During a visit to Brazil a few years ago we were told the same joke many times. When God creates Brazil it is a perfect land, rich with resources and natural wonders. But God does not like perfection so she also creates Brazilians. As the Olympics approach Brazil is being portrayed as less than perfect, so it seemed appropriate to counter that with some pretty images from our visit. And as an added bonus, thinking about our Brazil experience has helped me better understand the peculiar American election campaign.

Friends who had worked in Brazil invited us along on a trip in 2006. We were in the care of Brazilians for most of the time and had some quite privileged access, so a rich experience. Our trip began in the northern city of Salvador, the major city in colonial days.

I’ve never visited Portugal, but it must feel very similar. The blue and white tiles in old churches were a joy. Loved this collection of odd tiles .

We visited smaller colonial towns where people brought their pet birds in cages to the town square on a Sunday morning.

And spent several days on top of a mountain in a rain forest. Sublime.

Often we were enchanted with the quality of Brazilian craftsmanship and design. For example: thatching on a beach house, pebble mosaic sidewalk, hand rolled cigars and pointy bits to discourage you from climbing where you shouldn’t be a climbing.

Then we flew to the far south of the vast country and visited the Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world.

Driving to the falls we passed through an endless agricultural countryside that had been forest a generation before.

Then back to the coast for a few days at the beach.

Our vacation ended in the city of Curitiba that is famous for its excellent public transportation system and its urban planning. From an observation platform on a telecommunications tower a planning concept was obvious. Tall development was only allowed along transportation corridors so that neighbourhoods could be preserved at a lower scale.

The diverse city also included the largest Italian restaurant in the world and an art gallery designed by Brazil’s star architect, Oscar Niemeyer.

Like Canada, Brazil is a huge and complicated country and we sampled only tiny bits. But we left with no interest to return. Over and over again we were told by Brazilians that there was danger. We should not leave our apartment at night, if someone came to the door we should ask if they wanted us to call the police.  On our last night in Curitiba we were eating at a good restaurant almost in sight of our hotel. Its safe to walk there but get a taxi back we were told. When we asked the restaurant to phone us a taxi at the end of a fine meal they said  it was best if we waited  inside and some one would come and get us and take us to the car.

We stepped off a tour bus in Curitiba and took this photo of the entrance to a large public park and someone immediately stopped and said put away the camera, this is not a safe place to be.

Now here’s the problem. We were told over and over again that we were unsafe but we never saw anybody or anything that looked threatening. We started to feel uneasy. Everything looked normal so clearly the problem was our inability to recognize the threat.

Donald Trump has told Americans repeatedly they need to be afraid. This seemed silly until I remembered our Brazilian experience. Now I can imagine folks voting with the hope that fear will go away.

Postscript

We visited a couple of properties that belonged to wealthy people and noticed kennels with large guard dogs. At night the dogs were released to roam the fenced properties and the owners stayed inside their locked homes until morning.

Sometimes we just stopped to marvel at the landscape because God had created perfection.