Your Tax Dollars at Play

By Al Kamen
Friday, November 2, 2007

Fall is finally upon us, and that means one thing: time to gear up for trips to warmer climes.

The No. 1 Loop-recommended trip for the fall season is a planned one-week, post-Thanksgiving congressional delegation to warm, beautiful Brazil. Despite some bothersome meetings devoted to drugs, terrorism, smuggling, biofuels and such, the voyage boasts an unforgettable river trip up the Amazon and that mandatory stop at spectacular Iguazu Falls.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Latin America, is our leader on this codel to the land of soccer, samba and Carnaval. Spouses are tagging along, of course. There's a "spouse program coordinator" at some stops, according to an early itinerary that floated our way.

So while members and aides are momentarily busy, spouses can see other sights, shop or whatever. (Resourceful staffers also have been known to hop onto the comfy vans.) Details are still being worked out. A committee aide refused to confirm or deny a trip to anywhere "for security reasons." Security may be why members like to take spouses and aides and such, reasoning that a large contingent would attract less attention.

But it appears you'll spend some time in Salvador, a picturesque colonial-era city with gorgeous beaches, and stay at the wonderful Convento do Carmo hotel, an elegant former 16th century convent. If you're lucky, there may be dinner at the Solar do Uniao, with a demonstration of "capoeira," a martial art developed by Brazilian slaves to sharpen their fighting skills for rebellion. Order the yummy "moqueca," fish cooked in coconut milk.

It's hot this time of year, but go easy on the sugar-cane-based "caipirinha" -- it packs a wallop. Better bet would be Brazil's great beers. Our preferred is Brahma.

You'll head down to Rio for a day for a visit to a "favela" (hillside shantytown), a meeting at the giant oil company Petrobras, a tour of the port and a not-to-be-missed trip up Corcovado mountain for a close look at the Christ the Redeemer statue.

But no time to waste, because we're off bright and early to spectacular Iguazu Falls, a journey that includes a "working lunch with briefings on smuggling and terrorist finance," the draft itinerary says, along with a meeting with the mayor. Your hotel room will have breathtaking views on the very edge of the falls.

Then, unfortunately, it's Brasilia, which most codels try their best to avoid, but not this time. There is truly nothing to see in this artificial, planned capital city, and you might as well pass the day snoring through meetings with various government officials, though there's a chance to say "tudo bem" to President Luiz In¿cio Lula da Silva.

Sunset brings relief as we fly off to Manaus in the midst of the Amazon rain forest on the edge of the Rio Negro, where early the next day you'll take a riverboat to the Anavilhanas Ecological Station, a UNESCO World Heritage site. You're in the middle of nowhere, but not to worry, we're advised that you'll anchor "within cell phone range" of a nearby tower. "Malaria prophylaxis," meaning pills, is recommended.

Our hardy band of travelers spends the evening in the Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel, built in the treetops and a place Conde Nast Traveler once called one of "25 Extraordinary Places Worth That Extra Mile."

And then it's back to Manaus, where the military jet -- oh, yes, no silly commercial travel; we're milair all the way -- takes you home. Never a line; never a lost bag. The plane waits for you, not vice versa.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!

On the Other Hand . . .

Speaking of Brazil, remember that little farewell tour outgoing Drug Enforcement Administration chief Karen Tandy was rumored to be making down there or to Colombia next week? Also with the obligatory stop at Iguazu Falls?

Word we'd gotten Tuesday was that some folks weren't sure about a taxpayer-funded swan song down south just as she heads out the door to her excellent job at Motorola. But latest word is the trip's back on, at least to Colombia.

At Least It's Not D.C.

Some people at the State Department are upset about being ordered to do year-long tours in Iraq. (In the end, bet there won't be that many affected, because volunteers will continue to fill the openings.) But then the diplos took a look at the transcript of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's warm farewell Wednesday to public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes, who's going back home to Texas. Some are furious that Rice commiserated over Hughes's traumatic posting in Washington just days after the department ordered mandatory tours in Iraq.

"I asked Karen to come . . . knowing, too, that she was going to serve here in Washington at great sacrifice because in fact Karen's family has remained in Texas and I know that that has been a strain. But even with that, she's done just a remarkable job."

And while views of the United States have been falling since she was charged with image improvement, Hughes had done a "remarkable job," Rice said, and made "tremendous contributions." "She will obviously leave a very big hole and big shoes to fill."

A Pew Research Center study yesterday said Washington "continues to receive overwhelmingly negative ratings in the one area that was the primary target of public diplomacy efforts during Hughes' tenure," especially in NATO ally Turkey, site of her first foray into the region, and in Pakistan and Indonesia.

Favorable views of the United States have dropped even in Germany, declining from 42 to 30 percent.

Hughes said she was very proud of what her team had done in "transforming public diplomacy" in the past two years, singling out, among other things, having been able to "enlist well-known Americans like Michelle Kwan and Cal Ripken Jr. to represent our country overseas." Cal has just taken off to spread goodwill in China.