Brazil: Luckily, Not What I Imagined

Recently back from Brazil, my friends and family ask that almost irritating question, " Well, how was your trip to Brazil?" It's only irritating because I can hear the envy and sense the expectation that I will break into a samba and exclaim in Portuguese, "Unforgettable! Perfect! Everything I imagined it would be!"
Instead, I try to pick the honest and most accurate superlative. "It was so warm!" Which was definitely true. I thought it would be a dry heat and it was most certainly not, because as I was told repeatedly, it was their summer. I forgot what that meant. Or maybe I just associate summer with sun and leave it at that.

I traveled with a few friends of mine. One who had been there a week before we arrived, and the other who traveled with me from Seattle. As we prepared for our trip, we studied the Rosetta Stone language guides, which I recommend. While they don't really teach travel phrases, they do help with pronunciation. I only read a few things that friends had given me about how big Brazil was, that the largest population of Japanese, outside of Japan, is there, and how Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro are different.

I have traveled all of my life, so new countries provide the right amount of excitement, amazement, apprehension, and mystery. We arrived in Rio after an uneventful, but extremely long flight from Seattle via Houston. Luckily, our friends picked us up from the airport, which was really great because, it was not true that Spanish will work in communicating with Brazilians. In fact, even if they do understand, they won't reply in Spanish. The similarities are obvious, but I think it would have been easier if I read the conversations in a book. Listening to people, with their regional accents and slang, challenged any knowledge I might have had.

After we got in, dropped our bags, stripped down to the least amount of clothes we could get away with, we headed for the beach. It was a holiday (and it seemed that Brazil found ample reasons for a holiday) and the beach was PACKED. I don't often spend time at the beach, but it felt like half the country was there. There were bodies of all ages, all sizes, all shades. Of course we were some of the lightest shades, but that wasn't really an issue. We just needed sunglasses and more sunscreen.

I remember being told by several folks that I should quickly get comfortable with my body because all the beaches were nude beaches. This is completely untrue and in fact, many Brazilians were upset that we even came with these stereotypes. No one was topless or nude. Except for the occasional small child. What I did find interesting was the thong bathing suits. Nothing really risqué, it was just easy to see people's bottoms. I was told emphatically that one piece bathing suits were a no-no, and I saw grannies in bikinis. After about 30 minutes of staring, nothing was shocking and I went back to reading my book and trying to keep the sun at bay.

One thing I find interesting is that most other cultures have no problem telling you what they think. It's not seen as rude or outspoken, it just is. I find it refreshing when it's not heartbreaking and I hope to encourage my own kids to speak their mind. I think I have just become so used to not telling people what I think that I am shocked when I hear another do so. I'm also envious.

In tandem with the refreshing method of communication, there is this unmistakable warmth. Laughter, humor, and general warm regard is natural for Brazilians. I never felt that anyone wanted to harm, take advantage, or slight us. We were just regular people. Even though our skin was bright red from poor judgment regarding the sun, we were no big deal. In the past I have had some difficulty getting used to being gawked at for being blond (and/or female), but no one made a peep. It was nice to relax into my femininity and just be myself, rather than being self-conscious at every turn about "asking" for too much attention.

Onto the food...Brazilians like to eat. You'd never know from looking at them since futbol (soccer) is quite popular, as is dancing, walking, and generally staying in shape. They like to drink a lot of coffee. There are bakeries and little coffee shops everywhere. The bakeries are filled with delicious pastries, sweet and savory, and I couldn't keep myself away. The only problem was that I was not as in shape as a typical Brazilian! Although, that didn't matter either. Women radiated beauty no matter what size they were. If I wasn't full enough from the day's meals, there was always the buffet dinner to help out. Churrascarias are buffet meat-a-thons. I was told that most churrascarias have excellent salad bars (which I didn't believe) but along with great salad, they offer more meat options than a butcher shop. The salad bars were amazing, no matter where we went, and I had my fill. My friends enjoyed the constant meat hawking and they probably ate more meat in a week than they had all year previously! The servers walk around the restaurant with skewers of meat and you have a dial on your table that basically says "Yes, more meat" or "No, still chewing the last bite." I think I said "No, obrigada (thank you)" about 50 times at one meal. Service is HUGE in Brazil. There is always at least three people who have their eye on you to make sure all your needs are met. And gratuity is included in the bill most of the time, but it's about 10%. So it can be a pretty inexpensive meal, especially for buffet.

A special Brazilian dish, feijoada, is only served on Wednesday and Saturday (most places) and although I did not try it, I think I would have had one bite and left it alone. A friend of mine wasn't able to eat anything after that (if you know what I mean!) for many days and any food that has digestive complications, I try to avoid. For more details on this interesting dish, go here. A favorite Brazilian drink is the caipirinha, which is made with sugar cane alcohol (VERY STRONG), lime juice and sugar. Bring your toothbrush and a designated driver! We also tried pao de queijo. These were described, prior to our arrival, as delicious cheese breads, but I beg to differ. More accurately, this was bread balls, injected with blobs of cheese. Most times they leave a strange coating in your mouth and if you don't eat them hot, they taste awful. If I never see another one, it'll be too soon! But by all means, you should try one, just to see.

I will say, as a vegetarian, Brazil is a tough place to eat. Unless you feel completely comfortable communicating in Portuguese, it is hard to explain "no meat." While beef might be excluded from your dish, pork may be sitting there waiting for your first bite. I order what I thought was "just beans" only to be served "just beans with pork." Since seafood is also huge in Brazil, almost everything has some sort of seafood with it and I felt silly just ordering noodles. There are a few vegetarian restaurants in Rio and many more in Sao Paulo, but you have to find them. There are many sushi restaurants as well, but it doesn't seem to be easy to order sushi with no fish (go figure!).

I always appreciate the concept of siesta in other countries (probably all others, except the US). Napping is not seen as idle or a waste of time. It is seen as necessary so that a 9pm dinner doesn't come with yawns and droopy eyes. Jet lag demanded that we nap, but no one thought we were lazy Americans, which I really appreciated. Sometimes it's hard to learn all the new things about a place and the body needs some rest. Going to the beach was a common pastime as well, and general calm feelings, no matter what situation you're in, are felt by everyone. Even the crazy, bumper to bumper traffic was normalized. Not an ounce of road rage and I can verify that there were far more cars than in New York City! Nobody wants to turn your table over. You can sit for hours without the hint of pressure to move along. I miss that at home sometimes. I am amazed when I spend more than 20 minutes eating outside of my own home. You have to ask for the check even after an hour and no one hovers over you to take your credit card away immediately. I really enjoyed that.

Eventually we left Rio for Sao Paulo. We were warned about the size of Sao Paulo, but you have to see it to believe it. As our plane descended, all we could see for miles and miles was cityscape. There was no confined cluster of buildings that I could identify as "downtown" and I wondered how so many people could live so close. Most of those people are very poor and their housing is a "build as you can afford" type, clustering in favelas. This isn't the most efficient way to live but most people have no choice. There is a rich subculture in favelas but it's not always safe. Most inhabitants are living there illegally. We didn't go to one, but as awful as it sounds, there are tours. They are mainly to show the awful conditions to more privileged folks, but I wouldn't want my home on display like that.

In Sao Paulo our trip kind of peters out because we spend most of our days couped up in a business hotel. The air quality is really bad, inducing sinus infections and coughing. Sometimes there was an okay sunset, but I have to admit, it wasn't worth the haze. We didn't travel around much because cabs were often expensive since there was always traffic and buses were crowded at all times of the day. We spent most of our time in a shopping mall because it was close to our hotel. My husband had been working in Sao Paulo for the past three weeks so we just relaxed, swam in the pool, and waited until he was done.

Then we traveled to Sao Sebastao, much farther away, but on the coast and quite beautiful. On our way to the coast we encountered one of God's more impressive accomplishments. What might have been a normal, daily occurrence for Brazilians, had me begging for mercy. We stopped to get some gas and within two minutes, my friend and I were hiding out in a bathroom, while buckets of rain pelted the door. In a hasty decision to run to our significant others, in case this was the last time we saw them, we scurried about 50 feet to the tent-like restaurant, soaking ourselves to the bone. We ran in to a large room with about 30 other people to wait out the storm. Apparently, this was nothing out of the ordinary, and as I caught my breath and embraced my husband, six people with rubber boots, three foot long squeegees, and expressionless faces were quickly moving two inches of standing water back outside. Another day in Brazil! Luckily, it sort of subsided, and we felt brave enough to move on.

We went to San Sebastao during the week, so there were no vacationing Brazilians there. In fact, there was no one there but us and a few locals. We stayed at a great bed and breakfast (most accommodations included breakfast, but this place was like a B&B back in the States) and had it all to ourselves. There was access to the beach across the street and since it was mid-week, only a few surfers shared the waves with us. There were many bugs to contend with and this always makes it a bit less fun when some of your time is spent drawing blood from scratching so much. I guess some bad always comes with the good.

Eventually, it was time to go home. I always love being away from home, but I missed vegetarian food and cooking in my own kitchen. We left 80 degree weather to come back to 38 degree weather. We entered winter with sunburns!

My trip to Brazil wasn't what I imagined at all. Luckily, that means I don't know everything and some things simply have to be experienced. It was enjoyable over all and I'm really glad I went. No matter what I say, you'll have your own amazing and interesting experience!