It's been a long time since I travelled outside the US, besides Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico. Brazil reminds me of some of travels in my youth, in the early seventies, when I used the Fodor guide to Europe on $7 a day while visiting Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Germany, France, Italy and. more, in two five to seven week journeys. Then, I saw many peasant villages. I slept on a straw mattress for twenty five cents a night in Myrtos, on Crete and traveled Morocco for a month wearing native garb. I got to see what third world countries and primitive lodgings and stores, or souks looked like.
Now, I'm staying in Goiania, a city of over one million, with countless high-rise buildings and chic, upscale malls, stores and signage. But to drive to those places, you pass stores like I saw in Spain, Greece, Turkey and Morocco. I've seen many tiny souks and outdoor stands where people are eking out their daily existence and people pulling trailers/carts manually, through the streets. This juxtaposition of great wealth with poverty is very evident here.
There are also ten or twenty times more motorcycles here-- not fat hog Harleys that white old men drive in the US-- small motobicycletas, most of which are used for deliveries-- so many Uber drivers. That's because cars are much more expensive here.
The cost of living here is a fraction of what it is in the US. We went to a supermarket at a mall, which I assume means that cost was higher than a smaller groceria. We spent almost $100 on items that in the US would probably have cost $250. That price was for 68 items included two bottles of local wine, two local cans of beer, several fruits I've never eaten or that look different here, a ton of produce, some local dark dark chocolates, pasta, tomato sauce-- stuff so that we can eat at home, since my wife's passion is cooking and baking. I don't think I ever bought so much stuff, but then again, we were stocking an empty kitchen. One of my goals for that supermarket trip was to buy a ton of things that I'd never had before. It was amazing how many items were made in the US or were US or European brands.
Before we hit the supermarket, we stopped at a money exchange to convert some dollars to Reais, Brazil's currency. They turned us down, saying that they already had too many dollars. Imagine if the rest of the world took that attitude. Believe me, they are trying, attempting to make something else the world's currency. That's been going on for years, but here I was having my dollars turned away.
Driving is a bit crazy here, at least I felt that way at first. I'm letting my wife do the driving, since rental cars cost less if the driver has a Brazilian license. And she was going through stop signs. I thought that was crazy but she told me that you don't have to stop if there's no cross traffic. Actually, that makes a lot of sense and probably saves a lot of fuel. What a simple way to cut carbon emissions. It would make a lot of sense to invest in studying how other countries deal with traffic, shopping, parking, just about everything. The USA's delusion American exceptionalism keeps us from learning or even seeing better ways that things are done. David Swanson's book on American Exceptionalism does a good job of exploring the delusions.
The foliage here is spectacular. Lots of palms and trees with purple and red flowers. And I'm hearing bird calls that I don't recognize. We'll leave shortly for our first dental appointment.
I got preliminary results of my dental assessment. Looks like it's worse than I thought. I'll need 4-5 implants and a lot of crown/porcelain work because of my overbite, which caused my teeth to break. The dentist speaks a little English. That's a lucky break.
Afterwards we went to a smaller grocery and picked up a green coconut-- for breakfast-- and a few fruits I've never heard. of. Also a drink that is local. I'm not sure if it has alcohol in it or not. I'm not a big drinker but I wanted to try some of the local beer and wine. The big yellow fruit looks over-ripe and rotten but my wife tells me it's perfect.
This morning we went for a walk/run around a beautiful park wh a large pond surrounded with palm trees, mango trees and banana trees with bananas on them. Where we run in Philly we might see 5-20 people during our 45 minute 5 K walk run. Here, we. probably saw 1000.
We went to a bank and the security is more strict that. you see for TSA or entering a Senate building in Washington.
My wife dropped me off a bit early for my second dental appointment. My plan was to wander around a bit and check things out. She warned me not to keep my phone visible or someone might grab it, and that tourists were targets for thieves. I'm wearing a backpack, or mochila, like so many people do in the states. But here I haven't seen anyone wearing one.
More to come in my next report.
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