Time Patrol. Brazil. ’73-’75

I discovered Brazil in 1973. I was in College in France. Made new friends there who were French but raised in Brazil. Since I was brought up in Africa, connections were made. First trip to Brazil in 1973. Second in 1975. Overall I spent six months in Brazil. Picked up Portuguese “na rua” (on the street). My friends would often switch to Portuguese. I listened. Latin, Spanish and French helped. Over the years I worked with Brazil a lot. Travelled back often. A great country. Great people.

During those first two trips we covered a lot of Brazil, all the way to Belem on the Amazon in the North, down to Foz do Iguaçu in the south, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Minas Gerais, Brasilia, the – then- brand new capital of Brazil. And many other places.

The above photograph features the “Praça dos tres poderes” (Plaza of the three powers) in Brasilia. (All photos taken in ’73-’75. It’s been a while…)

Colonial church, Diamantina, Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais (which means ‘General mines’) is a state of the interior, rich in minerals, precious stones. We even visited a diamond mine. They’d transformed an old Mercedes Lorry engine as a pump to sort out the diamonds. Not enough money to buy diamonds though.

Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil. One of the largest waterfalls in the world. On the Paraná river. Paraguay is on the other side of the falls. And Argentina, somewhere… Today I believe there is a long boardwalk across the river, just above the fall.

Iguaçu falls from the Brazilian side, as seen from below the cataract. Again, I think the viewpoint has been extended. Considerably. The word ‘Iguaçu” comes from the Tupi-Guarani word ‘i’ for water, and ‘uaçu’ which means big.

Sete quedas. Yours truly playing explorer in a long gone site close to Iguaçu called “Sete quedas”. (Seven Falls.) A series of 19 falls in seven groups, the volume of water was twice as big as Niagara Falls. Very isolated, one could go from one tiny island to the other on suspended bridges as this one. We were practically alone.

You can imagine the humidity; the noise of the falls was deafening.

Same fall, seen from the other side. Water everywhere. In 1982, the entire site disappeared in a fortnight, as Brazil inaugurated what was then the second largest dam in the world… A few fading photos are all that’s left of this wonderful place.

Rio de Janeiro. (River of January). Founded in 1565. Home of Samba, Macumba, and some of the best varieties of ‘batidas’, cocktails made with ‘cachaça’ a sugarcane alcohol. Many regions in Brazil produce cachaça. Some of you may have heard about ‘caipirinha’. After a couple you see the world with other eyes.

O Cristo do Corcovado. 1931. I’ve just read that it was “Art déco”… Okay. Today I imagine there must be a queue miles long to go up.

“The treasure of the Sierra Madre.” Humphrey Bogart’s “burros” (pronounced “burroughs), somewhere in Minas Gerais.

The cathedral of Brasilia. Designed, as the entire city, by Architect Oscar Niemeyer, it was only inaugurated in 1970, that is three years before we went… The entire new capital was impressive, but had an “unfinished” air, apart from the main administrative buildings. I remember we spent a couple of nights off the main avenues, in a “hotel” of wooden rooms, with planks over the mud and a few rats running between the rooms…

Interior of the cathedral. The angels were designed to give the sensation that they were flying.

Saint Francis church, Ouro Preto, Brazil. The name ‘Ouro preto’ means ‘Black gold’. The city was founded on a gold rush and mining in the 18th century… At one time Ouro Preto’s population was larger than New York… (According to “Kikipedia”.)

Congonhas do Campo. Minas Gerais. During the Gold rush, many flamboyant cities were built in the state. With Baroque churches such as this one. The sculptures around the church are the twelve prophets, (I’d been told the twelve Apostles) sculpted in soapstone by a man called Aleijadinho.

According to Google Lens (Merci Gilles), this would be the Prophet Daniel. Many many years later when I walked the Charles bridge in Prague, I felt I’d been transported back to Congonhas… Very strange how a similar – Baroque – style could be developed thousands of miles apart. The artist’s nickname, “Aleijadinho”, means “the little cripple”. An unknown illness slowly deformed his body and his hands. He lost most his fingers over the years, yet still continued to sculpt, having the chisels and hammers tied to his stumps…

O mensajeiro da fe. The messenger of Faith. We took this boat to sail from Fortaleza to São Luis. Rumour had it that the boat had belonged to Corto Maltese.

“365 igrejas a Bahia tem.” There are 365 churches in Salvador da Bahia, as the song goes. I tried to visit Golden lips, but she was away on a trip.

The Amazon? Close. This is the Pará river, off Belén do Pará, the gateway to the Amazon.

Muito obrigado pela companhia nessa viagem… Thank you for your company on this trip down Memory lane. Até logo. See you soon. (And an apology to my Brazilian and Portuguese friends about possible misspelling. I never learnt how to write Portuguese properly…) 🙏🏻

This is my last post of the season. Travelling next month. I know some of you keep posting on trips. My compliments. I can’t manage it. “Y’all” have a wonderful summer. We’ll keep in touch anyway… (The magic of phones)

And last but not least allow me to end this -too long a- post with a song by fabulous Brazilian artist Dorival Caymmi: “Eu fiz uma viagem”, I took a trip.