Brazil is a country full of contrasts.
You need a lot of time to visit Brazil, South America’s most significant country and the fifth largest in the world. I had decided that I would spend thirty days in Brazil. I suppose that could be fine in a “normal size” country. However, when the country is this vast, and I always try to avoid internal flights, this was impossible in Brazil. In this post, I will give an overview of my trip and then, as usual, introduce all the different places later.
Posts to come from Brazil
- São Paulo
- Brasilia
- Manaus Amazonas
- Fortaleza – Natal – João Pessoa
- Salvador
- Ouro Preto
- Rio de Janeiro
São Paulo
My arrival in Brazil was in Rio de Janeiro, but I wanted to save Rio for last, so when I arrived, I took a flight directly to São Paulo. My E-sim card worked, so it was just a matter of finding my way on buses and underground to reach my accommodation. São Paulo is Brazil’s largest city and financial centre. It is also the largest city in the southern hemisphere. So, you could say it was a big change from arriving directly from little Oslo.
A Brazilian dancer at work recommended that I look up this dance group, SÃO PAULO DANCE COMPANY. What an evening
My Impression of Brazil
Of course, I do not speak Portuguese and must admit I understand nothing. As a tourist, you feel Brazil is a melting pot for several cultures. And I love that feeling. Through my research on Brazil and my reading of novels before going there, I understand there are tensions underneath that I do not understand and that there is a good amount of racism in Brazil. However, if I compare it with North America, which is eight years since I visited the last time, I do not feel the same hostility from different races awards myself. Sometimes, you can feel it from the homeless, but still, even if I was warned how dangerous Brazil is, I felt safer here than in several large cities in the USA.
South America’s most liberated country
The LGBT+ community is evident almost everywhere in Brazil. These stairs were in one of the airports I visited. In all the cities I visited, I could see the rainbow flag and boy+boy and girl+girl holding hands without seeming like anyone was lifting an eyebrow. This fact is very nice to see in a seemingly very Catholic country, where a lot of the biggest bodybuilders and tattooed guys, at least, had one cross tattooed on their body.
Amazonas
I must admit that most of my destinations in Brazil were based around cities, from big Meteropoles to smaller historical Colonial towns. However, I managed to spend a few days in the Jungle in Amazonas, and this was an experience I could not forget. Several have asked me if I visited Las Cataratas del Iguazú, the huge waterfalls. I had to make a choice, and these falls are so far away from everything else I visited, so they have to wait. Even though I probably will not visit Brasil again, the waterfalls are on the borders between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Paraguay is not such a large country, so if I go there, the journey to Las Cataratas del Iguazú will not be so long.
Along the coast
Before I left home, I booked accommodations and flights for the first ten days. I also booked accommodation in Rio for the last five nights but had not booked anything in the time between. This gives you more freedom to choose where to go, listen to recommendations, and blow with the wind. So, when I reached the coast after the Amazonas, I was free to stay or move on; this journey was done by bus. I have to say the bus connections are pretty good in Brazil. Even though some of the journeys can be quite long. My longest ride was for 25 hours.
This was just a very short introduction to my journey through Brazil. My next posts will include more details from all the places I visited. I hope you will read them when they are available.
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