March 17, 2004
End of j+j's South American adventure
Thus ends the South American leg of our World Tour. All-in-all Brasil was an amazing experience. We'd highly recommend it. Below is a map for your reference. We'd also be glad to share more detailed recs :-)
by the way, we thought we'd finish with a couple of lists - one describing things we enjoyed, one on stuff that struck the americanos somewhere on the amusing to annoying scale...
stuff we found endearing:
o that Brasil is truly a melting pot (as opposed to a bunch of separate side dishes the US generally is)
o surprisingly, the food (we ate our way through that country and it's a BIG country)
o beaches, beaches and more beaches
o how outgoing Brasilians are...friendly, curious and nearly all endowed w/ a gift of the gab
o quirky pronunciations (like adding a "gee" sound to words ending in "D" like "oh my godgee")
o Guarana, a drink made from an amazement fruit which had restorative properties which were absolutely needed after (and during) Carnaval
o the very positive body image Brasilian women (of all shapes & sizes) had
o the brasilian bikini
o Brasilians' love of song, and propensity to break into song
o fresh, FRESH juice
o the lack of annoying american tourists
o samba!
o Sao Paulo's culinary cornucopia
o Brasilian's fun-loving nature
stuff we found quirky > annoying
o the mysterious gringo tax that was levied on us when we were w/out natives
o that Brasilians typically hate carrying anything with them on planes. we saw no fewer than 3 umbrellas checked on our 5 flights in-country :-)
o hotel rating systems (subtract at least a star for the american conversion)
o the broken record of carnaval (same 10 axe songs played ad nasuem in Salvador)
o their version of mustard (blech)
o bad covers of bad american pop songs
o "the rules don't apply" mentality...most Brasilians have little regard for traffic "guidelines" (i.e. stop lights). in fact, the only way to slow drivers down is to install speed bumps
o Brasilians thought it unfair when cameras were installed on highways to identfiy speeders so now all cameras have signs alerting motorists of their presence well in advance
Thus ends the South American leg of our World Tour. All-in-all Brasil was an amazing experience. We'd highly recommend it. Below is a map for your reference. We'd also be glad to share more detailed recs :-)
by the way, we thought we'd finish with a couple of lists - one describing things we enjoyed, one on stuff that struck the americanos somewhere on the amusing to annoying scale...
stuff we found endearing:
o that Brasil is truly a melting pot (as opposed to a bunch of separate side dishes the US generally is)
o surprisingly, the food (we ate our way through that country and it's a BIG country)
o beaches, beaches and more beaches
o how outgoing Brasilians are...friendly, curious and nearly all endowed w/ a gift of the gab
o quirky pronunciations (like adding a "gee" sound to words ending in "D" like "oh my godgee")
o Guarana, a drink made from an amazement fruit which had restorative properties which were absolutely needed after (and during) Carnaval
o the very positive body image Brasilian women (of all shapes & sizes) had
o the brasilian bikini
o Brasilians' love of song, and propensity to break into song
o fresh, FRESH juice
o the lack of annoying american tourists
o samba!
o Sao Paulo's culinary cornucopia
o Brasilian's fun-loving nature
stuff we found quirky > annoying
o the mysterious gringo tax that was levied on us when we were w/out natives
o that Brasilians typically hate carrying anything with them on planes. we saw no fewer than 3 umbrellas checked on our 5 flights in-country :-)
o hotel rating systems (subtract at least a star for the american conversion)
o the broken record of carnaval (same 10 axe songs played ad nasuem in Salvador)
o their version of mustard (blech)
o bad covers of bad american pop songs
o "the rules don't apply" mentality...most Brasilians have little regard for traffic "guidelines" (i.e. stop lights). in fact, the only way to slow drivers down is to install speed bumps
o Brasilians thought it unfair when cameras were installed on highways to identfiy speeders so now all cameras have signs alerting motorists of their presence well in advance
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