Brazil: the other hemisphere

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I have travelled to the other hemisphere – to Brazil. August – the last month of the winter. At the end of the Swedish summer.

When preparing for the trip I asked several friends who have been to that part of the other hemisphere what to expect, visited a doctor – got a couple of shots and a package of drugs against stuff that one may get in that part of the other hemisphere. I was checking the weather forecast for at least a month, and asked the friends who live in that part of the other hemisphere about the clothes I might need. One said that I should be prepared for anything between 10-25C, while the other insisted that I should take the summer clothes. I did follow both advice.

It was everything between 10-27C. I took my swimming suit with me, so I was even prepared to swim. I did. In the last month of the winter, in the other hemisphere, in an outdoor swimming pool. What can’t Brazilians, Scandinavians can 🙂

Brazil was full of contrast – rich and extremely poor – to the point that I have seen nowhere in Europe. Completely different. And diverse. With chaotic life in regions of private houses on the hills, parks that I would probably call jungle-like gardens, and seemingly dead life in skyscrapers areas, which I „monitored“ from the hotel window. Every morning I woke up, and they were still there. I don’t know why, but this monumental view just froze me. Dusty, quite polluted, and yet, once you get out to the historic center in the middle of the night, you instantly feel the beat of music, loud laughs and lively optimism pouring from everywhere. In the other part of the hemisphere.