Reflections on Brazil 2013 Part 3 by Tina Erwin

     
     

   These are my new Brazilian friends sharing a coke with me!
Food is expensive here and the cost is increasing as the city prepares for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. A simple lunch in a neighborhood restaurant with two people who only drank bottled water was over $50. We had three very simple appetizers and no dessert. In another all-you-can-eat restaurant in Copacabana, the fixed price all you can eat buffet was $250.00 (yes, that dollars.)--- for lunch --- We only did that once! (Check out the website for this restaurant:  Marius.com.br) Neighborhood markets for fruit, vegetables are really expensive. The only real buy was coffee, that amazingly delicious, aromatic, Arabica bean Brazilian coffee. It makes a gift that is always appreciated! Troy loved the restaurants. We had wonderful food!

        

This trip, we learned how to use the metro to navigate the city and some of the city busses. The metro here, unlike Singapore, is not air conditioned.
        [Copacabana Beach]

         Another interesting thing to address is the fact that no one feels that the tap water in Rio is safe to drink. Hence this country goes through mountains of bottled water. Imagine that you cannot serve ice, or iced tea or a glass of tap water. It must all be packaged. No wonder they have a fledgling recycling program. We used the tap water to brush teeth and bathe and never had a moment’s difficulty. 

         We also noticed that the United States is very ‘media self-centered’. We really have no idea what is going on in the rest of the world. While in Brazil, we watched CNN international because it was only global news. The United States didn’t receive any more news coverage than any other country. How different was the coverage? Consider that there was a world tour-wrestling match in Iran. Competitors from all over the world came to participate – including the US Men’s Wrestling Team. The coverage showed how warmly the US was received – in Iran! During that report, an Iranian movie critic reviewed the new Oscar winning movie Argo. It was fascinating to see the inaccuracies that he identified, from the Iranian point of view. But he wasn’t angry or critical – merely a bit bemused.
       [Non-GMO chocolate trees!]

         The Pope’s last day got 18 hours of coverage on CNN International. There was an entire week special that covered critical elections in Kenya and the affect on that area of the world.

         There was a very long, in depth report on Russian and African adoption by US families. It was a completely different view, offering perspectives from both sides of the controversy.

         Perhaps the one of most fascinating elements were the reporters themselves. These women were not models. Some were obviously overweight, and some did not have quite the polished delivery. Men and women of every race, class, and body type are out there reporting in each country of the world for CNN. In this country we seem to have to have only gorgeous handsome people provide the highly censored, sanitized and crafted ‘news’ information. Not that other counties and CNN Global don’t do the same thing, its simply that I enjoyed hearing about the weather in China and snowfalls in the Japanese Sakhalin Islands or southeast Asia. Learning about how people feel about Italian politics was amazing as well as how those bizarre elections affect all of Europe.
    [. . .more botanical garden shots]

        

Perhaps the most glaring observation was that we could more readily see through these news reports, how incredibly connected we all are to each other and how what one country does or doesn’t do affects us all. Maybe that’s the point of traveling.

         I noticed magazines in Portuguese teaching diabetics how to manage their illness. I observed more extremely expensive organic products beginning to line store shelves. Obesity isn’t quite the problem in Rio yet, but with aspartame packets, American diet soda in each store and GMO foods dominating Brazil agriculture – its sadly only a matter of time. This is especially critical in Brazil since this population is also battling the US scourge that is Monsanto. Monsanto has a huge presence in Brazil and Brazilian courts are now beginning to rule against this greedy company in favor of the farmers they have cheated. More and more lawsuits are being successfully waged against Monsanto in Brazilian courts. The last court case awarded Brazilian farmers 2 Billion dollars in damages against GMO seed.

         There was another story about Egypt and their loss of farming due to the civil war. Egypt now imports 70% of its food, where before this civil war, they were mostly self-supporting. We never hear anything like this on our stations, regardless of who is reporting.

         There is a gentleness here, an easygoing atmosphere of people simply living day-to-day. Brazilians love their beaches. They walk, jog, roller blade and bike along their gorgeous waterfronts. Those beautiful bodies, which enjoy the surf, are colorfully decked out in revealing suits, bronze bodies and hair that has escaped its bindings. There are endless games of volleyball, soccer volleyball (where you don’t use your hands) and just enjoying the sun in the hot sticky sky.

         As my taxi took me to the airport for the cool sum of $90 USD and Troy’s pricy taxi took him to his hotel to await his helo back to the rig, I reflected on my extreme good fortune at being able to make this trip and see another part of the world.

         As my big 767 jet lifted lightly off the ground,

I felt myself already wishing I could return to Rio. Away from it all, even for a few days is quite the restorative time. As the United jet headed across the rain forest into the inky night, I also marveled that you leave Rio at 10 pm Rio time and land in Houston at 5:30 am. That’s really pretty quick when you consider the 5820 miles that are traveled in a mere 10 hours of uncomfortable sleep. Sometimes as I drift off listening to the drone of the Rolls Royce engines in my plane, I think of the nightmare of the first settlers here encountered with the density of the rain forest. I imagine how impossible it would have been for them to grasp the size of the Rio area alone much less the whole country.

         If ever any of you have the opportunity to visit this glorious country filled with charming people, lush countryside, simply delicious food and gorgeous amethyst, blue and golden topaz and exotic tourmalines,

I hope you will take it!