{"id":526,"date":"2019-11-11T09:39:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T11:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2020-05-02T16:51:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T19:51:20","slug":"brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"90 days in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently traveled to Brazil \u2013 the first country I visited in South America. Brazil being my first choice because of a very special Brazilian guy I met in Cape Town just before I started my 11 months trip around the world. So beginning of August 2019 I flew to Rio and planned to maybe stay for 4 weeks in Brazil, but I ended up staying the full 90 days my visa allowed me. However, it wasn\u2019t anything at all as I imagined in my mind before. First of all, because things with the Brazilian guy did not work out. Unfortunately, our life paths and personalities were just too different, so we split ways 2 weeks after I arrived in Brazil. Oh, boy, did I struggle. Without speaking any Portuguese and basically no Spanish either. (and the Spanish course I attended in 2007 was just too long ago). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some impressions of my time in Brazil<\/figcaption><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In other countries I had traveled before, I was always doing fine because most people spoke English anyway. Not in Brazil. In Rio and Sao Paulo, you meet a few more people speaking English but besides that, it goes down to near to no one. On top of that, I was traveling in Brazilian winter \u2013 off-season and there weren\u2019t that many international tourists either. So to be honest, 2 weeks after parting ways with the Brazilian guy, I was ready to book a flight around the globe to Bali \u2013 where I had been before, I knew I loved it and I would be able to get by with speaking English. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then a voice inside of me urged me not to run away when\nit gets a bit difficult and try to make it work, now that I was there. So\ndespite all the difficulties and feeling lonely quite often, I stuck with it\nand ended up falling in love with Brazil so much that I cannot wait to go back.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took me a while to fall in love with the country Brazil though. The first two to three weeks I thought, \u201cWell\u2026 nothing new, it is kind of a mix of countries I had seen before, a little bit like Tanzania, a little bit like Costa Rica, a little bit like India in certain ways.\u201d And in other places, it reminded me of Thailand or Indonesia, both of which blew me away instantly because of the people and their warm-heartedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil is different \u2013 the country and the people took longer\nto charm me. On the one hand because of the language barrier, but maybe it also\nhas to do with the vast size of the country and the diversity of regional\ndifferences across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What really made a difference was meeting local people. And\nagain, almost none of them could speak English! But I managed to pick up some\nwords and together with google translate as well as communicating with my hands\nand feet I managed to have basic conversations and got by. I loved how none of\nthe Brazilians would judge my very broken Portuguese but instead would value\nany efforts of me trying to speak and somehow always understood me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I made friends with some locals, I felt so welcome and included. They didn\u2019t make me feel like a tourist or stranger like I have felt in other countries but mostly just like a fellow human plus their excitement to meet a German. Brazilians are incredibly kind, incredibly patient, understanding and always take their time to understand you. They were never in a rush. Brazilians are also extremely generous and giving. Even if they have very little, they will still give you so much. Open their doors, host you, cook for you, pay for your drinks and insist that you must accept their generosity. Their kindness is limitless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spending time with Brazilian locals<\/figcaption><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To me, one of the nicest things in Brazil was that I hardly met international tourists (even though it made communication more difficult). Partly due to it being winter I guess, but I also have a feeling that Brazil is very much overlooked as a tourist destination compared to other more popular countries. I did meet one special Brazilian traveler – Lucian Antunes<\/a> – in a hostel on Ilha Grande, who is a young and very talented photographer. He took the pictures of me that you find on my Welcome page<\/a> and my Yin Yoga<\/a> page. If you are ever in Brazil get in touch with him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I arrived in Brazil, it was daunting to me. This vast country and all you hear of is Rio de Janeiro, then the crazy and dangerous S\u00e3o Paulo and the Amazon. Sao Paulo is indeed a crazy big city. 12.18 Mio inhabitants. City life \u2013 which is not my thing. After spending 5 \u00bd weeks by the ocean following the slow surfer\u2019s life, going to Sao Paulo came as quite the shock. Lots of traffic and no end to this huge city of buildings and skyscrapers. You feel very small and insignificant. People feel more stressed, rushed and seem more impatient. It feels like they have lost touch with themselves, with nature, their surroundings. The focus is on work \u2013 I guess it is the same as in other big cities and you can literally feel there is less balance than at the seaside or in smaller towns. But if you are a city person, there is a lot to do.  I met other travelers who spent weeks here and loved it, for the museums, the architecture, and other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except for Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, there were usually more Brazilians and Argentinians in the hostels I stayed than any other nationality so you get to spend a lot of time with locals – which is so refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special tip<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you are interested to go skydiving, in Brazil – more specifically in Boituva – is the biggest skydiving operation in the southern hemisphere and also the cheapest. All companies are really professional there, you just need to see who’s personal energy you like most because they are literally pretty much all the same with small price differences. I had skydiving on my bucket list for many years so I went and did it. Most of the other people were super scared before they jumped, only I was not, I was excited! However, after the jump all the other people were excited and loved it but not me. To my surprise, I was horrified and will never do it again! But it is off my bucket list now. Glad I did it!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first and last skydive jump<\/figcaption><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One thing I do want to mention is that before I traveled to Brazil I was told how dangerous it is. And honestly \u2013 having lived in South Africa for over 11 years, Brazil didn\u2019t seem dangerous to me at all. I never felt unsafe, not even in Rio. Sure in the big cities you need to be more careful, but smaller towns and cities you can even walk at night and feel very safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 90 days in Brazil I had properly fallen in love with the country and its people, my heart and mind were filled with all the good things Brazil has to offer. I left Brazil heavy-hearted but with a big smile on my face and a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart. I will be back for sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I liked most about Brazil: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • an endless amount of beaches with amazing surf<\/li>
  • surfing with turtles<\/li>
  • beautiful language <\/li>
  • kind & warmhearted helpful people<\/li>
  • very musical country \u2013 it seemed like every 2nd<\/sup> person played the guitar and sings<\/li>
  • best caipirinhas<\/li>
  • A\u00e7ai juices & bowls<\/li>
  • no one ever seems in a rush<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    THE NAKED TRUTH<\/strong>
    Life and also traveling are not always sunshine and rainbows \u2013 especially not outside your comfort zone and no story is complete without mentioning the struggles, the difficulties, and the hard times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4 weeks after arriving in Brazil and 2 weeks after traveling by myself (after parting ways with the Brazilian guy) I admitted defeat and was ready to leave Brazil. I felt I was not getting on with Brazil and especially my missing language skills being a huge problem. Also traveling by myself and mostly meeting Portuguese and Spanish-speaking people, I often felt alone or lonely throughout those 90 days even though I do enjoy being by myself a lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

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    I recently traveled to Brazil \u2013 my first country in South America. I planned to maybe stay for 4 weeks but ended up staying the full 90 days my visa allowed me – and all that without speaking even one word of Portuguese. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[37,41,40,32],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-brazil","tag-portuguese","tag-south-america","tag-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingrebel.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}