One For Gordon

It is my last full day in Guaruja (a beach resort about an hour's drive from Sao Paulo) before we drive inland and complete the holiday with a series of days with my wife's family. So it's my last day to enjoy the sights and sounds of the beach.

Every morning, particularly if it's sunny (well of course it would be) and if I've woken up early, I spend an hour walking the beach. The flat we are staying in is literally across the road from the beach, so in no time at all I'm on the beach, sandals off, and wading ankle deep in warm water, with the early morning sun beating down. I'm sharing the huge beach with a number of early risers, including the odd surfer, a number of people jogging, a few fishermen collecting sand worms, and multitude of pensioners taking their constitutional morning walk.



The first time I walked on the beach in Guaruja, I discovered that the sand squeaked as I walked on it. The sand is super fine, almost like dust, and is very soft to walk on, and as a consequence squeaks when you brush your feet on it - very odd.

The sea itself is warm despite it being autumn now, but it is really salty. So salty, I don't t find it a struggle to float in the water. The only drawback of this particular beach is that it is shallow. It is good for surfing, but not for swimming. As a consequence, this beach is as much to be seen as it is to enjoy the beach.

We are leaving at the start of the Easter break, so the beach on our last day is crowded with families who've come down en mass from Sao Paulo. It's also full of the body beautiful. Being recently married and on my honeymoon, I'm somewhat compromised on what I can be caught looking at, but suffice to say there is plenty to look at. Scarily though, many of the potential sights turn out to be anything but close up without sunglasses. However, one thing is clear, Brazilian women have style. There are the exceptions, of course, and those exceptions really should know better.

Before I left England, I was cheekily asked by a colleague to take pictures of some of the infamous Brazilian women and their bikinis. Naturally I'm not taking pictures, as this would be tantamount to suicide, but if I'm caught gazing a little too long at some "boom boom", then I feel justified in claiming it's all in the name of research - one for Gordon, so to speak.

Sminkey Pinkey, Butros Butros Ghali

Throughout my time in in Brazil, somewhere there is a television blaring away, often showing football or soap operas.

Some of the television is actually quite good, but for every good show, there are a hundred that are bad - especially the soaps, that are full of over-acting, shouting, young vivacious women blatantly wearing very little, and being so very.. well.. Latin.

I can't help watching the TV without hearing the Fast Show's wickedly funny take on Latin TV - I'm half expecting to hear cries of "scorchio" on the weather forecast!

To counteract the really bad TV (and there is much to counter act), are the good shows. The one that took my interest was a soap opera. I can't believe I'm admitting to being caught up in a soap opera, not least of all as I don't speak the language, but I was fascinated by the story line, and some genuinely good acting. The thing that seems to be unique to Brazilian TV soaps, and evident with "avenida Brasil" is that the soap is written with a strong story line that lasts for one year - i.e. the soap itself only lasts one year, but is shown almost every day. This must give the writers more freedom to write better than soap writers back in Blighty.

Perhaps we have something to learn rather than mock about after all.