Have you ever thought about coming to Brazil, but went somewhere else because you had safety concerns? Brazilian tourism industry is not yet as developed as the European or North American, but despite some flaws such as deficient services for foreigners and much higher prices than its neighbors, on the past few years security issues have dropped significantly and are no longer a major concern for the tourists.
This article from Marcopolis.net, on which Matueté´s partners Bobby Betenson and Martin Frankenberg participated, gives some insights on what we have improved so far and what needs to be improved to host major events such as The World Cup and the Olympic Games. Read more +
We are not only known by our beautiful beaches and pristine nature. Brazilian culture is very rich and so is our music. We have many different rhythms, and all around the country you will hear something new.
In the last few years some great female singers emerged in the country influenced by this musical diversity and also by some external references. This top 5 list brings some of the best – their beautiful voices and rhythms will give a Brazilian touch to your playlist.
CÉU – born in São Paulo, she is one of the great breakthrough artists of the decade. Inspired by Samba, Jazz and Hip-Hop, her first CD was launched in 2005 and was a big success. It was a nominee for the 2006 Latin Grammy Awards and was ranked as a “Heatseeker” for Billboard Magazine.
ROBERTA SÁ – born in the Northeast region of the country but moved to Rio when she was still a child. With 5 recorded albums, Roberta is one of the most well-known singers from the new generation, with plenty of great hits. Her sweet voice is influenced by Samba and other Brazilian rhythms.
KARINA BUHR – she is not only a great voice but a talented song-writer as well. Born in Bahia but raised in Recife, she lived all the musical effervescence of the region and was highly influenced by the Maracatu and other northeastern rhythms.
CIBELLE – a multi-media performance artist born in São Paulo and influenced by Bossa Nova, Neofolk and Electronic music. Not only well-known here in Brazil, but all over Europe, where she resides nowadays.
MART’NALIA – daughter of the great sambista Martinho da Vila, Mart’nália is the new name of Samba. Her father’s musical influence, together with her authentic voice, made her a big success here in Brazil. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXd7drlYr-s[/youtube]
We can´t wait until the London Olympic Games start! We have plenty of favorites for medals, and Fabiana Murer, Brazil´s greatest pole vaulter ever, is one of our bests! She didn´t have much luck on the last Olympic Games, but since then she has been getting better and better. Fabiana won the gold medal on the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, but even holding the title of best pole vaulter of the world she remains very down to earth when asked about her expectations for London 2012– “I want to get to the finals and work hard for the gold medal, but for me there´s no “gold or nothing”, I want gold, silver, bronze…”
It is now exactly two years since I first accompanied guests to the Xingu Indian lands – an oasis of natural and cultural preservation of the Amazon – fulfilling a personal objective and dream. See some of the pictures in the gallery to try to get a glimpse of what I was privileged to see!
The Xingu National Park, created 50 years ago by the pioneering efforts of the Villas Boas Brothers, is the home of around six thousand Indians of over thirty different tribes, who in varyingdegrees, still lead a culturally preserved way of life. Matueté has formed a relationship with one of the most interesting of these tribes – the Kamayurá – and are now experimentally taking guests for a night or two with the Indians.
When I first visited, I was incredibly lucky to be there for one of the most beautiful of all their Ceremonies – the Jawari – or War Games. In this incredible twelve hour party – two tribes ‘play-fight’ each other in various different games. At the end of the Ceremony the men of one tribe dance with the women of the other tribe and then switch around, to make sure there are no hard feelings between them. I can safely say that it was one of the most beautiful and moving rituals I have ever seen.
Taking people to visit culturally preserved tribes is a controversial topic in tourism. Many argue that they should be left intact. And we believe that those that still have not been contacted (and there are around 50 or so tribes like this in Brazil) should remain like this – and thankfully this the official government policy too. But the Xingu peoples, have had regular contact with the white man for over 50 years. And the temptations to abandon tribal life and move to the cities are almost irresistible, especially for the younger people. How to prevent this is a foremost thought on any Xinguan Chief’s mind. There are many demands from the members of the tribe for the Chief to provide them with some measure of modern comforts such as diesel for their motor-boats, radios, etc.
Our partnership with the Kamayurá tribe, aims to provide an important source of income (their other sources are selling jewellery or relying on donations) to the Indians to buy whatever cannot beproduced locally and they see as important for the tribe. We are especially hopeful that this partnership will be successful and provide an interesting model for others, since the Chief of the Kamayurás understands well that Cultural preservation is possibly their most valuable asset. Providing a revenue stream to reward this seems a good idea from everyone’s perspective.
Visitation fees are kept high, and go straight to the Indians, so as to bring a reasonable income from a very limited number of visitors.
If you would like to know more about the Xingu, don’t hesitate to contact me.
So Rio +20 is over and most of the media says it was a failure. And if we look closely at the document named “The future we want” that came out of it, we can understand why they say so. But it was not a complete waste of time and money – the civil society movements showed that not everything is lost. What did fail was Rio´s capacity to hold a big event such as Rio +20.
About the general disappointment with the document produced by the conference – no big news. Everyone was already expecting that. To start, we knew that Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Obama weren´t coming. And we know that economic interests are much bigger than the environmental ones, no matter if the world is about to explode. No consistent goals were defined and the “The future we want” according to those people is to maintain the status quo.
On the other hand, we can´t ignore that outside of the conference roomscivil society was doing its part. Scientists discussed sustainable practices, activists protested on the streets… Of course they won´t change the world now, but at least it gives us a glimmer of hope – as more people are engaged with the cause, harder it will be to postpone effective measures.
What both governors and civil society would agree is that Rio was not exactly prepared to hold such a large international event. To begin with, prices were exorbitant and many delegations threatened not to come because of this. Of course there were no hotels and due to the heavy air traffic (private and commercial) many flights had to be cancelled and even us here at Matueté were affected by this chaos. There was also lots of traffic, internet issues… It all shows that we weren’t totally ready for it.
Now everyone is back home and apparently everything will remain the same. The “Future we want” will end up being a document full of good intentions and small actions, and as for our concerns around here about our capacity to host major events, let´s hope that Rio and all Brazilian cities can learn with the chaos that was the Rio +20 conference.
The Fifa World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016 are coming fast. For us the RIO +20 taught us invaluable lessons as to how we can help our travelers have amazing experiences in these major events.
