Saturday 13 February 2010

Brazil pics - Part One!

Okay, I promised I'd put up some pics from my hols to Brazil to show you what it was like - so here are some edited highlights .... belatedly! It all seems a lifetime ago now what with the chilly climes we've been enduring here ... (ggrrrr!!)

The house we stayed in, in Porto Seguro. I loved the warm colours and rustic style - as soon as I saw the place on a website I knew it would be THE place to stay!

Another house shot with lots of lush vegetation.

Pool shot. One day I want my own place with a pool - every home should have one!

Me taking a dip, I was in there like a shot as soon as we arrived!

Night time dips were rather nice too! (it was so balmy and warm at night it made no difference!)

There were lots of trees in the region with red flowers like then one you see above - this picture doesn't totally do them justice, but very pretty all the same.

Or fabulous pink ones like this.

Cute (pretend) lighthouse at the bottom of the street where we were staying.

I liked the coloured glass of this building.

One of the many beaches in Porto Seguro. Bliss!

Sea view.

We visited the beaches practically every day.

The beaches were constantly full of vendors, like this sweet old lady, coming to sell you various goodies. Prawns on a stick or fried sea food (spiced up with fresh lime) were very popular (and totally delicious!!) Goes very well with a chilled beer too. And they had some fab and very cheap cocktails ...

Yum!! Or as they say in Portuguese, gostoso ....

You also found scenes like this on most of the beach areas - a stage area with lots of Latino music and trained performers/dancers, like the chap with in the red t-shirt with the mic, who'd get all the punters to come up and copy their moves. Brazilians are very into synchronised dancing. I had a good go, but it's damn hard to keep up with it all!

Altogether now .... Follow the leader, leader, leader, follow the leadaaaaaaaaaar!!

Alternatively there were performers like this .... laaaaady (ahem)!! Great entertainment and there was usually a performer of this ilk down on the beach every day.

Standard trannie act usually involved getting four nice-looking men, sometimes mere teenagers, out of the audience (mostly heterosexual guys) and making them perform lots of interesting ... dance moves ... as well as getting them to do other rude and suggestive things, to the extreme amusement of the audience.

Such as this.
And this .... what was great to see was the parents and kids thoroughly enjoying it all with no bigoted comments or nastiness. Not sure you could get away with that in the UK - Brazil is definitely more open-minded in some respects and I just think they have a much freer attitude and sense of fun over there!

Even the pensioners got a look-in.

Alternatively there were fit young fellows like this one - mmm mmm.


If you fancied a tattoo, there was usually someone on the beach who could oblige. Here's me and Gustavo's sisters, newly tattooed (temporary ones, mind!)

Another fascinating thing about the resort is the abundance of Native Indians. Porto Seguro is one of the oldest cities in Brazil, and was the first site to be discovered by the Portuguese explorer, Cabral. Prior to his arrival, the Native Indians were the indigenous population - still are, actually! There were lots of Native Indians frequenting the beaches, selling natural artefacts and the like and we also visited one of their villages a bit later on! This stunning, if sombre looking, guy kindly allowed me to take his picture...

Thinking about it, they probably get sick of tourists saying "Can I take your picture??"!

Another Native Indian, this young boy was a bit of a cheeky chappie and took the mick out of Gustavo being gay! These people are more clued up than you think.


Do you think the headdress suits me, then? More of me in Native Indian attire, later.

Gustavo and some of his family on the beach...

More piccies coming soon!

6 comments:

  1. What a great holiday eh? Love the 'budgie smugglers! We had the sun out yesterday at last...but it wasn't anything as fantatstic as this post of yours!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow. Everywhere looks so unbelievably lush!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Amanda - budgie smugglers means the yellow chairs and tables, right? So there IS better sun in Brazil than NZ after all eh?? ** Evil cackle **

    Steve - Lush is the word in more than one sense, me and Gustavo's family were lushes for the duration of our stay!

    ReplyDelete
  4. gorgeous!!!! looks like a wonderful time!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are kidding me, right? You know exactly what budgie smugglers are...
    You will be thrilled to know it is raining and cold here today!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alan - we did! And thanks, I AM gorgeous, ha ha ha.

    Okay, terrible joke.

    Amanda - Oh my goodness! Nope, I must confess I had absolutely NO idea what "Budgie Smugglers" were ... scout's honour, madam! However having read your comment, I conducted a quick internet search and am now suitably enlightened - I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised, not to mention mega-amused!! Mmmm mmm ...!! Now, I am trying to guess WHY they are called "budgie smugglers"? At a rough guess it's cos they're such small trunks that you could fit a budgie in them?? There isn't any other reason is there ... ?!

    ReplyDelete