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• Places - Belem, Brazil

  Posted: March 28, 2010, 1:48 pm

  
  Belem,Para - Street Scenes from Louis M on Vimeo.
  Scenes from Belem, Brazil.
  
  Belém is a city on the banks of the Amazon estuary, in the north of Brazil. It is the capital of the state of Pará. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port Belém lies about 100 km upriver from the Atlantic Ocean. The river is the Pará, part of the greater Amazon River system

• Road to Belem - Recife,Olinda,Fortaleza

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 10:38 pm

  From Salvador my goal was to travel all the way to Belem, then from Belem take a boat up the Amazon to Manaus. In Salvador i met a few people who were planning to take a similar route, so we decided to try find a van which we could buy and sell it wen we got to our destination - great idea except we couldn't find an affordable Kombi that was close enough. having failed in that endeavor i decided to take the bus and head up north.
  
  The plans was to head up to Recife, spend a day or so in Recife and Olinda the from Recife take a bus a to Fortaleza. Spend a day or two  then get on another bus to Sao Luis spend another day or two then get to Belem,where i would either go up the Amazon River to Manaus or end the Brazilian segment of my trip. I had worked out different scenarios - one option was to go up the Amazon then from Manaus tale a bus to Boa Vista onto Venezuela to Caracas then cross to Trinidad for Carnival. The other option was to fly from  Belem to Georgetown,Guyana and then to Trinidad then to Caracas to catch a flight to Europe then Africa.
  
  I chose all the different stops for different reasons - some people like travelling to different beach locations others like wildlife, me i prefer experiencing different cultures especially urban culture and music. Recife and Olinda are famous for music - Maracatu and Frevo, Fortaleza is famous for Forro music. and Sao Luis, is the Capital of Brazilian reggae music and is a alos a center of unique afro brazilian culture with its unique variation of Candomble and capoeira. I made to all this cities except Sao Luis - after 16 hour bus rides you get to a point where you don't want to ever ride a bus and by the time i got to Fortaleza i could only stand one more bus ride. so i skipped Sao Luis.
  
  
  
  
  View Brazil - Nordeste travels in a larger map
  
  Recife,Pernambuco:
  
  
  i took the night bus to Recife - it was one of the most comfortable buses i had been instead of having for seats across it had three unfortunately maybe because of the comfort  2 passengers were snoring in stereo
  surround. I almost missed my bus because Salvador traffic can be quite crazy - i waited for a bus, the gave up and took a cab to the Rodoviaria.
  
  Since i took the overnight bus, i did not get to see much of the terrain between Salvador and Recife - it was a 16hout bus ride so by 8 am in the morning we were approaching Recife. the outskirts of Recife are surrounded by Sugarcane plantations and i understand that Recife is the ethanol capital of Brazil. The Outskirts of Recife are quite swampy too - from the distance the skyline is visible. Recife is a huge city.
  
  
  
  Recife is a huge city, after Sao Paulo i would say this was the most concrete jungle i had seen. Rio and Salvador are huge but dont come close to the rows upon rows of highrise buildings that you see in Recife. Also Recife is spread out and has numerous canals and islands. The area around Boa Viagem has numerous highrise and luxury apartments and shopping malls - Shopping Recife comes to mind. There is also an old town recife called Recife antigo which has all the old buildings which are undergoing restoration and gentrification.
  
  
  
  
  
  Boa Viagem is a beautiful beach and there were numerous people along the beach, though not too many people were out deep in the water as the area is know for its sharks, however there were numerous people playing beach volleyball and footvolley. Compared to the beaches in Rio. Boa Viagem is quite
  sedate. One of the most interesting things i experienced in Recife were the outdoor mobile restaurants. In the evening because its hot and humid people gather in parks where different vendors have setup shop with chairs where they serve dinner.
  
  
  
  I stayed in recife for one night,  i did not get to experience much of the culture there and moved on to Olinda which is a 20 minute bus ride away.
  
  
  
  Olinda, Pernambuco
  
  
  
  
  
  Olinda is a festve small town on the outskirts of Recife, somewhat a suburb. Its a small city with the designation of a UNESCO world heritage site. i was planning o stay here for one night but ended up staying for close to a week. When i gotto Olinda i somewhat ran out of money i had underestimated how much cash i had on hand  - so i had to make arrangement to transfer money to my account in the meantime i found a Pousada where i would post up while i waited for some money.
  
  When i got to Olinda the whole town was in Carnival mood, every night there would be Carnival practice, different groups, with different styles of music either Maracatu or Frevo.The Olinda Carnival is pretty famous and walking around town i saw many places for rent just for the carnival
  
  
  
  
  
  What makes Olinda different form most other brazilian cities is the historical dutch influence. This is visible in the design of the churches, the dutch churches have one tower while the Portuguese built churches have two towers.
  
  
  
  Olinda has a beach bordering the town - but its not really anything to write about, however at anytime f the day you will find people out there cooling themselves in the water , fishermen fishing in the shallow waters and people playing beach football.
  
  
  
  
  I spent about 5 days in Olinda, and would recommend it to anyone but not for 5 days.when my funds came through, i got on the bus and headed for Fortaleza another 16 hour overnight bus ride away.
  Fortaleza, Ceara
  
  
  I don't particularly remember the drive to Fortaleza, i just remember pulling into the Rodoviaria the next morning and looking around for a taxi. I was tired and went to my hostel booked a room and slept for about an hour. One of the few things about travelling in Brazil, is that outside except for Rio and Sao Paulo - english for the most part is useless as a language and the further north you go the less foreign travelers you meet who could speak english to. So even though i heard picked up a little Portuguese by this time it was still difficult to communicate.
  
  
  In Fortaleza, i had to decide wether i would go from Fortaleza to Sao Luis or skip Sao Luis and go straight from Fortaleza to Belem. Sao Luis was something like 22 hours away while Belem was more like 32 hours - but from Sao Luis. In the meantime after taking a nap i decided to explore the city.
  
  
  I walked down to the Dragao do Mar - a cultural center with museums and various cultural activities
  then walked down to Beira mar and then along Praia Iracema just to get a feel for the place - Fortaleza
  is q  huge tourist destination with a lot of tourist flying in directly from Europe. I didn't particularly like. Fortaleza so decided to head to Belem the next day - i think i would have liked it but after 2 months of travelling fatigue was setting in.
  
  
  
  Fortaleza to Belem
  From Fortaleza to Belem, is a 32 hour bus ride, having decided to skip Sao Luis  on my itinerary i went to the Rodoviaria and booked my ticket. The bus was departing at about midday. Most long distance buses in Brazil are pretty comfortable but its important to pick where you seat, you dont want to be next to the toilet on a 32 hour bus ride, because things are bound to get stinky.
  
  
  The route to Belem, passed through a lot of backcountry , through small towns and medium size cities - through the state of ceara and Maranhao - some parts of Ceara and Maranhao appeared quite dry and savannah like. then as you start approaching Belem  it turns green and swampy
  
  

• Salvador,Bahia

  Posted: March 26, 2010, 4:55 pm

  Salvador:
  
  
  
  From Rio de Janeiro to Salvador is a 29 hours bus ride.  From Rio the bus ascended up a series of beautiful mountains and forests then the landscape changes and you start seeing coffee plantations - the plantations stretch for  hundred's of kilometers coffee plantation and some cattle ranches  - alongside small towns and hamlets through the state of Espirito do Santo and onto the state of Bahia.
  
  
  After 14 hours on a bus all you care about is the destination - the landscape outside stops to matter you just want get to you destination. Even so the state of Bahia seems kind of arid - savannah like vegetation and rocky outcrops along the highway.
  
  
  
  I stayed in Pelourinho, which is the old and historic center of Salvador, that  is filled with tourist shops, boutiques hotels and restaurants and people trying to sell you all kinds of things from t-shirts to paintings to peanuts. The Pelourinho is filled with numerous antique Portuguese buildings, many restored and some in the process of being restored - A day in Pelourinho can be exhausting as you have to spend lots of energy fending of all kinds of salespeople and filtering out what is real and what is for show.
  
  
  
  Every night in Pelourinho, especially Tuesday night the streets are filled with music - Bloco's parade through the streets, the most famous being Olodum and others include Filhos do Ghandy, Ile Aye and others like Kizumba. There are also many theaters that have live performances and on the steps of one the old churches you can catch a performance by Geronimo and he's band, whose style of music is somewhat reminiscent of afro-beat.
  
  
  
  Salvador is also famous for the beaches and islands of the coast in the area. Most visitors, i noticed spend a day or two in the Pelourinho and then head out to one of the beaches - the most famous beach/island being Morro de Sao Paulo - i didn't visit Morro de sao paulo, mainly because i thought it was expensive - besides if i went to every famous beach in Brazil it would take me a lifetime. Instead i ended up at Praia do Flamengo for a day and then also went to Arembepe.  There are other beaches at Ondina, Itapua, and Barra and many others outside of Salvador.
  
  
  
  
  
  Outside of Pelourinho, Salvador is major metropolis - huge highways ,tall buildings - nice pedestrian overpasses, crazy traffic an dig shopping malls ,Iguatemi and Shopping Salvador are two huff shopping malls - the latter reputed to be the largest in South America. Just like is typical in most of Brazilian cities - you have the old city, then you have the parts that must have been developed between the 50's and 70's  by the architecture and the fact that they are generally appear rundown though probably its the tropical rainfall probably makes building look older than they really are. Then you have the newer sections  which are characterized by high-rise apartment buildings - many with glass and marble facades, new and large shopping malls.
  
  
  
  Salvador is perhaps most famous as an Afro Brazilian cultural center. You can see the link between Africa and Brazil in many aspects of Salvador  - compared to Rio and Sao Paulo. Salvador seems to have a higher black population, the music, the names of certain things and the religious practices.
  
  Candomble, the mix of Catholicism and traditional and traditional Yoruba religion is quite strong and visible in many aspects of Bahian life. Capoeira - the martial art which is popular and famous in Salvador has its origin in Angola. Though the link between West Africa and Salvador has its origin in slavery - the links have extended beyond that era. In time some freed slaves from Salvador, many of them entrepreneurs moved back to West Africa - in some cases they formed the early middle class and some were involved in the independent struggles  of the countries they settled  - Nigeria,Togo,Benin and Ghana.
  
  
  
  Brazilian and South American cities have churches as a primary feature of there landscape, Salvador is no exception. Salvador has numerous churches and cathedrals all with there unique history and designs
  i dont remember all of them but one of the most famous is a a relatively small cathedral Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Bonfim  [Our Lord of the Good End]. The church is the site of one of the biggest festival in Bahia - Festa do Bonfim. I left Salvador on the day before the festival.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All told i had a fabulous time in Salvador,met many people and made many friends i wish i stayed longer  and hope to visit again.
  
  
  

• People in Havana,Cuba

  Posted: March 17, 2010, 4:16 pm

  
  Marcos Mayor - Almacene de San Jose from Louis M on Vimeo.
  i met Marcos Mayor, at the Alamacene de San Jose - an artisan market on the docks of Havana. The art at this market is out of this world, been to many p;aces but i havent seen such great art work

• People in Georgetown,Guyana

  Posted: March 17, 2010, 4:13 pm

  Guyana - River Taxi from Louis M on Vimeo.

  In Georgetown, next to Starbroek Market you can catch a river taxi that will take you across the demarara river to vreed n hoop. I stoped by and talked to one of the taxi operators

• Rio: Part 4 - Copacabana,Ipanema,Barra Tijuca,Santa Theresa,Lapa

  Posted: March 17, 2010, 2:08 pm

  
  
  You can't go to Rio without going to Copacabana. I went to Copacabana on the Sunday after Christmas .Copacabana is a long beach there was thousands of people mainly families on the beach, Sunday and Saturday are reserved for he beach in Brasil, everyone goes to the beach,and all the women where bikinis no matter how they look. On Copacabana people form impromptu colonies on the beach mostly based on the football teams - Flamengo, Vasco da Gamma, Botafogo- i think Famengo is the most popular team in Rio, since i saw more Flamengo flags  [and jerseys, especially since they had just signed Adriano]
  
  On Copacabana there is beach promenade which you can walk up and down the beach , the promenaded has various stalls and people selling drinks and food, merchandise etc. Also there were groups practicing for carnival making for an interesting mix. Going to Copacabana and swimming in Copacabana are two entirely different things personally i would swim there mostly because having stayed in Rio, in one f the hill  i know the sewer system is not perfect and so when it rains - and it does rain heavily i'm sure all the dirt and sewerage flows right into the atlantic. But most people swim without any problems.
  
  
  Rua Atlantic which is the street that lines the Copacabana, and  is lined with all sorts of hotels. there ar e rows upon rows of hotels and condos - most people will tell you to walk with caution around Copacabana, but i personally didnt feel unsafe - i think if you use common sense and dont stand out in an obvious way you should be okay.
  
  
  
  Further down form Copacabana past the fort is Ipanema,   actually there is a continous stretch of beaches with a few breaks from Praia Vermellha at the foot Sugar loaf all the way to Barra Tijuca, but i didnt have the time to go to all of them. Ipanema appears to be slightly less crowded than Copacabana, or maybe i was there on the wrong day - and the area around Ipanema appears to be slightly more upscale though i didnt spend much time there so can't say much about it.
  
  
  I had some friends i was supposed to visit in Tijuca which is in the southern part of Rio - Zona sul - its takes a while to get there from Catete, you need something like an hour if you take the combination of Subway and bus - Barra Tijuca is relatively new compared to the rest of Rio - tall apartment buildings mega shopping malls - there is shopping mall with a replica of the statue of liberty  - Brazilian shopping malls are on a whole other level - i think the word shopping means mall,  so in Barra there is mall called Shopping Barra, in every other city for  example Salvador has Shopping Salvador,Shopping Recife, Shopping Belem etc.
  
  On the way to Barra you pass by Rocinha which is supposed to be largest Favela in Rio - i was expecting to see a Favela the size of Kibera. Compared to Kibera Rocina is tiny and if Rocinha was in Nairobi it wouldn't even be called a slum. Rocinha is somewhat like Zimmerman in Nairobi except Rocinha is on the hill so it has a better view
  
  Santa Theresa is supposed to be one of the oldest parts of Rio - to get ether you have to go up a hill - either by Kombi or Moto taxi - there is also an old train and some buses that go up there. I got off on the wrong turn so i ended up walking all the way up - there nice little shops and restaurants and interesting people. Un fortunately i accidentally deleted most of my Rio pictures.
  
  
  Lapa for me has to be the most interesting part of Rio - in fact if you go to Rio just find a place in Lapa and kick it over there mostly go to Copacabana and Ipanema to see what the fuss is all about.But Lapa is the place to be - First of course you will be shocked when you get there during the day - The place look run down - seriously old buildings, faded facades. But at late in the afternoon into the evening the place starts to come alive. bars , restaurants , live music - some places play boss nova, but most places play samba, you can find hiphop if you want - but why would you come all the way to Rio for that ? Then there is people.
  
  
  The first time i went to Lapa was a thursday it was raining heavily, it had been raining for almost 2 days in Rio. From Catete - where i was staying to Lapa is actually walking distance. but i decided to take a cab since you have to pass through some shaky areas. It was raining so i posted up at a small restaurant that was playing some slow samba and boss nova - gradually as the night wore on people started appearing defying the raining the streets were crowded - some spots are more established than others - i ended up at -Sacrilegio. The music there was out of this world - live samba, the place was packed lots of vapors. the thing with Samba is that its largely a sing along music and has famous compositions so when a good band is performing like it was at Sacrilegio - the crowd get totally into it, its almost as though the whole place is in a trance.
  
  
  Thursday was packed, did some bar hopping - made a note to myself to come here on Saturday. If thursday was packed Saturday was a Carnival. The cab had to drop me a way before the arches - the traffic was crazy - human traffic was crazier - people walking up and down some people just sitting in the park next to the arches - stalls everywhere selling food and liquor - basically what most cities call carnivals is what Lapa is every Saturday - then music every little bar has a live band, numerous impromptu performances everywhere.
  
  
  There is many things to do in Rio - going up to see Christ the Redeemer, going up, Pao de Azucar - all those things you have to be patient because you will be waiting in line for half the day especially if you go in December,January or February. For me the best part of Rio was hanging out in Lapa ,Tavares Bastos.

• Rio: Part 3 - Tavares Bastos

  Posted: March 16, 2010, 6:15 pm

  Tavares Bastos:
  
  
  
  the Maze, where i stayed at is located in Tavares Bastos. - Tavares Bastos is a small favela located in Catete. Like most Favelas in Rio, Tavares Bastos is up a hill so to get there you need to either take one of the Kombis located at the foot of the hill or a Moto Taxi. the Kombis depart once they are full - so i ended up mostly taking the Moto Taxis since they depart immediately. To ascend the hill is $R2 and to descend is $R1.
  
  
  
  I got to the Maze, on Christmas eve , which is a big festive night in Brazil - somebody was playing loud music and it sounded like there was a party going on - so i decided to go out and and find out where the party was  - a few blocks outside he Maze, there was a crowd lounging on the outside with music coming from one of the houses. i knocked on the door and they let me up and even though my Portuguese was little to non existent - i was able to communicate and pretty soon i was partying with neighborhood. The dj - hes name was Joaquim also was the chef, running the grill, flipping the meat on the grill while beer was being passed around - the way the do it in a uniquely Brasilian way. The music was a mix of  American 70's funk, Samba and Funkay - which is the Rio and Sao Paulo version of HipHop.  Regarding the meat - Brasilians also have a unique way of eating roast meat, once the emat is read and cut, you take a piece and dip it in farofa, which a floury food made from manioc or corn meal - infact allmost all Brasilian arre served with a side of farofa. I think farofa is somewhat similar to gari from Nigeria. At around midnight the party somewhat came to a pause
  
  and  the sky was lit up with fireworks - the everyone went out going form door to door to hug there neighbors and taste some food 
  
  
  In Brazil, the process of drinking beer has it own ceremony and process. first the beer comes in huge bottles, probably 40 ounces but maybe bigger - beer here is served very cold in small glasses  - one bottle is opened and poured and shared out - and so on and so forth until the beer runs out - the person who buys pours for everyone else. Also they have this jackets they put the beer in, to keep the beer cold.
  
  
  Beer is big business in Brazil, the beer companies distribute branded fridges somewhat like how Pepsi and Coke have there branded fridges. You come across bars everywhere formal and informal. In the evening some people open up there garage pull out tables and start selling beer.
  
  
  Even though Tavares Bastos is a Favela - it has all ranges of services and the people live average lifes i would venture to say that the quality  life of people in this Favela is much better than that of many people who live in Projects in The US. There is electricity,modern plumbing,trash collection - the houses are modest and built close and it seems this houses are never completed - looks like there is a always a room to be added a new level, a verandah to be constructed.you have a warren of footpaths and mazes that lead to different parts of the neighborhood - this walkways are typically two arms lengths. I even saw a skyway linking 2 houses.
  
  
  
  i was intrigued by the setup of Tavares Bastos, so inquired about its origins and land tenure, who owns the land how do people buy property and develop it etc. From what i gathered the area was a farm in the early 20th century, when the owner died the workers stayed on, and the population grew as the families expanded. Most houses are built vertically, a level is added as necessary so to build on an existing property you can by the rights to a roof and then build your unit there.
   
  
  

• People in Havana,Cuba - Elias Aseff Alfonso

  Posted: March 15, 2010, 8:05 pm

  Elias Aseff Alfonso from Louis M on Vimeo.

  Brief elaboration by Elias Aseff Alfonso about Callejon de Hamel - Art and Afro Cuban religions.
  
  Elias is a historian and an assistant to Salvador Gonzalez Escalona. who is responsible for the murals and sculptures on Callejon de hamel - a small street in Havana that is filled with painting and murals.
  
  Elias here talks about the street,the art and its inspiration which mostly lies in afro cuban religion.
  

• People in Kingston,Jamaica - Nadia Stanley

  Posted: March 15, 2010, 8:04 pm

  Nadia Stanley - Stanley & Empress Boutique, Kingston,JA from Louis M on Vimeo.

  In Kingston, i randomly met Stanley and her business partner Empress we talked about their fashion business and Kingston

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes