Welcome to Brazil, anyone fancy a drink...?

We said our goodbyes to Christine & Andres at the ludicrously early time of 4:00am and headed to Santiago’s international airport to continue on the next leg of our journey. Uneventful flights are what I enjoy and this was exactly what we had, apart from somehow our seat bookings got changed and Fiona & I ended up sitting in different rows. In the scheme of things, this was a minor inconvenience.

We were greeted upon our arrival in Sao Paulo but a light rain, but this was mitigated by the fact that it was 19 degrees C and very slightly humid. We got through customs & immigrations and collected our bags from the carousel in what must have been a record time, but that was the last thing we did quickly that day. The queue for the airport taxi was over 1 hour long, and then because the locals were having a protest somewhere in town, the traffic was snarled up, and it took nearly an hour and a half to get from the airport to where we were staying. And then our complete lack of being able to speak Portuguese made checking-in a more difficult process that it should have been, thank goodness that Yates suddenly showed up and talked loudly and it soon everything was resolved.

It’s always great to see my old friend Yates, as I know that a good time will ensue, but it is definitely more exciting to see him when I know we have another six weeks of football, beer and sunshine to enjoy. This is our 6^th World Cup trip together, and Yates was as excited as ever about the upcoming festivities. He had arrived in Sao Paulo the day before us and he was in good spirits, having already spent some time in the gym, meet a few people and found a bar right around the corner, where he had become friendly with the owner. How he does these things is mind-blowing to me, his amiable persona and open personality seems to be able to overcome any practical impediment, especially where making friends and finding bars is concerned.

Fiona & I were pretty tired after out 10 hour journey, so we retired to our apartment to chill out for a while and freshen up, but then our hunger got the better of us so Yates led us to the bar he had found. It literally was just round the corner, and the owner ‘Roberto’ acknowledged Yates as we entered and we took a table out the back. This is where the fun begins....! Our complete lack of Portuguese was not too much of a problem when ordering food, but once we started on the drinks, thing soon got out of hand. The first round of beers went well, even if I had asked for a Strong Ale and received a large 14% beer, and even the next couple of rounds seemed straightforward. I guess it was when we started trying to talk with our waiter, ‘Cleberson’, and suggest that he recommend drinks for us that the wheels started to come off. We then started on the Caipirinha’s, which are Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça (a sugar cane hard liquor), sugar and lime. These things are dangerous because the sugar & the lime disguise the

strength of the alcohol content, and whilst I wouldn’t say they were being served in tall glasses, they were bloody great big tumblers.  After a further two rounds of those, he brought us a shot of something that was absolutely foul that almost brought tears to my eyes. This was fortunate as the pain of that shot cut through my inebriation gifting me a brief moment of sobriety, in which I decided that that was enough.... In the time we had been in there we had racked up an enormous bill, which we duly paid, and we got out of there just in time, as I suspect it could have got very messy if we had stayed any longer.  We stopped at the supermarket for supplies and headed back to our apartments, and it was not long before we crashed out.

Yates was up bright and early the next morning, but Fiona & I were still catching up on our sleep when he came by at around 9:30am. We agreed to meet up later in the morning to decide what we would do with the rest of the day. Fiona & I did finally get our arses in gear, and by about midday we were walking down the street towards a stylish part of town, with the complicated mission of having a look around and maybe grabbing some lunch.  We are staying at the top of a street called “Rua Oscar Freire”, which further down turns into the ‘Rodeo Drive’ of Sao Paulo, with its fancy designer stores and up market eateries. I figured if we were going to wander aimlessly around Sao Paulo, a megalopolis somewhat famed for its street crime and muggings, then we should be safer in an area where even the muggers would be better off than we are..! I need not have worried about it as it felt amazingly safe, and the only crimes being committed were of the fashion variety, by us..!!

We found a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch and had a great meal, and then walked slowly back towards our lodgings. It was hot, 30 degrees C hot, and with the humidity was rising, it was a long & sweaty walk back up the hill. Halfway back we thought we should find an ATM to get some more cash out to the evening, but each bank we tried, our cards did not work. Bummer. Whist credit cards are good for most things, cash is king when it comes to taxis, buses, and tipping round here and we were therefore concerned about our liquidity. After arriving back at the apartment, I did a bit of research and located some possible ATM’s that may offer us a chance of liberating some cash, so I rounded up Yates and we trudged off down the hill again in search of some dosh. I swear it was even hotter now, and even though we could not locate the first bank I was looking for, we walked past another which we decided to try, and BINGO, both of our cards worked and we were in the money again. The walk back up the hill was hot, tedious, and very sweaty, but was made bearable with a pit stop halfway up for a beer re-hydration session.

Now we had the cash, our plan for the evening’s entertainment could go ahead, with a trip to Scotland’s Brew Dog bar in South America, which is only a short cab ride away. Brew Dog are part of the Craft Beer Revolution that is sweeping the world these days, and with only rare opportunities to sample their beer in New Zealand, it was going to a bit of a treat for me to actually drink their beer on draught. The place was really busy when we arrived around 5:00pm, but we managed to get some seats pretty quickly, eventually scoring a table in the open air section where we could look up and see the moon & stars. The bar itself was once a car mechanics garage, and it had

been converted in to a pretty cool space, and even though it was busy it wasn’t too crowded inside.  I was like a ‘pig in shit’, soaking in the ambience and sampling all sorts of beers, not sure whether Yates or Fiona were enjoying it as much as I was, but they seemed happy enough.  Eventually, Fiona told me it was time for my last beer, and I thought that was fair enough, I had had a great time, so we called up a taxi and headed home....

I guess that the theme of our first couple of days in Brazil has been ‘beer’.... I can’t wait for the football to start...!