The Amazon is like no place on earth, Rio de Janeiro remains breathtakingly beautiful and the unique Brazilian culture makes any moment in Brazil potentially memorable. As you might tell from the Brazilian flag to the left, yellow and green are Brazil's "national colors" (like red, white and blue for the USA), hence the color choice for this blog.A well-loved song about Rio, “Cidade Maravilhosa,” sings the praises of that city’s “thousand enchantments” and the same can certainly be said about the entire country. As is usually the case, the good things in life are not always easily within reach, and Brazil is no exception, considering:
- Brazil on the other side of the globe, so the flight from the U.S. east coast is appx. 9 hours in duration. It's longer with connections.
- The Brazilian equivalent of the State Department has a policy of “reciprocity,” so they subject American tourists to the same obstacles the USA places in the way of Brazilian tourists coming to the USA. These include $130 visa application fees, arcane forms to fill out, and illogical rules and processes that sometimes contradict each other. Somehow it's not comforting to know that they do the same for tourists from any country that has visa processes. Nonetheless, we were undeterred and emerged at the end of the obstacle course with our Brazilian visas.
- In order to travel to the jungle, we became human pin cushions with vaccinations for typhoid, yellow fever, several varieties of hepatitis and seemingly endless other possible ills. Malaria medicine is a pill that you need to take once daily for two days before the trip, during the entire time in the endemic area, and also for seven days following the trip. Fortunately, we got most of our vaccinations for free from our local health department. [note: none of these vaccinations are needed for many areas of Brazil, check the CDC's Traveler's Health Site before traveling].
- Since most of Brazil has the opposite seasons as the USA, we were in Rio & São Paulo during their winter. The Amazon is equatorial, so there is no winter (only a wet and a dry season). While we timed our trip to give us the best weather prospects, the seasons made it hard to pack. Somehow we managed.
On this trip, our first encounter with Brazilian culture happened before we left the USA at Washington-Dulles airport as we waited in the gate area for our flight. Slowly the seats filled with people that were mostly Brazilian, chatting excitedly in Portuguese. Several of our fellow passengers were highly processed moms incongruously dressed in stiletto-heeled boots and tight spandex. These same ladies were not about to let the boisterous behavior of their children interrupt their phone conversations as the kids ran around the gate area yelling while their dads smiled indulgently at them. My daughter’s raised eyebrows spoke volumes – I told her the fun was just beginning.
At boarding time, the United Airlines agents made futile announcements (in English only) for an orderly boarding process by seating group. Even though most Brazilians that can afford to travel abroad speak English quite well, it does not seem to matter at boarding time for a flight. The scene was anything but orderly, which frustrated the gate agents and greatly amused my daughter, Lilly, because I accurately predicted the scene that unfolded, explaining simply that Brazilians don’t usually like to follow rules (this was Exhibit A on this topic – more to follow later in the trip).
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