The People of Brazil were absolutely the best bit about our tripping.
These boys and girls love to party, there is so much warmth ingrained in brazilian culture and such a keenness to get out amongst the partyyy. We stayed with Edna (pronounced ed-jee-na) the first few nights we were in Brazil, she was a buddy of our friend Paloma's and she welcomed us into her beautiful 26th floor Sao Paulo super large style apartment with open arms. Edna involved her 32 year old son Gee, and got us out to an epic little Samba club which was a short and hair raising drive away from her place. Gee drove like a race car driver, through the suburb's narrow street's, giving us a severe dose of relief when we managed to arrive at the bumping little club and wrap our hands around a 'chopp' (beer). In one piece.
These buddy's were pretty fun, and hype city people, and they were our welcoming party in regard to our introduction to Brazil nut culture. - Which we enjoyed.
After Sao Paulo we hit up a pretty warm little (600,000 person) town called Ribeiro preto - where we were lucky enough to stay with our Mate Carla. This inland town attracts heat ! It very rarely catches any wind, and it was mid winter and 33 degree's - go figure. I am pretty sure that this warmth lead to the town folk's relaxed nature, everybody we kicked it with was super mellow, always keen to crack a beer and hit that chill switch - which I was easily encouraged into being a part of. The beers we kept hitting were these things called antartcia, and they were great, tis finely brewed, lightweight beer that had this 'fine' head on it that was weirdly creamy... It kind of defies explanation and I definitely havent had one here in New Zealand. Lion Nathan! Pay attention! - you have got to check this beer out, and get a bro beer version happening asap.
The same to be said for our next stop Virgem De lapa in regard to the heat, where we visited with our CCF sponsored little dude Bruno, the temperature was turned up to: H O T. The area was a lot dryer and was kind of desert like, and this helped us understand the buddies we met up with in this area. There definitely was a touch of desperation, but there still was a very friendly inviting nature, everybody was pretty mellowed by the hot hot heat, but at the same time this place being a little poorer, there was a little more angst it seemed. Everybody was cool and accepting though, really excited to engaging with us - the few girls who were apart of the CCF program, let us know how mind blowing it was for the whole community, as nobody really had the internet and the outside world was a million miles away. Our Trip to virgem De lapa helped Bruno, and the little township get a grasp on the idea that there was this country called New Zealand which was a half a world away and some buddies from there were giving them a little cash to help out with living, and here they are - they came to visit. This was a really cool aspect of our tripping.
Later on in our trip we had the biggest party time of the trip in what is probably my new favorite beach town eva - Rio De janeiro. - the place is pumping, and our good friend Freddy and his girl Sue Anne did a great job of showing us around this hyper active Town. Once again because it is in the southern hemisphere, and we were there in July and august - it is WINTER but damn, Im in the water just in my speeder's, and its something like 30 degree's. My kind of place. The party people of this busy town are quick to chat, keen to open up and practise some english with you - and just relax into a cool conversation. I went to Rio with a light sense of worry, hearing about how it was one of the most crime riddled city's on the planet and 'be careful' - but everywhere we went we were coooooooL - nothing was a problem, we didn't connect with any bad guys whatsoever.
Much fun was had with the people of Brazil!
- DAN