Brasil!

Greetings one and all from Sete Lagaos, Brazil!

It´s the second day here, and our feet have barely touched the ground. We arrived at Belo Horisante airport yesterday morning, via Manchester, Heathrow and Sao Paulo. There was a welcome committee of various rotarians and all of our hosts, and after a few photos, we got in various cars for the trip to our first port of call, Sete Lagaos. It´s a beautiful city, named after its seven lakes. Everywhere is green with trees of all sorts lining the streets.

I am staying with Goncalo, who is el presidente of the local Rotary club. He is a very nice man who thankfully spent a few years in America, so his English is pretty good. Better than my lousy Portuguese anyway. He lives in an amazing house, built himself - on 3 split levels, swimming pool, and broadband internet!! Civilisation! I´m having a slight problem though, as the screen on the apple mac spluttered yesterday and has since stopped working. GRRR!!

Anyway. We were told before we left that we would be kept busy... and this was no lie. We have done so much and met so many people in the last 2 days that I feel like I´ve been been here for ages. So far:

Yesterday - lunch at a sort of pick and mix restaurant where you weigh your plate to see how much you pay. Food excellent - meat, beans, pinepple juice and my first taste of a wonderful alcaholic drink called caipininha, which brought tears to my eyes. At this point, totally and utterly exhausted. Back home, feeling a little homesick and emotional. Sleep and the three ´shs´, felt human and much happier.

Then we went off to a local TV studio, where team leader Melany was interviewed about the exchange. Very exciting. To be broadcast on Monday. While we were there it pissed down with rain, there was a rainbow. Still tired. Goncalo then took me for a few beers in a pub along with some fried root vegetable. Goncalo is an environmental scientist, and we had a very interesting chat about the world and how Brazilians view it. Home, emailed Rach, then out for dinner. Brill. More weigh your own food, and a band playing traditional country music. Everyone dances - absolutely everyone, and it´s not your english handbag thing, it´s full on hip thrusting samba stuff. We had a bit of a go with varying degrees of success. More Caiperinha, and I got a little drunk by accident.

I´m being summonned for dinner now, so I´ll do today quickly. Caves (massive), black beer in a deli, visited a house like a museum, went for a barbeque with football (knakked my knee), sauna, stopped off for some more live music, and at 6pm had a little sleep.