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Researching Rio – What I learned about going to Brazil

By Roz Plotzker

One of the best ways to travel is to find a field that has conferences. There are a lot of options out there – writing, investment banking, maybe some international governing group like the United Nations or the World Health Organization. That last one might be a little difficult to get your foot in the door. But generally, conferences are much cheaper and easier than taking a vacation. Throw together a research idea, gather some data to analyze, and convince the conference committee that your findings are important. Voila! free flight and accommodations (if your boss or a grant will send you to the conference on the grounds that your work is worthy).

I lucked out with my interests – besides travel writing of course – and fell into AIDS research. I’ll save you the shpiel about the devastating epidemic, and get to the point: an international disease has international conferences, so I got to go to Rio de Janiero. Mull over this, how many tourists who go to Rio get to see the convention center?

The thing about using a study to travel is that it’s a good idea to also do a little investigating on the country; something I did not consider. Even though my presentation was polished and ready, my itinerary was unfortunately under-researched.

Brazil requires Americans to have a visa to get into their country, for those of you who don’t know. I also did not know about the visa requirement, until I was in line for the plane.

There I was at the JFK airport, terminal 4, with business casual attire neatly packed next to my beachwear. The next thing I can remember, after the hysteria settled, I was on the phone looking for a place to stay in Manhattan. I really shouldn’t have cried out “Are you joking?!” at the passport checker when she told me I wasn’t allowed in line without the damn entry sticker.

I guess this visa requirement is fair game. We Americans ask Brazilians to pay $100 and apply for a visa to come over here, and insist they wait a few weeks until they’ve been approved. That’s something I learned the next day at the Brazilian Embassy, where they are extremely patient with young ignorant American travelers, and supply emergency visas with three hours notice.

Here’s another fact about Brazil: because of a global tilt, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, even though it’s summer up here. I found this out when arrived, three days later than expected thanks to stand-by policies of Varig Airlines and my own poor preparation. Luckily, the travel gods were watching out for us, and “winter” is still about 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

By the time I got to Rio it was gray enough that I didn’t feel bad about spending the first few days in a convention center in the suburbs of Brazil. (By the way, Brazilian suburbs are a lot like American suburbs. They have enormous malls, and movie theaters with more screens than there are movies to show. The only real difference is the rainforest-beach combination that you see on the sides of the highways. But I guess in American suburbs we have billboards of that stuff).

My flight arrived on the first day of the conference. When I got to the hotel I jetted upstairs to our room to morph from scrubby airplane traveler to young businesswoman extraordinaire. It was kind of like watching Clark Kent become Superman. So continued my journey to the conference.

When I arrived, I was ushered towards registration, then to check in, then to the main hall. Pharmaceutical representatives were ready for me with free caffeine and sugar, pens, and brochures for the latest and greatest antiretroviral meds. I’ll admit that I was younger than most of the attendees at the conference (I’m 22), so naturally there was some curiosity from my colleagues. We lounged with our complimentary espressos. They all had complex interesting questions when I introduced myself. “Where are you from?” “So, is your father in the conference?” “What hotel are you staying in?” Ah - The joys of a professional crowd.

During the conference, while so many other tourists feasted on Brazilian BBQ, or tanned in thongs on breathtaking beaches whilst men shrouded in muscle jogged passed, I left them all in my vacationer-dust as I sat in on lectures about the molecular epidemiology of HIV. Who needs a tan when you can bask in the glow of a Power Point slide show?

Not to worry, post conference adventures are always a necessity. Outside of research, Brazil has football games, dance shows, rainforest hiking, museums, and – if you are willing to search for them – isolated beaches where you can enjoy something alcoholic and a vampire romance novel at your leisure. (Note – Unless you are fluent in Portuguese, bring your own romance novels from home).

For More Info on upcoming International AIDS Conferences – www.aids2006.org

Photos by Roz Plotzker

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