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| Red
Or Blue - A Folk Festival In The Amazon |
| - It was a
rainy, humid April night in the Brazilian Amazon when I stepped off my
ship in Parintins and entered the world of Caprichoso and Garantido, a
world of red and blue. A world where red and blue are competing against
each other in a fantastic performance of music, dance, chanting,
fireworks, singing, beautiful young people in dazzling costumes,
and beating of drums. |
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| Rio
In The Rain - In Brazil |
| - Rio de Janeiro,
long before it was Rio de Janeiro, first saw a tourist in the form of Amerigo
Vespucci in 1502. After much letter writing between Vespucci and
his patrons, the great Medici family of Florence, Rio was already a legend
in European literature and folklore. It certainly did not take any considerable
time for it to gain a reputation that has lasted to this day: a tropical
oasis with beautiful beaches, gorgeous women and hedonistic fashion. |
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| Shark
Attack - Swimming In Brazil |
| - Stefano,
who once tooled around Miami in a long yellow Cadillac, played professional
tennis in France, frequented the international party circuit between Uruguay,
Marabella, and Paris, and now hides out in Buzios from who knows who, is
a victim of Argentina's recent economic crisis. But he is also my angelfish.
Stefano shows me where the ATM machine is, he drops me off at the Casa
de Paz Meditation Center (and tells me I'll find him meditating on a bar
stool), he introduces me to his Argentine friends at a private party, and
he changes my flat tire three times! |
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| Study
Abroad In Brazil - For Free? |
| - Yes it’s
possible, though you’re probably wondering – what’s the catch? With a little
research and investigation you can uncover more international options. |
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| The
Buying Game - Buying Real Estate In Brazil |
| - About a
one and one-half hour drive into the mountains west of Rio de Janeiro is
the town of Teresopolis. Jim and Debbie wrote me to tell me about their
$30,000 purchase of an estate consisting of four buildings, a 2 bedroom
main house, a spring fed swimming pool, a vegetable garden, an enclosed
tennis court, and over a dozen varieties of fruit trees. This I had to
see for myself. Jim wasn't exaggerating. Teresopolis was idyllic and he
and Debbie had purchased a gorgeous estate for the price of a tool shed
back home. |
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| The
Coconut Coast - A Brazilian Version Of Paradise |
| - The “Coconut
Coast” or Costa dos Coqueiros as it is called in Portuguese, lies on the
northeastern coast of Brazil, a few miles north of the city of Salvador,
capital of the state of Bahia. The Coconut Coast is a 125 mile stretch
of sandy beaches lined with coconut trees, sand dunes, rivers, lakes and
mangrove marshes. Its golden-sand beaches protected by reefs, and warm,
emerald color ocean waters offer an escape to paradise. |
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| The
Dollar Does The Samba - The Brazilian Real And U.S. Dollar |
| - The commercial
rate for the dollar vs. the Brazilian Real just hit the lowest level in
almost 3 years. In other words, the Real has been steadily appreciating
and the Dollar has been falling. What does this mean? To understand this
question, we have to look back at history. The first time I traveled to
Brazil in 1998, I found the country to be more expensive than I had expected.
The exchange rate then was about R$1.20 for every dollar. The following
year, there was a devaluation after the presidential election, and the
Real quickly fell to 2.00 to the dollar and kept on falling. In 2002, there
was another presidential election and it fell to 4.00 to the dollar. |
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| The
Edge Of Town Brazil - A Fronteira da Cidade |
| - Now on line
here at Montreal...we are probably the only people with internet in the
bairro. I think I have found highway free access to the local big
ridge, I'm guessing it's at least 4000’ with knobs higher. The new bike
cost $80 but is a piece of junk, the inner tubes are lumpy and that causes
a rub in the rear, maybe a new tube will fix it...wish I had the bike I
bought in China. The bags finally caught up with me after the TSA gave
them the once over, strange times up there. |
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| The
Telecommunications Revolution |
| - Perhaps
there is no easier or better way to make money from anywhere we choose
to live than to take advantage of the advances in global communications.
In any event each of us can certainly save money by taking advantage of
the advances even if we only choose to use the new technology to call home. |
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| Tiradentes:
A Colonial Gem |
| - Don't think
Brazil is only good for beaches and the Amazon. Nestled in the rural
foothills of the Serra do São José is Tiradentes; a sophisticated,
rustic, original gold rush town in the countryside of Minas Gerais. |
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| To
The End Of The World - Part 3: Near Disaster in Amazonas |
| - Last year,
during a seven-month period, the author drove nearly 25,000 miles in a
1988 Toyota 4Runner from Connecticut all the way to the southernmost city
in the world – Usuhaia, Argentina, passing through some of the world’s
most beautiful scenery on some of the world’s worst maintained and most
dangerous roads. He ended his twelve country odyssey in Paraguay, where
he sold his car and flew home to the USA, forever changed by his life on
the road during what was a truly remarkable undertaking. While a full recounting
of his journey would require many volumes, the author has agreed to provide
us with glimpses and insight into what he experienced. This is the third
in a series of five articles. |
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| To
The End Of The World - Part 4: From Small Town Brazil To Patagonia |
| - Two months
into what was to have been an extended stay volunteering in a remote
part of Brazil’s Espiritu Santo province, the pull of wanderlust came over
me once again and I decided to return to the road. For the past month I
had lived in a cabin on the plantation of a local coffee farmer I befriended,
far outside the rural town of Pancas where I had been going during the
day to teach English. |
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| Traveling
Through Fortaleza Ceara - Adventure In Brazil |
| - The beauty
of northwest Brazil is stunning: from desert, to palms, to lakes and finally
the blue sea. Fortaleza, Brazil is the place to go if you want to sit back
and enjoy the beach and friendly people. Find out what to look for in Fortaleza
in the above article. |
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| Valença,
Brazil - Coffee Cathedrals And Slave Spirits |
| - Sulking
through Rio de Janeiro under an umbrella, it is fair to say that my beach
dreams are most decidedly rained out. Clouds edge bikinis back into suitcases
and sweaters come out in their place. I am nursing a bruised and broken
vision of being the Girl from Ipanema, when a Brazilian friend drops me
an invitation to a celebration in the mountains north of Rio. There is
the hint of a festival that will last for days, and I can see Brazilian
life away from the jumble of Rio de Janeiro and the glitter of Buzios.
Excited by the promise of authentic Braziliana, I hop in the car, grab
mangos and coconut water from a street vendor for sustenance and leave
the soggy coast behind. I do not expect the trip inland to be a tour of
Brazilian spiritual life, but serendipity plays a larger part of life in
Brazil, where flexibility mixed with chaos reigns supreme. |
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| Visit
To Brazil - Learning English In Brazil |
| - The Michigan
School ~ by Rita Shannon Koeser - Everybody knows Susi. And they all want
to study with her at Michigan School. Some have already studied with her.
Here in the small town of Capivari, also known as “Land of Poets”,
everybody wants to learn English. Senhor Cabral, whose wife owns the gift
shop, Loja da Leninha on the corner, two blocks off the square,
says he was in Susi’s first adult class. In the Livraria e Papelaria shop,
a bookshop and stationery store across from the square, everyone stops
to listen when my Brazilian friend and I start speaking English. |
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| Walk
Like A Brazilian - Robin In Brazil |
| - I'd been
to every country on my list except for one, Brazil. The Brazil in my head
was passion, romance, the samba, fresh fruit, tropical beaches, and the
bossanova. When I heard that in Brazil it's rude to show up on time for
social engagements, I thought that this just might be the place for me.
How could I not love a country where I'd always be on time? There was also
the hope that in Brazil, I could blend in more easily than in Bali, my
other favorite place on the planet. There¹s no way I'll ever be Balinese,
but maybe I could be Brazilian. |
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| Your
Beach Business Under the Sun - Body Painting In Bahia |
| - Bahia, Brazil
means beaches during the day, parties at night and surfing in the morning.
Some people come and never leave. One of the ways that people have stayed
on the beach is with a new tanning oil product from Brazil that can be
sprayed directly onto the body. Spraying bodies on the beach with tanning
oil could lead to something interesting. Check this out. |
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