Day 1: Monday, July 17, 2006

So, today we arrived in Sao Paulo, Brasil or Sampa as the Brazilians call it. We flew out on Sunday afternoon at 2pm and our plane touched ground at 8 am or so. Some how I managed to tire myself out from the stupid flight. The second leg of the flight which was from Lima, Peru to Sao Paulo took about 5 hours, but for 3 of those hours I sat, trying to sleep, convinced that I had sat in some crappy chair that wouldn’t recline. It wasn’t until complaining about it to Guillermo (G-Mo), that he reached over and very simply found the button on the other armrest. Lame. Of me. After arriving in Sampa we rented a car (for 2 days) and checked into a hotel for another two days. Due to the fact that we had an hour until check in this afternoon, we decided to grab a eat and cruise down the main drag, which is called Avenida Paulista. I personally think it kind of sucks. I guess it’s on the level of 5th Avenue in New York, but not as cool. So, as we walked down the street exploring little shops, we ended up with an address where we could go get G-mo’s phone chipped. As we were wandering around the lobby and the second floor we totally came across this Gym, catching both of our interests. Being the fellas that we are we decided to side track our phone mission to investigate getting a gym membership. Fernanda, the sales rep, was super nice and took us around the gym with the expertise of a car salesman. I’m sure she was hyped to be pitching a membership sale on two Americans whom, only 4 hours after arriving in Sao Paulo were looking to find a training ground for their soon to be Adonis bodies. Uhuh. You thought wrong Fernanda, because spending $220/month is not my idea of a good deal. I was annoyed for the second time in the day and it was only 12:30 pm. Aside from my bitterness, I was impressed with the big flat screens and blairing sound system in the treadmill room, and the garment bags given to you in the gym for you to fill with your suits/clothes etc. and return to the clothing valet dude. Crazy. Other stuff happened later on in the day, but that was most of the excitement. G-mo and I just finished eating Udon in Liberdade (the Japanese enclave in Sao Paulo), we both also finished typing away on our obnoxious laptops, and are now moaning about the fact that we’re exhausted and it’s really only like 3:30 pm back home (7:30 pm here). We have decided to fight through until 11 pm and then call it a night. I miss everyone and all the great hanging out I did prior to coming on this summer adventure. I’ll be in touch.

M