THE SECOND HOME BRAZIL
I’ve been travelling to Brazil every year since I was a baby, and every time I go I see a little bit more and fall even deeper in love with it. For the last few years, my boyfriend and I have flown in to either São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, spending three or four days there taking in the city, before heading to Ilhéus, a city in Bahia in the north-east, to be close to my family.
I consider Bahia my home state (despite being born in Melbourne, I spent a lot of my childhood there); it’s like nowhere else in Brazil. It’s where bossa nova originated, but it’s not just the music capital – there are incredible beaches and food (as well as caipirinhas aplenty), and the relaxed lifestyle is inimitable. Salvador is a Portuguese colony, and discovering the colonial architecture, hidden among tropical greenery, is truly magical. My family live in an inland town called Itabuna, and time there is spent with cousins, aunts, uncles and my 104-yearold grand-dad, playing games by the pool and eating jackfruit.
In recent years I’ve found so much love and appreciation for Brazilian art, design and architecture, especially that of Oscar Niemeyer, who designed hundreds of key buildings throughout Brazil over several decades. Those inside Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo are favourites, as is the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (a location for Louis Vuitton’s Cruise 17 show), perched on the edge of a hill right by the water in the outskirts of Rio. The futuristic museum is a visual feast, and visiting is almost a cinematic experience. Similarly, flying into São Paulo is insane – the horizon looks like a sea of tall grey buildings as far as your eyes can see, so it feels like you’re landing in an alternate world made of concrete.
My favourite place to stay is Fasano São Paulo (fasano.com.br), in a swanky area of the city called Jardins, designed by Brazilian architects Isay Weinfeld and Márcio Kogan, with a modern take on ‘30s and ‘40s design. If I could live in the hotel forever, I would.
“Every time I go I fall even deeper in love with it” – KIRI-UNA BRITO MEUMANN