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
Arms and the Fan
Among the two things Brazil is most associated with (for better and for worse) are soccer and violence. The only country to have won the World Cup a whopping five times, Brazil is also a country plagued by violence; according to the Map of Violence 2012, recently published by the Instituto Sangari, (and available online), homicides in Brazil have increased by a whopping 124 percent between 1980 and 2010. more >>
"The Best of..." Three Bahian Luxury Hotels
Recently, I was given the tough assignment of reviewing three luxury hotels, along the southern coast of Bahia, for a U.S.-based web site called Luxury Latin America.com.
My mother asked me: “How do you keep all those hotels straight in your mind?”
Aside from the fact that I take copious hand-written notes, and use my camera as a type of sketch book, snapping away at small details that I find to be original (if not always photogenic), I had to confess to my mother that it’s not that difficult. more >>
Notes from the Amazonian Underground
This year has been a memorable one for great Amazonian discoveries. In posts published throughout the last 12 months, I waxed enthusiastic about fantastical phenomena ranging from glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and exploding zombie ants to never before contacted Indian tribes. However, 2011 was also memorable for the discovery of the Hamza River.
If you thought the Amazon was big, you haven’t seen the Hamza.
Chances are, however, that you won’t.
This is because despite the fact that the Hamza River is roughly as long as the world’s second longest river – not to mention much wider – the Hamza is a subterranean river. more >>
Mango Musings
In recent weeks, my father and mother (in Toronto) and my sister (in New York) have been stoking my sense of nostalgia (not to mention envy) with their rhapsodic descriptions of brightly colored leaves in shades of gold, saffron, and scarlet, swirling off branches and carpeting sidewalks, streets, and lawns.
Okay fine, I retort, but in Bahia, where the leaves stay green and on the trees year round, the mangos have been falling. more >>
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