Brazil Book--a few first time impressions from a week in Rio

[DFW]

To some people, this will be old hat, so please indulge me here. Brazil is a large and diverse country, and we only saw a tiny piece of it. But one of guys who was there for the convention and seminars went all out to organize some dinners, security, and some sightseeing that took us to some parts that the tour guides will usually not take you to.

Just off the plane


Work day, but only for me. My wife got a special tour of a huge national park/nature preserve within the Rio city limits. To prevent it from being overrun, the city limits cars to only 150 vehicles inside the park at only one time. If more than that show up, drivers have to wait until another car has left the park (they are given electronic cards to hand in when they leave). Hikers are not limited. My wife had a nice shot of her overlooking the coastline, and another of one of the park's inhabitants, checking her out as much as she was checking him/her out.



On the Sugar Loaf


A friendly native giving us the once-over on Sugar Loaf


At the Botanical Garden, some "not quite sunflowers"


At the Botanical Garden: "the old mango tree"


At the Botanical Garden--a not very Botanical resident


The "Museum of Tomorrow," dedicated to the environment before we got here, what we have done to it, and what is facing us in the future, if we do anything about it or (worse) if we don't--VERY thought-provoking--wish it were in DC or NYC!


In the old town, the old "Municipal Theater"


A famous building in "Little Africa," a part of town so named because it was a neighborhood originally populated by newly-freed slaves, which, being in 1888, was relatively late as history goes.


Another view of "Little Africa," now starting to gentrify


A historical former barrier in Little Africa. This was before Rio started reclaiming land to extend the available land the city could use. The big white wall used to be the water's edge before the land-reclaiming project was started.


A final dinner with Mrs. DFW catching a gust of wind in her dress making her look 8 months pregnant (she isn't), me half asleep (I was), Gabrielle, a local event organizer who was charming, but spoke only Portuguese, so conversation was only rudimentary, and "Caffeu," which is just a nickname. He takes pains not to stand out, and is a great guy, but he is also one of Rio's top security/bodyguards. If you see photos of top model Giselle Bünchen when she is in Rio, and it is a public event, chances are he will not be much more than 6 inches from her side if that.


Someone with connections surprised us with a small troupe of the top carnival dancers of Rio (if there is a Brazilian version of the Dallas Cowgirls cheerleaders, this was it). These women can put on unwieldy costumes, dance their (complete as you wish, because, yes, they did)--and still maintain their balance while dancing like that for hours on top of a moving car roof. One of them decided to show me...well...let's say say it was NOT "the ropes."


Mrs. DFW taking a pic down at the Copacabana beach. One last evening before leaving. It was cool, quite windy, and the water was a little rough, but we could have stood there listening to the waves crash for hours. We were advised not to be there after dark since it would no longer be safe (Toto, I don't think we're in Cape Cod any more). So we walked back to the hotel.


It is an immense city, and one in a part of a vast, very diverse country, influenced by a checkered history and beset by corruption who cares for nothing but money, and doesn't care if it ruins the country's vast natural beauty, which is the real wealth of Brazil.

I can't say if or when we'll be back, but I am glad we went. Age 73, which we both are, is not too old to be up for something new.

[markodochartaigh]

1. I think that

I read about that mango tree, and others there, a half century ago in Popenoe's "Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits" (1920).

"In the Botanic Garden at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there is a
magnificent avenue of mango trees planted by the emperor Dom
João VI more than a century ago. So far as known these trees
have never matured any fruits . They blossom, and occasionally
set fruits, but the latter invariably drop off before reaching
maturity. J. C. Willis, former director of the garden, attributes
this to the fact that they are planted on low wet ground."

And the "not quite sunflowers" look to be a double form of Tithonia diversifolia, the Mexican sunflower. I have the single form in my garden, they produce a good amount of biomass in marginal soils.

It looks like you had an amazing trip.

[DFW]

3. We chose--wisely, I think--NOT to try to do too much

There is so much to see, that there is always the danger of having organized tours bring you to see fourteen things a day, of which you remember none. There were also the predictable tourist groups that had their noses buried in their cell phones, and probably never caught a real glimpse of what they were actually seeing. Plus, I WAS there for work. My outfit did not suddenly decide to pay for me to run down to Brazil for a week on a whim. I had to pay for my wife's air fare from Düsseldorf to Rio and back, of course, but the rest was on the company dime.

Thanks for the supplementary info, by the way! I never would have had the time to research that.

[Fla Dem]

2. Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[DFW]

4. I just added a couple that I had forgotten.

I didn't think it worthwhile, interesting or safe to take photos of the ever-present, heavily armed paramilitary cops (Policia Militar). You never forget that it is a very populous city in a country that has not always had the most peaceful of political pasts.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

5. These are BRILLIANT PHOTOS! Wow!

I feel like I've been on vacation. BRAVO!!

[DFW]

6. I'm still learning to take pictures with an iPhone

But sometimes they turn out OK. I wish I had been on vacation the whole time, too! I was sent down there by my head office, and only got to take part of the time off. I wish like crazy that I had been able to join my wife for the trip through the national park. Her photos of the landscape and animals were impressive.

By the way, the "Preto é lindo" on the wall in Little Africa is Portuguese for "Black is beautiful."

[some_of_us_are_sane]

7. Don't dismiss praise..... you deserve it!

Just breathtaking, those photos.

[DFW]

8. Hey, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Who am I to argue?

(and thanks!)