A new Brazil

This blog is called a new Brazil for two reasons. Firstly, because I have travelled to some places that have shown me new and exciting sides to Brazil that I hadn’t had the chance to see before. Secondly, because of the ongoing election which is, regardless of who is elected, going to have a huge impact on Brazil as a country. This second point I will touch on first, and only briefly, as I don’t consider myself as sufficiently knowledgeable to discuss the election in detail, but do think it’s an important topic to bring up.

Almost two weeks ago, Brazil held their first round of presidential elections. Going into these elections, it was expected that Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate, would win outright with over 50% of the vote. He just missed out on the majority vote, meaning a second round of elections between him and far-left candidate Haddad is approaching towards the end of this month. Most people I have spoken to say that neither outcome will be positive, as Haddad’s party, PT, is seen by many to have ruined the country, with Lula, a former PT president currently in jail for corruption, and Dilma Rousseff, another former PT president, having been impeached for the same thing as recently as 2016. Despite this, I would argue that Bolsonaro is a far worse option, as his views can only be described as somewhat fascist, and I personally think he would be a dangerous man to have in charge of any country, let alone a country like Brazil. His candidacy has provoked worldwide #EleNão protests, with people rallying to convince the Brazilian population against voting for him. However, I am aware that this is just my opinion, and the reality is that Brazilians have a tough decision ahead of them, as neither candidate is perfect.

Anyway, onto a lighter topic, Meg recently came to São Paulo to visit for a weekend. We had a lovely few days including another trip to Praça Pôr do Sol to watch the sunset, a stroll down Paulista on a Sunday, and a night out which started off very pleasantly at a cool bar in Vila Madalena called Benzina. Benzina does great cocktails for very reasonable prices and always has a buzzing atmosphere. The night took rather an interesting turn when we decided to head on to a club called Nossa Casa. Will’s housemate, Otavio, had warned us that people at this club like to take their clothes off, but I assumed he just meant their shirts, à la Baywatch at Ocean every Friday night in Nottingham. Turns out he literally meant ALL their clothes. We walked into this club, ready for a normal night out, and were greeted by the sight of a dancing middle aged man who was completely naked. In the middle of the club. Naked. As you can imagine this was quite a surprise, but once over the initial shock (this took a while to get over I’m not going to lie), we had a slightly less bizarre night, although even without the naked man, Nossa Casa isn’t the best of clubs. We left after a couple of hours and the rest of the weekend passed with no further shocks.

Lew, me, Tilly and Will at Praça Pôr do Sol

A couple of weeks later, we took a weekend trip to a town in the interior of São Paulo state called Brotas, a place known for its outdoor activities such as white-water rafting,  and it was nice to do something a little different, in a town less well-known to tourists. We stayed in a great hostel which was imaginatively called Brotas Hostel. On our first full day in Brotas, we decided to go canyoning, or in other words, we decided to launch ourselves down waterfalls dangling from a rope. Not something I ever thought I’d try, but it was really good fun. We made our way down a 7m waterfall as training, followed by a 25m waterfall and ending on a fairly intimidating 40m waterfall. The following day we went white-water rafting. This was also enjoyable, although I personally preferred the canyoning as there was less excitement involved in white-water rafting. Our guide gave us a ‘battle cry’ of “ele não”, which was quite fitting as it just so happened to be election day that day. On Sunday, Tilly and I left the boys in Brotas as we were travelling to Picinguaba on the São Paulo coastline on the Monday to stay with Glaucia, who Tilly knows through a friend from home.

Brotas 

Our week in Picinguaba could not have been better. Glaucia and her partner Gavin own a fantastic beach house there, and our room looked straight out onto the beach! Picinguaba is a fisherman’s village near Ubatuba with only about 450 residents, most of whom are descendant from the indigenous caiçara Indians. The village is still a fishing village and it has maintained the charm of a small village despite the influx of tourists in recent years. A short boat journey from Picinguaba beach is Ilha das Couves, a stunning tropical island with the clearest water I have ever seen around it. We did some snorkelling here, although you can easily see the fish with no mask as the water is so clear.

In the sea at Ilha das Couves 

While in Picinguaba we also visited a number of incredible beaches including Praia da Fazenda, which is basically empty of tourists despite being one of the most amazing beaches I’ve ever seen. We tried our hand at stand-up paddle (which I was terrible at, apparently I have absolutely no sense of balance)  around Picinguaba, as well as visiting a waterfall that is situated nearby. The locals in Picinguaba are a very interesting bunch of people, and Glaucia spent a lot of time telling us some of their individual stories, which were both fascinating and hilarious at the same time. A lovely drunk fisherman who lives in the town returned after 20 days at sea alone whilst we were there, and he proceeded to open up his backpack (a questionable storage device for fresh fish if you ask me, but hey I’m not a fisherman what do I know) and give us one of the fish he had caught, along with a dreamcatcher he had been given which he gifted to me. He then proceeded to sing and dance Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean for us, before heading off home and completely forgetting the entire encounter, as we discovered the next day when we bumped into him and he could barely remember seeing us. All in all, Picinguaba is a wonderful place with some captivating people, and I hope to be able to return one day soon.

Sunsets in Picinguaba 

That’s all for this blog, thanks for reading!
Beijos,
Lola