The other reason to write again is to welcome Fred who I met recently. He is American and commutes to work in the USA but has a Brazilian wife and step-daughter in Vitória. He is going to write some articles for the blog. They should be an interesting contrast – seeing things from an American rather than European point of view.

If you look up you will see there is a new “about this blog” tag at the top of the page, take a look, especially if you do not know what a RSS feed is.

Salvador
It is a fascinating city with a strong African culture and tradition. The Pelourinho area is the old slave quarter and traditional centre of the city. Apart from the beaches we did not find much else of tourist interest. The name comes from the whipping post where the slaves were punished.

The sounds of drums are everywhere, the day we arrived there was a concert in the main square of the Pelourinho with Olodum playing.
It was to celebrate the the 20016 World Cup being held in Brazil. I think they find something to celebrate every weekend. About 100 drummers, maybe 75 girl dancers and a crowd packed in like sardines in a tin.

Olodum is part a drumming group, part a social welfare organisation, part political and part a youth club. It seems to be at the heart of everything that goes on in the Pelourhino. You cannot move without seeing their logo, a lopsided colourful version of the CND “ban the bomb” symbol. Impromptu groups of half a dozen eight year olds practice in the middle of the road. there are teen bands, youth bands female bands and probably pensioner ones too.

Closely related to drumming is the Candomblé religion with its variety of gods, especially Oxala. There are plenty of opportunities to watch their ceremonies but we did not on the grounds that it would be either a tourist rip-off or an intrusion into a serious spiritual affair.

It really is quite spectacular and quite different to anything else I have seen anywhere in the world. The Pelhourinho has the advantage of 100 years of neglect. This means that it has missed most of the ravages of modern civilisation and gives the modern world an insight into the way things were. The only place I have seen a similar thing is Tallinn in Estonia where time stood still during the years as a Russian satellite and is now reborn as a prosperous tourist city.

This brings me to the complaints. It is dirty, the facilities are poor and it is very dangerous.

When we arrived in Salvador we went to a small branch of a bank. Instead of the usual two or three armed guards with their hands on their holstered pistols there were eight guards all holding short barreled shotguns and looking very alert. I have no idea how well trained they are but would not like to be anywhere near when they start shooting. In our hotel one person was telling how her tourist bus from the airport was hijacked and everyone had to hand over all valuables. A few minutes later a rather breathless young man burst through the front door having escaped from an attempt to rob him. There are a lot of beggars and some are very persistent. If the authorities are going to succeed in their plan for mass tourism they are going to have to take security much more seriously.

We try to stay at the cheaper end of the hotel market. We must have looked at ten Pousadas (like a Spanish Hostal). They were very cheap (too cheap at R$50/60), smelly, damp mouldy bathrooms, dirty, in serious need of a coat of paint and poor electric wiring. We are not fussy people but were shocked. We tried to find better places but could only find rather classy four and five star hotels at R$400/600. Eventually we found a very nice youth hostal at R$110 for a double room Laranjeiras Hostel this was well run, clean and reasonably comfortable.

The third complaint is the tourist product. It has been a World Heritage site since 1985 but needs a lot of investment. Bahia is famous for its cuisine but we could not find any restaurants offering it. There are stalls selling acarajé a sort of bun made of ground black-eyed beans deep fried and then stuffed with a spicy mixture of prawns, tomato, palm oil and cashews. We did find one restaurant advertising Bahian food on Saturdays. We arrived at 2.30 and were told that it had finished for the day. There is a lot of poor quality tourist stuff for sale but if they are to improve the industry they will have to offer better quality arts and crafts. A large part of the charm is the architecture but so much of it is falling to pieces. There are some restoration projects but my feeling is too little, too late.
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The danger, of course, is that if they sanitise the area they will destroy the atmosphere. It is because the Pelhourinho is a residential area for some of the poorest people in the city with a unique culture that it is so interesting. If they are moved out to the suburbs and bused in to provide entertainment in a clean shiny new tourist ghetto the attraction will go. The tourist authorities will have a difficult job to find the right balance.

The Pelourinho is on my list of “must visit places” for a visitor to Brazil. One or two nights there is probably enough and a couple of days on the beach in one of the nearby islands. But be careful, especially after dark and in quiet places.

Our next trip is to Fortaleza.
It is 2300 km north of here on the most eastern tip of Brazil. It is the State capital of Ceará. The metropolitan area is 3.4 million and it has a reputation as a party city. It is the nearest point to Europe (7,000 km to London) and has a thriving international tourist business. We go for ten days on 3rd September and ten days after we return i go back to Europe.

Salvador was founded in the early 16th century, is the oldest city in South America, the third largest in Brazil and it used to be the capital city. We discovered how big it was coming from the airport and taking a 30 minute bus ride to the area where the city started and later a similar journey to the old city centre. It is quite different to anywhere I have ever been before. There are not many people who are pure white or pure black. There is every shade of brown that you have ever seen anywhere. It is not surprising that it is a popular holiday destination for middle class blacks from the USA

The next blog report will talk about Salvador itself as in the morning we left for Morro do Sao Paulo which is on a beautiful little island about 30km away. You can fly there by air taxi from Salvador airport or take a taxi to the docks and an expensive fast ferry. Feeling mean and adventurous we took two buses and two ferries at maybe 25% of the cost and an extra three hours. If you only have a couple of days and a generous budget take the plane. Only take our route if you are confident, know the itinerary and speak at least basic Portuguese.

Morro do Sao Paulo has no paved roads and the only powered vehicles are boats and tractors. The ferry is met by a couple of dozen young men with wheelbarrows ready to carry your cases and take you to one of the hundred or so Pousadas (small hotels)spread along the five beaches. We found a reasonably priced place, clean but basic, with the bed right under large window and the beach 10 metres below us. It faced east and we were treated to such a beautiful sunrise that we were inspired to take a long walk at 5.30 am. Those who know me well will find that very hard to believe!

We soon recovered from this strange malady and became progressively lazier, going to bed earlier and rising later. The most energetic thing we did was watching the locals on the beach: soccer, surfing. volleyball, a form of beach tennis, running, gymnastics, stretching and practicing Capoeira a spectacular martial art. They have to be fit as every brick, can of beer. bottle of water or gas has to be carried through the water, across the beach, up steps and onto the sandy road and to the final destination. This makes everything a bit more expensive but is excellent value.

My only complaints were about the hotel which would not share wifi with us (the only guests) and about a couple of dozen dogs always on the beach having a fine time. They were a nuisance when we were eating and could get boisterous. Flavia does not like dogs and was troubled by them, especially when one barged into her and twisted her ankle. A cook at the hotel gave her a hot compress and a massage but insisted on closing all the doors and windows before she started and for an hour afterwards. It is, she explained, very dangerous to be exposed to any wind after a hot compress.

Having extended out stay by a day and preferring to be in the city during a forecast rainy spell we decided to leave. Two minutes before we were due to start the 15 minute walk to the ferry a tropical storm started, the rain was impressive. We were soaked in seconds and missed the ferry and lost an hour. Several hours and several more storms we were back in the first hotel and we still could not connect to the internet.

In a week I will add a chapter about the city and add some photos to this page.

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.

Romaria Vitoria to Vila Velha

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

Iriri beach

Boy racer

On the road
Traffic lights have two red lights; presumably to allow for a broken bulb.
Cats eyes (the studs in the road) are four times the size of European ones. They really do encourage lane discipline as nobody wants to drive over them.
Speed bumps (known here as suspension breakers) are like mini mountains and often quite well concealed. I think that these account for the almost complete absence of low slung sports cars.
Speed cameras are everywhere. On the edge of town they are just before traffic lights, at the lights and again 100 metres later. Speed up to almost catch the lights on green and you can get three fines in 20 seconds.

In the shops
Pharmacies will often deliver medicines at trivial cost. They open seven days a week and late in the evening, there seems to be one in every street competing strongly on price. Not many medicines seem to need prescriptions. Judging from the number of pharmacies and the queues in some it is safe to assume that Brazilians really like medicine.
Supermarkets always have someone at the till to put your shopping into bags. Often they will also push the trolley to the car. Usually there is free coffee (near the coffee shelves) and often also cheese, salami and other promoted products.
Tradesmen have little shops and can fix watches, phones, printers, TVs, washing machines, toasters and all the things Europeans tend to throw away when they break after the guarantee period finishes. You can buy the exact number of screws you need at the screw shop. It can be cheaper to get a dress made to measure than buy a known brand.

Apartment blocks
Security is paramount and almost all the buildings in middle class areas have 24 hour guards and high walls. Nobody gets in or out without the guard’s permission.
Shared facilities are common here. Flavia’s apartment, like mine in Spain, is around 30 years old and has much more land than more modern blocks. The neighbours share a basketball court, two barbecue areas, pool and changing rooms, beach volleyball (which is a bit derelict) and a room for parties and meetings. The underground garage has an area for storing bikes and a compressor for tyres and lilos. Newer buildings often have no land at all but the ground and first floors have barbecues, party rooms, gymnasium, sauna etc.
Apartment sizes are much larger than in Europe. 120 square metres is small and 150 to 200 is very common. Penthouses are as large as 600. There are some smaller apartments but not many.
Maids room and service area and kitchen. Often take up to 50 metres (my apartment in Spain is 75 metres) They all have a large cupboard without windows called the maid’s room. Even a London estate agent would be too embarrassed to call it a bedroom. There is a tiny bathroom with a shower over the lavatory. There is also a large scullery with laundry sink, washing machine, clothes line tumble dryer etc. Nobody I have met has a resident maid and it does strike me as a terrible waste of space.
A chimney over a metre square goes up the centre of the buildings and internal bathrooms have windows into the chimney. Some people have also put in windows from the kitchen. This can add up to a very interesting combination of sounds and smells wafting between apartments. The bathroom door must always be kept closed!
Dogs and cats are allowed but their feet must not touch communal areas. They have to be carried from the apartment front door to the street. This accounts for the large numbers of toy Poodles and absence of Great Danes. The Brazilian pet owners are much better than Europeans at clearing up the mess their dogs make on the pavements.

Bureaucracy
It is terrible! A bit like Spain 20 years ago (and England in 10 years’ time?). So far I have not had much to do with it but recently read that it takes 50 pieces of paper to start a new business and you should allow six months for the formalities. According to a TV program this week many legal processes are still open 20 years after starting

Food
Staples are rice and beans. Flavia says that it is correct to serve rice at any meal unless pasta is served. I think I would add that it is probably also correct to eat beans whenever rice is served unless fish is part of the dish. Bread is mostly eaten for breakfast in little french rolls. If you can afford it it is with butter cheese and ham. Plenty of potatoes are sold but french fries are not often served in restaurants. My roast potatoes (with beef and yorkshire pudding) went down very well.
Restaurants In previous posts I have talked about self service restaurants which I love. Mostly these are open for lunch only. In the evenings they become conventional restaurants or cafe/bars. A meal is often three times the price we pay for lunch for two and is big enough for three or even four people. This is very restricting when you are a couple. If there are more people you have to all agree on what to eat. Smaller portions are often available but it is not cheaper to have two small portions than one mega-meal

That is it for this week. sorry, no pics as I could not think of much that would go with this article. We have just booked two weeks vacation in Salvador, Bahia starting on 31st May. This is a very interesting city, the third biggest in Brazil with wonderful beaches all around and beaten for life, music and art only by Rio.

A brilliant landmark

This is by far the best time of day to get a brilliant first impression of the city. It really is spectacular and is worth the long trip just for this.

Where the politicians talk

Brasilia was conceived a long time ago but in the early 1950s President Kubitschek appointed Lúcio Costa as the urban planner and Oscar Niemeyer as the architect to realise the dream of a new capital city. Even 49 years after the inauguration of the city centre it still looks very contemporary, spacious and uncrowded. The clever layout of the city meant that originally there were no traffic lights at all. There are a few now and occasionally the pedestrian wishes that there were more as he ponders crossing six lanes of traffic between him and his destination.

A shower of sunlight

Walking on air

The original design was for a city of half a million people. There are now five times that plus another couple of million in nearby satellite cities. The concept was a city shaped roughly like a bird or aeroplane. The cockpit and front fusilage is the centre of government and is the equivalent of Westminster and Whitehall in London. The rear fusilage houses lots of different sectors such as banking, hotels, embassies, churches, medicine etc. The two wings are residential laid out to a strict formula with wide roads, lots of open spaces, and easy access to local shopping, entertainment, schools and all the requirements of modern life.

Around this is a very large artificial Lake Paranoá (not paranoia) which fulfills three functions: reservoir, leisure and humidifying what used to be a very dry atmosphere. The city is on a plain one thousand metres high which gives it a very nice climate, not often too hot or too cold and two seasons: wet and dry.

Lots of broken panes of glass

Closed, derelict and unloved

I loved the city and my only reservation is that many of the buildings are in need of maintenance or restoration. For example the cathedral is a brilliant concept, looks wonderful from a distance at night but closer inspection shows that a lot of the stained glass is broken and missing. Similarly the Praça dos Três Poderes (Portuguese for Square of the Three Powers) In the words of wikipedia :
“The name is derived from the encounter of the three federal branches around the plaza: the Executive, represented by the Palácio do Planalto (presidential office); the Legislative, represented by the Congresso Nacional (National Congress); and the Judicial branch, represented by the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Supreme Federal Court)”. For more information see here

All this sounds wonderful except that the square now looks a bit bleak and one of the Niemeyer buildings is permanently closed. It is a brave man who orders the demolition of a Niemeyer building but this will have to happen to some of them. Even though it is a United Nations World Heritage Site the occasional bad building will have to make way for a new one.

On a more personal note it was a very nice trip. Once again Flavia’s extended family were very hospitable. Monica is a doctor but the morning after we arrived she went off on a course and returned a few hours before we left. We looked after the cat in lieu of rent. Her flat is very conveniently located for the city centre being a 15 minutes bus ride. The taxis are reasonably priced and all fares are on the meter so getting around was not a problem. The centre is very hard on the feet as the buildings are often a long way apart.

May 1st was a national holiday and there was a big party in the square under the TV transmitter mast. This is a little like the Eiffel Tower and there is an elevator to a viewing platform 75 metres high. This is well worth a visit to get the best view of the city. We did not attend the party but saw it on TV. The City Hall provided a very big churrasco with lots of live music all free of charge. Tens of thousands of the poorer people attended and had a fine time. During the day teams of dentists, doctors, hairdressers, masseurs, manicurists and other personal care professionals gave free services to all comers. Some people queued for five or six hours.

Marcelo and Juliana after lunch

Talking of markets we also went to the very big imported goods market (popularly known as Feira do Paraguai). Much as I hate shopping I was impressed. It is very large and seems to sell just about anything you can carry. I was surprised at the extensive pirated software openly on sale. Even in Bangkok they are not quite so open. I was not tempted as it was all for Windows and almost free is too high a price for me.

Floating in the air

I think I might start being more polite about TAM. The tickets were paid for with air miles and my trip to Brazil from London was enough for two return tickets. The flights were on time and without incident. The only complaint is that the outward journey had a three hour stopover in Belo Horizonte turning a two hour journey into nearly six hours. If anyone comes to Brazil with TAM make sure that you first register with their frequent flyer scheme.

It is easy to ramble on for hours as there is so much there. I had better stop now.

PS

It looks better in real life

I forgot the The Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge. It is a recent addition and totally in the spirit of Brasilia. There are lots of very nice new buildings complementing the older ones.

This time I will try to add to the blog at least once a week rather than twice. There will be some personal stuff but I will try to keep it all fairly general. The plan is to comment on anything in Brazil that strikes my fancy. The country’s affairs are not well reported in Europe and I hope to give a view from a European perspective. As this is my first week I will be more personal than usual while I find my feet in the Brazilian way of life.

Back together

The journey was about as good as you can hope for. I flew TAM because they had the best deal.  My previous journey with them was full of problems but this time everything worked perfectly.  My luggage was a few kilos over the limit but the checkin at Heathrow did not mention it. In São Paulo they tried to charge me R$72 extra which they finally waived.  It took 21 hours door to door which was very tiring.
It was very good to see Flavia again after three months apart. Skype is very good but but no substitute.

My first impression was the weather.  It is fairly humid which intensifies the feeling of heat. The actual temperature is around 28/32C which is much less than in Málaga in the summer. In short the heat is not a problem for me so far and it is going to get a bit cooler as the summer is now over.  Of course the rain is another thing. It has often been quite cloudy and most evenings there has been heavy rain, often accompanied by thunder and lightning.

Some of the guests

The Sunday after I arrived was Flavia’s birthday and she held a churrasco (barbecue) in the grounds of her apartment. There were twenty people most of whom I already knew and it was good to see old friends. It was very nice to have a maid and a cook to do the hard stuff on the day. We will be eating the left over food for the next month. Sadly we have finished all the beer.

My proxy server in the UK was running well but is suffering from some sort of glitch which needs sorting out.  It allows me to access BBC iPlayer which only admits people who connect via a UK computer. It can also access all sorts of other UK sites which have the same policy. This is another plus for Linux as it is very easy to do and is free.  Talking of computers (again) I have spent a couple of days re-installing Windows Vista Home Edition on Flavia’s computer. It is my first good look at Vista and it really is as bad as its reputation. I will also add Ubuntu Linux in the hope that she might be tempted to see how a proper operating system works.

Only three candles?

On Sunday we attend the wedding of Flavia’s cousin who is marrying an Englishman so there will be an unusual concentration of Brits in Vila Velha. It will be interesting to see how Brazilians celebrate weddings.  The first good thing is that the male guests are not required to dress like waiters.

To close here is a nice thing about life in Brazil. Since my last visit I had my 60th birthday; this gives me all sorts of concessions here. Post offices, banks, lottery shops, chemists etc must either allow me to go to the front of the queue or have a separate queue. Also people who are handicapped, pregnant or with very young children have the same rights.  Another bonus is that I receive half price entry to cinemas, museums and various other tickets. All I need is someone who gives half price hair transplants.

On a technical note I have been forced to make people log in if they want to add a comment.  This is because I was receiving over 20 spam comments every day all of which have to be manually deleted. If you want to add a comment please register a name and email address. You can fake both and remain 100% anonymous if you want.

In the mean time the subject for today is the mosquito.

A mosquito eating lunch

One evening, shortly after arriving in brazil there was a diabolical noise in the road outside the apartment.  I looked out and saw a small truck belching black smoke and making the sort of noise that would really impress Spanish teenager motorcyclists. Flavia explained that this was the fumacê which burns oil to create black smoke to prevent mosquitos. A few days later a man from the town hall mosquito man arrived for his annual visit and put tablets in the u-bends of the water outlets in the floors of the bathrooms.

A fumacê truck

This is part of a very big scheme to try to control malaria and dengue in Brazil. This also explained whey there are not many mosquitos around the town.

The word mosquito derives from Latin via Spanish and Portuguese and means little fly. It is the female of the species that is dangerous – she can survive on a diet of nectar but needs the minerals and vitamins in blood to produce eggs. In Europe mosquitos are little more than a nuisance but in parts of the world they are dangerous killers. If Europe gets any warmer they could easily become a problem in the south.

Malaria is the danger that most people know about. The malaria map for Brazil shows that it is the northern part of Brazil outside of the bigger cities that is affected. The Amazon area is hot and wet which are the perfect conditions for breeding.  It is a dangerous disease worldwide and kills a lot of people every year.  In fact malaria is not that big a problem here, in 2003 there were only 30 deaths.  Bill Gates is not a person I often refer to favourably but I do admire him for the many millions he has donated to malaria research through his foundation.

Dengue fever is a bigger problem at the moment, eapecially in the urban areas. It is a very painful disease; in my childhood in the Caribbean it was known as break-bone fever. It affects most of the country except the far South. Earlier this year just in the State if Rio de Janeiro there were 23,555 cases of dengue, including 30 deaths,  in less than three months. Similar statistics apply to most areas of the country and Espirito Santo had 703 cases in a few weeks this January.

There is no cure or vaccine for dengue fever, all you can do is take the usual treatments for fever and wait for it to go away. The strong and healthy will recover and the weak can die. Once you have had one of the four strains of dengue you are immune to a recurrence of that strain. Unfortunately it also means that if you have an attack by one of the other strains it is more likely to be haemorrhagic which is very dangerous.

The only weapon against dengue is to fight the mosquito itself. It breeds in still water and so old car tires, empty cans and plastic containers, flower pots, open sewage, puddles in the road and even large leaves can all be breeding grounds. Wearing long trousers and sleeves in the evening is a good idea as is using repellants and sprays. In the North visitors should take anti-malaria pills.

On a more cheerful note I will add that I have had a few mosquito bites but they are less of a nuisance here that they are in Málaga during the summer.  Brazil is remarkably free of nasty things! Apart from the jungle areas there are very few natural threats. Snakes, spiders, hornets and all other bugs seem to be pretty harmless. Apart from the occasional shark in the Northeast the sea does not hold much threat.  There are no hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis or anything else dangerous …  apart from the people, of course

For a more detailed description of haemorrhagic dengue see the WHO article.

At 22.30 Rafael took us to the bus station and the 23.10 bus departed on time. This time it was a very luxurious affair with fully reclining seats. We managed to sleep reasonably well and arrived at 06.30 Monday morning just in time for Flavia to start work at 07.00 and for me to complete the missing few hours sleep. It is tough not having to go to work but I have learned not to be jealous as Flavia leaves for work every morning at dawn.

When I arrived in Rio I was expecting not to like it; there had been too many tales of crime and violence and i was expecting to spend the whole time looking over my shoulder. Brazilians seem to enjoy scaring the wits out of foreigners with bloodthirsty tales of gruesome crimes committed in Rio.  Even Flavia was telling me about a visit a few years ago when two favelas were having a disagreement. All night they could hear the sound of guns firing and see tracer bullets going in both directions. Apparently it is not unknown for bullets to enter  apartments nearby.

It is hard to tell where the truth lies. I suspect that the crime rate outside of the favelas has dropped considerably over the years. Probably a lot of the violent crime, as in England, is by young black men against other young black men and often drugs and gang related. All I can say is that it felt no more dangerous than any other large city I have been in. Of course we stuck to the most important areas, were not out in the middle of the night and avoided deserted places.

So my verdict on Rio: it is fantastic, a city not to be missed, it has more natural beauty than any other city I ever ever seen – by a long margin. It has rich and vibrant cultural life too. It would be very easy to spend a week there and that is without going to the beach.  The beaches are wonderful, as good as anywhere, but I would not go there from Europe or the USA just for a beach holiday. There are plenty of nearer places which are much easier to get to. So my advice is go there for two weeks and alternate lazy days on the beaches with touring the city. It is very expensive by Brazilian standards (all large cities are more expensive than the smaller towns) but most Europeans will find the prices fairly reasonable.

It is with eager anticipation that I look forward to my next visit. (Rafael, that is a hint!)

Having gone 400km south-west our next trip is 450 km due west to Belo Horizonte the State Capital of Minas Gerais , the third biggest metropolitan area city in Brazil (5m).  We are going to spend a week driving around the first area in Brazil colonised due to its abundance of gold, diamonds and other riches. “Minas Gerais” means “General Mines” in Portuguese.  There are a lot of old towns with a well developed cultural tourism industry.

We may not have much access to the internet but will try to add a couple of reports while on the road.

On Saturday morning we went to the city centre to visit the Cathedral which did not impress me at all.  It looks like a giant command module of an Apollo space craft. Star Trek fans will know what I mean when I say that it comes from the Klingon school of architecture.  The inside was better but I found the place very depressing. In fact I preferred the distorted reflection of the cathedral on a neighbouring office block.

We then took the Santa Teresa Tram to the same area that we had lunch yesterday.  It is probably as near to a favela that a tourist can go in safety. This was a wonderful ride and is not to be missed. Do not be put off by the tram’s dilapidated appearance and the poverty of some of the passengers (I kept a close grip on my valuables). This is daily transport for many people and is not a tourist attraction. The European Health and safety people would have a nightmare with the open sides, overloading and passengers jumping on and off the moving tram.

The tram is supposed to be limited to 32 people; in spite of going considerably over this number the schedule of a tram every 30 minutes means that there can be long queues.

A couple of hours was spent wandering around various cultural  centres and a stroll around the Rua do Ouvidor area where we had a drink and listened to a samba band playing in the street. Yet again I was struck by the fact that hardly anyone seems to dance. The customers of half a dozen bars listened to the music,  eating and drinking while the shoeshine boys and other hustlers looked for an opportunity to earn a few Reais.

Around 4pm Rafael and his girlfriend Claudia picked us up and we went for lunch in Bar Lagoa restaurant overlooking the lake Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. Three had perfectly cooked and very tender fillet mignon and Rafael went for the steak tartare. I do not object to eating the meat raw – even mixed with raw egg and other ingredients. What put me off is that the large plate arrived with nothing other than the tartare. It would have been much more appealing half the size but with some french fries and salad.  A couple of hours later we left having damaged our wallets severely.

After a rest and a change of  clothes we hit the Santo Scenarum, this time a different building very close to the one we went to on Thursday. We arrived at 21.30 and found that we had to pay $15 dollars admission at the weekend. Three drinks each and the bill for two came to $55 – we are moving in the fast lane.  In fact it was not that bad value.  This place was twice the gigantic size of the other branch. Two seven member tango bands rotated and there was a very large disco area. Someone said that there were 800 customers there and 180 staff. The decorations did not have the religious theme but were just as surreal.  The value for money was confirmed when we left at midnight and discovered a queue four deep stretching 500 metres.

At the bottom we went for a long walk along the Pista Cláudio Coutinho which is a small peninsula which doubles as a military base and a nature reserve. It appeared to be a circular route but the path stopped at the halfway point and we retraced our footsteps. It was very quiet and peaceful but with excelent security so we felt quite safe.

Rafael picked us up  in the afternoon and we explored some of the hills. We wandered around and he showed us all sorts of interesting places. On one of the hills we came across a lake surrounded by tropical jungle. A lot of these areas are protected as part of a National Park. Travelling around the city is not nearly as difficult as you would think as a lot of the hills have tunnels going through them more or less at sea level.

In the Santa Teresa area are a number of simple but very interesting restaurants offering food from the Bahía area. We had a very good lunch there. At first sight the prices looked a bit high but on enquiry the waiter agreed that a single portion might be enough for three. In fact the three of us could not eat it all and Flavia and I did not eat again that day. These portion sizes are fairly typical so do not be shy about ordering a single dish between several people. You can always order more if it is not enough.The problem is finding a dish that all of you want to eat.

We spent a quiet evening and had an early night.