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Rodin Under the Mango Trees
Photo © Michael Sommers.
When I first heard about the plans to open a Rodin museum in my adopted hometown of Salvador, the idea struck me as something straight out of a Gabriel Garcia Márquez novel. However, this was no piece of fiction and, in 2006, Brazil’s first Museu Rodin was inaugurated just
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Life Imitates Art: Avatar and The Amazon
Today being Earth Day, one’s mind logically runs to notions of sustainability, ecology, and environmental preservation: catch words that conjure up myriad images and places, but perhaps few so strongly, universally, and with such poignant impact as the vast and somewhat mythical Amazon forest, 70
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The World’s Biggest Cachaçaria
Photo © Michael Sommers.
Yesterday was one of those quintessential Saturdays in Salvador. At around 11am, my friend Edivaldo called me and recommend that I come for lunch since he was in the mood to cook. When I asked what time I should arrive, he answered around 12pm – so I showed up around 1pm.
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Oscar and Mickey Clash at Brasília's 50th Birthday Bash
In a country where paradoxes bloom like wild orchids, last week’s birthday bash for Brasília took the cake due to a clash between the city’s architect, Oscar Niemeyer, and a foreign guest of honor named Mickey (as in Mouse).
April 21 marked 50 years since Brazil’s capital moved from the Marvelous
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Reflections on Bikinis and Brazil's Bikini Culture
Photo © Michael Sommers.
At the end of 2009, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel sorted through reams of travel stats and tendencies and came up with a list of Top 10 Budget Travel Destinations for 2010. Among those that made the final cut was Rio de Janeiro.
While the editors conceded that Rio was not
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Sophisticated Sands: From Bars on Wheels to Beach Barracas
Photo © Michael Sommers.
One can get spoiled by living in Brazil. Several summers ago, I was visiting my sister in New York and, she enthusiastically suggested we beat the heat and humidity by heading to a beach – in the Bronx. Having never been to a beach in NYC, I was game – even though it took
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Minas Gerais Road Trip, Part 1
Photo © Michael Sommers.
On Saturday night I flew from Salvador to Belo Horizonte, capital of the neighboring state of Minas Gerais, to meet my most recent ex, Luiz de Abreu.
Luiz is a contemporary dancer and choreographer whose works explore issues related to being black and Brazilian – his
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Minas Gerais Road Trip, Part 2 (At The Market)
Photo © Michael Sommers.
Although it is not a terribly alluring city, I have developed a real fondness for Belo Horizonte, capital of the state of Minas GeraiS, referred to by Mineiros as “BH” (pronounced “BAY ah-GAH”). Translated literally, Belo Horizonte means “beau
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Thinking About Wave Boy
Photo © Michael Sommers.
Over the years, a lot of people have come to visit me in Brazil from North America. One of the most rewarding aspects of these trips (at least for me) is that these visitors allow me the opportunity to fleetingly and vicariously re-experience Brazil as if it were the first
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Beauty and the Bündchen: Standards of Beauty in Brazil
In Moon Brazil and in my previous posts, I often touch on the fact that one consequence of traveling around Brazil is the discovery that there are many different countries contained within this continent-sized nation. The observation was underscored this week in an article published in The New Yor
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The NYT's Frugal Traveler in Brazil
Photo © Michael Sommers.
I don’t know if any of you have ever read a great blog published by The New York Times called “Frugal Traveler“. Published in the Times‘ travel section, for the last three years, the blog was authored by Matt Gross, a charmingly geeky presence whose
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Corcovado Reopens visits to Christ the Reedemer
Christ the Redeemer atop Rio’s Corcovado. Photo © marchello74/123rf.
Late last week, Brazilians sobbed and beat their breasts as they mourned the tragic and unexpected elimination of the Seleção at the World Cup in South Africa. Bars continued to do booming business, but table talk revo
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Banco do Brasil: In and Out of Line
Scanning the Brazilian press online today, my eye was caught by a headline concerning my hometown of Salvador. that caused me to experience a brief moment of triumph. This morning, a branch of the national bank, Banco do Brasil, located in Shopping Iguatemi, one of the city’s most popular shopping
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High Flying in Brazil
Last week, I returned home to Brazil, and was struck once again by how pleasant it is to fly in this country. My Continental flight from Newark actually managed to arrive around 45 minutes early at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo. As I was breezing through customs, immigration, and ba
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Friday Night Samba Special
“Matando as saudades” – a quintessentially Brazilian Portuguese expression that translates both roughly, and unsatisfyingly, into “killing your longings” – is something Brazilians do whenever they’ve been away from the places and people they love for a long (or often even short) time. Usually, thi
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A Swashbuckling Amazon Adventure for the 21st Century
I find it immensely reassuring that in this 21st century of texting and twittering, there still remains a little room for good, old-fashioned, swashbuckling adventure such as the one about the man who traveled the entire length of the Amazon River – from source to mouth – on foot!
As inconceivable
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Taboca Time: Sampling the traditional street snack!
Photo © Michael Sommers.
The other day, as I was leaving my apartment and walking down the stairs, I heard the musical clang clang clang of a triangle being beaten. At the main stairway leading down to the street, I saw a taboqueiro standing on the steps, a thick silver triangle around his wrist.
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São Paulo’s World Famous Traffic Jams Starting to Spread throughout Brazil
Lately, everybody seems to be stuck on – if not stuck in – traffic.
Last week, jaws dropped across the planet when global media reported on the surreal, 5-day, super snarl that had brought cars and trucks to a halt on the Chinese highway leading from Beijing to North China’s Hebei province. And th
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The Miseducation of Laura (and Brazil)
Photo © Michael Sommers.
My cleaning lady, Laura, doesn’t know how to read.
I first met Laura over 10 years ago, when I moved into an apartment with Bahian friends. Laura had just started working for the friend whose apartment it was and, for an astoundingly long time, she fooled us all.
Laura was
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New Finds Point to Sophisticated Amazonian Civilization
Photo © Michael Sommers.
Turns out that the myth about El Dorado, the lost city in the midst of the Amazon rainforest, peopled by an advanced civilization, is not so much of myth after all.
Ever since the 16th century, when Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana navigated his way down the length o
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