Brazil 2014- Jack Snyder
In August 2004,
my oldest daughter Gretchen married a young man from southern California, Eric
Fors.
Turn the calendar
ahead 9 years. Gretchen and Eric spend 5 years in southern California where
Eric worked for Bank of America, 2 years in Provo, Utah where Eric received his
MBA from BYU and now two years in Michigan where Eric took a job with Whirlpool.
A long the way they started a family and now have 3 daughters, Gretta 8, Eliza
5, and Carli 20 months.
Whirlpool is a
global corporation with operations in Asia, Europe, North and South America. As
part of the training program Eric is enrolled in at with Whirlpool he was
offered an opportunity to experience the Whirlpool Corporation in Sao Paulo,
Brazil.
It was supposed
to be a 6 months assignment. Brazil has a law that allows a foreigner to work
in the country for up to 183 days without causing all sorts of issues to kick
in. i.e. Tax laws, employment law, etc.
They were
supposed to leave in August. Welcome to the world of Visa waiting. For reasons known
but to God, their visas didn’t come until Oct. Then it was a world wind of
activity to pack and move to Brazil.
I forgot to
mention that somewhere along the way Gretchen became pregnant, with not one but
two babies. Yes, Twins!
The HR lady at
the Whirlpool home office said,” You don’t have to go”. What not go? Gretchen and Eric were not going to be denied
their international adventure!
Eric had been to
Brazil for 10 days to reconnoiter the location and had arranged to rent a nice
three bedroom apartment in Sao Paulo on the 14th floor of a 35 story
building. It was in a nice neighborhood and had excellent security. Did I
mention on par with Fort Knox.
They settled in
quickly. With their extensive network through the LDS Church, the State
Department(BYU kids who work there) and
with the assistance of a relocation company they quickly got to Brazil and into
a routine. The underlying rule was that they were supposed to be able to
replicate their Michigan lifestyle. Therefore, Whirlpool rented them a car and
paid big money for the girl’s school.
Gretchen found a
maid, the girls were enrolled in English speaking schools, and the condo
complex had a pool. (Remember it’s now summer in Brazil) Eric of course went
off to work. His work was about a 30 minute walk, a 15 minute bike ride or
depending on traffic anywhere from a 5 minute to 1 and ½ hour car ride. When it
rains traffic really gets bad.
Yes, traffic can
be a big problem. Sao Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere. One
of the world’s largest. Estimated range anywhere from 12 to 20 million people
and that doesn’t include the suburbs.
Winter
essentially shuts down the highway construction business. Therefore, with not
much going on here and a strong desire to visit my daughter and her family, I
booked a ticket to Brazil. Delta routed me through Detroit which is where
Gretchen and her family flew out of. Delta Airline flys daily to Sao Paulo out
of Detroit. Armed with that knowledge I arranged a 28 hour layover in
Minneapolis, Minnesota where with the use of a rental car I could visit Anna
and her family 70 miles south of MSP in Rochester in route to Brazil.
I left out of
Boise early on Christmas Eve and arrived in MSP where it was -12 degrees. I got
to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day morning with Anna, Gabe and the boys
and drove back to MSP to catch a flight that afternoon to Detroit and on to
Brazil.
It was a 10 hour
20 minutes flight from Detroit to Sao Paulo. Christmas Day was a great day to
fly. The airplane was only 25% full. I therefore got three seats in the center
section of the 747 and got to lie down and get some sleep on the flight. I
cleared customs on arrival and was picked up by the Fors in a 6 passenger Chevy
microvan which they had arranged for as their car only held 5.
The adventure
began. First it was quick trip back to their apartment and a swim. Then a light
lunch and off to the LDS Temple in Sao Paulo. It’s a great experience to rub
elbows with the locals in such a sacred atmosphere. My language skills were
immediately tested. I had spent two months working on Portuguese. While I have
a really long way to go in that language at least I could handle a few
situations.
The next day
(Remember this is right after Christmas and the school kids are on summer
vacation) we loaded up the car and headed to Rio de Janerio. Pronounced in
Portuguese as Hio. The r is pronounced like an H. Don’t ask me why that’s just
the way it is!
Well the first 45
minutes of the trip (We didn’t clear the city limits of Sao Paulo) were spent
with the middle Fors daughter protesting loudly that she didn’t like the
seating arrangement. After that we got into a groove. It’s only 230 miles from
Sao Paulo to Hio. The Dutra Highway, BR 116 connects the two cities. It’s a
toll road so every 10-15 miles you have to pay$3-5 toll. As you get to within
80 miles of Hio the highway which is for the most part a two lane divided
highway drops down off the plateau that most of the Brazil interior sits on to
sea level. Well, one whole side of the highway was closed off and we got into a
single lane bumper to bumper traffic jam which extended the time of the trip.
Needless to say does driving into a city of 10 million (Rio) on a Friday night
sound like fun? To top things off the GPS which was guiding our trip ran out of
battery. Later we discovered that the cigarette lighter wasn’t working as a
charger. So with dead reckoning navigation and help from the friendly locals
(Eric and I would shout to the divers of the cars along side us, “Para
Copacabana”) we finally arrived at the JW Marriott Copacabana. What a welcome
sight.
Once you hit stop
and go traffic on any major highway (And some not so major) in Brazil street
vendors instantly appear. I’m sure they have Master’s Degrees in traffic
engineering to know which roads back up and when. They offer a surprisingly
large amount of products and provide a valuable service to the weary traveler.
Chips, water, candy are the usual offerings as they stand between the lanes of
vehicles offering their wares. This does create a hazard to the Motoboys (Young
men on Motorcycles) that ride the lines between the traffic lanes. I heard that
3 a day are killed in Sao Paulo with such dangerous behavior.
I’ll remind you
it was summer in the southern Hemisphere? Rio was hot and humid. I mean really
hot and humid. After touring and the beach on Saturday I took a shower in my
beautiful air conditioned room. I then dressed in clean, fresh clothes only to
decide after walking two blocks to a restaurant why did I bother? I had water
coming out of every pore.
The Marriott while
extremely expensive, (Did I mention it was high season) was a welcome respite
from the heat and hustle of the city. It faced the beach and had an open air
roof top pool on the 14th floor. At night it had a spectacular view
of the beach and looking 180 degrees from the beach a spectacular view of
Christ the Redeemer statue located on a mountain behind the city. The statue is
wonderfully light up with flood lights and is perhaps more spectacular at
night. We really enjoyed the pool.
Saturday, we
hired Wolgrande, an English speaking tour guide to show us the city. Now
remember we’re traveling with how many little girls? Wolgrande had a Minivan,
an unusual vehicle for Brazil. We only saw a handful in the two weeks I was in
Brazil.
First it was off to Christ the Redeemer Statue. Constructed
in 1931 it’s become a landmark for Hio. Wolgrade drove us most of the way to
the top of the mountain. I was glad he was driving and knew the way. I didn’t
see any signs. There’s a parking lot where you pay your fee and are then
transferred to shuttle buses for the rest of the trip. From the upper parking
lot it’s an escalator ride or 220 steps to the top. I walked. It’s actually 223
steps. We took the required pictures with our arms extended and enjoyed the
spectacular view of the surroundings.
From there
Wolgrande took us to Sugar Loaf Mountain where we rode cable cars to the top.
The cable cars are another interesting landmark for Rio and have been featured
in several movies including “Moon Raker” with James Bond.
Again did I
mention it was hot? We bought ice cream for the girls and about the time the
wrappers came off the ice cream was melting. After catching up with Wolgrande
at the base of the cable cars he offered to continue our tour by showing us the
old city and the botanical gardens. We said back to the beach.
Copacabana is a
world famous beach. Yes, it’s a nice beach. However, we are so spoiled as
Americans I guess I couldn’t quite see what the draw was. It’s huge, it’s hot
and yes some of the women are in swim suits that in Portuguese are called
“dental floss” bikinis. The fabric than runs from the waist down between the
butt cheeks gets lost in the anatomy. It resurfaces again on the front side. I
sure see how they get their name. No, I didn’t see any topless bathers.
One unique thing
we did see at Copacabana was watering the sand. They had perforated hose laid
on the sand from the ocean to the sidewalks sprinkling water on the sand. The
sand was so hot that without the water being added you could burn the bottoms
of your feet.
Eric, Gretta and
I rented a stand up paddle board and paddled out off the beach. With summer in session there weren’t many
waves. My granddaughter Gretta is good at riding as a passanger. She even
paddled the board.
On a side note I
was the last of the three Snyder children to visit Rio. My brother Bob was
there as a West Point Cadet in 1970 and my sister Marie was there for New
Year’s in 1986. My father had been to Rio as a Merchant Marine in the late
30’s. A family keepsake is tray made out of Brazilian hardwood with butterfly
wings mounted under glass. My sister Marie still has it.
Sunday, we drove
back to Sao Paulo. The return trip was not nearly as eventful as the trip to
Rio. We charged the GPS in Wolgrade’s minivan on Saturday and got some
directions before we left town. We stopped at a McDonald’s on the out skirts of
Rio. It was funny trying to order for the crew. The young man manning the drive
thru finally said “Come to the window.” I thought Eric did an outstanding job
as our interpreter. However, it’s easier to communicate eye-to eye. We arrived
back in Sao Paulo without too many delays.
Monday, it was
off on another adventure. Eric went to MBA School at BYU with a man named
Trejano Lima. Trejano was recruited by Caterpillar to work for them upon
graduation. He spent a year in Peoria, Illinois before returning home to
Brazil. Caterpillar has a manufacturing facility about 1 and ½ hours outside of
Sao Paulo. Trejano works in the purchasing Department. Eric had arranged for a
plant tour. Unfortunately it wasn’t a kid friend operation, so Gretchen and the
girls stayed at Trejano’s house with Trejano’s wife and children while Eric and
I got a plant tour. It was great. We watched D6 and D8 Bulldozer go down the
production line and Trejano schooled us on how Brazil treats domestic
producers. They get a break on taxes. We also had a nice lunch at the employee’s
dining room. A great number of Trejano’s colleagues spoke excellent English as
they communicate with Peoria on different issues.
After the tour we
picked up the Girls and drove off to Americana, Brazil. Here’s the quick story
of how Americana got its name. There’s also a huge statue of Liberty replica on
the road outside of town. It’s about 80 ft. tall.
At the end of the
Civil War (the US Civil War) the emperor of Brazil send agents to the
confederate states to recruit disenfranchised southern Farmers to come to
Brazil. Brazil was sorely in need of improved farming practices and they had
land. Over 400 confederate families took Brazil up on the offer. I had heard of
this story from a friend of mine who grew up in Rio. We found some signs that
read,”Estrada dos Confederados”. Google translate confirms that to be “Road of
the Confederates”. We drove two miles down at best described a dirt road. It
had rained and there were potholes and debris on the road. Take this to mean it
wasn’t very heavily traveled.
We found a fenced in compound that we viewed through a chain
link fence. We could see a few building, what I’d describe as a picnic shelter
and head stones. About then a car comes driving down the road and the care
taker arrives. There was a small house on one side of the compound.
Eric acting as
interrupter got the car taker to open the gate and he allowed us to look
around. We explained we were Americans and had heard some of the history of the
confederate families that immigrated to Brazil. There was a stars and bars
monument that had the names of some of the families and in front of the picnic
shelter there was a concrete pad painted with the confederate flag. I guess
Brazil doesn’t subscribe to political correctness. We wandered over to the cemetery
and looked at the grave stones. All contained history. One stated … a
Confederate Soldier born 1820 Mississippi, died Sao Paulo State Brazil 1895.
I understand that
every April the local families that are descendants of these families gather
and hold a festival. I’ll try to find the youtube.com link to a short video of
the April celebration.
http://youtu.be/9l5ILYQAC1I
I hope you find
it as fascinating as I did. We hear so much about immigration to the USA we
never hear about people leaving. Brazil is even a more diverse country that the
United States. Although slavery was outlawed in 1860 the slaves we’re freed
until 1888. In researching this aspect of Brazil I came upon the fact that only
the Unites States had a civil war over the issue of slavery. Every other county
that had slaves simply negotiated for their freedom by paying off the
owners. Slaves first came to Brazil with
the early Portuguese settlers and continued as tremendous manpower was required
to “tame” the land. It’s estimated that 4 million slaves came to Brazil or 40%
of the slaves that came to the Americas. Later I’ll cover Paraty an old
colonial town dating to the 1500’s . It a seaport town where slaves arrived in
Brazil.
We then drove back
to Sao Paulo.
New Year’s Eve, Eric and I adventured into
downtown Sao Paulo to check on the set up for the New Year’s celebration. We
drove to Eric’s work in the “Robo Cop” building and then rode the subway starting
with the Emerald line getting on at the Berrini Station. At the Pinherios
Station we transfer to the yellow line which means descending into the bowels
of the earth to catch the Yellow Line to
Paulista Ave. which is billed as the 5th Avenue of Sao Paulo. A comparison to 5th
Ave. in NYC. I was most impressed with the Subway. It is relatively new. The Emerald
Line which we rode first starts above
ground and runs along a major River which runs through Sao Paulo. We then
transferred to the green line which was entirely underground under downtown.
Sao Paulo was
getting ready for a BIG celebration. We asked and they estimated 3-4 million
people were expected on Paulista Ave. Remember its summer and it doesn’t get dark
until 9 PM. Plus it’s warm. Therefore, they were setting up pavilions for live
music and beer concessions were numerous. I can’t believe people show up in
Times Square in NYC in the cold and dark to watch a stupid ball drop. What’s up
with that? Go to Brazil for NewYear’s..
We retreated back
to the Apartment on the 14th floor to watch the show. I as usual
went to bed before midnight but was told it was quite the show. They set off
mortars from the tops of the buildings.
New Year’s Day we
drove into the city and went to a large park where we rented bicycles. Got to
see the locals in action. Having thrived on sports as a kid I was curious to
the quality of the pickup soccer and basketball games I observed. The soccer
was deadly. They played on a small asphalt surface court. I noticed some played
bare foot. Most wore sneakers or running shoes. There were the typical overage,
overweight players still dreaming about playing world cup. Some had the ability
to really kick the ball. I felt sorry for the guys who got hit by the kicked ball.
It was a small court so the action was furious. Most attempts on goal simply
relied on the theory of kick the ball as hard as possible and maybe it will
find its way through the crowd to the goal. When the ball missed everything it
often travels a 100 yards out of bounds across the lawn or paved paths. The
pickup basketball looked like grown men played with grade school skills. Let’s
face it most young Brazilians probably aspire to play soccer professionally.
Eric and I attended a professional Basketball game. More on
that later. I can see why soccer is the sport of the rest of the world.
Jan. 2nd
we loaded the 6 passenger rent microvan for a trip to Ubatuba. Ubatuba is a
small town on the coast about 4 hours from Sao Paulo. A neighbor of Gretchen’s
recommended an Eco Resort on the coast just north of Ubatuba.
Looking at the
drive on a road map doesn’t reveal the true adventure of just getting there
from Sao Paulo. We started off driving the same toll road we drove to Rio the
week before. Heck we’re almost locals by this time. We turned off the Dutra at
the Taubate Exit and after fueling started down to the coast on the Rodovia
Oswaldo Cruz also know as SP 125. Like the United States, Brazil labels their
highways. In this case were in Sao Paulo state hence the SP label.
The first 60 miles
of the 80 mile trip from Taubate to Ubatuba (you just have to love the names)
was through rolling hills. There were large pastures and cleared land on the
sides of the highway. It was a narrow two lane highway. Nothing extraordinary
here. Then we hit the steep part. Like I described driving to Rio the week
before, we left the higher plateau and descended to the sea level and the
coast.
When was the last
time you were on a roller coaster? The steep sections were at least 14 to 16%
grade. I build highways, so cut me some slack that I know grade. That means 10 to
14 feet of fall in 100 feet. Several 180 degrees switch backs and now through
the jungle. There was guardrail along the steep sections, so I didn’t deem it
unsafe, just scary steep. One thought I had, was if we did go off the road,
would we be found or would the jungle simply grow over us in a short time.
One interesting
phenomena was the number of hub caps along the side of the road. We’re talking
numerous. I was told that the braking action on the smaller cars distorts the
metal wheel and causes the hub cab to come off. There was a municipal worker at
one location walking up the road against traffic picking them up. He has a
string and was stringing the hub caps on the string. He had maybe 10-15 on the
string already. At a switch back there was a small dump truck that had a load
of hub cabs piled high enough so they protruded over the side boards.
Anyway, we survived
the drive and arrived safety in Ubatuba, Brazil. We hit a lot of traffic as we
approached town. Brazil is big on speed bumps. Where a major Highway passed
through a town they have speed bumps very 100 meters. No wonder traffic backs
up.
10 Kilometers out
of Ubatuba we turned off the highway for the Itamambuca Resort. The resort was
builded as a four star resort. We turned onto a dirt road. Does this compute?
Yes, a mile down the dirt road we turned into the security gate and back onto a
paved road. The guard allowed us through and we parked at the check in which
was an opened air arrangement. They did have some fans running. Did I say it
was hot? Again were we hot and humid. The resort in just a stone’s throw from
the Itamambuca River where the river runs into the Atlantic ocean.
Gretchen and Eric
had made the reservation. They reserved a bungalow that slept 4 and for Gretta
and I a camping cottage. Well the pictures on the internet don’t show heat!
Roger, the manager and one of only a couple of English speakers within 100
miles, showed us the bungalow. Not bad. You did have to slide your room key
into a holder on the wall to fire up the AC, but it was OK. Then it was a short
walk over to the camping area to show Pops his accommodations. Well, did you ever see the movie, “Bridge on
the River Kawi”? Remember the sweat box that the Japanese Officer puts the
British Colonel played by Alec Guinness in ? Yep, that’s what Pops was going to
sleep in. Concrete block walls and a metal roof, two bunk beds, one against
each wall, about 6 ft. wide and 12 ft. deep. Well, Roger being the consummate
salesman said, “We have a cancelation and have another bungalow available.”
Jack, thinking about his ability to survive and running some quick numbers
through his head said,”We’ll take it”. Seriously, I don’t know if I would have
survived three nights in the sweat box. The car we had had a thermometer in it
and I saw 37 degrees Celsius which is dangerously close to 100 degrees.
We settled in for
our stay. I really was a neat place. The resort ran both the bungalows which
were separated from the camp ground by about ¼ mile. You had to walk through
the camp ground to get to the beach. Getting to the beach involved crossing the
Itamambuca River. There are two ways to cross the river; swim/wade depending on
the depth or ride a tiny hand pulled ferry barrage. I questioned Roger about
the water quality in the river which he assured me was tested weekly. (Having
seen the water quality of the river in Sao Paulo and wondered if that was a
tributary to the Itamambuca) I have since checked out the drainage of the Itamambuca
River on Google Earth and believe the headwaters of the Itamambuca start in the
Jungle we observed on drive down form Taubate. The river was about 100 yards wide where we
crossed.
Crossing the
river took you to a nice mile long beach where the resort furnished chairs and
umbrellas. It really was a pretty nice set up. The Atlantic was warm and at the
mouth of the river there was a sand bar so it was shallow along ways out.
There were waves
and surfers. We had some quality beach time.
The resort offered
two choices for dinning. One was an open air high priced restaurant next to the
check in area the other was a “Por Kilo” buffet near the campground. It worked
like this; you filled up your plate and they weighted it at the end. You paid
for what you put on your plate. The seating was open air cafeteria style. The
place was made for us! Eliza’s a picky eater and the menu has beans and rice,
one of her favorites. We ate there all three nights. The menu changed every
night. The place was clean and the food was good. It was perhaps the best
dinning we had traveling with the kids as it was instant food, good quality,
clean and everyone got their choices.
The next day we were off to Paraty (pronounced
Para-Chee) which was about a 45 minute drive up the coast towards Rio. Again it
was hot. We arrived in town and found a place to park. Not always easy anywhere
in Brazil. We took a short horse drawn carriage ride with a narrated tour. Paraty is a preserved Portuguese colonial town with a population of
about 36,000. It is located on the Costa Verde, a lush, green corridor that
runs along the coastline of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Paraty has
become a popular tourist destination in recent years, renowned for the historic
town and the coast and mountains in the region. Paraty is known for its
brightly colored building and boats. It is over 500 years old.
We rented a boated
manned by two brothers who took us to a private beach further out from the
town. There are numerous islands in the area including one that is known as the
finger of god that has a rock outcropping that looks like a finger. We explored
the area around the beach which was bordered by the jungle. We found an old
rusty waterwheel that the brothers told us was used to made electricity. We
swam in the water which was quite warm.
Upon returning to
town we walked back to where we had parked the car. I noticed a river of water
running up the street towards where we were parked and thought we should immediately
run for it. I thought it was a broken water main. The quantity of water was
huge and while the depth wasn’t going to flood the car it was up to the wheels
of some cars parked on the street. I walked upstream from the flow of water and
observed that it was coming from the bay. I had noticed and pointed out to Eric
that the tide had risen while we were on our excursion as the boat landed us
much higher on the beach than where we had started. I read up on this
phenomenon. Apparently it happened when there is a full moon and a high tide.
The streets in some areas simply are designed to flood. After that we drove
back to Itamambuca.
One thing that
really made Itamambuca a fun experience was the children’s program ran by the
resort. There was one lady in charge of the operation and she had numerous
counselors. Gretta and Eliza really have learned to go with the flow not
speaking Portuguese. The lady in charge made a big fuss over the gringas. In Portuguese
they tend to overly pronounce the girls names, Hence Gretta was GRET-TA and
Eliza was E-LIZA. Carli is CAR-LY. The girls really enjoyed running with the
pack doing handicrafts, playing games and participating in other activities. At
one time they were sent out on a scavenger hunt. The girls didn’t have a clue
as to what they were supposed to be looking for. Well, one of the girls a
little older than Gretta spoke very good English, so she’d translate for the
girls and off they’d go.
The most fun was
Friday night when they turned the recreation center into a game room.
They broke out all sorts of games including a Wi. The
instructions were in English and none of the counselors knew how it worked. A
young man I’d say was about 10 named Igor had obviously been trained on Wi as
he quickly set up the game and was showing fellow competitors how to work the
controller which you hold in your hand. He quickly rolled three strikes in a
row on the Wi bowling game. The girl who was playing against him quickly lost
interest so I recruited Eric to take Igor on. Igor wilted under the pressure
and Eric prevailed. Then they played a Bingo game. Pops was given a paper bingo
card and a tooth pick. The toothpick was to be used to simply punch a hole in
the number on the card when it was called. Pops played along with the assistance
of Nicholas, one of the youth counselors. Darn it if I didn’t understand some
of the numbers. Nicholas inquired as to how many numbers I needed for Bingo and
I showed him the card which was just missing the number 69. Darn it if the next
number wasn’t 69! I quickly gave the card to Gretta and told her to shout BINGO
which she did. The prized was a bird book including pictures of all the birds
that one could see in the area. A nice souvenir for Gretta.
The best part of
Itamambuca was the breakfast buffet. It included fresh fruit from Brazil some I
recognized and other I didn’t. There were a few melons I don’t think we grow in
the USA. Interestingly enough they have a unique Pineapple in Brazil that the
meat of which is white. They were also smaller that the Hawaii pineapples we’re
used to in the USA. Having read James Mischer’s book “Hawaii”, I knew that
Pineapples originally were from South America. I believe the type we eat in the
USA from Hawaii (Philippines) are GMO from the original species from South
America. I found food the be relatively expensive in Brazil. We enjoyed the
buffet breakfast.
We enjoyed our
stay in Itamambuca. Eric rented a surf board one day and he caught a few waves.
There were also some large rocks at the mouth of the river that people were
jumping off. Eric and Gretta had to give it a try too. We also tried stand up
paddle boarding which results in a funny story. Pops has SUP’d before and while
not an expert did paddle well enough to catch a few waves at Pokei Bay in Oahu
last winter. So Pops jumped on the board and paddled out into the river. We
were in the river just behind the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. Well, remember
the human powered ferry boat I told you about that was used to cross the
river…well Pops forgot about it and with the murky water didn’t see the rope
stretched across the river which resulted in Pops flying head first off the
board. The locals though it was funny.
We were scheduled
to leave Sunday. We had purchased a three day package. Saturday, we debated
whether we should leave early and drive back to Sao Paulo to beat the traffic
Sunday. Our plans were made for us when a very heavy rain storm came in as it
was getting dark. Remember the Taubate- Ubatuba Highway. We had planned on
returning to Sao Paulo via it as it is the shortest route. We found out the
road was closed and thus we decided the best course of action was to leave
early Sunday AM. We woke everyone up at 6 AM and hit the road. We had to go a
different route because of the road closure. Therefore, we drove down the coast
to Caraguatatuba where we took the highway up into the interior. We didn’t hit
too much traffic although every small town along the coast has numerous
“sleeping Policemen” speed bumps which cause backups. The road along the coast
afforded views of some nice beaches.
We arrived in Sao
Paulo in time to make it to church. Eric, Gretchen and the girls have been
attending a Portuguese speaking ward. Nothing new here after all it is Brazil.
It was fascinating to see the church in action in a foreign, to us only,
country. It was testimony meeting. The best way to explain it is that I
understood everything without understanding a word! I got to meet the Bishop
after the meeting. He was impressed with my Portuguese. He asked me how long I
had been speaking Portuguese and I said “10 Days”!
Sunday Afternoon
Eric and I drove to Pinherios to watch a Brazilian Professional Basketball
Game. A man Eric knew from church plays for the Esporte Club Pinherios. This
man played College basketball at BYU and is a native Brazilian. It was fun to
watch, although I compared the action to probably a Junior College game here in
the US. There was some drama to the game when both coaches received technical
fouls and then one of the coaches was ejected. Eric went for drinks at half
time and returned with plastic cups of water. He mentioned they wouldn’t allow
him to just take the water in the plastic bottle. I told him I thought it was
so the water bottle couldn’t be thrown onto the floor! The game was complete
with soccer style cheers.
I was flying out
at 10:30 PM Tuesday evening, so Tuesday Gretchen and I drove the girls into
down town Sao Paulo to the Children’s Science Museum (Calavento) Have I
mentioned how brave Gretchen is driving in a strange country in terrible
traffic? Eric rode the Metro and met us there. The Museum is similar to the
discovery Center in Boise. There are many interactive activities which teach
the principles of simple tools. The most exciting is the Van de Graaff Electrical
Generator. Here you place your hands on the ball and flip the switch. Very high
voltage runs through your body which allows the hair on your head to stand on
end. The girls think it’s a kick. They also have the soap bubbles, the pulley
systems and other educational hands on
experiments the kids can handle.
Eric and I
wandered over to the Sao Paulo Mercado (Market) for lunch while Gretchen took
the girls home with the car. The Mercado is a huge garage type building with
all sorts of food for sale. On the second level there are restaurants. Eric’s
colleges told him he has to order two sandwiches from a certain restaurant. The
meat sandwich must have had a pound of meat in it. We shared that. They Eric
and I found our way back to the Metro and rode the trains back to his office.
I flew home that
evening and arrived in NYC Wednesday AM where it was 10 degrees. I they flew
through Salt lake and was home to Boise that Afternoon. What an Adventure.
Would I go again to Brazil? Yes!
However, I don’t know if the opportunity will present itself.
Eric, Gretchen and the girls are now safely home in
Michigan. I can sleep better knowing there’s in the USA. While I never felt
unsafe in Brazil we were careful where we went. It can and is a dangerous
country.
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