We Bought The Farm

Some Old News

Way back when, I used to blog Brazil. One of the sensations in the expat community was the shocking murder of a couple of Americans, Zera and Michelle Staheli, who were fairly new arrivals working for Shell. The Stahelis were devout Mormons and their straight-laced lifestyle fed the hunger for clues in the long months that the case was being investigated.

Speculation at the time was that this may have been a crime of passion or that it might have been a contract hit based on business dealings gone wrong. It was even thought that some hangover from some of Staheli's former business in the FSU might have tracked him down to Brazil, where a hit might be easier.

But after several months, attention focused on the family's caseiro, or house man. The authorities scheduled a press conference where the caseiro, Jossiel Conceição dos Santos, confessed to the crime. Dos Santos revealed information that only the killer or an accomplice could have known. He was said to be upset at having been called the equivalent of "nigger", although it seemed unlikely that the Stahelis would have said any such thing in Portuguese.

And then he changed his story. He claimed he was paid for the hit by some unknown men from the favelas. He claimed he only helped them over the fence. His confession was considered insecure. He claimed it was extracted by toture.

I got to wondering what had become of the case, and it looks like indeed they got their man. Dos Santos was convicted in March to 25 years in prison for the double murder. Details (in Portuguese).

O que é isso?

I gave this new Yahoo service Launchcast a spin the other day. I listened to their "World Music" channel, which mysteriously has disappeared from my options.

Now I'm presented with the amazing, fee-for-music "Brazilian" channel. I love this...featuring artists such as Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Ian Pooley and Bebel Gilberto.

While I can understand why you might include each of the non-Brazilians above on the list, I can't imagine why you would want to pay $35.99 a year to listen to this as a premium channel.

< scratches head, returns to iTunes >

O Globo, where art thou?

Since we left Brazil, my on-line subscription to O Globo has continued even though I haven't paid for it. Alas, no more, it seems. They've found me out.

Actually, I reckon my landlady might have been responsible for this continued link to the heart of Brazil's media. The bill was in her name, and I think she must have taken the easy course of not cancelling the services on our apartment. I don't think she'd have the first clue of how to change my password, which was, well, 1234.

But in the past few days my e-mail has gone dead and my daily news bulletins have lost all of their customised subscribers-only content.

It would have been cheap enough to continue this (about $10 per month) if I were so inclined, but it's not to be. Back to the cheap seats.

Brazil in London

We've been back in England for three weeks now, and I finally made my first trip up to "central" London. Yesterday's journey was in search of things Brazilian in London.

I had a good starting point in Leros magazine, dedicated to all things Brazilian in England. I knew about Leros from before our move, as it was how I found our first Portuguese teacher. A quick look at the Leros classifieds pointed me to a number of shops and restaurants that offer at least a taste of Brazil.

I first visited the Mercearia Brasil at Kensal Green. A small shop kitted out exclusively in Brazilian goods - not your typical ethnic grocery with lots of mainstream stuff. I bought some palmito, some pão de queijo and some guaraná - all favourites of my daughter. Needless to say, the prices here are higher - much higher - than they are in Brazil.

After that, I went down to Tottenham Court Road to Brazil by Kilo restaurant. They have a small selection of Brazilian products for sale, a cafe on the ground floor and upstairs a "kilo" restaurant.

And then over to Cafe Brazil, a Brazilian pizzeria in Fulham Broadway. We had some drinks and snacks. Lesley had her first caipirinha since Rio.

Leros gave me a pretty good start on things. Since then, I've found a few other points of call:

• São Paulo Imports

• BrasiLONDON

• Brazil.net magazine.
  

Looks like we won't be wanting for those Brazilian delicacies.

What can you say when a love affair is over?

After two years, nearly to the day, it’s time to say goodbye to Brazil. We’re leaving tonight, just ahead of the expiration of our visas tomorrow.

I have complicated emotions about this departure. We’re leaving behind a country I’ve loved and hated with equal measure; a country rich in natural beauty and wonderfully warm people, yet overflowing with poverty, corruption and bureaucracy. A place we’ve lived, but a place we’ve never truly felt was home.

We had the benefit of living in two separate situations: a suburban house in quiet Curitiba (a city of 1.6 million that I’d never heard of before), and right in the thick of things in a penthouse in Rio (beach to one side, Corcovado out the other). We’ve travelled throughout Brazil (although there’s still plenty more to see) and through South America (ditto!).

We’ve stood in lines that make you wonder if it’s a national pastime. We’ve learned to deal stoically with the bureaucracy (I had to notarise 62 separate documents to arrange our departure shipments). We’ve had the press put on us to pay a propina. I’ve come to appreciate the expression “Brazil grows at night,” because it does somehow grow in spite of it all.

We’ve learned the language (pretty well, I might add). We’ve loved the culture – the sport, carnaval and especially the music. We’ve got the best Brazilian souvenir on offer – our little boy, carioca da gema, citizen of Brazil and native of the wonderful city.

We’re returning home to a house as small as our cramped apartment, a city where the cost of living is probably five times as great as it is here, to a pay cut of about 50% by the time you take out all of the bonuses and allowances, not to mention a tenant paying our mortgage.

We had the option of extending another year, and yet we’ve chosen to go.

If that sounds a bit mad, well, you’re not alone in thinking that. I can’t help but thinking I might kick myself for saying this, but at base, the decision came down to opportunity.

Going to Brazil was a great opportunity. I’ve always dreamed of it, and it’s rare to get the kind of opportunity we had – not just to visit, but to live, and not just for one year in the sticks, but to follow on with a year in the heart of it all. It was good financially. It was good for me professionally, too – new to my company, it was a chance to really learn the ropes and make a valuable contribution. On the family front, it allowed Lesley to be a stay-at-home mother and raise our daughter, who was born just before we moved, and then to have our second child and not be worried about making career decisions. It allowed us to immerse our daughter in a culture and language very different to the one she will grow up with in England.

But as time passed, I also started to realise that in taking this kind of opportunity, I was denying myself (and my family) other ones. The chance to be close to our parents (my father has still not met either of our kids), the chance to live in our own home, and then to sell it and move on (we need to live in it for two years before we sell), and the chance, or perhaps better, the freedom, to look at job opportunities (life opportunities?) holistically. I’ve had to look away even from internal positions, knowing that geography and my contract would prohibit me from putting myself forward. And honestly, I found the work frustrating enough at times that I thought it really distasteful to be locked into it for another full year.

So, in the end, we opted not to stay on. We’ll have saudades for Brazil, and maybe someday we’ll return (as parents of a Brazilian child, we have that right). A bittersweet mixture of regret and optimism.

Adeus, Brasil…it really is like the end of a love affair.

What the heck was that?

A storm out of season, out of place. Dubbed Catarina for its landfall in the state of Santa Catarina, but totally unexpected. The powerful storm that struck Brazil's south this week has everyone wondering: what to call it? It looks like a hurricane, but it's not in hurricane territory, or in season. Ciclone? Tufão? Furacão? Temporal?

Whatever the name, when heavy weather hits Brazil, the people suffer. Houses are not built for high winds and torrential rains. Land slips, mud slides. Entire houses blow away. Those with poor shelter die.

Ship to shore

I took this picture from our apartment this past Sunday. This morning, the story broke. The ship's captain was buzzing the shoreline far closer than international norms reportedly allow. He may be in a bit of hot water after this stunt.

Capitania investiga rota de transatlântico
Marcelo Dutra
[source: Globo Online]

A Capitania dos Portos está investigando se o transatlântico de bandeira americana Island Escape infringiu as normas de segurança ao se aproximar da orla da cidade no último domingo. O navio, que seguia para Santos (SP) com cerca de 1.500 turistas a bordo, chegou tão perto da Praia de Ipanema a ponto de assustar banhistas e pescadores.

Segundo mergulhadores que estavam na praia, a embarcação teria passado sobre o emissário submarino de Ipanema e sobre a Laje Santo Antônio, uma formação rochosa a apenas cem metros da praia.

— Nunca vi nada igual. O transatlântico veio direto para cima da praia — contou o biólogo marinho Ricardo Gomes, que mergulhava na hora.

O comandante do Island Escape, o irlandês John Macknew, já foi convocado para prestar esclarecimentos à Capitania e informar a rota feita naquele dia. Pelas leis náuticas, o transatlântico de 40 mil toneladas não poderia navegar a menos de 200 metros da linha da praia, sob risco de provocar um acidente ou encalhar na areia.

A rota da embarcação chamou a atenção até mesmo do chefe do Estado-Maior do 1 Distrito Naval, comandante Nelson Garrone, que estava visitando a Fortaleza Santa Cruz, em Niterói.

— Não posso garantir que o barco estivesse irregular, mas tanto eu como o almirante Saraiva Ribeiro, comandante do 1 Distrito Naval, que estava em outro ponto da baía, ficamos surpresos com a movimentação da embarcação e pedimos à Capitania que averiguasse — disse Garrone.

O oficial contou que viu quando o Island Escape passou embaixo do Pão de Açúcar na entrada da baía, tomando a direção de Copacabana pela ponta do Leme, uma rota incomum para uma embarcação daquele tamanho.

— O Queen Mary, que é o maior transatlântico do mundo, tem dez metros de calado. Imagino que o Island Escape tenha cerca de oito. A profundidade ali é inferior a dez metros — explicou.

Caso se confirme a irregularidade, a punição inclui multas ou até a suspensão da habilitação do comandante do transatlântico.

Fla-Flu

While many of my countrymen spent Sunday watching the titillation and poor-taste ad-fest that surrounded this year's Super Bowl, I was out watching Rio's traditional football rivals, Flamengo and Fluminense, play a thriller of a Fla-Flu at the Maracanã. The match was a real back-and-forth, with seven goals scored and the lead changing several times.

I saw no signs of ugliness, and in fact really enjoyed the behaviour of the mixed supporters in my section as their enthusiasm followed the changes in the action. With Flu up 3-1, one guy had just finished his homenagem to the Flusão, including having his tiny son kiss a t-shirt with the team's colours when the comeback began. By match's end, the 'mengo supporters were kissing them both on the head in a lovely mock-sympathetic riposte to the earlier outburst. Smiles all around.

Flamengo's three unanswered final goals and a late red card totally broke the Fluminense stride and left 'mengo up 4-3 at the finish and their supporters the happier among the nearly 60,000 at the stadium following a great evening's entertainment. Flamengo grabbed the bragging rights and the post-match city was abuzz with horns, shouts and fireworks into the wee hours.

Sunday on the beach with George

One of my favourite things about Rio is the Sunday passeio on the beach in Ipanema and Leblon. They close the road on the side closer to the water and everyone comes out for a stroll.

Página 16

I thought that page 16 in today's O Globo was a fine slice of daily life here in Rio de Janeiro. Every article moved me in some way.

The main article was about the posting of signs warning of possible assaults on a major footpath from Rio's Zona Sul to the top of Corcovado, site of the world-famous statue of Christ the Redeemer. Last year a German tourist was murdered on the trail.

The article speaks of the tug-of-war between government bureaus that make it impossible to police the trail, and laments the imposition of such a "strange tactic against crime". A small opinion piece gets it just about right:

Vá ao shopping!

No início da trilha que leva do Parque Lage ao Corcovado, uma placa de iniciativa oficial informa, "Perigo de assalto na trilha."

É um aviso lacônico e direto, coma manda a boa técnica.

Mas poderia, em nome da honestidade, ser verboso e contar a história toda: "Prezado visitante: Está à sua frente uma excursão maravilhosa, que pode levá-lo - cortando este parque, administrado pelo Governo federal - até o pé do monumento ao Cristo Redentor. Um passeio imperdível. Aconselhamos que o amigo o perca: infelizmente, o Poder Público não tem meios ou coragem de impedir a ação de assaltantes ao longo da trilha. Desista se tem amor à vida. Vá a um shopping!"

Go shopping!

At the beginning of the trail that rises from Parque Lage to Corcovado, an officially-posted sign advises: "Danger of assault on the trail."

It's brief and to the point, as a good technician would order.

But maybe, in the name of honesty, it should be a little wordier and tell the whole story: "Dear visitor: ahead of you is a wonderful excursion, that will take you - cutting through this park, administered by the federal government - to the foot of the monument of Christ the Redeemer. An unforgettable journey. We kindly advise you to give it a miss: unfortunately, the public authorities don't have the means or the courage to stop the actions of criminals along the trail. Stop if you love life. Go to the mall!"

It may seem that Rio's police have better things to do than to police a forest trail, but that couldn't be farther from the truth - Rio takes very seriously its image in the eyes of tourists. For instance, over 1000 new police have been appointed to keep the beaches safer during the summer months. No doubt O Globo intends to use its bully pulpit to shame the authorities into some kind of redress. I've seen them doing similar many times in recent weeks.

Another article dealt with a homeless man's response to his hunger: he entered a local park and killed a white peacock for food. Onlookers tried to stop the man, but he managed to kill the beautiful bird that had lived in the park for some 14 years. The man tried to flee with the bird, but wound up getting stuck on a tall iron fence. He had to be rescued and treated for his injuries. If he is convicted, he could receive up to two years in prison. The peacock was the only white peacock in the park, although there are three other coloured ones.

The third and fourth articles were slightly more positive: Brazil's Projeto Tamar, which has as its goal the preservation and increase of sea turtles (TArtarugas MARitimas), will be releasing up to 30,000 new hatchlings in the coming weeks from its Rio-state base in Campos. While they estimate that only a few of these filhotes will survive to adulthood, at least they have a chance for having been spared poachers, pollution and the light and noise of beach-goers. Sea turtles return to the beach where they were born to reproduce. By concentrating the effort in protected areas, Projeto Tamar has managed to release more than 2 million baby turtles into the sea in the past 25 years. A remarkable achievement.

Finally, a pod of killer whales has been spotted frolicking off the coast of Rio - a sure sign that summer is upon is. They are apparently quite playful, going around in circles, leaping from the water, as if they cherish the limelight. My daughter loves whales, so I'd love to get out and do some whale-spotting, time permitting. You can see them from the shoreline on Avenida Niemeyer between Leblon and Barra when they're in town.

Such a Perfect Day

Sometimes you just have 'em. I could see this one building up during the past week.

We've had visitors for the past six weeks. I love having visitors and am thrilled that more people are getting the opportunity to experience Rio. But at the same time, it was nice to have some family time, and then, on Sunday, to have essentially a day to myself.

Sunday morning, wake up at the (relatively) late time of 7:30 [there's no such thing as sleeping in with young kids], get dressed and out the door by 8:30. The weather was perfect - blue sky and lots of sun. I rode my bicycle to mass in Botafogo this morning along the lagoa, Rio's beautiful "lake", and then after mass I finished my circuit of the lagoa, probably about 7 miles in total (it was hot and I was practically melting out there).

Then, home, a shower and out for a stroll along the seaside in Ipanema with wife and daughter and the rest of Rio on their Sunday passeio. We walked up to the point at Arpoador, then stopped for lunch at a seaside restaurant. I had filet mignon and chips and a couple of beers.

Then, home, a change of clothes and off to a football double-bill for the last weekend of the football season. First, Fluminense-Juventude at the Maracana, in a match that mattered (for Flu). They were spared relegation by winning 1-0. Then on to Sao Januario for Vasco vs Santos in a match that didn't much matter but was fun to watch and finished in a 1-1 draw.

Then back to Ipanema, a couple of pints in the Irish Pub and then home and to bed, tired and happy, by 10:30.

Dia de Folga

Yesterday was the first time in my 15-year career where industrial action has kept me from reporting to work. So, we made good use of a day away to visit the spectacular Sitio Burle Marx. Highly recommended!

Burle Marx was a modernist landscape architect and artist, active through much of the 20th century. The Sitio was his home and workshop...he collected many tropical plants from around the world, often raising them at the Sitio for inclusion on later projects.

He gave the Sitio to the government in the mid-1980s, but continued to live there until his death in 1994. Today there are 25 full-time gardeners working to keep up the site and the nurseries, which have continued to expand since Burle Marx's day (Burle Marx reportedly had 50 full-time gardeners, but he had ongoing projects to help pay for them, and presumably he didn't have the same employment overheads that the government does).

After our visit, we carried on down to the beach for a late lunch at Barra de Guaratiba. It's not so far out of Rio, but it feels much smaller and remote. The area is one large mangrove and still supports an active fishing community (so, naturally, we had some fish with our meal). The drive back up to Rio along the deserted beaches(it was a weekday evening, and the weather was so-so) provided some spectacular scenery, with the sun dodging the clouds and mist, until we were swallowed up by the construction and traffic ugliness that is Barra de Tijuca.

Ouro Preto

I took the family up to Minas Gerais state this weekend, principally to visit the historic city of Ouro Preto, which has been on my agenda since before we came out to Brazil. We contemplated driving up - it's only about 400km from Rio - but a friend had driven it the weekend before and said it took about 7 hours, so we decided to fly.

First, kudos to Gol airlines. Low cost, close in airports, and better service than Europe's Easyjet", although clearly modeled on them.

Ouro Preto is the former capital of Minas state, and it is famous for its colonial architecture, particularly its churches. It's a mining town, and in its day was famous for the richness of its gold ore [Ouro Preto means 'black gold', which to me naturally brings back to a story 'bout a man named Jed, but evidently reflects the fact that the gold is mixed with palladium]. Our driver told us that, even today, when they are doing street works, they sometimes post guards to make sure that no one takes away the dirt from under the town, which cannot be mined any longer. This may just be an urban myth.

Old Ouro Preto is under a preservation order that makes the centre of town a very pleasant place to walk around (although its hills and cobbles make it something of a challenge for those of us pushing kidlets in a pushchair).

If I have one regret (and word of warning for future visitors), it's that nearly the whole place closes on Monday. We allowed ourselves two days - Sunday and Monday - to see it, and so had to be content with visiting only two of the famous churches (Sao Francisco de Assis and Nossa Sra de Pilar) and two museums - one of oratorios, and one of mining and industry. But it must be said that the Sunday lunch was a factor in our sightseeing - afterward, you
just don't want to move! We were happy enough to spend a rainy Monday browsing through the shops and taking a coffee and conhaque at the exceptionally cozy Cafe Geraes.

We also spent an enjoyable day in Belo Horizonte. Founded in the late 1890s, it is about as opposite to Ouro Preto as you can get, and still, in a way, there is a continuity, since it was founded as the successor capital to Ouro Preto. It's a comfortable, planned city with lots of parkland - we spent hours roaming the streets. We also made room for another gut-busting mineira lunch, this time at the Dona Lucinha restaurant in Belo.

We closed out the day with a pizza and a drink with one of my favourite bloggers, Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons, and his wife Mercia. Randy is the first blogger I've met IRL, and it was a particular pleasure to get some of his back-story and impressions on Brazil. I was very happy we could time our visit to coincide with their trip to Belo.

A final remark about our stop (on the way to the airport) at the sadly decaying church of Sao Francisco de Assis at Pampulha in Belo. The church, only about 55 years old, is considered a masterwork of Modernism, with architecture by Oscar Niemeyer, landscaping by Roberto Burle Marx and paintings by Candido Portinari, possibly the three most influential Brazilian artists of the 20th century. The inside of the church is pristine, but the outside is suffering from exposure, as this large photo shows quite well.

Ilha do Mel

Made the short trip out to Ilha do Mel this weekend. The island is located just off the Parana coast, less than two hours' journey from home. We've been here almost a year and this was our first trip to the island - wishes we hadn't waited so long, although no regrets for everything else that we've crammed in instead.

The island is a park. All motor vehicles are prohibited, which gives it a wonderful quiet. We stayed at a fairly secluded pousada on Fortaleza beach. You are remote enough (4km from what passes for town) that the pousada meets all of your needs. We had some walking on wide-open beaches, made a climb to the lighthouse and had time for lunch at a little bar named after the vultures on the island.

Violence in Rio

Randinho at Beautiful Horizons links an article in the Miami Herald reporting on the recent surge in gang-related violence in Rio de Janeiro. As we are looking to move there in a couple of months, it makes for very chilling (and, from my own understanding of the local news, very accurate) reading.

The drug gangs control (and effectively 'police') large parts of the favelas - the poorest areas of provisional shanty housing that cling to Rio's hillsides. The status quo is that they police, and the police steer clear. However, when provoked, their ferocity overwhelms the capabilites of the poorly-paid, unmotivated and sometimes corrupt police force. And now, enter the provocation.

Lately the police have been increasing their diligence (the promises of the politicians at the last election). The drug gangs have moved down from the favelas to take on the police on their own turf - the streets, highways and public places of the more established city. The police are outgunned and unable to cope with the resort to "terrorist tactics".

What to do? The police admit that they can't win the fight themselves. My own view is that the relationships on the ground are too incestuous. Breaking down the existing status quo is probably responsible for a large measure of the violent spillover, but this work, once started, needs to be carried through to a new point of stability - one where, preferably, the police will have the upper hand, and the gangs will recede further back than the previous status quo.

Brazilians are leery of the return of the military to their streets - the memory of decades of dictatorship is too fresh - but soldiers have been used in recent months to keep the peace, without any threat to the democracy of the state. I suppose that the Lula government has enough goodwill to take extraordinary measures to solve this problem. But the military alone cannot solve this problem either. The question is, what will it take

Brazil's Big Left Turn

New Year's Day saw the inauguration of Luis In?cio Lula da Silva, the new president of Brazil. This is big news for Brazil - its first left-leaning president in decades; a working class guy (nicknamed by some "the bearded frog") who didn't even finish high school and doesn't have a firm handle on Portuguese grammar (it's tough!), carried by the will of the millions to the highest office in the land. It's a moment of celebration for Brazil, a country that claims to be the country of the 21st century. A country full of promise, a country full of poverty and broken dreams. A country with the pride of their fifth World Cup victory still in the back of their minds. A country that believes that, given a level playing field, it can be amongst the best in the world.

There have been two really fine articles on Brazil in recent weeks: one in the 5 December 2002 New York Review of Books (electronic subscription required - I have, so I am cookied), and another in the 12 December 2002 London Review of Books (print subscription required to read entire article - I have, so same as above).

The NYR article, by Kenneth Maxwell, deals brilliantly with Lula's reception by Washington. The letter he cites from Henry Hyde really must make you question the people we Americans elect to power.

...Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, had just written to President Bush, warning him that the president-elect of Brazil was a dangerous "pro-Castro radical who for electoral purposes had posed as a moderate." Lula, moreover, Chairman Hyde wrote, might well form with Fidel Castro and Comandante Hugo Ch?vez of Venezuela "an axis of evil in the Americas," which could potentially have at its disposal a Brazilian "30-kiloton nuclear bomb" as well as the Brazilian "ballistic missiles" to deliver it.

International Relations, hah! Congressman Hyde must have a bunker in his backyard.

The US has a pretty poor track record with democratically elected governments in Latin America. Having lived in Mexico, Argentina and now Brazil, I honestly don't see where the hysteria comes from - why we can't be better neighbours if we insist on being the hemisphere's hegemon. The US isn't nearly so concerned when a European country moves to the left (France, Italy, UK). And surely having stable democratic governments of any stripe, in this day and age, must be viewed as a positive factor in promoting the US's view of the world as it should be. It was encouraging to see that Bush and Lula reckon they can work together, even as Castro toasts Lula at his ceremonies in Brasilia.

The LRB article, by Perry Anderson, talks about the Brazil that Lula has inherited - the crushing legacy of debt and the failures of the Cardoso administration to make any material progress over eight years despite being wedded to the neoliberal Washington consensus that was supposed to lift all boats. Anderson stresses that Cardoso's mismanagement has collared the new government with an economic burden so strong that they may not be able to reverse existing policies without scaring the horses on the international financial markets.

Anderson is scathing about Cardoso's turn from being a well-respected socialist-leaning academic to being an egotistical president who let the safeguards of the constitution be re-written in order to keep him in power a second term. Horses have been traded, corruption tolerated, and failing policies have been maintained to keep a measure of support from Washington. And Lula has committed to staying this course, at least at first, to avoid default - a course that Mark Weisbrot and Dean Baker, reckon Brazil cannot afford to stay. The numbers, they claim, just don't add up. And if Brazil defaults, the contagion will likely be substantial, since Lula agreed to this course only at gunp^^^^the insistence of the Western financial institutions, which will have egg on their face over their policies if it all goes to pot.

I've travelled a bit around Brazil. It's a country of contrasts. People say, "There are two Brazils." They live side-by-side. The challenge is to bring the two closer together while improving the lot of the poorest. It's a huge challenge, and it's not clear that Lula is up to the task, but in the euphoric aftermath of a big win for Brazil, in the spirit of a new year, with a new direction for the government, most people are willing for now to give him the benefit of the doubt. It remains to be seen how long the honeymoon will last.

Noronha

We are back from our holidays. We spent six days on Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago off the northeast coast of Brazil. It is a wild and little-developed place with spectacular beaches and ocean life. There are so few tourists that you can have one of Brazil's most beautiful beaches to yourself.

After Noronha, we spent three days in Rio, which is probably the most beautiful city in the world, warts and all. A definite highlight was sitting on the curb outside the "Garota de Ipanema" bar, where the song was written, drinking cheap chopp and talking with some folks who lived across the street about how Rio was better than any other city in Brazil until the very small hours of the morning (while my mother-in-law babysat). If sitting in the cafe is a very touristy thing to do, getting a beer to take away and sitting on the street seems very local. Everyone says we should go back for New Year.