Cultural warmth accentuates trip to Brazil

Guararapes, Brazil » Dozens of hands pull us into the center of the dance floor, welcoming us, teaching us new dance moves and encouraging us to sing along. We aren't looked at as strangers, and we're immediately treated not just as good friends, but family.

We're celebrating at the wedding of my good friend Felipe Furlan and his wife Camila. It's a highlight of a trip I took with my 16-year-old sister, Annie, and my friends Danyelle White and Adam Fisher.

The happy couple left the dance floor for yet another costume change after perfectly executing the tango, but their fellow Brazilians made us feel at home.

That attitude welcomed us everywhere we went. It emanated

from the taxi stand employees who spent 45 minutes finding me a hotel after realizing I accidentally booked a hotel hundreds of miles away. It popped up again when a hotel owner drove us to our bus stop and waited with us for more than half an hour, just to make sure we were safe. This is a place where waiters introduce themselves, and happily chat about their love of a local soccer team as they linger by your table.

Maybe it comes from the fact that Brazilians know how to enjoy themselves.

"We can be at carnival and having a party or going to watch a football game or just playing on the beach, and everyone's having a good time," said Diogo Braga, who was a guest at the wedding.

The welcoming attitude floated through the salty, humid air as we hit the typical tourist stops in Rio de Janeiro. But it was even more evident in the small towns we visited. The single-street seaside town of Camburi was a wonderful reprieve from the bustling beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

The town is tourist-oriented, but not in a gaudy way. Prices weren't hiked up and all the services needed easily could be found there, from restaurants to Internet access to beach supplies.

We stayed at the Hotel Camburi Praia, a cozy

place that set up umbrellas and sunbathing chairs on the beach and kept the breakfast room open past closing time for those who slept in. We got there a week after a big three-day holiday, and the town was nearly deserted, with only a few tourists sharing some of the best beaches in Sao Paulo state.

The Atlantic is cold enough to need wet suits to swim comfortably or go surfing, but the Brazilian sun provides a wonderful opportunity to just lounge on a beach that feels almost private and offers beautiful ocean views.

"Besides hiking and the beaches, the food is the biggest attraction," said Aparecida Pascoalina Servo, one of the hotel partners (yes, the same one who drove us to the bus stop). "When you eat fish at lunch, you know that it was caught that morning."

You could hear the pride in Servo's words as she talked up the local cuisine, and finding delicious meals was easy to do. Several restaurants dotted the single street winding through the town, and each offered seafood fished from the sea just that morning. The calamari was perfect, and each place offered a nice blend of traditional Brazilian food -- such as feijoada, a meat stew served over rice -- and Italian cuisine with fresh-made pasta.

"Brazilians love their food, but they want to have a healthy life, too," said Daniela Coutinho, another wedding guest. "People balance rice, beans, vegetable and meat. But we love our barbecue."

That love is evidenced not only in the herds of cows we saw as we drove through the Sao Paolo state countryside, but also in the perfectly executed steak I ordered in Rio de Janeiro.

With the food, beaches, friends and the promise of great soccer when the country hosts the 2014 World Cup, I can't wait to be welcomed back.

smcfarland@sltrib.com