I’m in Brazil, in a state called Ceará and it’s in the northeast of Brazil. The northeast of Brazil has a Caribbean vibe because it’s so close to the Caribbean. Even though I haven’t been here for long, I can already get a sense of the vibe, the culture, and I can try to answer a few questions to know What is Brazil known for?
The ocean is the Atlantic Ocean, but it doesn’t feel like Atlantic Ocean with big waves and cold water. It feels like the Caribbean, with not too big waves. Warm weather and warm water. It’s a small paradise on earth with palm trees everywhere and I’m in a small town called, Icaraí de Amontada or Icaraizinho as the people call it here.
We made a whole video about Brazil. You can see it here or go ahead on our Youtube channel to watch it there.
It’s my first time in Brazil, we’ve been booked here for two months and for the first time because we’ve never been here but we have close friends that are living here and they used to work with us in Charlevoix, way back in Canada.
We have a small house, it’s like a little compound. There’s this house, two other small houses, a pool, and that’s it. There’s a couple from Port, Elizabeth, who built their dream house, and they’re still working. As soon as they’re retired, they plan to move here to this land but in the meantime, they rented it. We got a fairly good deal by renting it for two months in advance. I was a little nervous about it because I wasn’t so sure yet we made a good move by renting for two months a place that we’d never been to before.
Who colonized Brazil?
People are wondering who colonized Brazil, Portuguese colonized Brazil but Brazil has been colonized by many European countries. In the South, you have Italians and French people. Here in Icaraizinho and Nordest, there are a lot of French people, then there were German people in 1800, a bunch of Italian people and you have Japanese people at some point all over the coast which is like thousands of kilometers long. You have all these locations where it was like there were slaves there and in Bahia, It was like it’s Africa and Brazil. In Salvador de Bahia, the culture is totally different and you have all these locations that are colonized by different countries in Europe but mainly Portugal like the the owners of Brazil. They were the first there.
They were giving a way just like 400,000 miles or something from their coast, by the Pope or something in the medieval time, but then it gave them Brazil because surprisingly from Portugal, it’s not that far. The flight coming from Lisbon to Fortaleza which is what they call a nice first. For sure, because the closest route by boat, or by plane for that matter was six hour nap and a half, flight seven hours maybe. That’s not that long and they started to colonize Brazil. That’s what like a lot of people are asking themselves.
What language do they speak?
In Brazil, they speak Portuguese. I would say they speak Brazilian Portuguese and it’s a little different from or a lot different Portuguese from Portugal. A little like in Quebec, we speak cubic wine and it’s a type of French and we can understand each other, but it is different. They speak Portuguese here and they don’t speak English that much or at all, like it’s so big here and they have everything to speak Portuguese.
Maybe with a little Spanish that you can tell them like “Look, I don’t speak Portuguese that well but I speak a little Spanish and can we try to understand each other?” And they will say “Yeah, of course” and you can understand each other but with English, as you’re language and might be hard to understand. You will not understand each other here, they don’t speak English very well or at all like a few in the big cities do.
Why Brazil is dangerous?
I wouldn’t say that Brazil is dangerous. I wouldn’t say that a country of thousands of kilometers and 200 millions of people is just one thing, it’s many things. It’s giant country, there’s many cultures, different cities, the level of danger varies between cities and it varies a lot between district inside the city. You could be in a city, walk and everything’s fine there but as soon as you cross this road on the other side it’s really dangerous.
It is dangerous and it’s like there’s a lot of crime and the reasons behind that crime. It’s always the same kind of poverty, education and opportunities. One of the main reason is because there’s illegal then it’s all factions that take on the weed trading business and if it was legal then it would be normal companies that pay tax. But now, since it’s illegal, it’s like organized crime.
I travel to many places nothing really happened to me. I can tell a few stories but here the danger is very real and you must know where to go and not to go. I’ll give you an example. You’re in a video, you type in your address and you drive but the GPS of Google might make you go through the fabella, which is a really bad idea and you arrive at a checkpoint with a guy with a gun. Then you have to know how to react and if you react badly, then it might be a problem for you. Brazil is dangerous and it’s not to be overlooked.
If you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask them to me in comments or on socials medias. I also made a blog post about Mexico, so feel free to check it out.
