A Great Guide for Your Trip To The Amazon

A Great Guide for Your Trip To The Amazon

Thank You Brazil Travel Blog for posting this awesome list of suggestions for people’s itineraries in the Amazon!!! (I’ve just copied and pasted their wonderful article below)…

the sunset in Amazonas

1. General information

• When to go? To choose the right time to visit the region we published the post when to visit the Amazon region. And to understand how the rainy changes the landscape of the region we published “cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region.
• Where to stay? To understand better accommodation in the forest we wrote on Jungle Lodges in the Amazon. And to ease your angst, we reflected on howtourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair.
• How to travel? riverboats across the Amazon – schedules / timetables is a fundamental entry you should check if you are planning a boat trip on the region. Amazon riverboat trips contains some tips on the issue.
• To avoid disappointment, we wrote on unreasonable expectations: the Amazon is not a zoo.
• If guidebooks are your thing, you should be aware of the existence of 7 full (and free!) tourist guides on Brazil available online. One is devoted to the Amazon.

2. Information on destinations

We have five information cards for Amazon destinations:

• Algodoal
• Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós
• Belém
• Ilha do Marajó
• Manaus

We have written with quite some detail on two of those destinations:

2.1 Manaus

As well as the information card destination: Manaus, we prepared a map of Manaus, blogged on the wonderful Teatro Amazonas, perhaps the only unmissable sight in the city; went off the beaten track to eat at the peixaria do Jokka Loureiro fish restaurant in Manaus; visited the awesome Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus and became worried by a new threat in the shape of a gigantic bridge.

2.2 Alter do Chão

As well as the information card destination: Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós, on our favourite Amazon destination, we gave plenty of details on the trips around Alter do Chão.

3. Photos

All the photos you will see on this blog post as well as many more can be found at our Flickr albums:

• photo album: Alter do Chão
• photo album: Manaus
• photo album: the Amazon

The “Peaceful Favelas” Are Attracting More Tourists in Rio – Are Favela Tours Like A Human Zoo??

Increased Tourism In Rio’s “Pacified” Favelas: Encouraged by The Brazilian Government, But Is it Ultimately Fair to Inhabitants?

The traditional conception of a favela is being subverted in Rio. Every day, dozens of tourists are led through some of Rio’s most dangerous slums to witness the conditions of the favela.

I got this picture off of the website for "Rio Tour," one of the many favela tour agencies i found on google

In the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Rio de Janeiro, which included a tour through the notorious City of God slum, questions have been raised regarding the fate of Brazil’s hill-draped favelas. Brazilian and foreign officials have expressed concern related to the crime-infested favelas, especially in light of the upcoming Brazil-hosted 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

In an effort to calm international and domestic anxiety, municipal and federal forces are acting together to combat drug lords and rid favelas of potentially spoiling transgressors who could have a devastating impact on the country’s image. However, law enforcement agencies are not the only factions trying to bring about severely needed change. Favela tourism is also playing a role, with tourists acting alongside government officials to revise global attitudes toward these impoverished communities.

"Michael Jackson's Space" - Now a popular tourist attraction, this is the spot where Michael Jackson made a music video in the Rio favela "Morro Santa Maria"

Favela tour guide Vitor Lira Adão, 30, says that he was already bringing tourists on tours through the favelas before they were “pacified.” He is one of the monitors of Rio Top Tour, a project created a year ago by the state government in order to incentivize favela-dwellers to bring in tourism.

“Foreigners have always been curious, even though they are aware of how dangerous it used to be,” says Vitor, who says that he never had serious problems while giving tours, except for one time when he quickly had to hide from gunfire…

Read More, Via Folha…

And here is the video from that recent Folha article:

…And Below is another video of a Brazilian Favela tour from Current TV.

In this video, Current TV producer Dre Urhahn follows a group of tourists on a favela tour to examine whether they exploiting the communities or helping them…

And lastly,

Here’s a decent article that touches upon the discomforting nature of the concept of a tour through a human-filled ghetto: Globalization or Zoo-Like Exploitation? Slum Tours on the Rise

So, what’s Portuguese Blogger’s take on all of this? Well, gringos obviously have a natural curiosity for what third world poverty looks like in a country so fun and “cultural” as brazil, they also clearly get an adrenaline rush from the possibility of witnessing violence. So, all in all i’d say that these favela inhabitants could make a good business out of this, just as long as the potential for the tour to be dangerous still lingers, in order to preserve that element of brag-worthy excitement. But it is slightly bothersome to me that the government wants to turn the favelas into some sort of “reality” Disneyland, it does seem disturbingly like a zoo, but i guess we’ll see what happens by 2016…

Also, watch this music video….

obama's visit to the favela

What do you think?

Culture: Food & Dining: D.O.M (In Sao Paulo) Just Voted The Best Restaurant In Brazil (And 7th Best In The World)

D.O.M (In Sao Paulo) Just Voted The Best Restaurant In Brazil

Yum! javali (that’s a boar) filé mignon with polenta!!!

S. Pellagrino Just Voted D.O.M. in Sao Paulo the best restaurant in Brazil (…and number 7 in the world). I’ve been to this restaurant, the food is amazing, as it should be for the absurd amount of money we paid (in Portuguese we say: “paguei um absurdo”.) Was it worth it? Lets just say I would have been just as happy with a great home-cooked carne de panela, arroz e feijão, but that’s just me. If you have a dispensable income and a deep appreciation for gastronomical adventures, then it is definitely worth a visit because there are definitely some unique ingredients on the menu. Here’s a description of the restaurant:

“D.O.M has become a priority destination for all globe-hopping gastronomes, not that chef Alex Atala is resting on his laurels. Instead he scours the Amazon to pepper his with indigenous ingredients, from the staple manioc tuber and its tupuci juice to Amazonian herbs and the huge white-fleshed pirarucu fish to ensure his restaurant is unlike any other on the list. It was also voted the Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In South America.”

Travel in Brazil: Accommodations: The Best Hostels To Stay In Brazil By City

List of The 5 Best Hostels in Brazil

Thinking about staying in a Hostel in Brazil? The first thing that you should know is that Hostels in Brazil are not to be feared. As long as you are wise with your belongings, staying in a hostel is a great way to meet people and to stretch your travel money. Here’s a list that was published by Viagem Magazine of the 5 Best Hostels In Brazil, I checked out the websites and I liked their choices, so I translated the article to English…

Best Hostel of Rio de Janeiro: Leblon Spot

Rio (RJ) Opened in 2010, in Leblon. There are communal bedrooms, but also double bedrooms with private bathrooms. (leblonspot.com; daily from R$ 55)

Best Hostel of São Paulo: Vila Madalena Hostel 

São Paulo (SP) Bunkbeds inspired boxes of fruit, and the walls covered in graffiti done by an american artist.
(vilamadalenahostel.com.br; daily from R$ 40)

Best Hostel of Curitiba: Curitiba Eco Hostel 

Curitiba (PR) Even in the heart of Curitiba, the hostel has woods and a stream on its property.
(curitibaecohostel.com.br; daily from R$ 35)

The Best Hostel of Florianópolis: Barra da Lagoa

 

Florianópolis (SC) Very comfortable, it’s a place to get to know the gringos who fill up the beaches of Floripa.
(floripahostel.com.br; daily from R$ 50)

Best Hostel of Natal: Lua Cheia 

Natal (RN) Famous among hostel-goers, it is structured and decorated like a medieval castle. The bar is one of the best in Ponta Negra. (luacheia.com.br; daily from R$ 44)

Via Viagem…

World Cup 2014 / 2016 Olympic Games News: Cable Cars Over Rio

So, here are two articles on Rio’s newest transportation solution, the sky ride, geared towards preparation for the 2014 world cup and 2016 olympic games, both hosted in Rio de Janeiro. My opinion was that this was an interesting and probably very intelligent strategy to circumvent the obvious issues of safety when hosting an infiltration of foreign tourists in a city that can at times appear to be a civil war zone. Let’s just hope those gondolas are bulletproof….

Rio de Janeiro’s Transit Solution: Cable Cars Over the Favelas

Via Wired

The slums of Rio de Janeiro—the infamous favelas—pile onto and up and over the city’s iconic steep hillsides. Simply getting from point A to point B requires a sub-alphabet of zigzaggery up stairs, over switchbacks, and through alleyways that can be just a few feet wide. There’s nowhere for public transit to go. Nowhere, that is, but up.

That’s the direction for the newest transportation system in Rio, slated to open in March: a six-station gondola line running above a collection of favelas known as the Complexo do Alemão. The government says that 152 gondolas will carry 30,000 people a day along a 2.1-mile route over the neighborhood, transforming the hour-and-a-half trudge to a nearby commuter rail station into a 16-minute sky ride.

Spending $74 million for this kind of imagineering may sound a little wacky, but in recent years Medellín and Caracas have also built gondolas for underserved areas. Jorge Mario Jáuregui, the architect behind Rio’s system, says the project has real and symbolic value—”real because the connection has been built, and symbolic because it makes the informal city part of the formal city.” Still, in the favelas—where there’s no running water or sewers and a street battle between police and drug gangs killed dozens last year—perhaps flying cable cars shouldn’t be a top priority.

Then again, sanitation and safety might not be the problems that Rio officials want to solve. With the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics coming to town, making the favelas look like a theme park could convey just the right impression.

Brazil Brings Carny-Grade Transit to 2016 Olympics

Via Gas 2.0

Rio De Janeiro is set to host the 2016 Olympic Games, and – like many Olympic host cities – is working hard to finish a number of civic construction projects in a bid to put its best foot forward when it meets the international crowds that always follow the Games. Many of those projects will be all-new architectural triumphs plastered with Petrobras logos, but at least one project will be immediately familiar to fair-going Americans the instant they see it: the sky ride!

The first of these “permanent” electric cable-car transit systems was inaugurated into service last Thursday by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and members of the project’s design team from Alemao PAC, who hope to provide the residents on the outskirts of the city with easy transit to the games’ stadiums and touristy-infrastructure, making it easier for members of the outlying communities (usually lower-income neighborhoods) to have access to the new job opportunities the Games are expected to bring to Rio. This line will service the 120,000 residents of Alemao with 152 composite-bodied cabin cars, each capable of transporting ten people between six stations for a combined rate of over three thousand passengers per hour.

Let’s face it: commuting sucks, but sky-rides are super-awesome (as is any transit system that’s clean, efficient, and relatively immune to the sort of traffic jams caused by minor accidents and throngs of rubber-necking busy-bodies jabbering away on cell phones about how bad the traffic is we seem to get in the US), and if it seems like I’m making snarky comments about this being “carny-grade” technology, keep in mind that I (like many Americans) have nothing but great memories surrounding the county fairs and theme parks I’ve seen these in. Besides that, the Brazilians do have a certain sense of style that somehow eluded the traveling carnivals of North America. Just one look…

…and I think you’ll agree that the Brazilian government spared no expense to make this one sky-ride that’s worth all four tickets…..

Read More Via Gas 2.0

Common Mistakes: Paulista Vs. Paulistano

What is the difference between a “Paulista” and a “Paulistano”?

-A Paulista is a native or inhabitant of the state of São Paulo.

-A Paulistano is a native or inhabitant of the city of São Paulo.

Brazilian Landmarks: MASP: Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo Museum of Art)

MASP stands for Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo Museum of Art) and it is  located on 1578 Paulista Ave. in São Paulo. It is undoubtedly one of the trademarks of the city. It is a 1968 concrete and glass structure designed by architect Lina Bo Bardi.

The building’s most distinctive feature is the 243 ft (74 meters) freestanding space between two lateral beams that support the concrete “box”, as if it were hanging in the air. It is a remarkable symbol of modern Brazilian architecture. The museum is a non-profit institution founded in 1947 by media mogul Assis Chateaubriand and Pietro Maria Bardi, an Italian native who was the museum’s curator for 45 years.

MASP houses more than 8,000 pieces of Western, Brazilian, African and Asian art, among other works of art. It also has one of the largest art libraries in Brazil.

Visiting hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is R$15.00 except on Tuesdays when admission is free. Admission is also free for children under 10 and senior citizens over 60. For more information, you can check their website at www.masp.art.br. Enjoy!

*Sources: http://www.theportugueseblog.com

Brazilian Landmarks: Cristo Redentor – Christ the Redeemer

Cristo Redentor – Christ the Redeemer

"the city of god" truly exemplifies the beauty that god has created on earth

“E a cidade que tem braços abertos (It’s the city that has open arms)
Num cartão postal (On a post card)
Com os punhos fechados na vida real (With clenched fists in real life)
Lhe nega oportunidades (It denies opportunities)
Mostra a face dura do mal” (It shows the true face of evil)

Lyrics from the song Alagados, by Os Paralamas do Sucesso

Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) is arguably the most distinctive symbol of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil abroad. It is a statue of Jesus Christ that is 130 ft tall (39.6 meters) and 98 ft (30 meters) wide. It is located at the peak of the 2,300-foot (700 meters) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. It is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone. It was constructed between 1922 and 1931. Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa designed the statue and French sculptor Paul Landowski sculpted it. In 2007, it was named one the New Seven Wonders of the World.

More on the statue can be found at Christ the Redeemer (in English) and Cristo Redentor (in Portuguese).

*Sources: http://www.theportugueseblog.com