Tiradentes

Beautifully placed near the mountains, Tiradentes is another colonial jewel in the Minas Gerais state.


Full of color and flowers, has become home of artists and weekend destination for couples.



Renamed after independence hero, the town is now home of many foreigners who fall in love with its charm.


Just an hour and a half away from Belo Horizonte, for me, the most beautiful and well preserved colonial town in Brazil.

Ouro Preto

From all the colonial towns in Brazil, Ouro Preto in the Minas Gerais State is the most significative one for its beauty and its history.


An hour and a half away form capital Belo Horizonte, the cozy town filled with very nice restaurants and handcraft stores in it's colorful colonial streets.


Praca Tiradentes is the center of the town which holds more than 23 well preserved churches, spread across a very small territory.


The city was so important as a gold source, that around 1750 it had a population of 110.000 (mainly slaves), while New York had 50.000

Ohh Rio, cidade maravilhosa

Rio de Janeiro, know as marvelous city, is supposed to be the happiest city in the world, and has many reasons to be.


Party, samba, carnival, beautiful beaches, beautiful people, gorgeous landscapes, cariocas, copacabana, ipanema, Corcovado, favelas, running, so many things to do, so many places to be, so many options for one of the greatest cities in the world.


A weekend is just not enough to visit the main attractions in the city, so we'll just have to keep going and going.


Corcovado is a must, just one of the best views you can get. A tour by the Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana beaches is also something necessary to understand the cariocas.


In other days there are different options like the Urca neighborhood where the sugar loaf is located, the botanic garden, maracana stadium, a favela tour, the freitas lake, Barra neighborhood, Lapa, Santa Teresa and so on.

For sure, one of may favorites.

Ilha Bela

One of the most stunning beaches I have seen, Ilha Bela is an island 130 km north of the Sao Paulo coast.


To get there, you go to Sao Sebastiao, and get your car in a ferry for a 20 minutes journey to the island.


Full of cheery hotels, beaches and restaurants, makes a great trip for a weekend or more.


The mountain gets into the beach, making a precious scenario of wild nature.

Germany in Sao Paulo

Campos de Jordao is a small city, 170 km from Sao Paulo.


During the winter (june - august) is the most renowned place to visit in the state, as it is located in a mountain chain.


Features as the cold even snowy days, the hot chocolate and cozy german architecture makes a great weekend place for food and wine lovers.


A lot of restaurants, trekking, an antique railway ride, are some of the options for the day.

Holy men

One guy told me in India, that life for them was divided in four stages. From 1 to 25 years, was the time to study and learn, from 25 to 50 years was time to have and raise children, hopefully one boy and one girl, from 50 to 75 years was the time to accumulate money and from 75 until death was the time to leave all material possessions and go live in the forest to meditate, eating only from charity.


Well, not all Indians follow that path, but incredibly as many things in India, there are some people that do give away all what they have to live not in the forest, but in the cities in pilgrimage, and are called holy men.
The first time I saw one of these, I thought It was some kind of tourist attraction to take pictures and ask for money. This is true in Kathmandu, where a lot of Indians go to charge for each picture, but in India, they walk from one city to another, as there are a lot of special places for pilgrims to sleep and eat for free, mainly at Hinduism temples.
Just one more of those amazing things we find in India!

Thai option for poverty

Thailand is an economically poor country especially in rural areas. In the northern part of the country, thousands of families live from growing rice: it represents their daily food and their income.
Usually families have many children in different ages, around 14 are able to help with the crop, and at 9 can help with the babies, it’s a solution for the problem and a problem for the solution. As they earn only enough to eat and live, when the crops are damaged by the rain or in lower rice prices, the family has no money to support all children. Then the only option is to send them as novices to the local monastery. There, at least, they will be able to eat everyday and have some studies.


Life in the monastery is not easy, there are many restrictions for novices and monks as not eating after noon, something very difficult for growing young men. Although Buddhist, the novices generally don’t want to spend their lives for the Buddha as monks, they only stay in the temples fighting the strict precepts until they get some money to travel to Bangkok in search of any job. Usually they stay until 21 when should be ordained as monks but if the main monk is too hard, they leave earlier.




Just a few of those novices get interested in monastery life, and go on to become monks under more than 227 precepts, that include even how to go to the bathroom.
In a country where ordaining as a monk at least for the rainy season is a way to paying respect to the parents, there’s a media boom about the bad manners of monks in the country, but getting to know the stories and reasons for the high disrobing rate, made me realize how lucky Thais are, they have a far better option than children in my country at war.

Arranged marriages in India

When we heard that still 75% of marriages are arranged by the families we were in shock. How it is possible that in 2010, this outdated way of putting people together exists? Well, at the end of the month traveling in India, and understanding a little bit more the reasons, we kind of changed opinions.

In other countries, people choose who to marry by their selves and based sometimes in short term outlook, mainly physical attraction. But in recent years most of marriages end before 10 years of relationship (Scientists say passion lasts 2 years). In India, it’s very rare to see divorces, why?

First of all, it’s a group decision, the family of the bride and the family of the groom depending on their position and future plans, will try to search for the best option.
It’s not a selection based in the looks of the person, something that for sure will change in a few years, but in the good things and work that the person can add to the marriage.

One huge difference is that as the selection is not self made but made by the family (including the son or daughter who now are able to see pictures in advance), this means that if in any case the couple has any problem, financial, personal, physical, both families will support the couple, so chances of a problem ending the marriage are slimmer.
And what’s that of the family of the bride paying the groom for their daughter? Is that undervalued a woman that fathers have to pay to get acceptance? It’s just bad perception of us westerns.

The father, used to giving his daughter a good and comfortable life, wants her to maintain her conditions in marriage or even enhance them, so he will help the young groom with a little money while he begins to earn more, so that way the bride will not have worst conditions than living with the family. Nice isn’t it?

So when a man and a woman get together in India, they know it’s for a lifetime, they have their families support for any problem or claim, it’s a society where everyone has to put their best, and as there are not more options available (western choice of divorcing and changing), they make it work. Old tradition but a lot to learn from it.

East vs West

After spending sometime in eastern countries and getting to know some of their cultures, huge differences and conclusions are easy to spot. But what got caught my attention was the violence and insecurity disparity between poor countries.
While I was in my retreat in Thailand, I was told to be aware of not killing any animal. If a mosquito was able to enter my room, I should chase it, capture it in a plastic glass and take it outside.

After 20 days without Internet, TV, radio, I was urged to read news, get to know what happened during that time and what had changed in the world. The first website I opened was the local newspaper from my country, and I was shocked to read the main headline: a governor was killed in an awful way. While I was in my country I was used to that kind of news, and had no impact at all, but after months of sharing Arab and Asian cultures it was a blow.

If poverty exists in both my country and India or Thailand, why such a huge difference?
I have one small idea: Religion.
In western countries we live for this life, and we to do whatever it takes to make the better of it. Some people even risk their own lives for a better present. In Asian countries they live for the current and next lives. They believe that if they do enough good actions in this life, they’ll have a better next life, even if the current one is full of suffering. And if they make any wrong actions, they’ll be punished in next life too.

This completely different point of view changes priorities completely. For what I can see, the goal for many people in the west is money and in the east the goal is to be good. And in both will do whatever it takes to achieve it.