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
Da Boca do Brasileiro (VIII)
Da Boca do Brasileiro means “Out of the Mouth of a Brazilian” and is the title I’ve chosen for a regular (if intermittent) feature of this blog. The idea is to let Brazilians do the talking by recommending their favorite things to see, eat, and do while also providing some insider dicas (tips) they think might be useful for visitors. more >>
A (Brazilian) Winter's Tale
Last night I donned a hoodie and a leather jacket over a long-sleeved shirt and got into a friend’s car in which the heater was blasting.
Just a typical Brazilian winter’s night….
Most people – myself included – find it hard to reconcile the seemingly antithetical notions of “Brazil” and “winter.” In the collective imagination, Brazil is synonymous with beaches, bikinis, and sun tans (or burns). As a resident of Salvador, Bahia, for the last 13 years, such imaginings have always dovetailed neatly with my reality. more >>
Going for the Gold
“If you want to understand Minas Gerais, read this,” said my boyfriend. He handed me a thick paperback tome on whose front cover an ornate golden crown perched sumptuously above the title: Boa Ventura!: A Corrida do Ouro no Brasil (1697-1810) (“Good Fortune: The Brazilian Gold Rush (1697-1810)”).
I have to (shamefully) confess that I’m a little on the lazy side when it comes to working up the motivation to plow through fat historical epics penned in Portuguese. Yet, at the time, the fact that I was actually in Minas Gerais, and surrounded by the legacy of one of the world’s greatest gold rushes, coupled with the fact that I wanted to impress upon my boyfriend that I was no literary slouch, caused me to open the book and start reading. more >>
Rocking Out at the Urinal
São Paulo is justly famed for the eclecticism of its nightlife offerings, but in general the focus isn’t on what’s being performed in the bathrooms.
A fun exception to the rule, however, has been the latest publicity campaign launched by Billboard Music Brasil. Instead of online ads or outdoor billboards, the Brazilian version of the American music magazine hired Brazilian ad agency almaBBDO, which came up with an idea that was not only creative, but downright pissy. more >>
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