First impressions… and not the kind of impressions you think
After a long, uneventful, on-schedule flight, I arrived in Sao Paulo. The weather is actually a little on the chilly side (22C/70F) and it’s overcast. The forecast doesn’t call for much of a change in the next week, but I expect Salvador to be much warmer.
Nothing can really prepare you for not understanding a word of what someone is saying to you. I can say it is a combination of quick dialect and loud environment, but all of those lessons made me a little overconfident in my ability to be able to converse. Granted, I wasn’t expecting to be able to talk physics or philosophy with people, but understanding a simple question like when the taxi driver asked me about the address of the hotel shouldn’t have turned me into a deer in headlights like it did.
Driving…
I think the drivers in Sao Paulo have a death wish. It was like being in the back seat of a rally car that’s in the middle of a race on Project Gotham at the same time as a motorcross rally.The people who ride motorcycles are clinically insane. They drive in the extra lanes between car lanes. They wiz at 70km/h in stopped traffic clearing the cars by inches. I got the impression that my taxi driver, calm and stoic like a serial killer was trying to swerve into the “bike lane” every once in a while to “get one”. Apparently another driver “got one” because after sitting in traffic for a while, we came upon the accident that was blocking the right lane and it was caused by a biker lying on the ground. You can say he left an impression on traffic and on the pavement (badum-cha). If I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn my taxi driver had a little twinkle in his eye. Since we didn’t understand each other, I just sat back and enjoyed the hour long ride to the hotel through the craziest city setup I’ve ever encountered.
Water…
To start things off right, I had some mineral water with ice and a sanduiche which contained lettuce and tomato. Gotta test the water supply, make sure there’s nothing bad afterall.
Tonight, we go to the local churrascaria for some meaty meaty meaty meat. Definitely gonna get my meat on and also my meat. Top that off with some meat, and I think I can go to bed happy… and meaty. Meat.
On the plane, I read about Salvador and where I’ll be beginning Monday. Beautiful beaches, old churches, old fishing villages, old sugar and coffee plantations. Can’t wait. I may try to rent a little Fiat and rally up the mountain roads where I only need to compete with wild downhill truckers and not cars, trucks, and a motorcross race.
Ha Amanha o mais tarde…