This month we are pleased to introduce a new feature of our correspondent's pages: Alpiste. This is the Portuguese word for bird food, but here it will mean tidbits from the Brazilian press that might be of interest to our English-speaking readers.
Alpiste
Do you like perfume, colognes, nice-smelling stuff like that? Well, Brazil is one of the biggest manufacturers and markets ($405 million dollars in 1995, only 5% of which were imported perfumes) in the world. The tropical climate has something to do with it...in northeastern Brazil - right around the Equator, if your Geography is not quite up to snuff - people average three showers a day and constitute the largest perfume market in the country. We are extremely partial to two Brazilian colognes that have superb scents: Rastro and Alfazema Suiτa. They are very light and fresh and not sweet at all. Try also Alfazema Phebo (lovely lavender scent), which can be found in drugstores and supermarkets and several of the O Boticßrio colognes. They have stores in all the major Brazilian airports, so while you wait for your plane, instead of browsing in a newsstand you can sniff and try their scents. Seems like a good marketing strategy to me...
This is very exciting news...We found a Web site called Live in Rio: The First Live Cam in Brazil. Wanna see what Rio looks like today, like, right now? Click on it!
Amazing how time flies...Chico Buarque is a grandfather already! His daughter Helena and the singer and composer Carlinhos Brown from Bahia are the proud parents of a baby boy called Francisco in honor of his famous granddad. Congratulations everyone!
We'd heard that the beautiful sidewalks of Ipanema Beach, done in the old Portuguese style with black-and-white stones, had been replaced with something nondescript and boring. Well, it turns out that this is NOT true, so we're absolutely thrilled and have started to pack our suitcases to go back to Rio for a walk on the beach and a very cold coconut...Here's a picture taken this month that proves it (featuring Fred the Dog...) We'll soon be walking with Fred on that very same sidewalk...
