Terra Vermelha

Londrina is a city that is merely 77 years old, and is nicknamed “little London” because of the fog. The differences in urban development between my visits to the southern parts of Brasil and my life in Manaus is slightly mindboggling, I would like to understand the history behind these differences. Londrina illustrates the historical roots that created structures of development that led to the south and the north of the country to take radically different directions.

In 1924 the British were in the process of negotiating debts in southern Brasil, the governor of Parana proposed a plan with the British that would also help colonize the interior of the state.  Together they created “Companhia de Terras Norte do Parana” to colonize the fertile land and develop industries such as coffee.  The Companhia divided the land and sold parts of it off to investors.  This brought in the first European settlers of German, Spanish, British, and Portuguese descent. Brazilians from Sao Paulo state and Minas Gerais also migrated to the fast developing Parana. In the 1950’s Londrina was the world’s largest producer of coffee, ouro verde or green gold was the nickname given to coffee beans.

In 1935 the famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was recruited to design a plan for the city of Londrina.  Levi-Strauss wanted the city to be designed with social purpose to create spaces of leisure and transportation, instead of solely focused around commercial interests. 

British investment accelerated the growth of Londrina, public and private services were already available in the 1930’s such as: electricity, sewage systems, infrastructure, medical services, and schools.  It is interesting to note that in much of the north and northeastern parts of Brasil these basic services are still not available.  Many scholars suggest that this is because of the history of plantations and slavery has created more socio-economic extremes in these regions.   

Manaus grew in a similar way, except with the rubber boom which generated fast fortunes and rapidly developed the city.  However, along with the decline of the rubber boom the city followed unable to cut off its dependence on the extraction of resources.  So what made Londrina so different?

Londrina’s development was radically different because British investment was under the terms of the government of Londrina in the form of the Companhia, where Brazilians had the capacity to negotiate.  Money was not only in the hands of the British; the government of Londrina could plan the development of the city to include social services and infrastructure.  Whereas, Manaus was unable to further develop because of the exploitative nature of the extraction industries.  Well that is what I think so far, I will have to do some more research on this! Brazil is an exciting mix of contradictions and extremes.

Levi-Strauss's original design for Londrina

The first railway in Londrina, note the union jack 

Curitiba

Ópera de Arame

Parque Tanguá

Paraná is remarkably different from any other state in Brasil with its well developed cities and unique landscapes. There is definitely a better standard of living in the south compared to the northern and northeastern regions of the country. 

Ever since seeing a documentary on the famous Curitibano models for urban development in my very first international development class I have wanted to visit the city. Curitiba was designed to have the most efficient transportation system, and has made many progressive decisions concerning social issues. Many other cities all around the world have copied and been influenced by the Curitibano transportation system.

Pedestrian shopping streets and green praças are the main focus of the city. The visionary mayor Jaime Lerner radically altered the development plans of the city in the 1970’s, when there was great pressure to expand roads and buildings.  Instead Lerner turned a downtown street into a pedestrian walkway, constructed secretly at night in 72 hours before the opposing parties could put a stop to it.  In order to prevent cars from driving in the new pedestrian zone Lerner enlisted a few hundred children to come and paint on the street. Since then pedestrian walkways have become a trademark of Curitiba. Lerner also created an efficient public transit system with 5 bus express lanes, and special cylinder shaped boarding platforms.  Some buses can hold close to 300 people and the entire system is used by over 2 million passengers. Lerner also directed urban planning to focus more on green space and public parks (which double as protection from flooding). Trees were planted on a massive scale something crazy like over a million in 30 years. 

In the 1900s Paraná encouraged Italian, German, Polish, Japanese, and Ukrainian immigrants to come and develop the land. Today there are several memorial parks dedicated to the immigrants that built Curitiba.

Memorial Ucraniano

The Serra Verde Express is a fantastic 3 hour train ride through the mountains to the coast of Paraná stopping in some old colonial towns. The train goes over 67 bridges and 13 tunnels, even in the rain it was absolutely brilliant.

Morretes, an old colonial town built in the 1700s.

Tambacqui Para Tudos!

This is Tambacqui, a fresh water fish from the Amazon.  It is one of the most delicious things in the entire universe, I am not sure if I can ever eat another fish again...

Here is Garantido, one of the main characters of the very popular folklore festival Bumba Meu Boi (Hit My Bull).  The massive festival is based on the retelling of a local legend about a bull coming back to life.  The festival is also a competition between two retellings of the story, one story is represented by Garantido the red bull and Caprichoso the blue bull.  You have to pick a side and route for your team to win, Bumba Meu Boi is one of the only instances where Coca-cola changed the colours on it's cans for the two bull teams half red and blue.  We missed the festival just by a few days of our arrival to Manaus!  

IFAM Idiomas: Distrito Industrial Campus

This week we were lucky enough to be invited to talk with the Saturday morning English classes at the Distrito Industrial campus.  The courses are part of a program called IFAM Idiomas, the project provides English classes at a very low cost to IFAM students and members of the community.  The program is designed to accomodate basic to intermediate levels of English.  Some objectives of IFAM Idiomas include: equipping students with communication skills, written skills, an enhanced vocabulary, as well as the development of cross-cultural experiences.

One Professor mentioned that many of his students travel long distances to get to classes because English is becoming an in demand skill for the workforce.  Manaus is experiencing some major growth in it's eco-tourism industry, and the upcoming games of the 2014 World Cup will be hosted here.  Manauara cab drivers and hotel staff are beginning to make more of an effort to learn some basic English. I have been surprised at the lack of English in Brazil especially regarding hotels and tourist areas.

We visited several classes at different levels of English, the classes were composed of a range of ages.  We were interviewed by the students who had some pretty hard hitting questions, such as "Do you live to love or love to live?" and "Are you satisfied with your personality?".  We had so much fun meeting everyone and participating in the classes, hopefully we can visit again!      

Feeling Fences

In every city I have visited so far except for Brasilia, there are fences and fences and more fences.  Most houses, buildings, and space in Brasil is privately owned.  It's a strange feeling because parts of Europe and North America feel more open and accessible.

PROSAMIM has a radically new vision of Manaus and the importance of public space.  Here is Parque Senador Jefferson Péres built by PROSAMIM, this area used to be a slum area.  Now the park has a playground, an orchid greenhouse, and food stands.

Arts & Crafts PROSAMIM Style

Here are some cool crafts they have been making out of recycled materials at the PROSAMIM base in Quadra 3.

São Paulo vrs. Tambaqui Urbano

This is the Sampa skyline from the Banespa building, which was built in the same style of the Empire State Building.  Banespa was the tallest building in São Paulo until 1960, it still has the best 360-degree view of the city.  Is this really a skyline? There is almost no sky!

MASP is one of São Paulo 's best modern art museums.

Museu Ipiranga and Parque da Independência was built in commemoration of King Dom Pedro I who declared Brazilian independence in 1822. The museum examines Brazilian history from early settlement to the 1950s, it also has a very strange exhibit on old baby photos.

Liberdade the Japanese district

Mercado Municipal, where you must eat a massive sanduíche de mortadela (they serve about 900 of them a day here).

The graffiti artist Invader invaded São Paulo, you can spot his artwork all around the city in random places.

Petrópolis: Is this England?

Catedral de São Pedro de Alcântara

The catedral was built in 1884 by King Dom Pedro II in French Gothic style.  It holds the royal chapel where King Dom Pedro II, Princess Regent Dona Teresa Cristina, and many other members of the royal family are buried.

Petrópolis is a beautiful city with a lot of history in the mountains just one hour outside of Rio.  Petrópolis is known as the imperial city because the Brazilian royal family decided to build their summer palace and summer seat of the monarchy in 1843.  The city has many royal historical attractions and fantastic mountain scenery.

 Palácio de Cristal was built in France in 1879 and was used as the royal ballroom, now it is an exhibition space.

Casa de Santos Dumont built in 1918.

Possibly the coolest tree house ever built, Santos Dumont (1873-1932) was a famous Brazilian inventor who created the wristwatch.  Dumont was also one of the early pioneers of aviation.  There is some major controversy over whether the Wright brothers or Santos Dumont built and flew the first airplane.

Quitandinha

This Norman style palace was built in 1944 as the largest casino in South America, many of it's guests were royalty and Hollywood stars.  Today it is used as luxury condominiums.

Palácio Imperial

The Imperial Museum is the main attraction in Petrópolis, it holds the Imperial Crown Jewels as well as many other possessions of the royal family.  King Dom Pedro II built the Imperial Palace as his summer residence in 1845.

Serra dos Órgãos

This is the Serra dos Órgãos mountain range outside of Rio, it is spectacular!  In the morning the mountains are really misty and foggy.