50 Countries and Counting: A Naturalista’s Travel Adventures in Brazil!

Brazil is a lovely South American country that I had always

wanted to visit.  Traveling there with my family was as delightful

 as I thought it would be, spending our time in Rio, enjoying 

the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and taking in all of the sights. 

Brazil is a place where you find beauty in the people, the scenery,

and the attractions. We loved our hotel, which was oceanfront

 with a lovely rooftop pool. It was a family experience as our children, 

who are young adults, traveled with us.  I also had the opportunity 

to invite two of my students at the time, to spend time with us while

 we were there.  One of them is from Brazil and had taken a university 

course with me in the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar and was in Brazil 

during our visit.  The other was also in Brazil having a one semester, 

study abroad experience and was learning to speak Portuguese.  

It was wonderful to catch up with these two naturalistas and have 

my family meet them.  They were excellent cultural tour guides 

during the brief time we spent with them.Below are details of some of 

our experiences in Brazil as it was definitely one of my favorite 

places in the world to visit.

The Rio Experience

I absolutely love Rio!  The experience there is one of vibrancy, 

rhythm, color, culture and excitement. Besides enjoying the 

Copacabana and Ipanema Beach areas, we enjoyed many 

sites including the center of the city. We rode through the 

Tijuca Forest to the Corcovado Mountain, visited the 

Christ Redeemer and took a cable ride to Sugar Loaf and enjoyed a

 fantastic view of the city and all of its outstanding architecture. We 

were also thoroughly entertained at a Plataforma Samba Show, which 

included amazing costumes that comprise some of the visual 

highlights of Brazilian culture along with Samba (a Brazilian dance), 

frevo (Brazilian folk music) and capoeira (which is a form of martial 

art performed in Brazil that includes dance, acrobatics and music).  

Excellent—all of it!! The latter is thought to have emerged in Brazil 

through West African descendants during slavery.  There is a great 

deal of skill involved in the art of capoeira so it was really a treat to 

see it so beautifully performed.

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