Hi all,
Iīve been busy with my new restaurant and havenīt read the board here much. Checking in yesterday, I see Geoffrey has been to Brazil recently and wrote about his trip. Here are a few comments for now about my own Brazil experience.
The other day a friend of Pablo was in town, and I met briefly with him and his friend for a beer after closing shop. They commented various times that, "WOW there are a lot of pretty women here [Florianópolis]...", but having enjoyed the rock star treatment in Colombia, they added, "...they sure donīt seem too interested in gringos, though...more like just a polite tolerance." Pabloīs friend perceived that in Rio the women were either "on the program (hooking)" or not really interested at all. He also commented that unlike at Chipichapi, the people at the mall here donīt flirt with each other; they just hang out with who they came with, and thatīs it. After a few days in Floripa he cut his trip short to visit some friends in Rio and then went on to Cali.
Two days ago I met a girl from Salvador and we had dinner together. She has been here for just under a year, and I mentioned some of these guysī comments to her. She thinks that the women here are exceptionally pretty, but that they are stuck up. She also used the word "bestas" to describe them, which translated as a noun means "beasts", but as an adjective can mean conceited and presumptuous. She herself isnīt exactly a knockout, but she has that Brazilian warmth Geoffrey mentioned, with her overall demeanor and the way she touches me when she talks. Nice... I donīt experience that much around here. I hadnīt mentioned Pabloīs friendīs comment about the mall, but she commented that on New Yearīs Eve on the Beiramar, she was with a friend, and at midnight, they wished each other happy new year, and that was it: everyone around them greeted and congratulated those they were with, but no one outside their own group. In Salvador, she said, everyone would be greeting everyone; here she finds the culture to be cold and closed. And Florianópolis is warm and friendly compared to Curitia and Porto Alegre.
As I was getting to write this, I remembered a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with a young guy who likes to go with his friends up to Bahia to party, because while the girls arenīt quite as pretty as here, they are a lot warmer and more fun and flirtatious. Thatīs been my experience, too.
Back to work now. Tchau.
