Day 1 Brazil

I arrived after a somewhat bumpy 11 hour plane ride from Heathrow to Sao Paolo, thanks to bach flower essences and a wonderfully kind flight attendant called Marco who gave me a little reassuring squeeze on my shoulder everytime he walked by I managed to stay calm and sleep a little. My beautiful girlfriend was waiting at the arrivals gate with a sign welcoming me to Brazilzilzil !!! I'll skipp the description of the next few minutes because it's kind of private and anyway you can use your imaginations. We left the airport at around 6.30am as the sun was rising over the many many towers blocks shaping the skyline of the city of Sao Paolo. Passing football stadium and the venue for Carnival from the car window it is clear that Sao Paolo is huge, the biggest city in Brazil and probably the biggest city I have ever experienced by far. There is evidence of further continued growth from the numerous construction sites I saw and yes in between the corporate buildings and wealthy areas are favalas, creatively arranged habitats build in a higgled-piggled fashion from materials round and about. Eventually we got through the intense traffic and made it into the country-side. Hills and valleys covered in trees, the ocassional clearing with animals or agriculture. Our destination was Cambui, a district in Campinas, before we arrived we made a quick stop at a Frango Assado to sample some Pão de Queijo "cheese bread" - yum and fresh orange juice.

Refreshed and back on the road it was not long until we arrived at Campinas. A city of much more manageable proportions and the place from where my girlfriend and her family live. We stopped off at her father's home to say hello and have some lunch with other members of the family while we waited for the hotel room to be ready. The welcome I received was very friendly and incredibly warm. This evening as the sunsets on my first day in Brazil I am swing on a hammock on the verandah of the Hotel Pousada Cambui wondering how I got this lucky and imagining what adventures await us in the days to come.