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.


São Paulo: Thai Gardens

February 13, 2008
Come join us for a gastronomical evening event at Thai Gardens, a gorgeous and authentic Thai restaurant in Itaim.
Or, if you prefer to travel a little farther, they have sister restaurants in Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City and Casablanca.
Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, February 16, 2008
Time: 8:00 PM
Menu: 6 Appetizers, 4 Main Courses, Dessert
Price: R$62.00/person
(Service and drinks not included)
*For your convenience, bills will be presented to individual couples.
Location: Avenida Nove de Julho 5871, Itaim Bibi (Zona Sul).
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil: João Pessoa Meet Up

January 8, 2008
After the huge success of the last meeting where over 40 people turned up, a new meet up has been arranged for Saturday 23rd February 2008, at 12.00 NOON/MIDDAY. It will be at CASA GRANDE, Rua Professora Maria Sales no 705, Tambau. (83) 3247-1101. domgustavog@hotmail.com
For a restaurant review see here at the Gringoes.com forum. The menu is excellent and includes Salmão na Brasa, Picanha Argentina amongst other things. The portions are very generous and cost, reasonable. Plenty of parking is available in front of the restaurant.
The new restaurant is only a short walk to the famous Tambau seafront. This time, the restaurant has been booked for 100 people including children. There will be monitors on hand for the play area.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Let Brazilians Sort Out the Problems of the Amazon

By John Fitzpatrick
February 11, 2008
The destruction of the Amazon forest is a subject dear to the heart of the foreign media and environmental organizations but of virtually no interest to the majority of Brazilians. The foreigners seem to think that by causing a fuss every time the statistics on the latest deforestation are published they will save this vast area. I believe they are wrong and should change their tactics or look around for another cause to adopt. The Amazon region is doomed and will end up as barren and bleak as my native Scottish Highlands where the original forest was chopped down centuries ago. Foreigners tend to see the Amazon problem the way George Bush saw Iraq i.e. a situation in which the good guys should take over from the bad guys and educate the locals over the errors of their ways. A recent example of this approach appeared in "The Independent" newspaper of London under the naïve headline "There is a way to save the rainforests.." by a columnist called Johann Hari who claimed the solution lay in the developed countries setting up a fund "as ambitious as the Marshall Plan - to preserve the remaining rainforests, and thereby prevent drastic destabilisation of our climate."
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


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

This week's poll, continued from last week, is on your preferred place to spend carnival. Would you rather be dressed up and in the throng of the desfile, watching from a concrete bench in the sambodromo, watching it on TV from a comfy sofa, or simply not watching at all! It seems like the majority aren't carnival fans with 49% choosing to be "As far away from it as possible", although 36% want to be "In the throng of the desfile", with 13% "Sat comfortably in the sambodromo". 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.

Photo of the Week

The photo of the week is titled Futebol taken by Ron Johnston. 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 Brazil: Crazy Town

By Ricky Skelton
February 11, 2008
Uncle Mad lives in Crazy Town. When you have somebody who lives on the edge of the Amazon Jungle and thinks he owns it all, it would be stupid not to pay him a visit. It sounded like it could be an adventure. The journey there from Manaus was either a six-day boat trip sleeping with the goats, or a flight for about R$80 more. Cowards that we are, we flew.
Money well spent. Flying over the Amazon Rainforest is special. It ain´t called the rainforest for nothing though, but when all those clouds clear the view of nothing but green trees all the way to the horizon, very occasionally slashed by a winding silver river can´t be described in any lesser terms.
Coming in to land at Crazy Town, it seemed like we were dropping onto the tree-top. Like the rest of Crazy Town, the runway has been cut from the trees that used to cover the area. The furthest navigable point on a major tributary of the Amazon, the town used to be on the part of the South American map that had the giant word ´Jungle´ across the middle and no more details. It started with the crazy idea of having a train station that was supposed to bring rubber down the line from deep in the interior, avoiding rapids and waterfalls, to send it all the way to Europe. Henry Wickham put paid to that idea.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil Through Foreign Eyes

February 8, 2008
Meet Anna Belavina from Russia who is living and studying in Brazil. Read the following interview in which she tells us about some of her 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?
My name is Anna Belavina. I am 24. I am from Yaroslavl, Russia. Now I live in São José (close to Florianopolis), Santa Catarina. I am a teacher of English.
2. When did you arrive in Brazil and what brought you here?
I met my fiancé in the USA when I arrived there in summer 2004 as a student of the Work & Travel Program. This program is very popular now in Russia. A lot of students go to the USA on summer holidays. So did I. And for me it was an unforgettable time and the best reminder of that is my Brazilian.
…click here to read the rest of the article>>


Brazil: "Tristeza Não Tem Fim" ("Sadness Has No End") Part 8

By Joe Lopes
February 7, 2008
Muse of Bossa Nova
The cover of the most recent biography of Orson Welles, entitled Volume Two: Hello Americans, by British actor-author Simon Callow boasts a remarkable black-and-white photograph of the late, great media personality at the height of his fame and notoriety.
Sporting an immaculately tailored, white linen suit, he is seen buttoned to the neck in traditional 1940s man-about-town fashion. In one hand, he carries a drink - most probably cachaça, which Welles developed a deliberate taste for while carousing around the foothills of Rio de Janeiro - in the other a lighted cigar.
His face is bloated, the eyes mere slits, the cheeks puffy and swollen (in Callow‘s estimation, he resembles "a fat, mischievous, rather ugly youth"). He looks astonishingly like one of his own later film creations, the corrupt police inspector Hank Quinlan, from his self-directed 1958 flick Touch of Evil - you know, the one where lantern-jawed lead Charlton Heston played a Mexican, and co-star Janet Leigh his platinum-blonde wife.
…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! If you've got some burning question about Brazil, or just want to discuss a particular topic, then you're bound to get an answer there.
There's also a forum which allows you to comment and give us feedback 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, abusive posts and certain types of advertising in the forum will not be tolerated. Make sure to check the Read This First area first before posting. The forum is intended to be a constructive and lighthearted place for discussion about Brazil.


Forex

The US Dollar has dropped slightly over the week, from R$1.76 to R$1.75. The Euro has also dropped, from R$2.57 to R$2.55. The British Pound continues the trend, dropping from R$3.45 to R$3.43.