For those of you suffering the wet and stormy weather in England …… look away now!

Down in Cananeia, when the water in the swimming pool is too warm to be refreshing, you might think one would head out to a beach in a boat. Here the sea was equally warm, maybe even too warm ….. but you have to grin and bear it just the same!

Have just come back from a week in Sāo Paulo and Cananeia, two contrasting places. Sāo Paulo is the largest city not only in Brazil but also in South America with a population of about 11 million; Cananeia is a small coastal town on the border of Sāo Paulo and Parana States. It was founded in 1531 by the Portuguese and lies 300 kms to the south west, sitting on an island in the middle of a tidal estuary – population? 12,000 except during the holiday period when it goes up enormously!!

Celina’s cousin Teresa has an apartment in Sāo Paulo and a beach house in Cananeia. In Sāo Paulo we ate in Japanese and Russian restaurants, visited the large covered market where I tried to eat a Mortandela (see note below!), went to the Bikram studio three times and generally enjoyed our time there. The city, famous for its horrendous traffic and mixed weather, was sunny and the traffic flowed (for us). The part where Teresa lives, Jardins, reminded me of Sydney in Australia although there is no sea!

To drive to Cananeia, you take the main road that runs to Curitiba; it is heavily trafficked with lorries, lorries with trailers, coaches and lots of cars. For a 30km stretch they are building a fourth lane to complete the dual carriageway nature of this arterial road. It should have been finished 3 years ago; the money was granted … but this is Brazil, and not all the money made it to the construction company, hence the delays ….. maybe another 2 years!! It was a long drive to Cananeia and an even longer return!

Cananeia is one of those coastal towns that begs investment ……. but you sense it would spoil it. What price progress for the holiday hideaway where the pace of life is extremely slow, Main Street is a collection of colourfully painted shop fronts, old Portuguese naval canons guard the town hall and the fish shop, in addition to selling all sorts of fish, sells shells, model boats and nautical stuff, all ‘Made in China’!

How do you spend your time in Cananeia? You have a late breakfast, take chill bins loaded with drinks and snacks down to a motor boat, head out to an island offshore or negotiate the inland mangrove channel between the mainland and the Ilha do Cardosa  …….. and find an empty beach; there are many to choose from! The water was warm, the sun strong and hot, the sky that beautiful blue that makes one feel good to be alive. Later you watch pink dolphins playing in the estuary as you head back for a very late lunch; so late that supper is a help-yourself!! On one of the islands, in a little cove that rumour had it had been used by pirates, we found a small crocodile. Teresa’s son Henrique, aged 13, decided to lasso it, hold it up for the photograph (!) before he was persuaded to let it go. When we got back to the beach house, it was about 3 seconds before he was pestering me to email the photograph to him to show his chums – wonderful street cred, I guess, especially if you’re 13!

Some of you may remember me mentioning that my maternal grandmother Grace Corbett’s father was born in Recife, in the North East of Brazil, in 1850. Some of his brothers and sisters married and stayed here. Celina found a Corbett Moreira in Sāo Paulo, who is indeed a relative; there are others. It had been our intention to have lunch with her on Monday, but for some reason she’s staying with her son in Rondonia, up by the border with Bolivia …… a three day camel ride maybe. So we didn’t!!

We trust you’re well and enjoying life.

Love etc

Richard Yates – richardyates24@gmail.com

P.S. Mortandela is probably the largest ‘sandwich’ I’ve come across. The bread bun must be 15 cms diameter and the filling? 20 pieces of thinly sliced processed meat or turkey interlaced with cream cheese. I struggled to eat half!

January is the month of holidays here in Brazil (the UK equivalent of August!) but they ended today and everyone is back to work, back to school. And the traffic is back, making trips within the city long and frustrating, with journey times unpredictable.

Weather seems to have dominated the news across the globe in the past month, with extremes in both hemispheres. Here pictures of Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor – Corcovado) surrounded by lightning during an electrical storm were surpassed a couple of days later when lightning struck his right hand, causing damage! As to the heat, well, 35-39 deg C seems to cover it, with night-time temperatures rarely below 28 ….. but then it is Summer. Rain? Er! Once in the last 4 weeks.

A lot of people we know seem to be planning to leave Rio or Sao Paulo during the football World Cup, 17 June – 17 July. Rather like in the run up to the London Olympics, the prophets of doom here imagine a rather chaotic month, but one hopes the reality will be different. Down south in Curitiba, they have until the 18th of February to finish a stadium, or all the games planned there will be moved elsewhere. Pressure! Pressure!

Last Saturday had a day’s sailing. Celina has a friend, from decades ago and who lives in Paris, whom she asked whether she knew anyone with a yacht in Rio. “Well, my brother has ….!!” …….. and this led us to last Saturday, boarding a 38ft yacht with Sergio, Ricardo and Larissa Mirsky and sailing out of Guanabara Bay heading for Niteroi, East of Rio. The weather in this part of the world is generally good for sailing and so it was, with a pleasant breeze, clear sky and a strong sun. We found a good anchorage off a crowded beach, ordered a huge Anchovy (fried!), some pastel (rather like a Cornish pasty without the Cornish!!) and other Brazilian croquette-like fried vegetable Manjoc called Aipim, which was all duly delivered by boat. We sailed back in the early evening, past Sugar Loaf Mountain which forms the western edge of the bay’s entrance and old Portuguese naval fortresses which line the eastern edge, into the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club (Iate Club RJ) around 7pm having had a great day.

It’s an odd thing to do, maybe, to go to the cinema when the sun’s out and it’s 30 C in the early evening, but we went and saw the Wolf of Wall Street last week. I’d seen a video clip of a discussion between two Times film critics (one Kate Muir) in my digital newspaper, one who liked it and one who thought it overly long. We both liked it and thought Leonardo di C brilliant as Jordan Belfort – highly recommended!

Amazing to think at the end of this week we’ll be half way through our 12 weeks here in Brazil. Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?

Keep in touch.

Love etc

Richard Yates – richardyates24@gmail.com

One of the benefits of having to be a patient, and being patient (!), in Hove late last year was being given an iPad by Celina. Here in Rio I’ve been reading my digital Times and have obviously seen pictures of the terrible wet/cold weather that the UK and USA have been having, in contrast to the hot weather here in Latin America and in Australia. Today’s Times has a wonderful picture of lightening all around the statue of Christ the Redeemer during a thunderstorm on Monday night. There have been photos of waves washing over Brighton seafront and, from friends on Facebook, of pebbles on the promenade. In Portland, Weymouth, a huge 150 million year old rock stack simply disappeared into the sea. I know from Facetime with Jade yesterday that it hasn’t stopped raining. ……. but we haven’t heard from our dear neighbour who’s keeping an eye on our apartment in Amber House so assume the excess water has kept away.

We’ve been to Bikram in Botofogo, a central/south part of Rio, about 3 times a week since we arrived and been taught by Kristina, a Czech who taught in our Hove studio, twice. She’s simply loving the teaching and also living in Rio. My first class here was awful, simply awful, and I thought I would never go back ….. but you do!! So So So humid!!

I was saying to Celina that it’s funny being here, and knowing we’re here for three months. Never done this before, being away from my ‘home’ for so long. I guess this is becoming my second home and that’s a delight!! Of course we miss so much about England and our lives there, but we certainly do not miss the weather!

Incidentally whenever I look at pictures of blue seas I imagine them to be warm. Sometimes the sea here is warm, very warm, depending on the prevailing currents, but more often than not it’s cold; rather like Wineglass Bay in Tasmania or Cloudy Bay in NZ! So don’t imagine the beach is always an attractive option!!

Celina’s father Carlos had his 80^th birthday dinner at the Gavea Golf & Country Club last Saturday and was surrounded by family and ex-colleagues. He even had an enormous cake, although not of the cardboard type out of which might have jumped some scantily clad lady!

Talking of the club, we’ve caught up with a couple who have had a torrid time. A few days after we left Rio mid-May last year, they returned from the USA. On the flight, Jim started feeling unwell, went to hospital when they landed ……… had a heart attack and a stroke …….. and now, 7 months later, is trying to walk with a useless right arm/hand and feelingless right leg. We watch him in the club pool trying to work muscles that don’t respond. Seeing him reminds me, as if I need reminding, of how lucky I am, alive and now healthy!!

Hope 2014 is going to bring you some of what you want and most of what you need.

Love etc

Richard Yates – richardyates24@gmail.com

 

We are fit and well and it’s probably about time I summarised what been happening.

The period since August has been interesting and as the interval between my heart bypass and the present increases, so the memory softens. I’ve got used to my chest scar being normally a little ‘tight’ and it’s just part of me now. I’ve been signed off by the surgeon, who commented he wished all his patients were as motivated as me to get going again after the operation!

My second grandson Reuben was Christened on 1st December and, as this was 2 days after his brother Jasper’s 2nd birthday, Jade invited ‘friends & family’, which in her case was about 110 people, to tea in the church hall. A real chance to get together and some relatives I hadn’t seen for 25 years so a fun tea party.

Last Saturday Celina and I had some people to ‘Christmas Drinks & Nibbles’ – mainly fellow Bikram students and a few neighbours from Amber House. And four people just cancelled at the last moment – in fact one chum said he was coming and then just didn’t turn up – sorry, ex-chum!!

We will be with Jade & Sam on Christmas Eve for a huge family get together (another!!), here in our apartment on Christmas day, then back to J&S on Boxing Day, and from there drive up to Heathrow for our flight to Rio the following day. It’ll be seven months since we were with Celina’s parents so neither of us can wait to get on that flight – and get out into 35°C!! Her father will be 80 on New Year’s Day so lots to celebrate.

We’re going to be in Rio until the end of March; in fact we come back the weekend the UK changes to British Summer Time – how cool is that!! And we also have heard a whisper that Celina’s parents might come over here –ostensibly to see us but I suspect just to get away from Brazil during some football matches. It will be wonderful if it happens!

So, have a great Christmas, look out for the odd emailed “PC from Rio”, and good fortune in 2014. Actually talking of PCs, I have a real one of Rio with Christ the Redeemer, the city and Sugar Loaf Mountain; the statue normally overlooks the city but in this PC they have ‘photoshoped’ the image and turned the statue around to look towards the viewer!! Looks weird!

Love etc

Richard Yates – richardyates24@gmail.com

Psssttt!! Do you want to be my friend on Facebook? So far I have 4!!

It’s Sunday afternoon so it must be Marau, in the province of Bahia. We’ve just finished lunch at a large table with the owner of the Casa do Arandis hotel Cacau and his wife Nanana. The hotel is truly in the middle of nowhere!! Yesterday we flew from Rio on TAM, one of the ‘local’ airlines, departing from the city airport. It’s much smaller than the international one, close by Flamingo Bay, and on take-off one gets a good view of the city. We arrived in Ilheus, a small town on the coast, after a couple of hour’s uneventful flight. We had a taxi booked and with Carlos’s surfboard on top and the four of us plus Tiago inside … and off we went. (‘We’ being Celina and I, Carlos her brother, his wife Camila and their son Tiago (aged 1)).

The first hour was on good roads then, after a stop for a Tapico pancake, we transferred to dirt ones. I’ve only been on dirt roads twice in my life, in Belize where in the 1980s most of the roads were compacted red earth, and in Tasmania in 1994. There’s something about the way a wheel hits a soft patch, creates a small indentation ….. and gradually a pothole develops (a little like tracked vehicles would create waves (ups and downs) in a dirt road). After another hour I’m beginning to wonder just how much further and suddenly we’re here, on the east coast of the Marau Peninsula.

Brazilians have a fascination with personal health, and right now I’m glad. I have come to accept that the Rocha Miranda family have access to all kinds of medical experts, who are consulted regularly. The motto seems to be ‘if in doubt, have a blood test’! The medicine cupboard at Celina’s parents’ house in Rua Iposeria is enormous – so any ailment you have, there’ll be something for it to hand. Here in Bahia, where travel is not easy, the doctor’s at the end of a telephone and antibiotics and solutions to every sort of problem are kept in one’s home. On Saturday I developed a sore throat, which by Monday had exploded into white spots and mouth ulcers. And here I am in Paradise, feeling crap. Fortunately the various experts, within Casa do Arandis and further afield, were consulted and various pills administered. This evening I’m on the mend!!

The rhythm here is lovely. Breakfast is not until 0830 as the staff  don’t come in too early, this after all is Bahia! After an enormous feast, it’s down to the beach (if it’s not raining) for swimming or walking for miles along the sand. Lunch is at 1400 and the sun disappears around 1630. Then it’s up to whatever you want to do – until a light supper!

After a week, it was back to noisy Rio. Casa dos Arandis was certainly in the middle of nowhere and that has its pluses and minuses! Getting anywhere involved a bouncy, bone-jarring 4X4 journey and one was soon put off. Not that the beach and bath-temperature sea water encouraged one to leave it; and not a soul in sight! The night sounds in the tropics are simply wonderful and one could listen to the cicadas, frogs, birds, insects and other fauna for hours – except of course when one’s in bed and ‘something’ is making its way either across the roof, or indeed under the house, for this was on brick piles with a large ventilation space underneath!

Today Sunday it was back to Barra (pronounced Bah Hah) beach to soak up some sun, for the forecast for tomorrow is torrential rain; that means a taxi to the Bikram studio!

Hope the world is well where you are?

Love etc

Richard Yates – richardyates24@gmail.com

P.S. Thought I should give you a very short synopsis of modern Brazil (now I’m becoming slightly more knowledgeable!)

You could divide it into 4 regions, although there are actually 26 states!

In the southern part of the country (Santa Catarina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sol) immigrants from Europe have retained their own cultures and traditions. The Germans still celebrate Oktoberfest, the Italian make wine, the Azoreans concentrate on fishing and the state of Paraná is closely associated with Slavs from central Europe.  In addition there are large Jewish and Japanese concentrations.

The central and eastern part of Brazil, including the country and political capital Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro (cultural capital) and Sao Paulo (business capital), is the most developed, most densely populated, the richest and most important from an economic point of view part of the country.

The Amazonian and northern areas are rich in wildlife, include the world’s largest river basin and there are huge contrasts in the affluence of the towns and cities.

The inhabitants of Northeast Brazil (including Bahia) are a direct result of three centuries of importing slaves from Africa; in fact 40% of Brazil’s current population are descended from African slaves. Cocoa and rubber were the most successful crops grown, but the former has suffered from crop failure due to parasites, and the latter from competition. The 1800s saw a huge expansion of rubber plantations and Brazil became the world’s largest producer of rubber. Then an Englishman smuggled out some rubber seeds and took them to Malaya (as Malaysia was then called). In 15 years Brazil was elbowed out of the rubber market and, unused to competition, by 1914 plantations became uneconomic. Today Brazil imports most of its rubber!

The cultural mix across Northeastern Brazil ensures wonderful cuisine. Along the coasts the African descended population flavour their food, mainly fish and fruit, with coconut milk and red dendê (palm) oil. Away from the coast the cowboy descendants of the Portuguese settlers have a simpler fare, using dried meat, manioc root (including manioc flour) rice and black beans.

So there you have it, Richard’s easy guide to a vast country (2400 miles north to south, 2400 miles east to west) of 185 million people.