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
Brazilians Shun Film in Favor of the Real Lula
They say that art imitates life. It thus stands to reason that as
Lula, head of the Brazilian government, enters the final year of his presidency with approval ratings of over 70 percent, a feature film about Lula's life should be breaking box office records. However, in Brazil, reality often has little to do with reason.
After a much-hyped debut screening in Brasília from which the notoriously sentimental president emerged sobbing, more >>
Brazil Scores Big with Museu de Futebol
Ever since I heard friends - female friends, female friends who hate soccer - rave about Brazil's spanking new Museu de Futebol, I've been dying to visit the place. The Museu de Futebol is located in São Paulo's Estádio do Pacaembu, a fabulous Art Deco stadium that was completed in 1940 and inaugurated with much pomp and circumstance as the largest soccer stadium in Latin America.
Games featuring São Paulo teams are still played here (for this reason, it's always a good idea to check out the visiting hours on the museum's web site). In fact, the long line-up snaking its way out into the parking lot on a Sunday morning - which I initially feared was proof of the museum's great popularity - turned out to be full of local fans waiting to buy tickets for a game later in the day. more >>
Pastéis in the Rain
I'm still in São Paulo, which is being subjected to precipitation of epic proportions. According to the cover story of this week's Veja (the Brazilian equivalent of Time magazine), over the last 40 days more rain has fallen in Sampa than in the last 63 years. As chuvas (the rains) constitute the Number One topic on the news. The front pages of newspapers regularly feature stories of cars, homes, and people that are swept away in the sudden and torrential flooding that occurs. more >>
On the Avenue - Strolling São Paulo's Main Drag
If you had told me 10 years ago that in the midst of January I might long for a change from hot sunny weather, tropical beaches, and festas galore, I would have said you were nuts.
Call me louco (some of my friends did), but after two months of beach-sprawling, festa-going and sultry tropical heat that had me in a state of perma-languor, I decided I needed a break from my hometown of Salvador, Bahia. more >>
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