Destination: Brazil
Joe Sharkey on “The Most Harrowing 30 Minutes of My Life”
by Jim Benning | 10.03.06 | 2:36 PM ET
Incredibly, New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey was aboard the corporate jet that collided with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon on Friday. The plane he was on landed safely, but the 737 crashed, killing all 155 people aboard. In today’s New York Times, Sharkey recalls the collision and the events that ensued, including an emergency landing in the middle of the rainforest. It’s a riveting account—the kind of frightening tale few people survive to tell. “With the window shade drawn, I was relaxing in my leather seat aboard a $25 million corporate jet that was flying 37,000 feet above the vast Amazon rainforest,” he writes near the top of the story. “The 7 of us on board the 13-passenger jet were keeping to ourselves. Without warning, I felt a terrific jolt and heard a loud bang, followed by an eerie silence, save for the hum of the engines. And then the three words I will never forget.”
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzNo. 22: “When the Going was Good” by Evelyn Waugh
by Frank Bures | 05.10.06 | 7:15 AM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1947
Territory covered: Ethiopia, Yemen, East Africa, Guyana and Brazil
In the first part of the 20th century, Evelyn Waugh was one of a handful of bright young writers who headed off into the wild world to propel the genre of travel writing forward. “We turned our backs on civilization,” Waugh wrote of himself, Peter Fleming and Robert Byron, whose early death Waugh mourned. “From 1928 to 1937,” he wrote, “I had no fixed home and no possessions which would not conveniently go on a porter’s barrow. I traveled continuously, in England and abroad.” Armed with trunkloads of wit, an eye for characters and the cocksure attitude of the imperialist he was, Waugh headed to Ethiopia, Yemen, East Africa, Guyana and Brazil. The result was several travel books that went out of print. But the author pulled long excerpts from them, which were reprinted in When the Going was Good. Each is essentially a short travel book itself, including one about the coronation of Haile Selassie and Waugh’s attempt to travel from Guyana to Brazil. It all has a carefree feeling, as Waugh himself admitted. “I never aspired to be a great traveler,” he wrote, “I was simply a young man, typical of my age; we traveled as a matter of course. I rejoice that I went when the going was good.”
Rio de Janeiro: The Little Slum Inn
by Jim Benning | 03.06.06 | 1:12 PM ET
Talk about slumming. That’s exactly the experience operators of The Little Slum Inn are selling to travelers in Rio. The five-room hostel is located in the midst of one of the city’s impoverished favelas—prime real estate, apparently, if you’re a backpacker with an urge to experience one of Rio’s grittier neighborhoods. According to a Reuters report, “adventurous tourists, mainly from Germany, France and the United States,” are staying at the hostel in Pereira da Silva. “This place isn’t for wimps,” the inn’s co-owner told Reuters. “If you are uptight, you can go stay at the Copacabana Palace.” A bed goes for $15 a night, doubles go for $35.
Rio Takes Aim at Sexy Postcards
by Michael Yessis | 11.29.05 | 10:51 AM ET
The law that state Gov. Roshina Garotinho signed last week bans bikini-clad women in photo montages or outside of natural beach settings on postcards. The goal of the law is to reduce sex tourism and exploitation in Brazil’s tourist hot spot. Luiz Alberto, who runs a newsstand near Copacabana beach, told AP reporter Peter Muello that postcards of Sugar Loaf mountain and Christ the Redeemer are much bigger sellers. “These cards were mostly for gringos,” he said. “This ban is just silly.”
Brazil. It’s Totally Devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Body Part
by Michael Yessis | 09.13.05 | 4:13 AM ET
Midway through yesterday’s Los Angeles Times story about tabloid publisher American Media’s efforts to suppress Playboy’s “Carnival in Rio” travelogue video hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger—it shows the Gov “grabbing a scantily clad woman and making other sexually suggestive gestures”—comes this passage:
“A Death in Brazil”
by Jim Benning | 05.19.04 | 12:42 AM ET
In today’s New York Times, critic Richard Eder reviews Peter Robb’s new quasi-travel memoir, “A Death in Brazil.” Eder liked the book. “‘A Death in Brazil’ is not strictly about travel,” Eder writes. “It deals with Brazil’s history, landscapes, society, culture, food and the baroque flamboyance of its political life. Think of travel as the verb-mode in which the book is written, bypassing subjunctive, conditional, indicative and imperative to get to ultra-active.” I’m not sure exactly what that last sentence means, but it sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Newsday reviewer John Freeman also recently found much to admire in “A Death in Brazil,” calling it “an intoxicating cocktail of a book.”
Update: ‘The Simpsons’ Extends Olive Branch to Brazil
by Jim Benning | 04.11.02 | 11:04 PM ET
We haven’t been sleeping well ever since we learned that tourism officials in Rio de Janeiro were upset about the way their city was portrayed on a recent episode of “The Simpsons.” Well, we’re happy to learn that the television show’s producers are trying to mend hurt feelings and put this international incident behind them.
Rio de Janeiro vs. ‘The Simpsons’
by Jim Benning | 04.10.02 | 5:06 PM ET
An episode of “The Simpsons” in which the cartoon family visits Rio de Janeiro only to see Homer get robbed and kidnapped apparently didn’t amuse tourism officials in Brazil. As they see it, the show, “Blame it on Lisa,” only served to undermine a costly campaign to attract tourists.
According to a Reuters report on Yahoo, tourism officials are considering legal action against the show. Among their complaints, the episode depicts monkeys inhabiting Rio. “It’s a completely unreal image of the city,” a spokesman told Reuters.
For the record, we at World Hum suggest travelers study a range of television shows before making any serious travel decisions. Before going anywhere, for example, we watch “The Osbournes,” “The Daily Show” and “Protagonistas de Novela,” a Spanish-language soap opera. Only then do we feel we have enough sound travel information.
- « Prev Page
- Next Page »