Riowakening

Brazil through an Australian's eyes

Saudade is Brazil's way to say I miss you heaps in a single word

My eyes had been popping out of my head all week. Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf Mountain, Dois Irmaos, Ipanema Beach - Rio de Janeiro...

Why do Brazilians give hugs to complete strangers?

I was getting out of the lift in my Rio de Janeiro apartment building when the random Brazilian guy riding alongside me gave me a hug...

If Madonna can do a Rio de Janeiro favela tour so can you

Normal one day, crazy the next. This would be the honest slogan for Rio favela tours, ripping off Queensland's era-defining "beautiful...

Technobloco strikes back on the streets of Rio Carnival

Technobloco? More like Cryptobloco. The legend of Technobloco spread so far and wide over the past year that it grew with as much hyped...

Ipanema Beach acai woman Vanessa Esplendorosa can teach us all about happiness

There's a great woman who works on Ipanema Beach that is impossible to forget. Vanessa Cabral dos Santos, or Vanessa Esplendorosa as...

A love letter to Rio, a gangster’s paradise

I’M living in a city where the gangs are so out of control the army has been called in to keep the peace. Like many predicted before...

The battle for school children learning in Rio’s favelas

Back earlier in the year I had the pleasure to do a story on the work of the Mais Caminhos charity in Rio's Ipanema just around the...

Getting robbed at Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue

DOES Brazil’s Christ shed a tear looking down over the sadness below him? It’s a question Rio de Janeiro’s residents ask as they gaze up...

The terror of getting a haircut in a foreign language

You haven’t lived life on the edge until you’ve ordered a haircut in a foreign language. There it is, my quote from my highest ever...

22 common Brazilian Portuguese words and phrases for travel

After over a year and much blood, sweat and tears, or more realistically, sun, sand and samba, enough Brazilian Portuguese has seeped...

The C word: Changing Company, Career, City, Country, Culture

Company, Career, City, Country, Culture. Changing just one of these C words in your life can lead to untold discovery. Them all? Well...

20 Brazil and Rio tips for travellers visiting for a holiday

If you’re thinking of coming on a holiday to Brazil and Rio it's a great life choice to make, believe me. There can be a lot to get...

Why Brazil needs Uber and Uber needs Brazil

Hardly a country has needed Uber so much as Brazil. Between its huge traffic jams, chasm of social inequality, tumbling economy and...

"A good criminal is a dead criminal": Rio's civil war

"A good criminal is a dead criminal." That’s the meaning of the Portuguese words “um bandido bom é um bandido morto” on the lips of...

Technobloco, Carnaval, Rio, Friends and Freedom

Ambushing the Sambódromo with hundreds of other Brazilian Carnaval party animals was one of the best moments of my life. The epicentre...