Brasil August 2008

Ola !

Ive been in Sao Paolo, Brasil since wednesday and will be here till this wednesday. To be fair its been mostly work so far - in the suburbs of Porto Alegre (a 2 hr flight from SP) in the lush green, river valleys of the great state of Rio Grande Do Sul and then in the surprisingly sunny Goiania (another 2 hr flight the other way)

So not much time trying to try being a paulista :) - but today - i went on a date with this lovely lady (well, and her husband and her cute little daschund - in tow) who took me to Parque do Ibirapuera - a sprawling, lush 2 sq.km park in the middle of Sao Paulo full of jogging paulistas, babies, sweethearts, old guys & ladies and folks walking an assortment of dogs - brasil is like mecca for these tiny toy dogs - poodles, all kinds of terriers, pomeranians, skinny hounds and these really stupid dashunds - i had a pleasant time strolling around watching ducks, herons, geese and of course, our regular kind of birds - the ones in spandex , sneakers, totting ipods, with cat-sized dogs in tow and most of them, are like SO good to look at.

Surprisingly most brazilians living along the metros on the East coast are European in Origin - consequently most girls in Sao Paulo look like italian girls - fresh faced, earthy and with smiley faces - i guess it comes with the climate, the food and the culture - i expected a strong representation from girls looking like,um, eva longoria - if u get what im getting at - the latino kind - um, they're pretty rare to spot.

*sigh* on to other boring subjects

One brazilian Real is like 25 Indian bucks (1 USD = 1.65 R$) - BUT - in my estimate Sao Paulo is as expensive as, say, Italy - my Hotel costs in excess of a 100 dollars a night - and EVERYTHING is extra - Taxis start at a 3.5 R$ for like 3 kilometers after which the meter starts ticking extremely fast - a 20 km trip in Saopaulo costs about 110R$ - in smaller places (like the ones i went near Goiania - it costs a lot lesser though) - i guess it figures - if some1 does an estimation of Indian PPP levels based on Mumbai costs - he's sure to list India in the Top 5 most expensive places on the planet - up there with Monaco or Montecarlo :)

I was accompanied on my trips out of Sao Paulo by F or K - depending on the customer. Now, F and K are special girls - i know them very well i talk to them almost on a daily basis and they give me the most business amongst their colleagues - both are in their early 40s, have little kids - like 11 yr old, 7 yr old - and are divorced - they are very chatty, friendly and ask me all of things about India & personal things like theyre my big sisters :)

I am reading Alan Greenspan's - The Age of Turbulence - from the Airport - the first few sections ive been through make an interesting read - but like he says - Developing nations have a much higher savings / spending ratio than developed ones - because of past experiences, poor social security etc. BUT rapid urbanization is causing pockets of consumer culture growing explosively in many parts of the world - like China, Brazil - i guess in places like Mumbai. I specifically asked K & F - they earn a lot of money - like - 10,000 R$ a month - they're building houses, or paying apartment mortgages etc. but not saving much - as they told me.

Another interesting thing i always wanted to watch out for : Gas prices. Gasolina (the petrol) costs about 2 R$ - Diesel about 1.5 R$ - AND they have something called 'alcool' (Ethanol) which sells for 1.4 R$ and most petrol cars in Brazil have dual functionality - they run on Ethanol AND petrol - cool, huh ?

The other big thing - it struck me on the face, especially when we were driving out - like 100 kilometers from Porto Alegre, to a place called Sao Jeromino - there was this HUGE river - about a kilometer wide - and FULL of clean water - the whole roadside - just 10 km off Porto Alegre - was lush with agriculture, cattle ranches - upto what the eye can see - making brasil (atleast the state of Rio grande Do Sul-from the looks of it) very very rich in natural resources.

English is not as wide spread as i'd expected - all kids study english - but i guess its a bit like Hindi in Chennai - Taxi drivers, Doormen, Bell boys happily gesticulate & chatter away in rapid portuguese inspite of u clearly telling them that u dont know the lingo :) - Mucho Obrigado - Ola - un, dues, Tres, Quat, Buena dias is all i can say - but its ok - its easy - traffic is traffico - mucho complicado - saida (exit), santitario, alimento - they're all easy to pick up

I have managed to get an adapter and get my camera, laptop etc. charged and get my life back on track.

Photos will be up here

Hey hey - i almost forgot - She will be loved (Maroon 5) is almost as popular as Ricky martin's Maria -in sao paolo - it seems :) - i hear this song on taxi radios, K's ringtone, in the hotel lobby ...

Will update soon with other things & more photos if possible.

*kiss on the cheek* ciao ciao

(Brazilian style ;))