These are just a few of Brazil s special experiences. This is also where populations of native Indians, Portuguese, Africans, Japanese, Italians, Germans, Poles, Syrians and Lebanese call home. This rich racial mix and its resulting art, customs, architecture, food and ceremonies are key to each Brazilian experience. As the largest tropical country south of the equator, the landscape is checkered with breathtaking mountains, expansive deserts, long, mysterious rivers and a sprawling Atlantic coastline.
On Brazil s northeastern coast is Fortaleza. For some, it s summer-in-winter fun when much of the U.S. is cold and icy. Brazilian ceremonies fascinate visitor's. See curious passion ceremonials where macho African men wear taffeta gowns and pantaloons while presenting objects of war, boldly dancing and chanting. Capoeira, another African hold-over, is a gymnastic, dance of skill where dancers act out strenuous martial arts, never touching. Check hotels for this type of performance and Fortaleza's Praca (plaza) Jose de Alencar for cultural re- enactments, streetsellers, street poets and lots and lots of color. Soon after dark, head for the waterfront.
Every night, along the city's waterfront, the city dwellers set up a brightly-lit flea market. Here the sand is awash with tables of handmade laces, doilies, intricate linens, embroidered pieces, dainty nighties and coverups. Local fruit liquors, wood carvings, clay pots, leather work, hammocks, baskets and colorful art are there for bargaining. Locally-grown cashew nuts are abundant and very reasonable. Buy in bulk as the locals do. Also, keep better track of cruzeiros with a tiny calculator. If you fail to catch the merchant's price, ask him to enter his price. Then divide the figure by whatever you paid for your currency.
If you possess gemstone savvy, bring your jeweler's loupe, for it's not uncommon to see visitors and locals negotiating across car hoods. In contrast, most hotels have international, upscale jewelers displaying stones, cloisonnes, figurines and other area luxuries.
Find Brazil's musical heritage in over 350 distinctive musical rhythms. Evening fun unfolds in ferro danceterias around midnight and lasts several hours. Frevo and maracatu music, in particular, are favorites in Fortaleza. Fine three music stores In the city's contemporary mall. Preview seductive rhythms and take them home on CD or cassette. Also in malls, Fortaleza is making exciting progress in the world of men's and womens' fashions. They re aiming to be noticed.
Probably one of the pleasantest gastronomic experiences anywhere in Brazil is a good hotel's breakfast buffet. It's also an excellent time to experiment. Combine tropical juices-- mixtures of fresh banana,
pineapple, guava, mango, persimmon, tamarind, passion fruit and orange juices also coconut water. Add a touch of lime. The anthropologists' favorite, manioc, or manioca, kin to tapioca, blends to form delicate crepes for delicious fillings. Top home-made breads with fresh fruit preserves or cajuada jam made from cashew fruit. Fix your full-bodied Brazilian coffee in several ways.
The caipirinha is Brazil's national drink. It's a mixture of raw sugar (crushed with a pestle), a liberal amount of cachaca (a rum distilled from sugar cane) and a generous amount of fresh lime juice. However, be firm, or you'll receive a caipiroska, lime with vodka, similar to a gimlet. Other libation is cajuada, a wine fermented from cashew fruit. Three beers dominate: Antartica, Brahma and Cerpa. Chopp means draft. Affordable, succulent, spicy Atlantic seafood is the favored entree.
Fortaleza's Cumbuco Beach, north of the city, is a multi-duned, sugary beach with energetic music, thatched beach huts and refreshing drinks. Closeby is a large, shaded pavilion serves scrumptious lobster and fish platters. Dunebuggy or single-engine airplane rides add to the fun. A favorite historical signature on the northeast coast is the jangada, a small, make-shift sailing raft still used by fishermen. This craft was featured in Orson Welles film, "Four Men on a Raft."
Beach Park is another Fortaleza response to wet and wild. Here rides, chutes, high level fun and great food take charge. For boaters, Fortaleza's Marina Park Hotel, is new and a 5-star property. It has over 100 slips, yacht support, repair, five dining areas, shopping, sports and a private beach.
BRAZIL'S RIO, CARIOCA TOWN -
Rio is a very strong sense of when the world seemed much larger and money far more plentiful. Kings, princes, presidents and world celebrities flocked to Rio. They romped and frolicked in a new playground for over seven glitzy decades. Rio was and is a dramatic cultural experience.
Today's Rio is an exercise in extremes--great wealth pressed up against extreme poverty. However, these lifesyles frequently blend at Rio's Maracana Stadium where up to 200,000 voracious spectators gather at the world's largest soccer arena. Spectators are separated from players by a nine-foot, fenced moat. Set this amid a world of famous samba schools, opulent carnival associations and a free-for-all beach society. This is also a town where attentive waiters rush to top-off your beer served in a crystal goblet.
Bold mosaid sidewalks and broad avenues rim the landmark beaches of Rio, Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. Automatically associated with these beaches is constant tanga-tugging and skin-oiling which accentuates Brazil's already diverse pigmentation. Rio's beaches are also settings for ball games, courtship, child's play, informal business meetings and sometimes an extra place for a family member to sleep. It's a haunt of the rich and trendy---rich canines with their diamond-studded owners. This is to be a Carioca in Carioca town!
SHOPPING:
Find the city best shops and boutiques in Rio's air-conditioned malls. The largest is Barra Shopping in the Tajuca neighborhood. Free buses connect malls with larger hotels. Away from the malls, shoppers like the boutiques of Impanema along the main street. On the side streets look for excellent leather goods. Brazil is the world's largest producer of colored gemstones, and Rio is headquarters for H. Stern, the world's largest jeweler.
Rio's Sunday morning Hippie Fair, an excellent chance to buy art "direct" and sometimes meet the artist. Buy very affordable miniature art, regular-sized art, bold Brazilian-style decorated jewelry, hair clips, excellently-priced leather goods and hand-etched products. Beautiful Bahian women from the State of Salvador operate a stand at the Fair. From it they sell delicious acaraje, a fried bean curd cake with shrimp, tomatoes, coconut milk, fresh coriander and hot peppers.
RIO'S FAMED PHOTO-OPPS:
Both Corcovado, with its statue of Christ the Redeemer, overlooking the sprawling city and its companion peak, Sugar Loaf some miles away, are exceptional photo opps.
A pleasant cog railroad brings guests to the top of Corcovado, 2,300 feet above Rio de Janeiro. The 60-year old statue is 98 feet tall and has a 92-foot arm span. Recent preservation work cost $2-million. Refreshments are for sale at the top. This swift climb so high, so quick means cooler air, and a jacket comes in handy.
Sugarloaf Mountain, across Rio's panorama, at the entrance to the Bay of Guanabara, rises 1,296 feet. The smooth-riding cable car system is well engineered.
WEEKEND FEASTS ---
FEIJOADA SATURDAY
Originally the food of slaves, this custom evolved to the present day Saturday afternoon feast. A very popular feijoada is served each week at Rio's Caesar Park on Impanema Beach, and others are at the Sheraton and at the Inter-Continental Hotel. Citizens and visitors make it an important part of Saturday. The dinner starts with a special meat broth seasoned with herbs. They Next, they offer the traditional buffet of black beans, beef organs, cured meats, sausages, tongue, pig's ears, tails and totter. This is served with white rice, fried manioc flour, kale, oranges, hot peppers and a groaning dessert table. The cost, for all you can eat, including soft drinks, beer or Brazil s national drink, the caipirinha, is $15 per person.
The Sunday churrascaria is just as ceremonial as feijoada, but the cuts of meats are the best, including flame-broiled, sizzling beef, lamb, pork, sausages and chicken. Cooked in all degrees of "doneness," seemingly endless streams of waiters slice meat off their skewers onto your plate. A huge salad bar with hearts of palm, competes with a very generous dessert table. Chiaroscuro Oasis Restaurants are located in the Ilea, Sao Conrado, Centro and Via Dutra districts. Stay until you can eat no more. The $15 cost includes all food, drinks, beer or caipirinhas.
HIGH TEA AT RIO'S MUSEUM HOTEL:
The Copacabana Palance, the Mediterranean-style, landmark hotel in Rio was the 1933 backdrop for the famed movie, FLYING DOWN TO RIO, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In keeping with Rio's cosmopolitan tradition, the Palace serves its famous weekday high teas with Annie Phillips presiding. She is the former owner and hostess of London's Lord Jim's Pub. Live chamber music completes the scene.
MUSEUMS:
Rio has an abundance of cultural and historical museums. In contrast, visit museums dedicated to Brazil's Indians, Carmen Miranda, the samba tradition and the country's famous gemstones.
GALA SCALA:
Scala, is Rio "The Greatest Showhouse in Latin America. The present a cast of 150 multi-skin-toned, capricious and provocatively-clad men and women lunging from moveable stages and platforms playing out the Brazilian experience. The show reenacts Rio's own carnival, Bahian rituals and northeastern Brazil folk customs.
TOURIST PROTECTION:
In 1992, a 1500-member, bilingual tourist protection force was placed in critical areas of the city and made the enjoyment of Rio much more realistic.
Varig Brazilian Airlines arranges Brazilian travel packages which include airfare, hotel, usually breakfasts and tickets to some attractions. Their toll-free number is (800) 468-2744.
