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
Mission Impossible: Rio in June
Although June is a lovely time to visit Rio de Janeiro, don’t think of going near the Cidade Maravilhosa this year – at least between the 13th and the 22rd.
The reason to steer clear of Rio is that the city is hosting the United Nations’ Summit on Sustainable Development (known as Rio + 20 in homage of the landmark Earth Summit that took place in the city in 1992). Of course, it’s normal that such a high profile event, expected to draw around 50,000 participants from around the world, would make it challenging for mere tourists to find accommodations.
However, “challenging” turns out to be an understatement – try impossible. more >>
A Quintet of Unmissable Brazilian Markets
This week I was passing through Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais, and I had a couple of hours to kill between my bus from Diamantina and my flight to Salvador. Without thinking twice, I stashed my bags at a gigantic storage locker in the central Rodoviária (bus station) and walked the few busy blocks through the city’s downtown to Belo Horizonte’s Mercado Central. more >>
Journey to the Quilombo of Quartel do Indaiá (Part II)
When my boyfriend’s housemate, Nadia, invited me to accompany her, and a colleague, Sílvio, on a trip to visit Quartel do Indaiá, a quilombola community 50 km from Diamantina, I jumped at the chance.
As I explained in Part I of this post, quilombo is a term of Bantu origin that is used to refer to autonomous communities founded by runaway slaves during colonial times in Brazil. more >>
Journey to the Quilombo of Quartel do Indaiá (Part I)
Last weekend, when my boyfriend’s housemate, Nadia, invited me to accompany her on a trip to visit a quilombola community 50 km from Diamantina, I jumped at the chance.
The Brazilian term quilombo comes from kilombo, an expression that, in the Kimbundu language spoken by various Bantu peoples in Angola and Congo, originally referred to a resting place for nomads or travelers. However, upon migrating to colonial Brazil, quilombo acquired a new meaning, becoming a designation for autonomous communities founded by runaway slaves. more >>
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