Brazil - a bit iffy

We are becoming less enamoured with Brazil, in fact we are a little bored. We would´t have believed that Brazilian food, music and the cities could all seem a little bland. Though the people are really friendly


On of the problems is its just so big, the east coast is closer to Senagal than western Brazil. Jercorocoara is a famous beach. You get there from Fortaleza and it is advertised all over Fortaleza as a local attraction - Its 9 hours away by bus!. That´s like advertising Ipswich as a good base to visit Edinburgh

Bars and restaurants always manage to find a way of topping up your bill - 10% for service even if you just had a beer at the bar, a cover charge, a music charge or your drinks are bigger than the ones priced on the menu. In one place we asked some people if we could sit at their table. They were very nice and our new friends said heartfelt goodbyes when they left. The only problem was they forgot to pay their bill. The waiter was adamant that we should pay it and it took half an hour of argument in a mix of English, Portuguese and Spanish before a manager intervened and adjusted the bill
A knackered statue man

But worse of all is the disparity of wealth. Street kids are everywhere in the cities. They will steal anything they can get their hands on even your bottle of water. If your table is near the pavement they come begging for any left over food, especially if you have any bones on your plate. All this next to packed supermarkets full of expensive goods including shelves of special imported beer at 12$ a time


In Fortaleza we rented an apartment for a week. It made such a nice change to be able to stay in some nights. It was right at the edge of town, had electric gates, an armed guard outside and
and another inside. They got very upset when our taxi dropped us on the street instead of driving up to the door and even more so when we started traveling by bus. Its something we have noticed a lot - local people over emphasise the dangers of the places they live



You wouldn´t believe how excited Marilyn can get over doing washing




The flat backed onto a small fishing village. I exepect at some stage they could use all the land but now are packed into a few feet of shore line



We took a long ride in to the mountains to get away from the muggyness and humidiity but the rainy season followed us there. To make it worse all the good hotels were shut - they only open at the weekends!