So often when you have known a person or a place for a long time you forget what you thought about it at the beginning. I am going to try to capture my first impressions here and then try to see how valid they are at the end of four months when I go home.

The first thing that I noticed is that not much is different from what I am used to in Spain. It is modern, mostly people live in apartments, parking is difficult, the roads are pretty good except where they are very bad. There are lots of familiar names like Telefónica and Banco Santander. The cars tend to be the smaller European and oriental models although I have not seen any large expensive status symbol cars. It may be different inland but there is very little sign of the third world.

The people are not what expected. I imagined excitable, emotional, hand waving latins with a tendency to exaggerate and to start dancing a samba whenever they can. Flavia is the only one I have found (apart from the samba). Brazilians seem to be very polite, a bit formal, smile a lot, drive well, and wear shorts and t-shirts. There seem to be lots of rules and regulations, often just social customs, which mostly are observed.

There are fewer black people that I was expecting. They tend to look less prosperous than the white people. It is hard to work out the origins of many but a lot seem to have a little bit of everything in their blood. Flavia says I am wrong but I have not noticed much mixing apart from the children. People socialising seem to be with those of a similar ethnic background.

Praia da Costa is part of Vila Velha and is a very nice seaside area which has a lot in common with Fuengirola. The main difference is that the beach and seafront is used mostly by locals which means that there are not many hotels and restaurants. This does not mean that the beaches are empty – the Brazilians are fanatical about going to the beach. They have built high rise apartments blocks close to the beach which block the sun by mid-afternoon.

Vitória is 15 minutes away across a very large toll bridge. It is an island and the State Capital of Espírito Santo. The centre looks like a tired old lady. I could see that it was once an important city but it seems to be in the process of being abandoned. Residents and businesses have relocated and the city centre is decaying gracefully. I guess that it is more profitable to develop virgin land on the mainland than redevelop.

Other quick thoughts:
We rich Europeans cannot afford to have a maid, have your car washed by hand, have an attendant in an elevator, employ a petrol pump attendant, repair a TV etc. All these things are common here with Brazil’s much lower wages.

On the other hand so many things seem to be very expensive – far more than in Europe. Cars, computers, internet, any luxury item and anything imported. There seem to be plenty of shops with extremely expensive home furnishings, kitchen equipment and branded clothing. I think that those who are poor are very poor and those with money have a lot.

Supermarkets only sell food and cleaning stuff. I have become used to buying clothing, electrical goods, shoes, computer peripherals, DIY materials etc and find it a bit strange to visit a dozen shops to achieve what I can usually do in one.

Bikinis are very small indeed Topless is illegal

There is an unpleasant black dust everywhere. The export of iron ore is a major industry and there are seven pelletising plants in Vitória that pollute everything.

The weather is wonderful. Hot without being oppressive and not too humid. Of course it is winter here.

The University here is a privately owned business. To a European that seems very strange.