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Fashion Travel / Shopping Travel / Diane Von Furstenberg / Brazil Travel / Sao Paulo Travel / Lucky Magazine / → All Tags

Designer Diane Von Furstenberg's 'Journey of a Dress' Heads to Sao Paulo

Diane von Furstenberg is many great things—an iconic womenswear designer, a philanthropist, the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and a model for healthy living—but she is also a consummate world traveler (and travel tweeter). In fact, when she starred in recent American Express commercials, she credited experiencing the world with giving her the inspiration to create beautiful clothing and become a stronger, independent woman. We kind of love her, if you haven't already gotten that.

Thus, it's about time she launches her first store in South America, at the Iguatemi Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The grand opening of the boutique comes on Thursday night, when Diane herself hosts a huge Brazilian bash and also inaugurates the start of the Sao Paulo leg of the traveling exhibition "Journey of a Dress," curated by Vogue's Andre Leon Talley.

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Plastic Surgery Travel / Recessionomics / Celeb Travel / Usher / → All Tags

Discount Plastic Surgery Abroad is Still Not a Good Idea

Thinking of coming home with a more permanent souvenir from your next vacation? It may be even more of a temptation in this economic climate, but the case of Tameka Raymond -- who was all smiles in the Sao Paulo airport yesterday -- is a valuable reminder that not all beauty bargains are created equal.

Usher's wife, who gave birth two months ago, headed to Brazil for liposuction a few weeks ago. Some consider the South American country the "plastic surgery capital of the world" for the amount its residents go under the knife, but Raymond had a heart attack while entering anesthesia and never ended up having the procedure done. Not a common occurrence, but she had to be placed in an induced coma and later moved to another hospital -- probably a better one than her doc had picked out.

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Film Festival Travel / Film Festivals / → All Tags

Film Festival Travel: Brief Glimpses at the São Paulo Short Film Festival

Now that a combination of big-budget blockbusters and sunstroke has sapped our attention spans, we feel violently resistant to sitting still in the dark for the last few weeks of summer. But television premiere season is just around the corner! We found our perfect bridge in the São Paulo Short Film Festival, opening Thursday and presenting eight days of Latin American short works.

The fest, held at the Associação Cultural Kinoforum which screens Brazilian and other directors' works year-round, will pack in hundreds of movies which compete for audience awards and a jury prize. They aren't just home movies either: Six out of the 10 movies nominated for Oscars for best fictional and animation shorts last year were screened at Kinoforum first.

Between programs, mix and mingle with your fellow film fans at daily Cinemateca happy hours. And if your attention span has improved enough, see one of three classic documentaries about Brazil at the Cachaça Cinema Club.

Related Stories:
· São Paulo Short Film Festival [Official Site]
· Brazil Perfects Islands, Dental Floss Swimwear [Jaunted]
· Cubicle Dreamin': Perfection in São Paulo [HC]
· Brazil Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: samhiscox]

Zoos / Animals / Museums / → All Tags

Snakes On a...Well, in a Controlled Environment

While some people prefer seeing cuddly koalas or tear-jerkingly endangered pandas on their holidays, others want to go straight to those scary long nasties: snakes. One impressive place to spot them is in Sao Paulo's Butantan Institute which has a 700 acre herpetology center. The institute is famous worldwide for producing antivenom and vaccines against all kinds of nasty bites, and the poisonous snakes they keep are "milked" for their venom. Yum.

The serpentarium (also known as the snake pit) opens to the public 6 days a week and costs just over a dollar to get in, and you'll see more live snakes than we ever want to. So go visit the snakes. You know you want to. (But we'll just wait somewhere on a nice Brazilian beach).

[Photo: Marco De Santis]

Related Stories:
· Koalas--Cute When Small... [Jaunted]
· Panda Doesn't Want Sex [Jaunted]

Gisele Bundchen / Airport Photo Shoots / → All Tags

Gisele Bundchen's Brazilian Airport Photo Shoot

Someone needs to tell Gisele Bundchen about the airport photo shoot craze.  Gisele looks sulky and bothered while walking through Aeroporto Cumbica compared to recent airport photo shoot subjects Adrianna Lima and Bai Ling.  Ok, yes, getting a camera shoved in your face while you are waiting to board a 14 hour red eye to LAX can be irritating, but she may have been better served to at least fake a smile.

We didn't think Gisele was the type to tote a tiny pet on board, let alone a guitar and a travel neck pillow--she looks like a high maintenance traveller for sure.  See how much we learn during these airport photo shoots?

São Paulo's international airport, Aeroporto Cumbica, is in the suburb of Guarulhos, a 45-minute drive from Centro.  This is Brazil's largest airport but only has two runways.  A third is under construction and should open later this year, but you know how airport construction goes.

[Photo: GossipRocks]

Related Stories:
· Airport Photo Shoot Coverage [Jaunted]

Travel Blogs / Prostitution / São Paulo / Brazil / → All Tags

What We Talk About When We Talk About Hookers

[We have removed the image that was posted here. We sincerely apologize for the mistake.]

Looks like Brazil has its first blogging celebrity, and she's a prostitute. Rachel Pacheco, who went by the name Bruna on a blog documenting her days as a hooker in São Paulo, sold more than 100,000 copies of her autobiographical book after it came out last year. The book has caused a minor to-do in Brazil, but not because of the content of the book, which manages to be both explicit and tame: the author only refers to the first letter of body parts when things get graphic. The translators must have had a fun time with that one.

While we applaud the fact that the woman got a book deal out of being, um, a whore, isn't it odd that in many countries the first blogs to be turned into books are those written by hookers? Belle du Jour, even if she wasn't, you know, actually a hooker, did get a book deal, too. Maybe the Economist can update their Big Mac index to track how long it takes a hooker/blogger to get a book deal in each country to rate the relative levels of prosperity in each. Just a thought.

Related Stories:
·   She Who Controls Her Body [NY Times]
·   Named: the Belle du Jour [Times of London]
·   Bruna's Blog

Amazing-Race / Google Maps / South America / → All Tags

Amazing Race 9: The Powerful Substance of Race

Click Here To Go Straight To Chasing Racers Map

Since the Amazing Race returned to its "Classic Coke" format, we figured we would give the show a proper mashup. This map will update every week in the days after the show. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below, and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray. Enjoy.

Episode 1

Can you come back from jumping the shark? Of course you can. Last season, the Amazing Race had its "Cousin Oliver" moment when the show turned into an unwatchable "Family Edition" format. But we are a forgiving group here at Jaunted, and we welcome back our beloved "classic mode" Amazing Race, warts and all.

This week's premiere started off per usual, with Phil introducing the race, and each team introducing themselves. These intros quickly put the teams into nice, manageable, stereotypical boxes: Southern racists, bickering couple, gay dudes, your token sexagenarians, oh, and don't forget the always entertaining mother/daughter action.

After his usual race preamble, which this season took place at Red Rocks, Colorado, Phil sent the kids off to São Paulo Brazil.

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