Tag Archives: brazil

I’ll tell you about Rio a bit later, as well as other notable events of my trip. But first I want to tell you about Brasília, the capital of Brazil – for it’s rather an intriguing place…

The city was built from scratch in the early 1960s (meaning it’s less than 70 years old!) specially to become the capital – Brazil’s state-administrative center. The main buildings were designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer – known for his leading role in designing the UN headquarters in New York…

With a population of about 2.5 million, the city’s shaped like a bird (or airplane) – a long, narrow central part with two “wings” on each side. Here it is on Google Maps:

Read on…

Another day – another continent!…

• Country: Brazil.
• City: Rio de Janeiro
• Main business: our regional (the Americas; these days mostly Latin American) partner conference
• Secondary activity: tourisms – of course!…

First up – the partner conference carnival. It wasn’t in Rio city itself, but a bit outside – in a beach suburb; still Rio though. I’d been here a couple of times before, but that was ages ago. The first time was in 2006; the second in 2010 – and on both occasions the reason I was here was for… you won’t will believe it: regional partner conferences!

Back then, I didn’t bother with detailed stories and lots photos (that got started properly in 2011), so I can’t compare today’s experience with that from 19 and 15 years ago, alas.

On the morning of our arrival, with a few hard days’ work ahead, we start out with breakfast looking out onto the South Atlantic Ocean – and a seemingly endless traffic jam:

Read on…

My series of posts from both the Egyptian and Jordanian sides turned out to last longer than the trips themselves! As a result, there’s been a delay in my starting a new series from a different continent, which took place as far back as late November. And that continent is… South America. And the countries? Brazil and Chile!…

// Perhaps I should stop writing a sentence like the next one in my posts, as what it describes seems to go without saying for every business trip! The work portion of the trip was busy bust-a-gut intense! That is – lots of: meetings, presentations, speeches, interviews, new acquaintances, hand-shakes, and a lot more besides! Perhaps I need to also stop writing sentences like this one: After the work was all done, it was time for some rest-and-relaxation/tourism time – of both a quantity and tempo of similarly bust-a-gut intensity!… So in future, perhaps I’ll just link back to this blogpost and avoid the repetition! No – that won’t work; I’ll just try and be briefer somehow…

But before that “tourism till you drop”, a quick breather: some intro-photos and a few intro-words too…

I’ll start, logically, from the beginning: with the flight. Flying from Moscow to Brazil these days takes about as long as it does from Moscow to Australia (Sydney) – 19 hours up in the air – which is four hours longer than what it used to take. Before, for example, the first leg of the journey was Moscow to Paris (3.5 hours), and the second: Paris to Sao Paulo (+11 hours) = 15 hours. Now it’s 5 hours – to Doha – then +14 hours to Sao Paulo, which makes 19 hours.

But it is what it is. We just have to get used to living in the new geopolitical-transportational reality.

Read on…

Hi folks!

Herewith, my final post on Iguazu! All good things come to an end…

On our last day at Iguazu the sun came out to play – for the first time while we were there. This is quite normal, of course, but what was less normal was how the clear skies (no rain) that began the previous night led to the water levels falling by more than two meters! Haven’t seen that often. Have a look for yourself:

Read on: Dry season and floods…

Herewith, one of my regular ‘columns’ on this here blog of mine – (in)habitat(ion), i.e., where the locals stay and/or where we stay on our travels. This time – it’s categorically where we stayed, since no locals live right next to the Iguazu Falls. Birds on the other hand…

Now, there’s one hotel that sits right next door to the falls. And it’s a very nice one. It’s the Belmond hotel das Cataratas. Here’s an aerial pic thereof:

If your budget permits, I heartily recommend you stay here. The reason is fairly obvious: as in selling real estate, it’s down to three simple things: location, location and location!

A room with a view of the falls isn’t really needed (you can’t see them too clearly through the forest that surrounds the hotel). But waking, breakfasting, then a stroll of just a hundred meters to the Iguazu viewing platform – well, what more could you ask for? Ok, I guess you could ask for a pre-breakkie morning constitutional to the falls, and even a post-dinner walk thereto, cigar in hand. The answer would still be ‘no problem’!

Read on: Another bonus of staying at this hotel…

While at the waterfalls called Iguazu, taking a helicopter ride is a must-do!

A flight up above the falls is not only wholly informative, it’s also thoroughly meditative – just how I like it. Oki-doki… off we chopper…

Here’s the Iguazu River downstream of the falls:

Here’s where the Iguazu (river) meets the Parana – the second longest South American river (after the Amazon, of course:). It’s also a spot where three countries’ borders meet: Paraguay to the right, Argentina – top left, Brazil – bottom left. The differences in the quality of housing and roads are quite marked between the three countries (see the photos further below) – highlighting their different levels of economic development:

Read on: Left of the river – Paraguay, right – Brazil…

Hi folks!

As promised, herewith, more from the best stretch of the Argentina-Brazil border.

There’s a good reason why it’s ‘falls’ – in the plural. Apart from the obvious fact that this is for sure a collection of waterfalls all together – some to the east, some to the left, others to the north and south – you can also split the falls in two geographically-politically: some of them fall (pun unintended) in Brazil; the others – Argentina. You can see how on the map: the border between the two countries runs down the middle of the Iguazu River. Anyway – the views from each country are totally different. From Brazil it’s all about panoramic views and water cascading down. From the Argentine side: a spectacle of the almighty power of the waterfalls. There’s also cascading water – only you view it from up top. But enough words; enter the pics!..

So, here we go: first up – Brazil:

Read on: go right the edge and peer down…

Hi folks!

Today I’ll be continuing the South American industrial topic, but with a difference…

Now, should you ever be planning on being in the vicinity of the Itaipu Dam, try and schedule a couple of days in that vicinity. Better still – make those couple of days a weekend. Why? Because on the second day, there’s another must-see you… must see: a mere 40 kilometers away are the inconceivably incredible Iguazu Falls – and they’re always working and always open to the public…

It’s a spellbinding, hypnotizing sight. The mind gets truly blown as the water pounds down making an almighty din. Alas, I can only show you pictures of the spectacle; shame, as the noise is half the mega-sensual experience (and taking a video wouldn’t work – the zillion decibels wouldn’t ‘fit’ through the camera’s microphone). So, as I say often on these here cyber-pages, you’ll just have to get here yourselves one day to hear these waterfalls in the flesh.

Read on: Patience please…

Hi folks!

Like many boys, I’m fascinated by all things industrial, and the more industrial – the better. So when things get massively and grandiosely industrial, I get fairly euphoric. So when I was recently at the massively grandiose Itaipu Dam on the border of Brazil and Paraguay – the euphoria went off the scale…

Read on: view from up in a chopper…

Midori Kuma came into this world in Tokyo, Japan. We know little about his childhood, in fact – almost nothing at all…

In his youth he led a somewhat free-and-easy, unrestrained way of life – indeed the antithesis of the archetypal Hikikomori. According to folks who knew him back then, Midori Kuma was often to be found at various Japanese parties, presentations, exhibitions and conferences. In other words, he led the same kind of life he leads today – that of an active participant doing the rounds on the society circuit.

Read on: Midori Kuma gets attention from ladies…