Brazil Rio de Janeiro

4 Photos

Brazil Salvador

16 Photos

Brazil Carnival

5 Photos

Brazil Bahia

12 Photos

Brazil Amazon

12 Photos

Related posts:

1. Brazil – Carnival

These thousands of people and two trucks are surrounded by a rope held up by a few hundred guys that seperates the bloco members who have paid anywhere from $75 to $600 for this particular badly designed tshirt which means the rope holders will allow them in. The rope holders are paid $5 each for the day. This is the bloco. There are thirty or forty of these a day. Surrounding the bloco is thousands of people, thousands of police, Iran and myself. Depeding upon the bloco we would either dance around it or cower next to the police stand watching the police drag in guys for theft, violence or having a gun. Iran found one bloco that was cheap, $20 for the day, it didn't have a rope, it didn't have a truck wih toilets, but we got a tshirt. This bloco was only a few hundred people, had a band that was 70% drums and 30% brass, played at a speed that made me think I needed some speed, no lead singer and was named the lazy small dicks. At various intervals a chant would start up, "women love small dicks". The entire bloco would stampede from one side of the street to the other, split into human chains dancing round in circles, to everyone doing the same dance which generally involved pelvic thrusting, to shuffling along the street, with so many beats, small movements are the key. Confetti all over the place, more often than not in my beer. The bloco behind us is for men only dressed as women. They're decked out in fish nets, wigs, lip stick, miniskirts, fake tits, waving dildos above their heads singing "who wants a cunt for 25 cents". Iran said the women really like this bloco and these guys have the best chance of picking up. I went to take a photo of a group of them and got surrounded as they tried to kiss me, I ended up with lip stick all over my neck. We managed to join their bloco for a while when one of the guys tried to pick up Iran's friend. Some were drinking from cups that were shaped like dicks. There was one guy who was about 300 kg's dressed in a skirt that was miliary camoflauge. There is another bloco called the Gandhyi's, named after the Indian Ganhdi. They're about 5000, all men, dressed in white robes, with patches of blue, sandals, thousands of white and blue beads strung around them and white towels on their heads. They make quite a sight, shuffle dancing along the street, getting really pissed and lunging at women passing by. I wonder what Gandhi would have though of his pissed, sex obssesed proteges? Different blocos for different music, their is a salsa which Iran and I danced along to for a few hours one night, regaee, rock, samba, techno-pop, although none straight techno, African influenced with drums, drums and more drums. On the whole it is axe music, this is the music of Bahia, of Salvador. Imagine a fusion of rock guitars and heavy guitar solos, rock drum kit, pop vocals, a few congas and asorted drums for a dance rhythm, a big regaee infuced bass, all up a minimum ten piece band going at the speed of hardcore techno. This is probably 60% of the blocos, all playing covers of each others songs, one bloco playing a cover of the proceeding blocos hit whilst the proceedig bloco playing a cover of the following blocos hit, and the Salvadorians love it. Jumping up and down, doing group dances, hands waving, screaming, it makes for quite a sight. The axe music is not for me. Lining the street there are endless people with eskies selling beer and water, people collecting cans and people watching, dancing, kissing and drinking. At various points there are camoroches which are elevated areas, seperating the rich from the mayhem. Here for $40+ you can safely watch the proceedings from 3 meters above. No camoroches for us. It may all seem slightly expensive to us, but think abou the Saladorians, Iran is a primary school teacher and earns $175 a month, the most popular blocos are $600. The blocos have payment plans, two of Irans friends paid a portion of their salary every month for the last year for 3 days in one bloco. Iran wants me to say that in Carnival everyone forgets their problems and all the divisions break down, between rich and poor and white and black. I can't agree, their are blocos that are nearly completely white, the majority of those inside the blocos and camoroches are white, whilst outside is black and poor. Whilst everyone is dancing to the same music, some do so from an elevated platform of comfort, others in exclusive and extremely expensive roped off blocos whereas the mass of Salvador is outside of this. Although about 30% of blocos have no rope, the Salsa bloco was paid for by the government, as was the Gilberto Gil, he's the culture minister. To the set dancing, this is one of the most bizare thigs I've ever seen. Generally one person will take the lead at the front of the bloco. To this persons directions thousands of people will then wave their arms to one side then to the other, sprint forward a hundred meters, all bounce backwars in unisom to the beat, rush to one side of the street then the other, dance to one direction then to the other. Don't even bother trying to start by visualising a rave, or a club, start with line dancing minus the hicks. Imagine primary school dancing, "you put your left foot in, you pull your left foot out, you do the hokey pokey and you turn around, and thats what its all about." All of this went on for six days, the electricity cut out once for my hotels suburb. One night it started pissing down raining, and I mean really pissing down, at about two in the morning, everyone went ballistic, screaming., the music sped up, everything and one lifted to a new level.

Related posts:

1. Brazil – The importance of appearance

The beach is central, the city is two million people and doesn't extend far inland but streches endlessly along the beach. It is a beach culture, guys playing soccer on the beach, rows of beach bars blasting out music, everyone strutting up and down. Occasionally a few guys gallop past on horses. The poor are both everywhere and no where. They'll come up wanting to sell their wares, pirated cd's, peanuts, cooked cheese, necklaces, water, beer, handicrafts all sorts of shit. Street kids begging for money when I'm eating, I'll give them the left overs of my food. In contrast to the dishelved street dwellers there's a decent middle class which Iran belongs to. Although this is not middle class in an Australian sense. Iran's house is pretty bare, unpainted, run down, they have a tv, a vcr a stereo but none of the piles of endless junk. It reminds me of a step down from a student house, except clean. To contrast agaist this Brasil has some serious wealth, although not much of it in Salvador. Its in an odd middle ecoomic position Brasil, on one hand its the world's ninth biggest economy yet it is very much third world. I look aroud and think its first world then I look at the street kids. I started off with a pretty disdainful attitude towards them. What must it be like at 5 to be living o the street without your parents? I said to Iran Brasil should legalise abortion, she berated me for an hour. There is no social security system, the religious people do nothing. There are all sorts of people with mental illnesses wandering around the streets at night. Generally the families don't want to deal with them and kick them out, the government does nothing so they wander round and live off scraps. The poor make money in all sorts of little ways. A big cash earner is collecting used drink cans, generally beer and selling them to the recylcing plant. Street kids wash car windows and beg for money. Behind the hotel is a lane market selling fruit, vegetables and stolen items where the smell of the sewer overpowers all. On from this is a local old man barber where I get a shave for $1.50. The first time I went in there I had to wait so started paging through some Brasilians magazine, obviously not understanding any of it he handed me a Playboy. Along the beach their are people set up with eskies selling beer, water and soft drinks, old black women dressed in white nodding off to sleep selling African food, kids selling peanuts, hippies selling jewllery, thieves selling whisky and the desperatly poor selling hot cheese. Now that Iran has returned to work I spend my days mucking around on the internet, drinking orange juice, eating at this excellent cafe I've found and catching the bus to an Italian restaurant. I've been reading to make up for the lack of english coversation. There's been a festival for this religious guy named Boffin for the last five days outside my hotel. Its a city of 2 million people, lets say 1 million work, there were about 200,000 people at this party on a weekday, not a public holiday, 20% of the workforce didn't turn up, the next day the power cut out for an hour. Brasil occupies an unusual median position due to its overwheliming contradictions. On one hand its quite a conservative society, the extreme seemingly unchalleneged inequality in wealth, obscene and explicit racism, violence, archaic machoism, men and women lead distinct and seperate lives rarely crossing into friendship and an extremely set idea about what is correct and incorrect. Contrasted against this is everything in reverse, whereas in Australia men and women relate as friends virtually of the same sex, here everyone is a lover, the machoism elevates women to the central point in the universe. Women drive the society and the men. There is a freedom in the overflowing expessiveness of dance and everyone talking over the top of each other. The racism, so evident on the television is contrasted by the black and white couples and a people who can't trace their heritage. The inequality is not accepted but the poor constantly resistig to a knife edge balance between civil war and peace. The violence against an excessively civil politeness and the soothing effects of the women. Everyone is religious, Iran says prays before going to sleep, cross themselves when passing a church, attend all sorts of religious demonstrations, get shockingly drunk and try and pick up. No one goes seems to go to church and have an extremely patchy moral code. The importance of appearance, I don't think I've been anyway with such an emphasis on it. Both men and women have plastic surgery, so many women are fit, the majority of men lift weights, although everyone dresses down they also try to dress up from their social class. My favorite tshirt has a hole courtesy of some hash from a badly rolled joint, Iran doesn't let me wear it. As a coutnerpoint to this I saw this car windscreen cleaner pissing in the middle of the street, two lanes of traffic going eitehr direction, no median strip and he's taking a piss. We went to this shopping cetre to see a film, afterwards we went to get an ice cream. I was running low on money and proceeded to draw out a bunch of one real (the curreny) notes. Iran got into a complete flutter telling me to put the notes away, she didn't want any of her friends to see. I ignored her, realised I didn't have enough and asked if she had any money, she then produced a few one real notes and I recounted. She said her friends would all gossip about her poor foreign boyfriend. I finally got invited around to her house. Her borther in law wasn't keen on me coming around cause he said the neighbours would talk. Brasilians seem to have a complete ambivalnce towards strangers, they're polite and always helpful yet not overtly friendly. Iran says this is becuase most Brasilians aren't interested in foreigners. There is a general perception that all non-Brasillians are bad in bed, smell, don't brush their teeth and don't shower. Iran took me to the super market and told me which soap to buy, deoderant and tooth paste. The showering regime is intense, I shower when I wake up, before I go to sleep, before we go out, when we come back, before sex and after sex, I think I'm losing layers of skin I'm spending so much time in the shower. The enamel is peeling off my teeth and Iran is telling her friends that some foreigners are excellent in bed. Iran has taken to washing my clothes, I never thought my great grandma could be out done with the most pointless exercise of ironing my jocks, boxers and socks but she has been outdone. Not only do all my clothes come back washed and ironed but she's got two different smelling powders she puts on the clothes, one for jocks and socks, another for tshirts and shorts. We got on a six hour bus journey to this national park, because we'ld booked our seats late we weren't seated together. Iran was seated with Brasilian woman and behind her two French girls. The Brasilian woman asked to swap seats with me because she couldn't stand the combined smell of the two French girls! This fascination with smell should be put against the context of streets where the paving is partially broken to reveal the smell of sewers, guys pissing on the street, skipping over turds, the market outside the hotel smells more of faeces then it does of food. I guess its about contrasts, in Australia, esp Melbourne, things are extremely clean, this doesn't drive people into a revulsion about cleanliness, except me and food. Although I think its primarily a funciton of the heat, Bangladesh is shockingly dirty but eeryone showers 10 times a day. I can't continue without mentioning farting. Given that I've got getnetically inferior guts and I'm eating food my guts aren't used to I'm farting more than normal. This has been driving Iran insane, she's given into me farting around her but she extracted a promise that I wouldn't fart when any other Brasilian women were around. She said no guy would fart in front of their girlfriend, only after a year of marriage. The other night I stuffed up the order at the restaurant and ended up with seven pieces of steak. I took up the challenge but could only eat five and a half pieces, Iran ate one, it was only due to my farting that I managed to get out of my chair and propel myself back to the hotel. The nationalism, the regional chauvionism here is out of control. I told Iran half a dozen countries have better food and she was in shock. She said Bahia has the best food in the world. Not only this, it has the best music, the best parties, the best women, is the most intersting place, has the most superb natural beauty, the best beaches, the best sports people. She's never left Bahia. She was going on about how good Brasil is in tennis, it was nice that some Australian beat some Brasilian in the Australian Open. The overflowing of music, in shopping malls, in food courts, in restaurants, everywhere there is music, more often than not its live music. There isn;t the artistic aloofness that stops bands from playing covers, they do it all the time. Reworking other peoples songs seems a national pasttime. Iran says eerything in music is free in Brasil. The virus like Kethcup song has been reworked to include Bahian drumming, there's another version that's more tekno from Sao Paulo. Ever mindful of my dire financial situation I've still bought 30 CD's since I've been here. Everywhere has quality, iteresting, underground music, what seperates say here and Cuba is the quality of pop music. Whereas the top 40 in most countries is full of the most gruesome music, here mainstream music is characterised by a level of sophistication that goes well beyond the Spice Girls. Thats not to say the virus, the Ketchup song isn't all over the place, covers have been done in every state. Went to see the culture minister play live the other ight. I mentioned Gilberto Gil in the last email, this guy is sixty, a minsiter in the national government, he stumbled onto stage at 3am, a weeknight, looking really stoned and proceeded to play a load of Bob Maley covers and reggaee songs he'ld written. Don't think I've ever been to a country with a stoned musician as a minister in the national government. To my slowly developing insanity, not speaking Engish. Spoken with this Irish guy at the Gilberto Gil concert, spoke with him at another point for an hour. Spoke with my Mum for half an hour. Outside of this I have only spoken Portuguese this year. Iran speaks all of no English, I'm startig to think that my language abilites are slightly above reasoable. Nevertheless it is is hard on the head only speaking a language you don't know. Never been able to speak fast, all the time misunderstandings, everything repeated, every conversation taking so long. This non-stop Portuguese isn't just Iran, no one speaks English, I'm in an area with no tourists, I've got no one to speak English with. Think I'm going to start talking to myself soon. I speak and people get pissed off that they don't understand me, they speak to me and I only partially I understand and they look at me like I'm an idiot. Brasilians find it difficult to understand that everyone doesn't speak Portuguese, the universal language! Have been having all sorts of problems with hotels, I moved out of the one i was staying in after waking up the sounds of a woman been bashed in the adjacent room. I called the reception and he came up and fought with the guy. The hotel wasn't great anyway, its only english language chanel was 24 hour porn. The next hotel was good but expensive, the one I'm currently in I've been in three different rooms, first was too noisy, second too hot, third the springs in the mattress are gone, the toilet stinks, the paint is peeling from the walls and I'm next door to an open air karoke bar. Added to it my clothes are hanging up drying all around my room, the turn around time with Iran washing them at her house is too long. Haven't mentioned Brasil's well stylish mating methods. Pissed guys go up to girls, say "tudo bem", all good, then grab the girl in a headlock and try and kiss her. If she resists for more than twenty seconds or gets a well placed kick or punch in he'll walk off and exclaim to his mates about what a stupid girl she is. On the other hand she could decide that he looks good, has a particularly suave headlock and agrees to be molested be him. Although the molestation is strictly contained to the head. They kiss for hours, no sex, no hands on tits, bums or anything. To my theory on the violence and robbery. I have now been robbed or had people attempt to rob me 7 times. It should be noted that this has all been in Salvador and is not confined to the tourists. Still I think what I am about to say holds for all the America's except Canada. As a whole the America's are exceptionally violent, this U.S. is both iternally and extrenally obscenely violent. The only places I know not to be violent are Cuba and Costa Rica. It should also be ntoed that Iran completely disagrees with the following analysis although other Brasilians agree. She says the violence and a crime are a function of poverty, lack of work and a disfunctional education system. I think it is a combination of the economic and cultural reasons. Firstly to the historical reasons reasons. The history of all the America's is one of extreme violence. Both the Spanish and the Protuguese were so savage its hard to describe them as human. They laid waste to and enslaved the indigenous people across the Americas. So the Americas was born in blood. Secondly slavery, one of the great affronts to humanity in history. Few acts could be more dehumanizing then enslaving someone. Not only breaking someones culture but treating them as an animal. Thirdly and most importantly is all the America's are broken cultures, new cultures that have been born in extremely inglorious cicumstances. Australia as a prison, the America's as resource pool for Europe. The people are displaced, torn from their roots, the old cultural laws broken. The contrast between India and latin America is stark. India has a continuous culture and history that is unbroken for over 3000 years. The America's is all different people thrown together with a birth in blood. As a result of having a new culture the old laws are broken, the cultural laws that only sanction violence under certain conditions. India can have extreme levels of violence but it needs a reason, it needs to be justified, here there doesn't need to be any justification. Fourthly is machoism, its exemplified in the way people drive, apparently 90,000 people die a year on Brasil's roads. Drivers are just fucking idiots they all take each way bets, instead of staying in one lane they'll be half on one lane and half in another. The result is on a four lane road you have two cars taking up the space of four. So these are the four cultural/historical reasons, this combined together with the poverty, lack of work, dysfunctional education system and extreme economic and power inequalities add up to an explosive situation. As I walk around Salvador I feel very white, then I seem someone who is pretty fair, then I look at myself in the mirror and I look nothing ike them. I always thought I was the pasty shade of white, now I realise I'm postively florecent. Even Brasil with its multi shades doesn't have anything like me. Although when I flick on the TV it seems like I've flown back to Australia, minus the Asians and english speakers. Coming from a racist country, I'm nott going to lecture the Brasilians, but for you all at their in email land I must say when it comes to race this country is pretty fucked up. In Salvador about 80% of the people are black or a dark shade of mulatto, yet all the bus stands are convered with ads with white women. The TV is nearly 100% white, the politicians are all white. Its like they don't even bother with the facard of integration that the Americans bother with. Iran was saying on this front the country is very fucked up. Their is an all encompasing facade of football that hides the massive inequalities. Went to this amazing 300,000 person religious march. People banging drums, dancing down the street, everyone in white,Iran overheard three guys planning to rob me so we left. The religious people that organised it got sick of the violence so organised a party for th weekend to try and split things up a little. This party is apparently a mini-carnival. They have these trucks going down the street that are packed with speakers and a band on top. This isn';t your regular truck, I mean a full inter city 25m long truck. You can pay to go into these but we just hung around the sides ad got to see loads of different bands. Brasil has got me back into non-electronic music, I'm even starting to think guitars aren't the instruments of heathens. They have music with no electronic element that isn't trotting out some tired 40 year old formulae. The religion here is intersting, Catholicism is in massive decline. There are all these American funded Evangelical Churches springing up everywhere and they are loaded. They have an ad on TV smashing an image of a Catholic Saint. Salvador is full of all this Candomble which is an African derived rellgion. They have this dance trance thing you can pay to see but it sounds like a con. There's a serious lack of atheists, Iran can't comprehend I don't believe in God or anythign spiritual, that after death there is nothing. I told her I thought if God exists he should be put in gaol cause he's a paedophile and he rapes virgins, she started saying prayers. It doesn't seem that anyone goes to church much, they all just believe in a mixture of spiritualism. On the bus in Salvador the other night got pulled over by the police at about 11pm. Pigs puled off all the guys, hands up against the bus whilst they searched us all, apparently women aren't into guns or drugs. Anyway still have't had a smoke all year, Iran has promised to score for me a number of times but as with all drug matters, nothing is simple and easy.

Related posts:

1. Brazil – Carnival