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
Safety Issues
As someone who lives in Brazil, and writes about Brazil, one of the most frequent questions I get from non-Brazilians is “How safe is it?”
I’m always stumped as to how to answer this question. Rather, I’m stumped as to how to offer a succinct and simple answer.
Security is an issue in Brazil. In fact, it’s one of the biggest issues in Brazil. And while people can argue that crimes happen everywhere (I’m a firm believer that they do), there’s no denying that security issues take on a whole other dimension in Brazil. No matter how you slice it, you have to be a lot more careful in Brazil than you do in North America. more >>
Clearing the Runways
This past week a lot of ink was spilled about Brazil’s preparations (or lack thereof) to host the 2014 World Cup. The Secretary General of FIFA, Jérôme Valcke, sparked a national uproar when he put his cleats in his mouth by stating that Brazil needed “a kick in the ass” in order to meet its deadlines. With little more than two years before the big event, Valcke expressed alarm that there would be nowhere near enough accommodations and transportation options to welcome the hundreds of thousands of foreign soccer fans that are expected to descend upon the country’s 10 chosen host cities. more >>
Rio's Carnaval Goes Full Tilt
For those who missed this year’s Carnaval in Rio or who just plain miss Rio, the 5-minute film, “The City of Samba,” (posted above), will either matar as saudades (“kill your longings”) or inflame your Rio yearnings all the more.
The film is the brainchild of Jarbas Agnelli, a talented illustrator, art director and musician, who is a founder of AD Studios, a São Paulo production studio where Agnelli and his colleagues work with techniques such as 3-D, animation, stop action, motion graphics to create some of the most cutting-edge and cool commercials in Brazil, and the world. more >>
Popcorn Experience
I just returned from Escaping Carnaval in Salvador.
Together, with a group of friends – all of them Bahians; none of them up to dealing with 6 days and 7 nights of body-crushing, ear-blasting, eye-popping, sweat/urine/perfume/beer-scented hedonism that characterizes the longest and biggest street party on the planet – I hightailed it out of town to a house in the country where we soaked in waterfalls, ate vast quantities of barbecued everything, and reveled in our tranquility-soaked status as Carnaval refugees.
And yet, although one can succeed in getting away from Carnaval the Event, one never quite escapes Carnaval the Social/Cultural/Economic/Political Phenomenon, which, from time to time, infiltrated our thoughts and peppered our conversations. more >>
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