Tag Archives: brazil

Oi folks!

Still in Brazil, we were not far from the city of Manaus, in the Amazon lowlands. We’d just finished exploring the anabranches of the Rio Negro, so now it was time for our next course of amazing Amazonia – the Amazon Jungle!…

There’s so much of it here that nobody really knows how much remains unexplored. Sure, they’re cutting it down mercilessly, but looking at a map, you get the sense the loggers will run out of steam before the jungle does. And out here in the middle of nowhere there are still tribes living without any contact with the outside world. Yep, really. They’re called uncontacted peoples. The internet says there are several such groups in the Amazon, but precisely how many is hard to work out. Maybe nobody really knows. Anyway, we were heading into perfectly civilized – even fairly touristy – parts of the Amazon jungle:

It’s hot and humid (who knew?!), but at least you’re almost always in the shade – with a few exceptions:

But first – a visit to a local tribe. Here’s the chief:

Read on…

Our tour of South America next took us to Brazil; specifically – to the city of Manaus (after a few adventures in São Paulo). But Manaus was just our base. The attraction was something a lot bigger and a lot more famous (just noticed – its Wikipedia page comes in a full 200 languages; rarely see that!). Have you guessed it yet? Yes, it’s the Amazon – the world’s largest (by both water volume and drainage basin) and arguably the longest river in the world!

Actually, we were more generally exploring Amazonia, aka the Amazon Basin, aka the Amazonian Plain, aka the Amazon Lowlands. And specifically – one of the Amazon’s main tributaries: the Rio Negro. Why? Because in these parts the Amazon is very silty and murky, and so there’s not much to see or do there. The Rio Negro on the other hand has much cleaner water and contains fish and dolphins and more, the surrounding ecosystem is richer, and indigenous people live along it in the jungle.

I say cleaner; here’s proof: the meeting of the muddy Amazon and the cleaner Rio Negro:

If you zoom in you can see it better:

And this mixing of clean and muddy water goes on for dozens of kilometers downstream from where the rivers meet. Here’s the confluence on Google Maps.

So where to begin? With the jungle, the indigenous people, and the rest of the locals? Local customs? Grottoes in the rain lit with shafts of sunlight?…

Read on…

Hola Folks!

And so this here blog of mine has finally caught up with my late-2025 globetrotting escapades to bring me (almost) up to date – at least firmly into this year and its first touristic adventure. And that adventure, as you already know from the title of this blogpost, took place down in South America. But not Rio, and not Iguazu/Itaipu either – though there was a Brazilian installment…

The touristic adventure was an extended vacation – to fill in the lull early in the year, as per tradition. And “extended vacation” can mean only one thing for my blog: an extended series of posts thereon – coming right up! Today – also as per tradition: intro post, to get the juices flowing…

Read on…

A recent post was exclusively about the… exclusive hotel that, by virtue of its… exclusive location, has… exclusive rights to providing tourists with a full-fledged Iguazu Falls experience. This post is less exclusive – well, only just: it’s exclusively (dough!) about two other hotels in Brazil I stayed at recently…

Peak preview pics:

Read on …

As I mentioned last time, after our multiple waterfall-showers, it was time to take a helicopter ride to check out Itaipu and Iguazu from above…

We signed up for the flight, paid, showed up on time, spent about 40 minutes standing in line – and off we choppered!…

Read on…

Still at the Iguazu Falls in Brazil, as per tradition for a stay somewhere in the world that’s unusual/unique, it’s time for a post regarding lodgings – but with a twist: this time, it’s lodging – in the singular…

Here, alas, the choice is stark: you go for either (i) very nice and convenient but expensive, or (ii) not too nice or convenient but cheap – with the “not convenient” bit meaning you don’t get to see sunrises or sunsets from the very best spots to enjoy them. The former option is the Belmond Hotel das Cataratas, whose guests can walk around by the falls any time; the latter option – any other lodgings, whose guests get brought in later and taken away earlier, since the national park closes to visitors. Hardly fair, but I don’t make up the rules…

Read on…

Out of all the waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls are unique. Only here do they take you in motorboats right under the streams of a waterfall for the most amazing shower of you’ll ever take! Of course, they don’t take you under the main – biggest – streams of the waterfalls (that’d be suicidal), but under the smaller, gentler ones – no problem. Something like this:

They take you up the river in motorboats, and then dunk you into scenes like these. The next few shots aren’t mine, but from the company that runs these motorboat showers ->

Read on…

The Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu has plenty to offer the visiting tourist – and not just the waterfalls and the Itaipu Dam; there’s also a really cool bird park – situated right at the exit from the national park of the same name (Foz do Iguaçu) where the waterfalls are. It’s called Parque das Aves (“Bird Park”), and it’s simply must-see!…

Get ready… Coming up: copious quantities of colorful feathered cuties!…

Read on…

As promised, I turn now to the Itaipu Dam – the third-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. It sits on the border between Brazil and Paraguay next to the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu, which is also famous for the nearby Iguaçu Falls.

So let’s go for a walk inside the power plant – where they actually run excursions!…

A monumentally massive structure! The main part of the dam, where the machine hall, the turbines, and all the other key stuff is, runs to nearly 900 meters long!

Read on…

Brazil is a huge country that, just like Russia, actually stretches across two hemispheres. The difference is that while Brazil sits across both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, Russia straddles the Eastern and Western ones.

But perhaps what sets Russia apart from Brazil the most is that Russia’s territories mostly lie on permafrost. Brazil is all about tropics and humid subtropics – perfectly suitable for street carnivals with scantily-clad crowds…

Sure – there are differences; where aren’t there any? But we’re also more or less similar. Let’s take a look:

Size: Brazil = eight million km²; Russia = 17 million km² (but permafrost is more than half of that).

Population: though 10–15 years ago the two countries were roughly equal, today – Brazil = 212 million; Russia = 144 million.

Now, for geography and populations, Wikipedia will do for me. But when it comes to economies, I trust – believe it or not – CIA data more!

Here, for example, are the top 10 economies in the world in terms of GDP at purchasing power parity (2024 data):

Read on…