I’m a lucky guy: it’s my turn to write for all of you exactly when the World Cup is happening in my country, Brazil.
It’s been an amazing event, not only because of the great games but especially because of the feeling. Everybody is happy, the 200 million Brazilians and the thousands and thousands tourists that came from everywhere in the planet.
Our visitors are in love with Brazil. A French journalist wrote that he was shocked for visiting a place where everybody is kind and nice. An American journalist wrote that the feeling of this World Cup should be bottled and exported to Russia and Qatar, hosts of the next ones in 2018 and 2022.
Everybody says this is the best World Cup ever, all games are a fantastic party that goes on to the streets of the 12 cities that hosted games. I wanted it would happen again here next year, some say all of them should be here.
Brazilians always suffered from an inferiority complex. We used to think that our nation was not good enough for first world visitors: our tarmac with some pot holes, our chaotic traffic in the big cities, high prices, slums in some places. But now we find out that tourists don’t want the same things they have at home.
They want new experiences, and Brazil can offer a lot of that. Our culture is very rich, our nature is fantastic – from the beaches to the Amazon -, our people are multiracial and always ready to help a tourist.
We have problems, of course, but working hard to solve them. In the last 10 years 37 million people left a situation of poverty and entered the middle class. No other nation achieved that so fast, and it’s a real revolution.
After the wonderful World Cup we can say, with no inferiority complex: come visit Brazil, you will love it. You can plan right now coming for the Olymnpic Games in Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
Want a taste of Brazil? I will give you a recipe of caipirinha, our national drink that was approved by 10 out of 10 tourists that came for the World Cup. This is a simple one (there are other recipes, more sophisticated), but it works well:
Squeeze a lime in a medium glass. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 80 cc of cachaça (a Brazilian sugar cane distilled). Stir it well, add lots of ice, stir again and enjoy. You can use more sugar, more cachaça, it’s up to you.
Don’t have cachaça? No problem. Use rum, and call it a caipiríssima. Or use vodka, and call it a caipiroska. You will love it anyway.
Sorry about my lousy English, but if I used Portuguese nobody would understand me.
Wanna reply, wanna know more about Brazil? Feel free to write me to this e mail: [email protected].
Enjoy your life.
Luiz Afonso Franz
[email protected]
Novo Hamburgo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil