ITALY – early taste of the West

Bugger nothing did we know about the world beyond the iron curtain during the communist time of our youth in the former Czechoslovakia. Now that I look back the whole lifetime, I could see so clearly how isolated and brainwashed we were. We were so naïve ! We just did not know. Despite our distrust of the system and piecemeal underground education, we could only imagine and guess. A definite uphill and even dangerous way as the commie propaganda was so omnipresent, penetrating every smallest aspect of our life. Total and deadly paranoia dominated the scene. 

Deadly "iron curtain" divided the 

East and West for decades of cold war

Somehow, however, this all did not manage to thwart the apparently genetic human desire to see and get to know the others who lived differently and somewhere else. Unsatiable curiosity penetrated every bone in my body, and my restless brain kept asking and spinning schemes of how to get to see what the the rest of the world was all about. Eventually, some of us managed to breach the confines of our “communist paradise”, using whatever tricks that we could come up with. Many friends just fled the system and disappeared to the West. That was quite a dangerous way to freedom.

ITALY the crazy way - First glimpse of the “West”.

Some cracks started developing in the commie pressure cooker and the rulers reluctantly allowed its citizens at least some limited travel – to other alike “friendly” countries. Among those was then former Yugoslavia. It even had a sea that that we landlubbers had no way of knowing. Through some manipulations a friend and I thus obtained special permits to visit Yugoslavia for a couple of weeks as noted on a piece of paper that was blank at its back. That appearance awoke a bold idea of placing there a special Italian transit visa. Obtained through a friendly assistance of my friend’s girlfriend working at their consulate. The Italians had never seen such a travel document and did not really care where they placed the big transit-visa stamp. Swoosh and bang - there we were good for a 5-day transit through Italy. And we would only see later how or if that would work on the border. We packed a tiny Fiat-600 car borrowed from my friend's parents up to its roof and off we went -

The first and thorough border check, of course, came upon leaving Czechoslovakia. The customs officers paid more attention to the stacks of camping gear and food cans that tried to roll out when they opened the car’s door. That obviously detracted them from checking the funny stamp on the back of a rarely seen travel document. It was all in Italian anyway. They could not understand it and did not care all that much. That’s exactly what we were hoping for and all of a sudden we were in Hungary. Then, for change, we could not understand a word of the Tartarian language around us and anxiously headed right through to the Yugoslavian border.

Yes, they had seen some Czechs with funny travel papers before and waved us through. Yugoslavia was a bit more “western and easier” at that time and we just made a beeline for the Italian border. The “proof of the pudding” would be when we are on the other side of it. A big highway sign “Trieste” only whetted our appetite. We were surprised when the Yugoslavian border patrol fussed over our simplistic travel documents. Somehow, we managed to convince them that it was in place of a Czechoslovakian passport, according to a recent binational agreement. Seeing the Italian visa on the reverse side of this piece of paper calm them down and with our breath held we approached their Italian counterparts. The Italian visa was all that interested them and it worked its magic. So all of a sudden, we were in Italy - wow ! We were at the West side of the iron curtain..

Bright colors and advertizing billboards everywhere, business buzz, flashy things and cheap gasoline – and over there, across Trieste, in the distance, we saw the sea. First time in my life, I saw the Black See in soviet Georgia 3 years before when I was 22.  It was all like a dream. We breathed the freedom and could see the difference.

“Una Coca-Cola grande, formato fimiliare, prego” was the extent of our Italian and we used it right away – and many times after that as we endulged that worldly drink that was unavailable at home. We had very little money but, as we were well trained in camping, all we needed was in the car. Essential potful of cooked lentils was always sitting strategically beside the driver’s seat. We had to keep going like madmen on the loose to see as much as we could in those precious 5 days using the winding side roads since we could not afford toll highways. 
Our immediate and foremost target was closeby - Venice. 

Day and night we wondered the winding narrow streets there and marveled at the ancient watery charm of the gondola city. Nothing was straight there, houses leaning this way and that. We people build right-angle cubical dwellings and cities everywhere – only to spend fortunes travelling to Venice to enjoy its warmth of canals and colorful leaning buildings sitting in water. Amazing -

We crisscrossed north-eastern Italy. I don’t remember where, how or even IF we slept. Treviso, Padua, Vicenza, Verona – and yes, we romantics had to see the Julia’s Balcony and it was indeed there.   Bologna, Florence, Ravenna, Rimini, and the ancient republic of San Marino – 

I vividly recall my conclusion in Florence as we just wandered around – it is so full of magical art and beauty to behold that – Florence, absolutely deserves its own visit, in peace and contemplation. I did a bit of it returning many years later -

Driving somewhere in the hills of Tuscany, lost with my friend and the pot of lentils between us, we enjoyed some sporty driving on the scenic, winding, up-and-down roads. My friend was an ardent auto-rally driver. Naturally, he could not stand another little Fiat trailing right behind us, the car of the same type. Tires started screeching in every one of the thousand turns - with the trailing Fiat following right behind us all the time – bloody shame, we could not shake him. In the heat of the impromptu rally, all of a sudden, our car engine concked out. Dead. As we were sidelined to an abrupt halt, the shadowy Fiat zipped by, its driver with a wide grin giving us his thumb up in delight of this driving duel. 

The explanation was obvious as we saw that car’s tail, half open with a big sign of Abarth. These were special Fiats with an oversize racing engine. That explained the driving skills.

But we were so hopelessly dead on the road shoulder, our engine ceased. My goodness, and we were sooo totally pennyless ! Contemplating, we let the engine and ourselves to naturally cool off. After a nerve-wracking while, hurray!, the engine started up again. Corollary ? Always check also the back of a challenger and don’t mess with professionals. Italians are proverbially good and sporty drivers and appreciate a good competition.

The friend of mine sent back a postcard with a drawing of an eye and a terse comment “This is how I am gaping. John.” By coincidence, it went to my future wife – who later confessed that she could not recall who that John was.

All in all, these were totally frantic 5 days – and they gave us a good flavor of the West. We just confirmed what we always felt – that bloody West was so much ahead, free and better in everything. To elaborate on that would require at least a separate book. We were so overfilled with things to ruminate on when we crossed the border back into the socialistic paradise. 

Rocky shores of Slovenia, Looking West - forever -

But first into the former Yugoslavian republic of Slovenia. Its wild rocky coast just south of Trieste offered a fantastic decompression environment by the sea – the rest of our vacations. We did not even bother pitching our tent. For the Southern warm nights, both of us just crawled into the bush and dreamed of the West we just cracked open – with stars twinkling overhead.
Actually, this whirlwind trip just re-directed our lives. Eventually, my friend has been living in the USA and I have resided in Canada.

Now in retrospect, some 45 years later, we realize how utterly naïve, isolated and brainwashed we were at home. We did what we could though, we are not there anymore – and it does not even exist the silly and cruel way it was. In our absence, the “communist heaven” just evaporated.

Keep it that way –

- and if you insisted on that lentil stew like we did, here is one of brief recipes:

Cities I have been to

The small world ? Nooooo, it is sooo big, one cannot go everywhere.

A CLICK on the map gets you to the interactive Facebook TripAdvisor page with details.

Take a look - plenty of photos there.

Some places have been more pleasant to go to than others.

And then there is TIME, that enemy of ours - all those places keep changing in time.

There is no way to keep up-to-date on the world.

The individual travels mentioned here are thus not dated - on purpose a bit, mentioning just their personal "impressions" that remained.

I was lucky to have visited what I did - and it also helped me professionally.

 

Now it's nice to eventually sit comfortably in the Florida sunshine,

or have a good time in Montreal in summer time.

Or wander through the history and memories of my native Praha - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JAPAN – Another Planet

“ Absolutely, you must be there”, pronounced the CEO of a Quebec provincial financial institution to my total shock and surprise. I just finished my presentation plea for a contribution to enable me to join a special US mission to Japan. “To see what this Japanese biotechnology is all about”, as its leader put it. You see, the US started lacking behind Japan in biotech products and applications after its rocket-like start.  Actually, this was not just biotechnology – one could not miss the flood of Toyotas, Nissans, Mazdas and other Japanese vehicles on US and world highways, for instance. After several decades of channeling Japanese managers and scientists to the USA, the US-Japanese Exchange Society started reversing its function in organizing the American visits out - into Japan.

“Let’s see what we can learn, copy or steal from this Japanese biotech success”, our group leader let out, illustratively rolling up his sleeves. Evidently, even these highly educated Americans were having a hard time recognizing that different systems on the globe could just work – well, differently !  It is difficult to accept ceasing to be No.1.  As it happened, our exchange group consisted of about 14 “captains” of the US largest biotech companies, pharmaceuticals and such. And one little Canadian – me.
 

Genetically modified unique blue rose

Indeed, to be in the presence of all these big-gun VPs proved to be a unique experience in itself as we discussed our experience of every day’s grueling schedule visiting with selected large-scale industrial biotech operations in Japan – Meiji-Seiko, Ajinomoto, Kikkoman and others. Our sci-technical observations were uniquely supplemented by those of our Ameri-Japanese visit organizer among us who specialized in social studies focusing on the behavior of management groups. An example of one of our many encounters of the kind follows :

“This pharmaceutical production plant has 3,000 employees – way too many for its size”, was one observation. The plant was impressive, shining clean, even land-scaped.  “How about yours - yours - and yours” was a question flying among the group members. “About 450 – 500 – even less” – sounded off answers of the American colleagues. How come such a discrepancy ?? - was the obvious pressing question of the day when it was realized that also their fermentation-tank rate of contamination/spoilage was about 1 in 300 there. American production plants at that time had to discard about 1 tank in 50 – a great deal of a loss of expensive chemicals and time.  “Contamination resistant microbial strains !” was a suggested answer. Next day’s tour of that Company’s research facility thoroughly dissipated that myth. Nothing special about their rather conventional microbiology. Why so many employees ?  “Oh-yes, we could do with perhaps even 250 employees. But we are committed to our employees, we cannot just let them go”,  was an honest management answer. 

True cradle-to-grave system.  And those employees, mindful of this and devoted to the Company ran around polishing the production plant, they landscaped it for beauty and – cleanliness.  It was that extraordinary cleanliness and employee devotion that protected those precious fermentation batches. 

In short, it was the “cultural difference”, compared to rather messy American operations. 
And that could not be copied or stolen.

In addition to that, another example of a similar difference was in ‘higher circles’. The gentleman that conducted our tour of a huge production plant obviously and impressively knew every machine and every bolt in it – we tested him. He was an Engineer who worked his way up to the Vice-Presidency of this 35,000-employee Company. In similar positions in the USA are almost exclusively professional “managers”, lawyers or accountants, hardly ever a technical person. Later, I read more about the Lawyer-per-Capita numbers in Japan that were 10-times (!) lower than in the USA.
Another conclusion can be summarized in what our Japanese colleagues told us about 'competition'. Their top managers from different companies shared all their experiences they gathered, particularly in the USA. And what about competition ?  -
"We all need to make sure that Japan becomes No.1 - then in the marketplace it will be seen just who is the best amongst us".
Day after day of this type of extraordinary experiences in Japan opened our eyes.

There was nothing the Americans could “copy or steal” from the Japanese. The differences were so culture-based that the operation of such a society could not be duplicated under any other circumstances. What was left for the American system was – to get licked – and perhaps wait for some decades until the young Japanese soften up, getting “americanized” that way, and the Americans would toughen up and face up to another (economic) Pearl Harbor.  Is that possible ??

The jury is still out on that which was eventually the unanimous conclusion of our little biotech group.  In the meantime, the Japan society struggles through its ups and downs, reflecting the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in their system.
This was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life.
Japan in general, however, is a welcoming, colorful, marvelous and a unique country ! 

Different though – almost like another planet.
 

The Japanese tea ceremony is a ritual. There are many small meal-centered rituals that the Japanese have. Westerners' presence may become schizophrenically welcome-embarassing to them, we were warned. Better keep out of some places that seem like Japanese-only. We are there like the proverbial "elephant in a china shop".
 

We became totally spoiled by a Japanese massage at a volcanic mountain resort.

Tokyo electronic, not just a super-store, not an entire department store - but a whole city quarter, was totally mind-boggling.
 

We enjoyed Japanese "shabu-shabu" thin-sliced Kyoto beef boiled in what became delicious soup at the meal's end :

PUERTO RICO - US Dollar Mañana

 “I am sorry, sir, you will not make this flight”, pronounced the thorough US immigration official who was pre-clearing me in Montreal for the flight to Puerto Rico. While Canadians did not need a visa, I did not have the special visa required for my long-term sabbatical sojourn there,. As I took off only to head back home from the airport, all my luggage, including windsurfing equipment, took off for Puerto Rico (this was prior to the antiterrorist precautions concerning unaccompanied luggage on flights).
I was just seething, holding back my own explosion. The following week I spent on the phone with all kinds of institutions and agencies, including the University of PR and the local State Department.
You see, Puerto Rico is a US territory but not a US state. This dichotomy seems to also form its life - not life-style, however. The unsurmountable laid-back latin mañana attitude permeates everything and everyone – just take it easy.  But I needed that blasted visa and follow my luggage – ASAP. For that purpose, I ended up telling the local officials there what to do, and how to do it. Of course, it was their job to know but they did not – and did not mind.  Eventually, I received the right visa and a week later I presented myself , coincidentally, to the same officer who turned me down the first time.
“You know, I did not believe that you could do it that fast”, he remarked - and I was on the plane. With windsurfing on my mind, I realized and confirmed that Puerto Rico really WAS the place to be in –
A rare combination of sunshine, that laid-back Spanish mañana attitude – and the US dollar, telephones, air-conditioning and supermarkets. Blue skies always had their enchanting powers over me. When asked, I also let known that (at that time) Puerto Rico had the highest concentration of brand new and shiny pharmaceutical production plants in the world. All the biotech biggies were there:  Pfizer, Upjohn, Bayer, Eli-Lilly, and others, lured by the local tax haven. 

A unique opportunity to see the real biotech production, except that it was all strictly confidential. However, Puerto Rico worked its charm. Most of the Engineers in those plants were graduates of the local University (of PR). A phone call of the type “ Hi Pedro, I am a Visiting Prof. at your former Department, would it be possible to come and see you and your plant ?”  Invariably, the response was “Oh, si, señor, with pleasure – and let me guide you, any time”.  Done – and I learned.

Windsurfing too – I had to learn it all over again. Despite my previous skills, to windsurf the open ocean required different and more demanding techniques. When I mastered those, I spent “nirvana” hours hanging onto the little sail way out there until the island became a smudge on the horizon. That was crazy and today I have shivers going down my spine recalling that. Should anything have broken or happened to me – when out there, no-one around –
Well, nothing broke and I am still here. And I even managed to do some teaching there, learning yet a different rule of life on a tropical island. One should plan and could try to accomplish only ONE thing a day. Otherwise – deep frustration !  Polite smiles, pleasantries, yes – but no action, even in the air-conditioned office comfort.

We lived in a small house right on the university campus.  Our little Martin got very upset when all students passing by patted him on his shining-blond hair - “que lindo !”  That became his first Spanish. Children went to Anglo-Spanish school there, soaking in another language.
I noticed there how children learn a language. Mart was playing ball with some local boys, boisterously yelling something in Spanish. "What is it you said, Mart ?", I asked curiously.  "I don't know", he answered, "but when I yell this (a Spanish sound) - he passes me the ball". And that's how they do it.
 It was just a wonderful sabbatical year. When I came to Puerto Rico again, some 15 years later, all was so much the same, except for plastic and garbage piling up along all the roads. And this careless consumer society was still arguing whether to become – or NOT – another US state.  But doesn’t it take two to tango ?


   Surprisingly, people in Puerto Rico relate more to the mountains than to the sea. Nobody on beaches ! And we also had the university olympic-size swimming pool pretty well to ourselves.

   Deadly quick and mighty flash floods roar down those mountains even with sunshiny and clear local skies overhead.

   The local small planes look for the “hole in clouds” to land through the regular tropical downpours. Visiting, our grandma refused to board the plane when asked to sit over THERE to balance the plane -  "If it takes THAT to balance it, I am not flying" !
     
   I wished I had a shiny car like one of those that were overflowing student parking lots of the UPR.
 
   Touristy San Juan is not Puerto Rico, we were on the other side of the island in Mayaguez.
  

I must have some of these strong Czech peasant genes - I liked simple Puertorican national meal of "rice and beans". Well, as long as I could find also some pieces of meat somewhere on the plate :

SWITZERLAND – Alpine Vistas

Switzerland is an insanely scenic country.  And the International Olympic Committee knows where to pitch its headquarters – in Lausanne, Switzerland. With its story-tale view of Lac Leman with Les Jumelles mountainous silhouette rising from it, Lausanne must be one of the most beautiful spots on the globe.
And that’s where I found myself for another sabbatical year to spend with the Ecole Polytechnique Federal in Lausanne as a Visiting Professor. A French-speaking branch of the famous ETH Zurich, the EPFL has its campus in the Lausanne suburb. In their pragmatism, the Swiss do not hesitate to appoint foreigners even to permanent professorial posts so prestigious in their society.

And one can function and lecture in English – the whole campus, even outside of it, speaks it quite fluently.  My colleague there, quite a distinguished gentleman and scholar, graduated from the UC Berkeley and we had our bio-thermodynamics in common.
To provide a background connection, I should mention that he was also a high ranking officer in the Swiss army. Yes, the proverbially ‘neutral’ Switzerland has an army and quite a powerful one.  That’s because they believe in ‘neutrality with strength’ and it seems that everybody has a tank in their barns or at least a machine gun in the closet. And they keep honing their military skills on weekends.

When I was blissfully skiing one of the wonderful resorts close to Lausanne, a screaming duo of jet fighters suddenly popped low over the ridge and dove down into the valley, skimming the rugged mountain contour, much faster than my downhill speed. And I almost went into a similar dive head first hearing their engines mighty roar as they ascended from the valley again skimming the opposite mountains. Insane crazy pilots !
When I mentioned this experience in our EPFL cafeteria, my ‘army-professor’ casually remarked:  “Oh-yes, it must have been Carl from the neighbouring department, he is a jet-fighter pilot and they practice their runs on the weekend”. I also learned that their magnificent flying machines actually fly out of the mountain where they are hidden underground. Crazy pilots, crazy Swiss airforce !

Along the same line, as their eyes are pointed upwards admiring the gorgeous mountain vistas, a few tourists in Switzerland notice the cut-contours in the surface of Swiss highways. These are anti-tank obstacles that would rise up in case of danger. Also numerous mountain tunnels are constructed and equipped for their role as back-up military storage depots or hospitals. Well, just realize that there must be a reason why the pope’s safety is guarded by the Swiss guard.

But that’s all under the surface, none of it is conspicuous at all in the peace and tranquility of those majestic mountains providing challenging and view-rewarding hikes everybody undertakes at the echoing sounds of cow-bells from all over.

Apart from the Swiss military surprise, I was flabbergasted at the sight of an already retired, extremely rare and extremely powerful super-computer exhibited in one of the EPFL hallways. Only the Pentagon and NASA had a few similar ones. One can do some thermodynamics with such gizmos around.
We did what we could – and enjoyed the views and hikes too -



After the demise of the exquisite Swissair airline, “Swiss air” became a recent country brand term - in addition to famous “Swiss banking”, “Swiss knife”, “Swiss watch”, “Swiss cheese” and other quite effective marketing of the Swiss brand. This kind of national promotion breeds togetherness that is an envy of other nations.  

The “CH” label on Switzerland-registered cars means “Confederatio Helvetica” (latin). This is not common knowledge and the title dates back to 1291.

Switzerland is a fine example of modernized historically based democracy. Its four official languages do work for the country, as does the cantonal basis (26) and frequent referendums.

Apart from its breathtaking natural scenery, Switzerland is renown for hard-work ethics and togetherness of its people, excellent educational system, technological prowess and independence.

Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross, home to numerous international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably it is not part of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area. However, the country does participate in the Schengen Area and the EU's single market through a number of bilateral treaties.

" Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" (Latin) , " One for all, all for one" is a Swiss national motto (traditional), thus NOT necessarily an exclusive one of the three mousketeers.

And another "Swiss" delight - Swiss raclette, wonderful food togetherness - look :

The PHILIPPINES - 7,000 Islands

I like water and sunshine – both are plentiful in the Philippines so that country was on my wish list to visit. With a wink, I remark that it is important to chose an area of one’s research , well, very thoughtfully.  In my biosorption research we identified the need for certain seaweeds, namely Sargassum. So when I noticed that there was a world congress of the Seaweed Society in Cebu City, I thought that I should be there. And how right I was ! While this was not my “scientific crowd”, I was also invited by the Cebu Chapter of Chemical Engineering to deliver a few lectures.
I was glad I made it there.  The Philippines are a mix of the local culture with strong Spanish and American influences left over from periods of supremacies. Cebu City happens to be the oldest city in the Philippines but one would never guess that. Just look at it here, all modern. Note the favorite Philippino local street transportation “jeepneys” – somewhat over-decorated, small open busses. Or the outrigger boats of all sizes, small ones powered by paddles, bigger ones are motorized (photo below). This tropical archipelago is as far from Canada as could be – not only geographically but almost in all aspects. Via Vancouver, Hong Kong and Manila, I made my way to Cebu City on Cebu Island, the Conference location.  Needless to mention, I was already in contact with the local University colleagues and was delighted to meet them.  I barely settled down in the tropics and the Conference was starting. Well, almost starting.  The world-wide science crowd of some 800 people was all gathered for the opening address – that could not start. The electricity conked out. The Conference Chair’s presence of mind saved the situation by initiating an impromptu open general debate - until the electricity comes back on. Any questions or comments from the audience ?

My arm somehow shot up by itself – please go ahead:  “I am an engineer totally out of my depth here among you esteemed bio- and algo-logists.  But I have a challenge for you. For the application of a new biosorption process that we conceived and are developing we might need 15,000 tons of Sargassum seaweed. Could anyone here tell me where and how to get hold of it ?” The response of the gathered scientific crowd was only short of dropping a bomb.
That innocent challenge stirred a totally overwhelming debate about it. Why so much ?
I explained the detoxification of some billions of gallons of water gathered and rising in an open-pit mine in Montana. We need to remove the toxic heavy metals from it and dried sargassum biomass was identified as an excellent agent for it. Larger quantities of Sargassum are not being commercially produced – could they be ? This fired up all the algologists’ imagination – and I was just besieged by questions - and offers.

The Philippines, with all the (shallow) water around are a major producer of numerous types of algae, for all kinds of purposes and applications. Local producers, also present at the Congress, became very excited too.  And later, I went touring their “water farms” all around Cebu. That way I got to see what few people have the opportunity to. Often, I heard laud boom-noise like artillery firing. What was it ?
“Dynamite”, was the subdued shy answer, “illegal fishing with dynamite and there is nothing that we can do about it. The poachers are just too powerful and too dangerous.”  
My goodness, the realities of life shook me up.
But we did find big patches of Sargassum growing around. And I carried home with me a 30-kg plastic bag of dry compressed biomass as a “sample” gift for our research tests. Yes, it worked and awaits scaling it up. Plentyful supply of the seaweed biomass could be secured from the Philippines – and Indonesia, and other warm-sea locations around the world. Just go and do it – anyone ?

Outrigger boats of all sizes are omnipresent on water. We used one from the local Oceanographic Department – to look for Sargassum, of course.










Seaweeds are a labor-intensive big industry in the Philippines:

And how about some Philippino food ? Fish, of course - but with so many islands this may get a little complicated. So just a little cross-section perhaps ? Look :

 

BRAZIL – African Drops

“Every one of us has at least a drop of African blood in our veins”, confided an academic friend of mine when I arrived in Brazil. And it seems that Brazil is probably the most mixed-blood country in the world, living it up happily. I experienced Brazilians as a smiling, polite, fashionable and generous bunch. We travelled somewhat through the center of the country - and it is a huge country – thanks to what we eventually called “the academic bio-circus”. One Brazilian colleague career researcher selected us and organized a seminar tour labeled “Microbes and Metals”. Dr. Stoyan Groudev - a Bulgarian expert, Dr. Lynn Macaskie – an outstanding British microbiologist, and myself – a bio-engineer. And we went explaining what microbes can do with metals – quite a bit, actually. We teased enthusiastic Stoyan with his own closing phrase “Biosorption is not only technologically feasible but also economically attractive” – it became proverbial.

Our Brazilian scientific audiences were invariably very enthusiastic and we forged  many connections, even friendships.  As a result of this first extensive tour I ended up later teaching a course in Belo Horizonte (state Minas Gerais - with hearty food !) and I also toured (again) up the warm and breathtakingly scenic Brazilian coast in search of our key research material, biomass of seaweed Sargassum. That taught me another little lesson – to not believe local oceanographers. Wherever they pointed out the possible presence of Sargassum, there was none – and it was somewhere else. Flying, I hopped along the warm Atlantic coast of Brazil, searching all the way from the level of Sao Paulo, through Rio de Janeiro, to Salvador, Aracaju, Maceio, Recife, Joao Pessoa, to Natal – there is the point of the South American sub-continent that is closest to Africa. The waves rolling onto Brazilian beaches across the Atlantic come unimpeded all the way from Africa.

With a dune buggy we bumped along stretches of some of those beautiful beaches, mostly empty, some with beautiful huge dunes. Where the ancient Portuguese and Spaniards looked for gold, we searched for Sargassum. The European invaders actually did find their treasures but further inland, at places like Ouro Preto - the whole state there is named Minas Gerais because of the mining activities.

Ouro Preto is a wonderful small mountain town, a UN historic site, populated to a good degree by the Federal University. On an inland tour we even got to see an actual large-scale operation of a gold mine – with a toxic cyanide waste lagoon and all. Pollution aspects get out of hand in uncontrollable Amazonian jungles where river-   and other gold deposits are being (illegally) extracted with mercury. The creeping toxicity of mercury spreads from there to almost around the globe. Expansive Brazil is hard to get to know throughout, let alone controlling it throughout its faraway places and wilderness.

It is a vast country that stretches from the steaming hot Amazon Basin in the north to vineyards and massive Iguaçu Falls in the south. Rio de Janeiro, symbolized by its 38m Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mt. Corcovado, is famed for its busy Copacabana and Ipanema beaches as well as its enormous, raucous Carnival festival, featuring parade floats, flamboyant costumes and samba. Despite of the peaceful nature of Brazilians who did not conduct a war for some 200 years, the crime in most brazilian cities has become vicious and it is spreading. Brazilian middle class is bucking the world trend as it is abandoning family house dwelling in favor of fortress-like gated communities or high-rise condos that conspicuously pierce the city skyline all over. While the bottom of the society scrapes living in the impossible lawless favelas :

It will be interesting how Rio de Janeiro will control its infamous crime and favelas during the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games.

Brazilian music rhythms are rich and probably the most sophisticated in the world. It seems that simplistic booom-booom of the western contemporary music can only play a ‘second fiddle’ to that of Brazil.
 
What helped me to understand the soul of Brazil were novels of Jorge Amado (e.g. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon ) – I recommend that you read some.

And I have not seen the mighty Iguazu Falls in the South of Brazil – yet :

 

Rio de Janeiro is probably the most beautiful city in the world. One cannot see Brazil without seeing Rio :

Brazilian eating is as varied as Brazilian scenery - but one should NOT miss Brazilian "churasco" - meat. And yes, you can replicate it even at home - look here :