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Brazil struck me as so great, I started thinking of the serpents in this paradise. I compiled a list:
-Unpotable tap water. Others get used to it and dont think about it, but unclean air and water are my pet peeves. You would think that it would be impetus enough that archrival Argentina has potable water, but even Paraguay has it, too. So what if it tastes like you are sticking a straw into a swimming pool? It's another burden for Brazil's many, many poor people.
-Transport.
Hitchhiking nearly impossible, no ride-share system, almost no trains, local buses expensive in relation to local wages, intercity buses also expensive as companies often have a monopoly or duopoly on routes.
-Bad haircuts. Even though Brazil is the size of USA and I only got one haircut there, I am going to petulantly say that all barbers are bad. I came out with a foofi head like I used to be in Spandau Ballet. You should have seen me!
-Crime.
This is the big one for nearly everyone. The problem is that even if the sense of danger is only perceived, it inhibits behavior. Recife, a happening, go-go city by day, by night its streets are eerily empty, and not just in the old city, but entire neighborhoods and commercial centers. It was telling that when I was in a tourist office in Recife, a local woman came in and asked if she could wait for her bus in the presumed safety indoors. This was midday in the main square of a prosperous part of town, Boa Viagem. The tourist office staff was nonplussed; it wasn’t the first time they’d been asked.
Throughout my time in Brazil I've never met so many other travelers who were robbed or mugged. I feel lucky that the only bad thing to happen to me was my haircut, which was nonetheless a true crime against humanity that the United Nations should investigate.
The "best" robbery story I heard was of a couple that was allowed to take the memory card out of their camera so at least they could keep the photos from their trip. The thief with a heart of gold! Warm and fuzzy feelings all around! My camera is so old technologically that the chip is worth more than the camera. Actually, by now the battery charger might be worth more than either.
-Litterbugs & garbage everywhere. I dont understand the roots of the attitude towards garbage. I think if you ask Brazilians they all say they love their country (but don't think of themselves as Latin American--a subject for another time) but they also have a nihilist streak where they throw their hands up at the corrupt state they live in and have no collective feeling of doing things for the good of the Brazilian state since everyone is out to get theirs and thus the country remains mired in the 3rd world. Americans may have this "greater good" feeling to a fault, but this brainwashing, if you take it negatively, develops the country. (Is that profound--even if it is totally wrong? Style over substance, style over substance, style...)
-Bad plumbing, prohibitively expensive postal system (30 reais to mail a CD abroad, which was US$18 at the beginning of my trip), the frustration at realizing that there are plenty of laws, but are rarely enforced and that the average person's opinion of the police isn't much better than that of the crooks. Then again, maybe it is part of Brazil's appeal that it can feel lawless.
Enough negativity! Look at these four sunset photos from Morro Sao Paulo, just south of Salvador! (no relation to the megapolis of Sao Paulo). The next 14 photos are from MSP.
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This photo of these kids seems like a good chance to mention that
Brazil is often strong where USA is deficient, such as race relations. I was often told that in Brazil there is no choice but to get along and therefore race is rarely an issue, so what is America's excuse?
Furthermore, in Brazil the races interact and co-exist with each other in a way you very rarely see in USA where the standard seems to be to just "get along".
I will now step down from my soapbox.
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These are two different wheelbarrow taxi drivers resting. I kindly asked with great humility and respect if I could take their photos.
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 A wheelbarrow taxi
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 Not selling fruit, but fruity alcoholic drinks and slushes.
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 The daily late-afternoon soccer match
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 This is the Morro Sao Paulo airline check-in counter person as well as everything else, a one-man airport operation who still found time to play soccer between flights.
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I didn´t complain about the higher cost of everything on the island when I saw how a lot of things get brought over, though I am sure these guys were paid peanuts.
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These four sunset photos are from Boipeba, very close to Morro Sao Paulo but far when traveling with local transport. I can see how people like it, but I found it very lonely at the time and kept heading south.
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Two pictures from the surfing hotspot of Itacare: a cafe and a typical Muslim-Brazilian woman. Or is that too sacrilegious a joke?
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The grill on my guest house, Itacare
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A video store in Ilheus
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Girl sitting under a tree in Porto Seguro
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Long cinnamon sticks
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Maybe you don´t know this about me, but I love a good mangrove swamp. Trancoso.
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Motorcycle acrobats showing off in Arraial d'Ajuda (not an easy place to pronounce in Portuguese).
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Also from Arraial d'Ajuda, a homemade roulette wheel and a curiously thoughtful guy I met, a French hardcore musician named Nicolas. This is his band of some renown, The Twisted Minds.
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Mystery foam in the water. I didn't swim.
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Painted Honda ad in a small town I got stuck in one night, Pedro Canario, just over the state border from Bahia.
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Brazil
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