Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
USA vs. Ghana in Natal, Brazil

6:30AM – Leave our apartment in Paulista, just north of Recife proper. 7:00AM 7:20AM – Pick up our new friend Eric in historic Olinda, about 8 miles south of Paulista. 7:20AM to 11:15AM – Driving, driving, driving northward to Natal, blasting our “American Music” playlist the whole time. CCR, Skynyrd, the Boss, Nelly, Tom Petty, … Read more

Brazil World Cup host city map

(AKA American’s Guide to the World Cup 2014, because let’s be honest, we are the only ones who need it.) What Is It? Every four years since 1930 a group of the world’s best national teams from the world’s most popular sport get together to fight it out for top honors, a shiny trophy, and … Read more

Lovers at Leblon

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Rio de Janeiro as can be seen in our slideshow of favorite photos below. Its natural setting and the sea of high rises woven through protected, jungle covered rock formations make for a city of unsurpassable beauty. Happily wearing rose colored glasses, we gladly stayed an extra week in … Read more

Arpoador

June 12th, 2014 | Posted by Ian in Brazil | The Places We've Been - (0 Comments)
Arpoador, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Situated right where Ipanema and Copacabana meet each other a small peninsula juts out into the Atlantic. This is Arpoador. Besides creating one of Rio’s best surfing spots below, rolling out consistent breakers of normally up to three meters, Arpoador is open to the public to scale and lounge upon. Locals and tourists alike can … Read more

Second Apartment View

Our house for the month of May was perched amid lush greenery one street from the base of Morro Dois Irmãos between Leblon and Vidigal (more on the location itself in our Everyday Essentials post). It was a fairly large house split into a number of apartments, at least 7 that we know of, and … Read more

Cachaça and Caipirinhas

May 29th, 2014 | Posted by Ian in Brazil | Food - (2 Comments)
Caiprinha

Cachaça Cachaça is to Brazil what tequila (or mezcal!) is to Mexico, what vodka is to Russia, what rum is to the Caribbean – that is to say, it is Brazil’s most common distilled alcohol. Also called pinga or aguardente depending on where you are, cachaça dates to at least the sixteenth century and is distilled … Read more

Our Location

This is a series detailing some of what appear at first to be more mundane details of a place, but will hopefully be illuminating as insights into the grind behind the “glamour.”  Location and Safety Rio de Janeiro is a big place with a lot of variation in neighborhoods. Our rental this month, which we … Read more

Paraty, Brazil

Running the length of the state of Rio de Janeiro’s coastline, and spilling over to São Paolo’s shores as well, is Brazil’s magnificent Costa Verde (literally “Green Coast”, though I prefer “Emerald Coast”). It is a storybook place where blue tropical waters lap against the Serro do Mar mountain range, whose Atlantic rainforest-clad slopes reach … Read more

One last look

At a Glance: Tijuca National Park is one of the largest urban-surrounded forests on earth, taking up some seven percent of Rio’s area. It is not original growth, but is secondary re-planted and otherwise re-grown Atlantic rainforest. After it was realized that the cleared land had eroded and polluted the city’s water supply, Emporor Dom … Read more

Rio Panorama from Mirante Dona Marta

How much of an introduction does A Cidade Maravilhosa (The Marvelous City) really need? Dating to the early sixteenth century, Rio de Janeiro was Brazil’s capital until the move to Brasilia in 1960. Today’s 6 million cariocas, as Rio’s residents are called, make it South America’s third largest city after São Paulo and Buenos Aires; … Read more