Brazil Blog
About this blog
Thrill of Brazil is a travel blog all about Brazil written by Moon Brazil author Michael Sommers. Michael blogs about Brazil travel, culture, and more. He welcomes questions, comments, and story ideas.
Recent Posts
- Care for a Drink with your Film? (or a Film with your Drink?)
- Brazil’s Homegrown Tourism Boom
- Brazil's Best and Write-est
- Making House Calls in Rio (Part II)
- Making House Calls in Rio (Part I)
- The Dawning of Brazil's B&B Age
- Rio's Alternative Points of View
- Taxi Trouble in Santa Teresa
- Obamas Take to the Campaign Trail in Brazil
- Plans and Punctuality
- Reliving Tropicalismo - On and Off Screen
- Food and Lodging that Make the Grade
- The Making of Moon Living Abroad in Brazil
- U.S. is Number One Source of Immigrants to Brazil
- Best English-Language Blogs about Brazil
Taking Sweet, Sustainable Flight
I always find it grating the way some armchair environmentalists love to lash out at frequent flyers (and/or travel writers) who, in confessing to have hopped a plane, are made to feel like sinners for sullying the atmosphere with nasty carbon footprints.
That said, I’ve also always wondered why, in this era of sustainable this, that, and the other, nobody seems to be coming up with a sustainable alternative for airplane fuel (which, admittedly, is a major pollutant; the global aviation industry is responsible for producing 2 percent of all the carbon dioxide that spews into the atmosphere).
Moreover, since Brazil is a notorious pioneer in the development and use of renewable biofuels – Brazilian automobiles have been running on ethanol derived from sugar cane since the 1973 oil crisis – I always idly wondered why no enterprising Brazilians ever tried using sugar cane to fly planes as well.
To my happy surprise, it turns out they just did. more >>
Brazil’s First Love Motel – for Pets
North American tourists who come to Brazil and check into a “motel” are inevitably surprised by the features and amenities; ceiling mirrors, heart-shaped beds, a bowl full of condoms.
This is because unlike North American’s cheery chains catering to families, Brazilian motels are where couples go for encounters of an amorous-sexual nature. While many rendezvous are illicit, motels also provide getaways for harried lower or middle-class couples in search of a quickie or teens or 20-somethings who get no privacy at home. Since their primary function is to set the stage for an hour – or a night – of passion, motels usually invest in kitschy erotic décor and accessories and train staff to be extremely discreet. Depending on the location and the price, they can be hilariously sleazy or quite posh. more >>
Big City Fix in Belo Horizonte
The other weekend, I was invited with my boyfriend, Barbosa, and his close friend, Walber, to take a weekend road trip from Diamantina to Belo Horizonte. With a population of 45,000, Diamantina is small, and despite the town’s charm and myriad attractions – not to mention those of the surrounding region which are legion – things can get a little…. well, small…. Within Barbosa’s social circle, it seems as if every weekend, a couple or group of friends is hightailing it off to BH for a fix of Big City. This weekend, it was our turn. more >>
When Oscar Came to Town
Most people who visit Diamantina are lured by the splendid colonial architecture that has earned the 18th-century diamond mining town UNESCO World Heritage status. Yet amidst the elegant casas coloniais and ornate baroque churches lie the traces of a small but seminal moment in Brazilian Modernism.
It just so happens that Diamantina is the birthplace of “bossa nova” president Juscelino Kubitshek., whose humble childhood home, converted into a museum/shrine, is a popular site of pilgrimage for those who equate the “JK” years (1956-61) that preceded Brazil’s 21-year-long military dictatorship with a Brazilian version of Camelot. more >>
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