Introduction

Welcome to the Gringoes.com email newsletter!
This newsletter pulls together some of the articles, photos, polls and other information that has been published on the Gringoes.com web site over the last week or so. Don't forget to visit the Gringoes.com site to checkout our article archive, useful information pages, classified adverts, services, forum and other pages. So read on and we hope you enjoy the newsletter. As always if you have any comments, such as what you'd like to see more or less of on the site or newsletter, don't hesitate to contact us at gringoes@gringoes.com.
Please note that although we are based in São Paulo, the site and newsletter are for the whole of Brazil. We are particularly interested in hearing from people outside of São Paulo city, specifically Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast, so if you would like to write about your experiences or any topic related to Brazil see our request for "Article Writers" below.
If you're interested to know the origin behind the site name, then read the "Dear Gringo" article here by Dr. G.


Tito Martinez and Band at Grand Hotel Ca' d'Oro

Tito Martino managed to take his Band to the USA, to play some gigs in New Orleans, N.York, New Jersey, Miami and Tucson Arizona. the Band attracted attention of prestigious and respected Jazz critic John Wilson of New York Times Wilson wrote: “Mr. Martino revealed his affection for the style of George Lewis, the New Orleans clarinetist, in a beautifully shaded performance of Burgundy Street Blues; but although one could hear occasional reflections of well known American jazz men … he was drawing in a number of sources and putting things together in his own individual way”. After jamming together, Alvin Alcorn, the great black trumpetist of Kid Ory’s Band, tapped Tito’s shoulder and said: “Know what, man, you’re black inside”. The Band performed also in Wash. DC, a Concert for Potomac Jazz Club, aired by The Voice of America, and in Chicago Heights, Toledo, St. Louis, Akron, St. Louis, New York, Wash. DC, Boston, Worcester, after playing at the N. Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, being considered by Second Line magazine writers, the best foreign Band at the Festival.
They are now playing at the Bar in Grand Hotel Ca' d'Oro every friday night from 9 pm to midnight. Rua Agusta 129. Reservations call 3236-4300. Couvert R$15,00. Drinks, appetizers, optional dinner at the excelent hotel restaurant (considered one of the best in São Paulo).


What? You Really Want to Open a Restaurant in Brazil?

By Paul Hopkins
October 23, 2007
This article is to tell you about our experiences in migrating to and opening a restaurant in Brazil, more specifically, in Trancoso, Porto Seguro, in the South of Bahia.
I am from Perth in Western Australia and I met my wife in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro. We got married in 1993. After living in Niteroi for one year (I used to teach English), we decided it was time to go to Australia and work hard at exploiting the "1st world" (for a change), then come back to Brazil to open a very small business and chill out by the beach somewhere.
In 2000, we came back to Brazil for a 3 month holiday to see if we still felt the same way about coming back for good. So we flew all the way to Fortaleza and drove down to the South of Bahia, and the answer was YES! But instead of opening a small pousada, I decided what Brazil‘s northeast really needed was options in terms of food. So we went back to Australia to save a bit more and to get organized in relation to our future plans. In our last 3 years in Australia, we did all the small business courses available to prepare ourselves to run a business, as both of us had been public servants all our working lives. I did my Commercial Cookery course (Chef‘s Course) and 2 year‘s work experience in a variety of restaurants. My wife (Luiza) did a Bar & Restaurant Service & Management Course and also some work experience in several restaurants in Australia. Both of us tried to learn as much as we could about the industry in the shortest period of time as we were both working full-time in our real jobs. Of course, we needed to gather as much money as we could behind us, as we were aware that things in Brazil are, most of the time, not very easy or the economy very stable.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil: The Business of Climate Change Part 3

By Tim Cowman
October 23, 2007
Climate change is THE hot topic (please excuse the pun) of the moment. No more so than in the country commonly referred to as the lungs of the world, Brazil. Over this four weeks Tim Cowman will bring us up to speed on the newly created business of the climate.
The issue with the Amazon of course does not merely lie in the number of its trees but its destruction must also be considered in light of the wide-ranging implications that could be felt. Scientists consider that this ecosystem controls the climate of the entire continent and supplies rain from the Amazon basin (largest freshwater reserve in the world) to the economically essential agricultural fields of southern Brazil.
One of the driving aims of the previously mentioned Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was to channel funds and clean technologies to developing nations to cut their GHG emissions. As has been highlighted in areas such as renewable energies, energy efficiency and methane avoidance it can be considered a success. One large obstacle however still remains, that of the unresolved issue relating to reforestation projects.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Article Writers

Are you a "Gringo" (foreigner) living in or travelling around Brazil with experiences you would like to write about, or with advice to offer? Are you a Brazilian who would like to explain about Brazil to foreigners, and help give advice on what to do, and where to go? Perhaps you just write a frequent blog about Brazil, and would be interested in publishing some of this on our site. If you are interested in writing an article, or series of articles, or posting your blog content on Gringoes.com we are interested in hearing from you! Don't be shy! All we ask is that the articles are focused on Brazil, will be of interest to foreigners either travelling or living here, and are written in English.
We are particularly interested in hearing from people who want to write about areas other than São Paulo, specifically Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast, although other areas as well. If you are unsure about a topic then drop us an email or a draft article. Send your articles or any questions to gringoes@gringoes.com with "articles" in the subject.
An extra addition this week, as we've had a couple of article suggestions that none of the Gringoes.com staff feel they are capable of writing. So the hope is that a reader out there would be interested. The two topic suggestions are:
1. Renting Cars in Brazil - covering say any license requirements, insurance (and any related peculiarities), and perhaps a summary guide on the oddities of driving in Brazil
2. Brazilian Swear Words and Slang - we're a bit wary of this topic in case we offend more sensitive readers, but it could also prove a useful guide to not saying the wrong thing (we're aware that Tamashin has already written a large slang guide).
If you are interested in writing then contact mark@gringoes.com.
Equally if you have any article ideas that you'd like to see written, then feel free to drop us a line.


Interviews

Thanks to those who responded to our request for interviews. We've almost run out though, so if you would like to be in our Brazil Through Foreign Eyes, or Foreigners Through Brazilian Eyes series please send us an email. As you can see it doesn't matter if you're a foreigner to Brazil, or Brazilian, we're still interested to hear from you. The interview series is a fascinating look at how real people are enjoying Brazil, and equally how Brazilians really see foreigners. They also give various tips on what to see in Brazil, and how to survive here.
The interview itself is a set of around 15 easy-to-answer questions, and ideally we like a digital photo of you as well we can place with the interview.
So if you're interested, don't be shy, send a blank email to mark@gringoes.com with "Interview" in the subject. We will then send you the questions, and instructions on how to complete. We'd love to hear from you!
A gentle reminder to those who have been sent questions. Please don't forget to complete and return them!


Gringoes Poll

Last week's poll was on the English fluency of Brazilians you encounter in everyday life. Do you encounter English speakers all the time, infrequently, or never? The clear winner with 64% is "Now and then", followed by "All the time" with 23%, and "Never" with 12%.
This week's poll is on opening a business in Brazil. Would you consider it, do you already have a business, or would you think it was madness? If you haven't yet voted go to our homepage and look for the poll in the left-hand column.
If you can't stand our poll ideas and have better ones, or are curious about some aspect of the Gringoes.com readers, then send your ideas to us at mark@gringoes.com with "Poll Idea" in the subject. If we choose your poll you will get a credit in the newsletter, as well as the satisfaction of seeing what the answers are!

Please send this email to anyone you think might find it interesting. If you have not yet registered with gringoes.com and would like to receive future newsletters click here. If you have mistakenly received this message, or would no longer like to receive mail from us, then please reply to this email with the word 'take out' in the subject line. If you are unsubscribing because the newsletter doesn't meet your needs then please let us know how we can improve it.

Weekly Quiz

Last week's quiz question was from Teacher Claudia: what was the Battle of Flowers in the History of Brazil? Congratulations to Jacques Allain who was first to reply with the correct answer: in February 1888, Princesa Isabel promoted the first “Battle of Flowers”, a party to get funds for the liberation of slaves.
We've run out of quiz questions so a special request for more. Do you think you can stump the Gringoes.com readers? If so then please send your quiz questions to mark@gringoes.com with ‘Weekly Quiz Ideas’ in the subject line. Don't forget to send the answer to the question also! Remember it needs to be relatively difficult, and not something that can be found from a simple Internet search.


Photo of the Week

The photo of the week is titled Beija-Flor, taken by Andrea Molnár Szegö in Ilha Bela. Click here to see the photo.
Thanks to all those who've sent in photos based on our request, but we can always do with more. So if you have a funny or unusual photo depicting life in Brazil please send it to gringoes@gringoes.com with ‘Photo of the Week’ in the subject line. Ideally we are after photos that are of something a little different, not traditional shots of beaches and sunsets. Please send relatively high resolution images (0.5 Megapixel / 640 x 480 or bigger), and let us know where you took the photo and if you have a title for it.


Around South America: Uruguay - The Country That Doesn't Dream

By Neil Davies
October 22, 2007
Eclipsed, in size terms and to a great extent culturally, by neighbours Brazil and Argentina there exists an overlooked country of 3 million people of which in Europe we know very little. Who could come up with three facts about Uruguay? It founds itself in the headlines, at least in the Spanish-speaking press, recently due to being engaged in a dispute with Argentina over two pulp paper mills being built along the shared Uruguay river, which lead to Argentine ecologists´ blocking the two countries´ land borders.
Having visited Uruguay this year my impression was of a developed, proud, peaceful, yet contradictory place. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, "History - read it and weep!", and the country´s recent past has been difficult, to say the least. In the 1960´s Marxist Tupamaro guerrillas waged a violent anarchist campaign and there followed repressive military rule between 1973 and 1985, More recently, after the region´s 2001 economic crisis unemployment levels rose to more than 20%, and this period saw Uruguay experiencing the highest numbers of emigration of any Latin American nation. It is estimated that, even several years on, up to one-fifth of all Uruguayans now live abroad. Having always prided itself on being "The Switzerland of South America" - I was treated to this famous phrase on more than one occasion - the figures show that Uruguayans are still the South Americans most in favour of democracy, 77% stating that "democracy is preferable to any other form of government". Yet things are never simple in the aftermath of such a troubled political legacy. The Human Rights body Reporters Without Borders noted in 2007 that the media were only "fairly free", pointing out that parliament had still not decriminalised media offences, and last month La Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa condemned the "favouritism" shown by the Government, which engenders "corrupt conduct". That a national paper actually reported these findings could be positive sign, but when I asked a few simple questions to locals about the country and its politics, they answered in hushed tones, presumably out of long-established habit.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Around South America: Patagonia

By Ricky Skelton
October 22, 2007
So why then, and this is not only my particular case, does this barren land possess my mind? I find it hard to explain. but it might partly be because it enhances the horizons of imagination. That‘s what Charles Darwin had to say about Patagonia and I wouldn‘t want to dispute his theories. I certainly shouldn‘t try to elaborate on the either but I‘ll try in this case. For his theory On The Origin of Species, Darwin spent five years travelling the world on board the Beagle, a ship that had the pleasant task of charting the South American coastline, including the Galapagos Islands. I spent a few days travelling there and back on a bus and a few hours driving around, so you‘ll forgive the lack of depth in this article. I‘m not sure I needed much more time though, there isn‘t a lot there.
Excluding the Andes and Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia consists of almost a million square kilometres of flat, treeless landscape, broken only by the rivers that work their way from the mountains in the west. The steppes are covered in scrub with waist-high bushes giving each other a little breathing space. There are genuine tumbleweeds too, I saw my first one rolling across the road in front of me. Normally these bushes are used to show that every body has left a one-horse town. In Patagonia, there aren‘t any towns.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil Through Foreign Eyes

October 19, 2007
Meet Will Periam, from the UK, who has worked all over the world, married a Brazilian, and is now living in Brazil. Read the following interview where he tells us about some of his most memorable experiences from Brazil and gives some useful advice to newcomers.
1. Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from, what do you do etc.?
I am a 40 year old married Englishman with two kids (5 and 3). I am originally from the Midlands, UK, but haven't lived in the UK for a long time now. I work for Ford Motor Company and am presently Treasurer of its South American Operations.
2. When did you arrive in Brazil and what brought you here?
My work with Ford over the years has kept me outside of the UK at my choice - so far 6 years in Detroit, USA, 4 years in Cologne, Germany and now here in São Paulo. I enjoy the challenge of living and working outside of the UK and the ability to travel that this gives me. I came to work in Brazil after I asked Ford if a move here was possible as I needed to learn Portuguese. My wife Monica is Brazilian, and she speaks to our children only in Portuguese. As they grow up I was faced with the possibility of not understanding their conversations with their mother. That, coupled with the many Brazilians we meet wherever we go meant that my lack of Portuguese was starting to become a problem for me. It is a lot easier to learn Portuguese here in Brazil than it would have been in Germany! So here I am.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Ask a Brazilian: Lozenge or Candy?

October 18, 2007
This is our regular column called "Ask a Brazilian", the idea being that you can quite literally ask a question of a Brazilian for those issues you aren't sure about but perhaps dare not ask someone else. It is meant as a bit of fun and answers should not be construed as expert opinion or the definitive reply on the matter. For that reason we ask you to please send comments and experiences in order to add to our replies.
I have a question about "Halls" candy. Here in Canada, Halls are used when you have a cough or a cold. The advertising promotes the "menthol vapour" effect that soothes coughs & sore throats.
But in Brazil, my friends eat Halls just as candy and never heard of having them for coughs and colds.
I wonder if Halls are different in Brazil, or is the marketing of the product just different? They look and taste the same to me in both places.
What is the advertising of Halls like in Brazil ?
David
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil: "Opera" in the Amazon - Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, or The Madness of Foreign Men Part 4

By Joe Lopes
October 18, 2007
Here is the fourth and final part of Joe's article about Werner Herzog's film Fitzarraldo. To read the previous parts click the relevant link at the end of the article.
Having His Cake-and Eating It, Too
Though none the worse for wear (one presumes), Fitzcarraldo finally returns to his town‘s homeport, but immediately experiences another of those blinding flashes of "inspiration."
This time, however, it pays off handsomely for him, and for all concerned: he sells the Molly Aida in exchange for sufficient earnings to rent out the entire opera company for a day.
We next see the makeshift ensemble, being floated down the river on small barges, with all the participants therein clothed, in seventeenth-century English garb, as pilgrims in Vincenzo Bellini‘s I Puritani, singing their hearts out in the act-one bel canto number, "A te, o cara" ("To you, my beloved"), accompanied by several more barges replete with the remaining orchestra members. But where is Fitzcarraldo?
There he is, floating right beside the others - smoking an enormously fat cigar, it would seem - as happy and contented in his work, and in his achievement, as was Dr. Seuss‘ red-eyed fiend, the evil Mr. Grinch, in bringing Christmas back to Whoville.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Discussion Forum

If you've not had a chance yet then pop over to our web forum, register, and start joining in the discussion about Brazil. There are many forum areas such as Living in Brazil, Teaching English, Visas and Documentation, and even a place to Vent Your Frustrations! There's also a forum which allows you to comment on Gringoes.com, either with your views about past articles, areas of the site, or to make suggestions for future articles and content.
Note that foul language and abusive posts in the forum will not be tolerated. The forum is intended to be a constructive and lighthearted place for discussion about Brazil.


Forex

The US Dollar remains unchanged over the week, at R$1.82. The Euro has dropped slightly since last week, from R$2.59 to R$2.58. The British Pound has also dropped slightly, to R$3.70 from R$3.71 last week.