The Ant Blog

Episode 3:  Montezuma and Mexican Waves in beach-side Fortaleza Fortaleza is way up north of Brasil and is a good three hour flight from Sao Paulo . And of course, the next stop in our ‘ as insightful as an ant’s view of an elephant’s posterior ’ whirlwind tour of Brazil is this little beach town turned into a fast evolving economic hub. The economy of Fortaleza is fueled in large parts by tourism, given its long winding pristine beaches; but much to local disapproval, it has ended up attracting all the other add-ons of the beach bum economy (i.e. think Pattaya ). Benny, a Mexican born American citizen is in the city to study Portuguese as part of an exchange program and his dissertation for the next six months is on  the effort to clean up the tourist trade in Fortaleza. We are staying in a eighty year old Portuguese house tucked away in a quiet part of the town, with a sweet sixty five year old- Ana, her two daughters, six dogs and several Portuguese learn...

Episode 2: A shot of Chile: Futbol at the Vila El Guaton is a cute, unassuming bar tucked away in a little corner of the Vila Madalena - SamPa’s (i.e. Sao Paulo’s) most famous neighborhood. Vila Madalena is a labyrinth of winding roads that seem to slope up and down at will and is peppered with enough bars and restaurants to feed and thrill the entire population of any small European nation of your choice. If that’s not thrilling enough, take a look around you and you will notice, unless you are blind or have a terrible hang-over, that the walls are full of mind blowing graffiti and sublime street art. Bernardo tells us with no note of exaggeration that to many it is like a temple. “You go to Vila when you are down and something spiritual happens.” Grafitti at Vila Madalena So we walk to Vila from Bernardo’s place and pass two magnificent churches and even a Necropolis to boot, in search of spiritual tranquillity before the all-important Brazil-Chile match. We are...