Posts

The Strange Sounds of Brazil

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Four months before I left London (back in 2009) I started taking weekly Spanish lessons in preparation for a five month trip to South America. My teacher was Ivette, a lovely Chilean woman and although 16 lessons isn’t a lot, she managed to get me to a reasonable standard so that when I arrived in Argentina I was able to order beers, follow directions and make very rudimentary conversation.

The next four months brought adventure, misadventure and discovery. I made my way through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia before deciding that five months wasn’t going to be enough. I tore up my return ticket and continued my journey through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua (where I met the woman who later became my wife), Guatemala and finally to Mexico.

The extreme southerly and northerly points of my trip – Spanish all the way!

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That is so wrong!

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One of the things I enjoyed most about travelling was meeting people from all over the world. Granted there weren’t many Somalians climbing the mountains down in Patagonia, but even so, I still found myself meeting and getting to know people of nationalities I’d never previously encountered. And through these people I was introduced to all kinds of new music, films, books, phrases, etc.

I now know that a “yoke” to an Irishman translates roughly as “thingamy” as in “Pass me that yoke there will you?”. That Fahhhhn! is a rude word in Swedish. That Mexicans sprinkle a little salt into their Corona.

You want salt with that? I hated it at first, then found I loved it. But as soon as I left Mexico it was disgusting again…

 

Of course these differences in culture, taste and tradition led to many disagreements and debates, though perhaps ‘debate’ is giving these conversations too much credit as they rarely surpassed the repetition of the phrase “That is so wrong!”.

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Ônibus – the buses of Rio

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I have been using buses to get around Rio since I moved here. I discovered early on that as well as being a good way to get to know the layout of Rio, they also provide a great way to get a feel for the inhabitants.

A typical Rio bus – you can see that this is an old photo as tickets are now R$2.75 (95p or $1.50ish)

Initially I was daunted by the fact that absolutely none of the drivers or ticket inspectors speak any English (at the time I had not started my Portuguese lessons). But it was simple enough to master – you simply stick your arm out when you see your bus coming, hop on and say hello to the driver, then give your money to the ticket inspector and find a seat. When you want to get off you pull the cord that runs along the ceiling and the driver will pull in at the next stop – not rocket science.

A little about me

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Hello World! In case you’re interested, here’s a little about me:

My family and I travelled a lot when I was young: most of Europe, Egypt, Jerusalem, The Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa. From an early age I was introduced to diverse cultures and delicious foods and this gave me the desire to discover more. As you may have noticed, the list of countries above doesn’t include any from Latin America and it was for this reason that I set out in 2009 on a 4 month trip to what my father referred to as “The Unknown Continent”.

Tom climbing mountains in Argentina

The adventures included climbing mountains (Argentina)…

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