Brazilians - some thoughts

A couple of interesting things I have observed about Brazil and the people so far:
The similarities between Sinhalese and Portugese are incredible - I know this obviously thanks to the colonization however, it is bizarre to hear our words spoken so many thousands of miles away from a country so very different. Words like janela, beira, mesa, pan, sapaththu, boththela and the list goes on. It is even more astounding to think a tiny country like Portugal, so insignificant as a power in the world today, colonized and influenced such a large country like Brazil - and such a far away little country like ours.

Initially, the food here was not as amazing as Argentina - mainly rice, beans, fish and manioc which forms the main base for their breads amongst other things. No doubt we can see the African influence on that one. However as soon as we hit Floripa and Sao Paolo - wow, we were getting hit with every cuisine you can imagine - but startlingly, one of the main foods that the Brazilians eat is Japanese food. Sushi is everywhere and I know some of my fair weathered buddies will be drooling at that thought - even fast food sushi stalls though it is all safe cause their fishing industry is so incredibly strong.

In Argentina we barely saw any other ethnicities other than their own, and as we went north we did see a fair number of Maípuchi and Indian descendants. But here in Brazil, it is as if we are in some fantastic mixture of race, ethnicity and colour - African, Japanese, Spanish, Korean, Indian etc. It is immensely interesting to people watch, plus this mix is not just in the cities but in the tiny beach fishing towns as well.

The Brazilians are loud and they love their beer and caiparinhas. The wine here is soo expensive, so beer it is! We have yet to listen to some kick ass music though it is so far much better than the Argentine! It is much more expensive, there are more people willing to rip you off and generally the city folk are not as friendly as we had hoped. Though the surfers and island people are.