Sweet Home Floripa, Florianópolis, Brazil

Speakers who addressed the First Conference of the National Institute of Investors in a Rio hotel this weekend aired an odd mixture of elation and pessimism.  Speakers included such figures as Bovespa chief, Paulo de Sousa Oliveira Júnior and other well-known figures in the Brazilian investing world.

The reason for this odd mixture of emotions was the incredible run of good fortune Brazil has enjoyed in the last six months.  As the dust from the economic crisis slowly settled and the most advanced economies appeared as no more than a pile of rubble, economies like Brazil’s have become increasingly attractive.  There is even talk of Brazil and China having clearly outstripped their BRIC partners, India and Russia, to form a new pair of developing giants—the BC countries?  Whatever you want to call this new duo, the important point is that Brazil—perhaps to the disbelief of some of its most important financial mavens—is looking hotter than a penguin on Ipanema Beach. Read the rest of this entry »

Learning to speak a foreign language is often a question of trial and error, of bravely experimenting with new words and praying that the listener doesn’t look blank and shrug in confusion, or even worse burst out laughing. All too often a slight change in spelling, pronunciation or stress can radically change the meaning, making the language a minefield to be negotiated with the minimum of embarrassment.

Right from the start I knew I was in trouble; in my very first Portuguese lesson I was faced with the words ‘homem’ and ‘mulher’, so I confidently said to the teacher ‘eu sou um homem e você é uma mula’ (I’m a man and you’re a donkey). Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Huan Gomes

You stand ankle deep in the warm sea.  It’s sunset in late February.  The sky has turned from pink to purple.  Just as the sun is about to set behind you, you see it floating up from beyond the horizon:  the moon, full and ripe. You are dazzled, entranced, captivated by the beauty of Florianopolis. You vow never to leave.  You fantasize about buying that perfect piece of land, that dream house you knew you would find someday.

Perhaps it is this bedazzled vision, full of hope and wonder, that have led so many foreigners —and others—to fall prey to the real estate cons and land swindles that occur so frequently on the island.  So before you sign, take a look at the top five.  Read the rest of this entry »

“Go on, hit me!”  says Jairo, who is lying flat on his back, while I straddle his chest.  “Don’t be afraid!” I curl my hand into a fist and strike.  Before I can blink, however, I’m lying flat on my stomach and Jairo is smooshing my face into the mat with his forearm.  His iron fist pins my hand behind my back.  I try to move, but I cannot. “This is not a good position for you.  If I want to, I can finish you now.”  I can’t argue with that.  I’m grateful when Jairo allows me to stand up again.  His grins at me affectionately with his big, toothy grin.  It’s my first lesson in  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I’m not disappointed.

I had often wondered why Brazil should be home to its own national version of a Japanese martial art.  After all, Japan is on the other side of the world.  I understood why Capoeira, Brazilian fight dancing, had been invented by African slaves:  they had to conceal their martial arts from in the guise of dance so as not to alarm the slave owners.  But where did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu come from?  And how had it become one of the most popular martial arts in the world?

As we sat on the mat during a break Jairo, a big man with cauliflower ears and a grey eyes, explained it all to me. 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was invented by Helio Gracie, a skinny boy who lived in Rio de Janeiro.  “Helio,” Jairo explained, “was so weak that he could barely walk down the street without fainting.  His family had learned the secrets of Japanese Jiu-Jitsu from a Japanese nobleman, Count Coma, as a reward for helping a group of Japanese immigrants.  The Gracie family learned the Japanese secrets and then taught Jiu-Jitsu in Rio in a special gym, but Helio was forbidden from fighting.  He was too weak.  Too fragile.  Then one day a man came for a private lesson.  The regular teacher was late so Helio, who loved to watch his brothers practice, gave the man the lesson.  Afterwards Helio became a regular teacher at the academy.  Helio transformed Jiu-Jitsu so that it became applicable to street fighting.  It’s the most efficient way to neutralize a real attacker if you are really attacked.  It allows you to fight from the ground.  To fight from a vulnerable position.  To beat your attacker, even when he has an advantage over you.  You learn that you are not vulnerable.  How to turn a weak position into a strong position.”     

The Gracies, Jairo said, popularized their sport  in Los Angeles and caught the attention of Hollywood.  After that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu quickly became an international martial arts craze with Gracie centers all over the world.  Today Brazilian fighters regularly win mixed martial arts competitions on the world circuit. 

The break is over and we grappled again.  I try to throw Jairo.  “No, no,” he says.  “Relax.  Your body is too tense.   When you fight, you have to keep your body loose.  Keep your mind open and your body loose.  When your body is tight, you quickly tire yourself out.  When you are tense, you stop thinking.  This is how you defeat yourself.  When we fight, we must be like water.  Always flexible.  Always attentive.  Just like in life.”

Later he showed me how, if you can maintain your composure under attack, you can use the attacker’s strength against him. 

“In Jui-Jitsu, you can defeat anyone, no matter how much bigger and stronger they are than you.  You use their strength against them.  That’s because you fight up close.” 

Here, I could tell, his Jui-Jitsu lesson was once again about to veer out of the realm of martial arts and into the province of personal philosophy.  Smiling his big toothy grin again, he said, “People are afraid to clench, they are afraid to take on their problems close up. But in Jiu-Jitsu we learn to grapple with our enemies at close quarters.  The closer you are to your enemy, the more protected you are.”  

I straddled him  again and Jairo effortlessly rolled me over onto my back.  I tried to stop him, but I was helpless to resist the hold.

Later, as we sat in the café of the gym Jairo confided that he was a deeply spiritual man.  I asked him about how his belief in God had influenced his style of fighting.  “Helio Gracie,” he said, “was weak, small, and light.  He said he felt like a dead chicken.  That’s why he invented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so that he wouldn’t feel weak anymore.  When I started Jiu-Jitsu I was afraid, too. I felt like a dead chicken, too. But I didn’t give up.  I learned Jiu-Jitsu.  And then something happened.  Suddenly I wasn’t afraid anymore.  And you know what?” 

I sensed that our conversation was reaching some important insight. 

“When  you are no longer afraid, there is no more reason to lie. . . .  Once the question of physical fear is solved, then you can be open.  Then you can become a spiritual person.  Then you reach your spiritual nature.  When I am no longer afraid, then I have compassion.” 

He smiled his toothy grin one more time and I knew that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu had made another disciple.

Jairo Teixeira teaches Jiu-Jitsu at Academia Sotalia Sport on Avenida Pequeno Principe, 231 in Campeche. Tel:  55 (48) 3237-2775.

I spoke to Claudio Menescal and Jonas Rossi of Inove9 in Lagoa about the building process and what’s expected of you in order to put up a house.  Inove9 has been building houses in Florianopolis for the past nine years.  Claudio is from Rio originally, graduated with a degree in civil engineering, and is the son of bossa nova legend, Roberto Menescal.  Claudio oversees the projects on-site and works directly with the work crews.  Jonas also has a degree in civil engineering from the Universidade de Sao Jose dos Campos and manages the office and administration aspects of the company. 

The process, I think you’ll agree, is quite easy and doesn’t really require much from you.

First of all, home prices in Florianopolis are reaching—and often exceeding–values found in the United States and usually requiring payment in full at the closing.  Since cheap financing is nearly impossible to find in Brazil, buying a house may simply be impossible for many. 

An alternative worth considering is buying a plot of land and building.  Land is cheaper and it’s easier to finance.  The final cost of your house could be considerably cheaper.  However, many people shy away from building because it seems impossibly complicated.  I asked Jonas and Claudio about the process and learned that building is much easier than it sounds!

Jonas explained the building process.  “First,” he said, “be ABSOLUTELY sure that the piece of land you buy is legal for building.”  There are many big, blue signs around the island reminding buyers to make sure the land they buy has ‘viabilidade,’ which means that the city has approved it for building. To be sure your land is buildable, it’s best to consult a lawyer. 

Once you have bought your piece of land you will need to work with an architect who will draw up the plans of you house.  This is called the “projeto” in Portuguese.  Once all your plans have been completed they will pass through the PMF (Prefeitura Municipal de Florianopolis.)  Either your architect will do this for you or the civil engineer can also do it.  Discuss this with your architect, but a competent professional should be able to handle this all for you with absolutely no work on our part for a small fee. 

Jonas explained: “Once all the plans for the house have passed through the PMF, you receive what is called the ‘alvara,’ which is permission to begin construction.” 

Once your project has been “alvarado,” you will need a civil engineer to oversee and manage the construction process.

Is this when you have to start buying bags of cement?  Chasing down workers on the beach?  Stressing about counting the exact number of bricks that were delivered? The answer is no.  In fact, it’s all straight-forward from here. 

“First,” Jonas said, “what you have to decide is whether you want your civil engineer to manage and administrate your building project, or whether you will manage the project yourself. Now, unless you are a civil engineer or have had experience building a house, the answer is simple:  you want your engineer to manage the construction.  Most charge a fee for this,”  roughly 5%, “but it’s a complex, time-consuming task, worth the extra expense.  ”  Why?  Because you are then free to go about your business and enjoy your life without hassling over the day-to-day routine of a building project in a foreign country.

If you let your engineer do the administration you will need to make a few choices before they begin building.  Jonas explained that he normally presents the client with two sets of quotes.  The first is for “mao de obra”—labor.  He will ask for three different quotes from three different crews.  The client chooses which one he wants.  Then the engineer offers three separate quotes on building materials—“compra dos materiais”—and the client chooses which one he wants. Inove9 has a broker who works exclusively on obtaining the best deals for construction materials and making sure that all is delivered as agreed.  The client is not responsible for verifying purchases and confronting the inevitable problems  that arise.  That’s part of the service a civil engineer should offer. 

“Nevertheless,” Jonas explained, “the final cost of building is still, always an estimate. This estimate is based on an official price for construction per cubic meter or CUB (Coo-bee, as its pronounced).  This price is published in a magazine called Arquitetura & Construcao.  There are three levels of construction:  high, medium, and low.  The prices are regional and Florianopolis is in the “Sul” region. 

Once you have the final estimate of your construction project and chosen the quotes on labor and materials, then the work begins.  The engineer oversees the workers.  No “supervision” is required from you.  

In fact, you can run the whole project from overseas.  Inove9 allows you to follow the daily log of your construction online on the site’s blog.  If you are living overseas, Inove9 can post regular pictures so you can watch the progress of your building as it goes up.  If you are unhappy about something, you can communicate with them on the net. 

You make twice-monthly deposits to fuel the project, and all of these costs are minutely logged and posted for the client to see. You can watch every penny.  At the end of the project you are presented with a complete file containing all receipts and all documents associated with your project.

It can be very hands-off from the client’s point of view.  No standing on rooftops.  No haggling with smirking plumbing-supply salesmen.  Best of all, you can design and live in a house that suits your taste and your personal needs and finished with the fixtures you want.

At the end of our interview Jonas acknowledged that there’s still a lot of trust involved since crooked engineers can find a way to inflate costs.  For that reason it’s important to choose a civil engineer wisely and speak to as many people as possible to make sure your engineer is reputable and completely honest.   If you have worked with a local engineer you liked—or didn’t like—please let us know.  This information will help others locate the best professionals the island has to offer.

If you would like to discuss the building process further with Jonas or Claudio of i9: Inove you can check out their website at http://www.inove.eng.br/ or contact them on the telephone at (55) 48 -3334-7684 or email Jonas at  jonas@inove.eng.br

NuNomad, digital nomad, technomad, location independent, are just someof the terms that have appeared in the last few years to describe and ever growing trend in our society.

What are NuNomads?

With the advent of modern technology we now have the ability to communicate across the globe in real time. What this has meant for adventuresome souls has been that any work that can be accomplished via telephone or internet can potentially be done in any world location. And – if you can design your career so that all or most of your work can be done in this manner you can free yourself to live in any location of your choosing – in other words, become “location independent”. Read the rest of this entry »

 We all know that getting ahead and growing professionally as a teacher means linking up with others and exchanging ideas that work. Here in Brazil we are lucky enough to have an English teacher’s association called BRAZ-TESOL that holds a conference every two years and in many different cities all over Brazil.

Founded in 1986, BRAZ-TESOL is Brazil’s largest association of teachers of English to speakers of other languages. A not-for-profit organization with a membership of over 2,000 professionals, BRAZ-TESOL is an affiliate of TESOL International (US), IATEFL (UK) and a member of Southern Cone TESOL (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay).  Read the rest of this entry »

Get your pack back on track with the DogMan of Campeche.

Dr. Rolf, a tall man with piercing blue eyes and sandy hair, is a familiar figure around Florianópolis.  Of English and Dutch descent Dr. Rolf speaks English, Spanish, and German as well as Portuguese.  He told me that 20% of his patients are foreign and so he is an obvious choice for those moving to the island or for tourists just visiting for a brief time.  Dr. Rolf trained as a doctor in Porto Alegre and also studied medicine in Germany.

I asked Dr. Rolf about what health issues visitors face in Florianópolis that they don’t usually encounter at home.  “For the most part the environment in Florianópolis is a healthy one,” Dr. Rolf told me, “There is no malaria, no cholera, no rabies, for instance.  Still there are a few tamer ailments that visitors should know about and be able to identify.”

Here are Dr. Rolf’s top five health risks on the island:

Mycosis–or ringworm, as it is commonly known–thrives on the island, especially during the warm, humid months of summer.  Unfortunately, just like all of us, mycosis loves the warm beach.  So before you stretch out on that beautiful white sand, spread out a kanga or a beach towel and help avoid inviting ringworm to make a home in your skin.  While mycosis is not particularly dangerous it is itchy, pesky and ugly to look at.  Remember that mycosis is especially fond of children—or perhaps children are especially fond of playing in the sand and so are particularly vulnerable to ringworm.  So if you see round itchy red splotches on you or your child’s body, treat it immediately to avoid a larger invasion.  You can pick up an anti-fungal medicine like Cetoconazol 2% at the pharmacy.  Be sure to spread it on three times a day to stop this pest in its tracks.

Many visitors think that the mycosis is an allergic reaction and treat it incorrectly.  If you have persistent red splotches on your skin you may want to check with a qualified health professional.

Borrachudos. During the hot, summer months borrachudos, or gnats, come out in the twilight hours to feed on juicy humans.  Known to residents of the hotter regions of the United States as no-see-ems, these pesky insects can leave a patch of nasty bites, especially if you go out walking on the dunes at night.  Even worse, some people are allergic to the bites and the result is a nasty red welt.  The solution?  “Prevention,” said Dr. Rolf, “Using insect repellent is a must to preserve your health on the island.”  (My personal favorite is OFF!) Citronela is another solution and the local pharmacies sell a spray called Citronim by Welleda.  If you find OFF! too strong you may want to try Citronela.  Some local pharmacies sell a citronella based repelant called Citronim by Welleda.  Off! Kids also works for sensitive skin or constitutions.

Bicho-de-pé. A problem familiar to year-round residents of the island, but not to visitors, is bicho-de-pé—or translated literally, foot animal or pest.  Bicho-de-pé appears as a round, black circle that resembles a fish eye, usually on the bottom of the foot.  This circle has alarmed more than a few visitors to the island who, not recognizing the bicho-de-pé, thought it was some sort of malignant growth.  In fact, bicho-de-pé is a female sand flea that burrows into the bottom of your foot in order to nest and have it’s sand flea babies.  The black circle is the pregnant flea.  Treatment is simple—you must dig the flea out of your skin.   Dr. Rolf suggested that a trip to the local posto de saude would solve the problem quickly.

Tetanus. Though bicho-de-pé is not anything to worry about, it does sometimes lead to a much more dangerous condition—tetanus.  Caused by the bacteria Clostridium tetani, tetanus strikes victims with painful muscle spasms, including lock jaw and can, if not treated properly, cause death.  “Tetanus is a serious illness,” Dr. Rolf said. “All visitors to Florianópolis should get a tetanus vaccine before leaving home.”

Hepatitis. “All three types of Hepatitis are present in Florianópolis,” Dr. Rolf said,  “and it is important to protect yourself accordingly.”

Hepatitis A is associated with contaminated water. To avoid Hepatitis A drink bottled water and watch where you swim.

“While the waters on the Atlantic side of Florianópolis are pristine,” said Dr. Rolf, “effluents do flow into the bays on the western side of the island.  Florianópolis is growing quickly and its water sanitation system has not yet caught up to the rapid rise in population.”  Because of this, some of the lakes on the island may be less than ideal for swimming as they can harbor hepatitis A as well as other parasites.  While the waters of Lagoa de Conceicao bordering Avenida Rendeiras and the dunes are safe and clean, swimming in the southern lobe of Lagoa de Conceicao is not a good idea.  Some people have recently begun to avoid swimming Lagoinha Pequena, in Campeche, as well because of health concerns.  If you are unsure whether the water is safe  look for signs posted by the city.  The signs identify the water as “proprio” (appropriate) or “improprio” (inappropriate) for swimming.

Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. Remember folks—use that camisinha (condom.)  Each year the Brazilian government distributes hundreds of millions of free condoms.  There’s a reason for that!

Hepatitis C is passed through blood. First thought to be sexually transmitted, Hepatitis C is now known to be associated with blood-to-blood contact.  Some 300 million people worldwide carry this disease, many without even knowing they have been infected.  The main cause of infection, scientists now know, is recreational, intravenous drug use, specifically the sharing of dirty needles.  A large percentage of injection drug users in the US are infected.  Unsafe sex practices that cause cuts, scrapes, lesions and therefore allow for blood-to-blood contact have also been implicated.  Symptoms include liver scaring, cirrhosis, and liver scarring.  Hepatitis C can be deadly.

Dengué. Dr. Rolf told me that Dengué fever—or bone-break fever, as it is sometimes known—is NOT endemic to Florianópolis, but people who travel here from more northerly places in Brazil do sometimes bring it to the island with them.  Dengué is transmitted by mosquitos so you should take proper precautions if you are traveling further north than Sao Paulo.  Wear that repellant!  While your first dose of dengué won’t kill you, it will cause you considerable pain for two weeks.  The second time you get the illness, it can be deadly.

In all, however, there are few very serious health risks in Florianópolis and with a little education, a little prevention, and a little common sense you should have a very healthy time here on the island. But should you need medical attention Dr. Rolf will be there to help you.

If you don’t speak ANY Portuguese, but need to contact Dr. Rolf urgently call the clinic and say “Por favor, preciso falar com Dr. Rolf de urgencia.” If that doesn’t work just say “Dr. ROLF, help me!!!!”

Dr. Rolf Hillman can be found at Clinica Prontomed in Lagoa, Rua Orlando Carioni, 64—that’s the street running beside the HSBC automatic teller and across from the gas station at the center of town.  For an appointment, call 55 (48) 3232-1704 or 55 (48) 3232-0470.