Brazil Day 1

Well I’m here.  I’ve just arrived in my hotel about an hour ago and found an internet connection in my room.  This is going to make the whole website malarkey a whole lot easier.  The weather is showery and overcast.  The temperature is cool and comfortable, a nice change from the heat in the UK at the moment.  That reminds me, I must go in a minute and see if the water really does go the wrong way down the plug hole in the Southern hemisphere.

 I was really worried about getting here because of the connection from Manchester to Heathrow. It was tight because I had to get right across Heathrow from terminal 1 to 4 in just over an hour.  If the Manchester flight had been delayed only slightly it would have meant missing the Sao Paulo flight.  I was also worried about my luggage getting transferred properly and the weight of all the stuff I was taking.  In the end I needn’t have worried about any of it.  It all turned out absolutely fine.

Sao Paulo Airport, just like all the other airports !

When I got to Heathrow terminal 4 the place was in turmoil.  BA had oversold the flight and were offering people £400 and a hotel for the night if they went the next day.  The gate area was crawling with disgruntled passengers.  I had been demoted from World Traveller Plus to economy and was on a mission to get bumped up to business class or first class.  In the end I only managed to get back up to World Traveller Plus which was better than nothing I suppose.  I played the doctor card and everything but to no avail.  Still you do get a bit more room and wider seats on World Traveller Plus.  Course organiser Nadeem then turned up and told me he was in business.  He sneaked me into the business class lounge by basically begging and it worked.  I thought it was going to be another Snoop Dog incident!  It was great because it allowed us to escape from the 500 or so other passengers scrambling to get on the flight.

Victoria, Deirdre and Keith getting on the minibus

We got the flight, a Boeing 747, I had a meal and then took 10mg diazepam.  This worked brilliantly as I then slept for a full 8 hours, waking when we were about an hour and a half from Sao Paulo.  The whole flight was just under 11 hours. Sao Paulo is four hours behind the UK and we got in at about 5.30am local time.  A minibus was waiting for us and given that we had time to kill there then proceeded a minibus tour of Sao Paulo.  This place is vast.  There are miles after miles of concrete tower blocks all with ground floor graffiti.  By way of contrast we stopped at the central museum and central square, which were interesting, and went to a café for some breakfast.  We didn't go in the museum of course.  It was only about 7.30am at this stage.

Keith, Deirdre, Me, Victoria, Raj, Aalok and Mohammed at the Sao Paulo Museum

Same shot at the museum with Nadeem the photographer being arty

Breakfast in Sao Paulo cafe.  Aalok, Nadeem Me, Raj and Mohammed is hiding

After this the minibus tour continued.  I was worried again that I would be horribly travel sick and embarrass myself but in the end it was fine.  I wonder if it was the diazepam?  Anyway much of the ensuing tour was wasted on the rest of the party who, not having had the benefit of the mighty diazepam, proceeded to fall fast asleep after an uncomfortable night on the plane.  Despite this the tour continued unabated with me being the sole participant.

Unbounded enthusiasm for the Sao Paulo bus tour

Nice view of Sao Paulo from the museum steps

More typical Sao Paulo

Later we killed a bit of time in a shopping mall before going for a meal in a restaurant on the way to the hotel.  This was an absolutely huge feast of kebabed meat.  It was basically a help yourself buffet following which waiters came around with dangerous looking skewers about two feet long piercing huge chunks of variously cooked meats.  Sections of this were carved off onto everyone’s plates with what seemed to be swords.  Fantastic to begin with then overwhelming as it kept on coming and coming !  In the end it was an absolute blow out.

The massive meat restaurant.  Course tutor Marcelo and partner Arianne at this end of the table on the left

The moment when Raj became vegetarian

We then came to the hotel and that pretty well brings the day up to date.  It looks as if we will be starting tomorrow afternoon but it is a bit up in the air at the moment.  Five of the party are arriving tomorrow because of the difficulties in getting everyone on the same flight.  We have to see how things go with them before making final plans and Nadeem has yet to firm things up with the university.  More tomorrow …. hopefully with some dentistry.