Several things this week have made me think about noise in Brazil, especially the sound levels of music. Certainly it is no worse than Spain which I find to be a very noisy country and it is probably no worse than in England but there are some differences.

The cult of the noisy motor cycle that plagues Spain does not seem to exist. There the youngsters compensate for their lack of horse power by disabling most of the silencing. The rock concerts and clubs here are as loud as anywhere but they do not over-amplify the calmer music like Jazz or soft rock. What does surprise me is the neighbouring building about 30 metres away. Half a dozen time a year they have a party with very load music starting about 4pm on a Sunday and lasting for five or six hours. It is very hard to make yourself heard in maybe 50 or 60 apartments. I wonder if anyone complains.

On Friday evening the annual Romaria or pilgrimage of Nossa Senhora da Penha took place. This involved some 12,000 people walking 14km in a procession. We watched for around an hour and I was very impressed but the “trio elétrico”. This is a large lorry fitted with a stage, amplifiers, light show and and speakers the size of small cars. They are mainly used in the carnivals but can be rented at any time of year. Unfortunately I did not have my camera handy but the general idea seems to be to make your ears bleed and turn your liver into water. This will give you the general idea

On a similar note we went away for the weekend to eat sururu in Iriri – I just had to say that, it rolls off the tongue so well. Sururu is the Portuguese for mussels and Iriri is a very nice beach resort about 85km south of here. We had just got comfortable on the beach when this Jeep rolled up. Young Brazilian men are just as likely to have million decibel sound systems in their cars as any other young men. They are very generous and like to share their music with the whole world; they are probably in a hurry as they will be totally deaf in a few years. This character took his fetish to another dimension. We moved away but even 100 metres away it was loud.