I was under the impression that it's different in south america, it can be savoury sometimes?

Not that I know of. However, the “slurpie” style with fruit/granola from Rio that went out to the world, is good but the smooth version from the North with tapioca is better. Almost like a light pudding.

Yeah the people living in the Amazon, where açaí is from, eat it with fried fish and they call the açaí bowl "sorvete de açaí", açaí icecream