Iguazu Falls, Brazilian side – Photos (and my Brazil summary)
April 3rd, 2007
and here’s the bird who got pissed off and tried to pecker me…
Final thoughts on Brazil
I’ve avoided giving my opinion on Brazil until the very end – but I’ll say it now: Brazil was for me the most overrated and disappointing place I’ve ever been on vacation (Greece now falls to 2nd on that list). My opinion is based on 2 1/2 weeks of travel within a small portion of Brazil, so take my opinion for what it’s worth…but as equally as I can say that I loved Colombia during my 2 visits, I can also say that I really disliked Brazil.
The biggest reason (the principal reason we usually end up liking or disliking a place) were the people. Maybe I thought the people would be “Latin”, like in Colombia or the Dominican Republic – happy, outgoing, and friendly people. They weren’t. At least not towards me. They were actually downright hostile. And I’m quite sure I know why. It boils down to Mr. George W Bush and American policies which have resulted in a social and political backlash in South America; left-leaning governments and anti-Americanism are at all-time highs. Do I blame them? No. But when I have some Brazilian twat intentionally hitting me with her luggage cart (twice) at the airport, I start taking it personally. I would ask someone a question and they would respond but would do it addressing Lissette (she’s Latin so she was ok). And it wasn’t always in-your-face blatant, but it was evident to me; I can count on one hand the number of people who would respond with a smile or who weren’t brusque in their manner. Brazil was the one place where I felt that I could be mugged in broad daylight and where locals wouldn’t even budge to help you. They’d probably cheer the muggers on.
We’ve argued about this; Lissette thinks it’s great that Latin people are, in her words, “proud – they won’t bow to the white man. Most Latins don’t stick together and Brazilians do”. I respond that I have no problem if they’re proud and I don’t ask anyone to bow down to me – but if I’m being friendly and people are rude towards me then I have no reason to like them. I’m not American – this “anti-Americanism” is a broader brush against any white traveler.
But I’m not sure it was only this either. We took a boat cruise where almost all the tourists were Brazilian (most tourists we saw were either Brazilians touring their own country or Argentinians – we didn’t see too many whites). They weren’t all that friendly towards each other either. I found Brazilians to be a dour bunch.
I could rant on and on but I’ll finish with a few other points about Brazil;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha
Again, this is just my opinion. Sorry to be negative.
f_thomae