I recently revisted the port city of Belém, at the mouth of the mighty Amazon, which was the quixotic goal of the journey recounted in my book To Belém & Back. Invited to teach a short course at a Calvary Chapel in the city, I arrived on a Friday […]
Lavras Novas, high up in the Serra de Ouro Branco mountains of Minas Gerais, is a discovery. I spent a recent weekend there, a work-vacation, drafting an overdue edit (the 12th) of the manuscript for my fifth book. The town was until recently (around 2022) of difficult access, on […]
After 25 years of faithful service, my old station wagon named “Fofão” (for “Big Cutie”) has retired into the nearby Royal Road Antique Car Museum in Bichinho here in Minas Gerais. She has driven over 270,000 kilometers (nearly 168,000 miles) entirely within Brazil, on several long and somewhat risky drives […]
Instituto Rouanet is the latest of Tiradentes’ many artistic venues. The former home of my acquaintances, Sergio (1934-2022) and Barbara Rouanet, it was renovated and transformed into a charming exhibition space in the historic center, since 2022. Appropriately, the current exhibition is from recent (2024) works of one of the […]
The Insanity Museum, in the interior of Minas Gerais, opened in 1996 as the first museum dedicated to mental health in Brazil. It is a delicate subject, handled with dignity, reflection, and without excessive tut-tutting and hand-wringing. The site, on a hill outside the medium-sized city of Barbacena, encompasses a […]
While Ica, Peru may not be technically belong in Backroads Brazil, during a recent mission trip we were able to be of service to a hard-working local church, including throwing a Brazilian Night (the first ever, we were told) with much worship, Brazilian food, decor, presentations, testimonies, and even a […]
Ceará is a state full of surprises, not all pleasant. From the bone dry caatinga (or semi-desert) interior to the altitude swamp of Ubajara’s high perch to the fleshpots of the coastal capital, Fortaleza (greatly expanded by the Yanks during WWII), the state marvels. My first encounters, after the trials […]
One of Brazil’s remotest national parks, Seven Cities, is an archaeological and geological wonder, named after the mythological Lost Seven Cities. Founded in 1961, it is located in the northeast’s Piauí state, and occupies an arid middleground between the Brazilian cerrado (or dry savanna) and caatinga, or semi-desert, which is […]
Inhotim, a major gem in both Brazil and the contemporary art world, is slipping into woke muck. The few galleries with rotating exhibitions were, during a recent visit, all dedicated to victimology. A recent visit in São Paulo to the Pinacoteca, a museum specializing in Brazilian art, also evidenced the […]
Brazil is at the center of massive spiritual battles world-wide. To any objective observer, the Brazilian Presidential election was stolen in October. With Bolsonaro consistently ahead at a third of the vote tally, all subsequent data dumps went heavily for the Worker’s Party candidate and former convict Lula – a […]
