to take revenge on me for the publication of the entry I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Get thee behind me, cursed shower!

P.S.: I don’t know how much a tiny letter Q (for quente, hot in Portuguese) costs. But I am positive it costs far less than the amount of water wasted while trying to find out which tap is the hot-water one. Somehow I don’t think the pousada owner had come to the same conclusion.

Before someone corrects me, no, I didn’t get the date wrong. 12 June is the date when Brazilian celebrate lover’s day, and not the 14 February as in the rest of the world. The official explanation tells that 12 June is the day before St. Anthony’s, a saint with a solid matchmaking reputation. The real story is quite different, the date was chosen by local tradesmen to give sales a push during a time of the year when business is rather weak. On top of that, 14 February is too close to Carnival.

Last night there was hardly any activity in front of the motel next to where I live. The odd car would go in (see photo) but that was all. Today, we are likely to see long queues of cars waiting outside motels all around the city. Brazilians are no different from the rest of the occidental world, they like to follow the standards set by consumer society. A romantic dinner, a few hours of torrid sex at a motel, and the absolutely essential upgrade to the mobile phone of your significant other - what would mobile phone manufacturers do without dates like this!

I’m putting the final touches on a presentation on the festas juninas in São Luís (update: the video is already here) and found it appropriate to give some background information before I upload the presentation. The bumba-meu-boi from Maranhão is one of the most wonderful cultural manifestations of all Brazil - you can read more about it on the following Wikipedia article in Portuguese. I’m more concerned here with practical information.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE IN A FEW WORDS WHAT’S THE BUMBA-MEU-BOI?: an artistic display that combines dance, music and theatre. The central character of the performance is the ox - or rather, a figure of an ox carried by a person.

IS IT THE SAME AS THE BOI-BUMBÁ?: no, it’s not. Although both share the same origin, the boi-bumbá es is typical from the states of Amazonas and Pará and differs greatly from the bumba-meu-boi.

WHAT ARE SOTAQUES?: if you want to make the most of festivals in São Luís you need to know that sotaques are different forms of performing the bumba-meu-boi. Each sotaque has its own characteristics, and is associated to different characters, rhythms, musical instruments and music. There is a sotaque de orquestra, sotaque da baixada, sotaque de zabumba, sotaque de matraca, sotaque de pindaré, and so on. On the very same night you can see performances of groups belonging to different sotaques. After two nights partying in São Luís you will be able to recognize right away the different sotaques!

WHERE?: an easy question: in São Luís, capital of the state of Maranhão. Bumba-meu-boi is a truly popular festival, and performances take place at the end of the day, in public spaces such as squares, or at an arraial, a kind of fairground where the different traditional groups perform. All performances are free, which gives an idea of how popular the festival really is.

WHEN?: though many places (including blogs and websites) will tell you that the festivities begin on 13 June, the truth is that hardly anything goes on until June 23, when the ox is baptized. The festival goes on until 30 June. It is worth staying in São Luís until the 30th (São Marçal) as all the different folk groups gather together that day.

I’ve read in quite a few places that there is now bumba-meu-boi in São Luís during July. This is only partially true. Only recently the authorities realized how unfortunate they were, as their main festivities ended up in June, just a few days before the beginning of the July holiday period in Brazil. Many tourists arrived in São Luís in July only to find out that the party had just finished. The idea was born: let’s have an “out-of-season” bumba-meu-boi for those who can’t be in São Luís in June. Performances take place during weekends at the Convento das Mercés in the historical part of the city. But make no mistake, it’s a bumba-meu-boi for tourists - I’m not implying you shouldn’t go and see it should you find yourself in São Luís in July. But if the bumba-meu-boi is the main purpose of your trip, you have to find time in the second half of June. The “out-of-season” bumba-meu-boi is no substitute.

ANY OTHER ADVICE?: as there are performances every night running simultaneously at different venues, you need to get hold of a programme of events ASAP. In the programme you will find listings with information on who is appearing where and when. There are usually six performances per venue per night. There are a handful of important venues in São Luís and you can visit a couple of them on the same night. Last year the City Council of São Luís and the government of the state of Maranhão were in opposing political hands, so there were two different programmes of events…

The festas juninas in São Luís are not restricted to the bumba-meu-boi. There are also folk performances in the afternoons in museus, cultural centres and public squares, featuring quadrilhas, tambor de crioula and other forms of folklore. Don’t miss them!

WHERE CAN I SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE BUMBA-MEU-BOI?: That’s easy, check out my Flickr album of the bumba-meu-boi.

Don’t forget I’ve already published an entry on São Luís here.

It is nearly impossible to travel around Brazil and not come across the comings and goings of kites, the favourite passtime of young and adolescents in the deprived areas of the country. Many of those kites are home made, and slice through the skies searching for another kite to fight a duel. Kite battles are and art. The kite needs to move in such a way that can cut the string of the rival kite while at the same time avoiding a similar fate for itself.

The sinister side of the seemingly harmless passtime is called cerol, a mixture of glue and crushed glass. Although its use is banned, many people smear the string of the kite with cerol turning it into a deadly blade. Dozens of people had died after having their throats cut by the cerol-smeared string. Most victims are motorcyclists. Often the kite that looses a duel ends up falling near a street or motorway, becoming a deadly trap. Quite a lot of motorbikes have now an antenna with a small blade at the top end to help cut a string in case the motorcyclist encounters one while moving at a speed.