My folks and I arrived in Sao Paolo without any problems.  The bike arrived
safely and all the luggage made it.  We met our friend Caio at the airport
and he took us to his home in Sao Paolo.  I slept most of the car trip
because I didn’t get much sleep on the plane.  We got to his house and met
his family and dog.  A beautiful house and delicious food.  But I guess that
would be expected when they have a cook and a couple of maids to take care
of the house.  They also have a driver who also takes care of the garden and
outside.  These housekeepers are considered family.  They have living
quarters in the house and the one has been there nearly 30 years.  Life in
Sao Paolo gives them more opportunities than staying in their smaller
villages in Northeastern Brazil.

We ate lunch at 13:00.  Rice and beans, salad, pork, another dish, juice,
and fruits for desert.  They have a huge selection of fruits in Brazil.  But
that comes to no surprise because of the tropical weather down here.  After
lunch we took a tour of the older downtown Sao Paolo.

Caio with Sao Paulo in the background.

Lots of history and
interesting buildings.  But the traffic…I’ve been to Mexico City and Rome
but this is just crazy.  They got tons of these guys on mopeds who weeve
their way in between cars.  Pedestrians walk right into the traffic and have
to avoid the cars.  Some streets don’t even have lane markers, I guess
because they figure people will find their own routes.  A 4 lane road
becomes a 5 lane roller coaster.  Caio said that everyday there are 800 more
cars on the road in Brazil, but I don’t think they need anymore.

We got back home safely and ate dinner.  Once again another delicious meal.
Rice and beans, steak, salad, pastel and fruits and flan for desert.  First
impressions on Brazil have been fabulous.  I?ve found that speaking Spanish
can get me preety far.  But it’s very difficult to pull out words while
listening to Portuguese.  Portuguese sounds like a mix of spanish and
french.

We woke up Tuesday to a wonderful breakfast.  Bread, cheese and you guessed
it… fruits.  After breakfast we went to a mall to get our money exchanged
and looked around.  The flowers are beautiful, especially the orchids.  We
found a store Track and Field that is a sponsor of the IronMan and they had
a display advertising it.  I had my picture taken infront of it.  After the
mall, Caio decided to take us on another rollercoaster ride through a
different part of the city.  About 10 million people live in Sao Paolo, so
the city never ends.  Houston is a sprawled out city but there are lots of
open areas.  This is not the case for Sao Paolo, everybody lives everywhere
in Sao Paolo.  The newer downtown is spectactular.  We drove by many parks
that enticed a lot of runners.  I was tempted myself.  We passed under a new
bridge that opend just last week.  It looks like it was a challengin
engineering project.  Basic design was a cable stayd bridge with a concrete
main tower and steel beams and girders for the main floor.  It crossed a
highway, the rail
way and the central river through the city with two levels of traffic.
Ok enough about the bridge.  Lets fast forward to lunch.  Caio took us to a
very nice restaurant and we met up with his mother and sister-in-law who is
expecting within the next couple of weeks.

Restaurant built around this Fig Tree

The central theme of the
restaurant is the 100 year old fig tree that the restaurant is built
around.  It was at this restaurant that Caio’s father proposed to his mother
and where his brother proposed to his sister-in-law.  So there is some of
that history there as well.  The food was heavenly.  For odeavers we ate
vegetables, thin cuts of beef, fish and bread. I ordered beef for my main
meal and I have no regrets.  I got two steaks so I exchanged one of mine for
two of my dad’s cuts of lamb.  I also tried some of the palm-like
bamboo that my mom ordered.  That was delicious but not as filling as my
beef.

Afterwards we went to see where Caio and his dad and brothers work.  It is a
cold storage warehouse.  He gave coats to take us on a tour through the
freezers;  Good thing because it was freezing cold.

Then it was off to Florianapolis.  I slept during the whole 1 hour flight.
I got to my hotel at 21:00, unpacked my bags and assembled the bike.  More
from Floripa later on.

The swim made me quite sick towards the end. My goal was to finish the swim in 1:30, but 1:40 was fine because even the pros were slower than usual.  We swam in the sea and it was fairly choppy.  I must have drank about 1 liter of salt water and I had a headache and my stomach felt queezy.  I took my time in transition to relax and feel a bit better before I started the bike.

I loved the bike course.  I flew up and down the hills.  On one hill I passed 10 people going up, it was great. We passed through the tunnel 8 times, which I thought was unique.  But the wind was what wore me out, even on the TT bike. I guess my initial goal of 5:30 was too ambitious for the first ironman.

Cycling 112 miles as part of Ironman Brazil.

It was great to finally get off the bike after 180km and start my run! I thought 3:20 would be a good finish time, but I decided to take it easy and conserve some energy.  I have the most experience in the run and it paid off as I kept passing people until the last 5km of the race. That is when I reached 12 hours racing and I was completely drained. My run turned into a shuffle as I ran 10 minute kilometers.  But I felt alive again as I reached the finish line.  Man that was the greatest feeling to be done and have accomplished such a challenge. (moreso than walking the stage for graduation to receive my diploma.)  I´m so glad my parents were there to see it.

Aunt Myra sent along these balloons for mom to hand me at the finish.

Now I get to enjoy the rest of my trip and visit all the cool sites in Brazil.  I will try my best to keep you guys updated by email or facebook.

Brazil was great!  It rained at the Iguassu Falls, but they were still magnificent.  I went to the dam of course and I found it very interesting.  Since it is on the border with Brazil and Paraguay everything is split 50-50, investment, energy production, employees, .

I spent 4 days in Rio of which 2 it rained.  I didn’t have much luck with the weather.  I went hang gliding, and did the runners dream… ran the length of Copacabana and around the lagoon on which Corcovado watches with outstretched arms.  I also went to Maracana stadium to watch a soccer game.  The enthusiasm at this game was so much greater than any playoff game in football…and this was just a regular season game that didn’t mean much.

Me with the mascot for Flumaneis

I’m not an english major by any means but I’m guessing that the word “amazing” orginated from a traveler to the Amazon.  This was the rainy season and the river was 40 feet higher than in the dry season.  On boat rides we would float over submerged trees.  A guide caught a caiman (alligator), and an owl.  We went fishing for piranhas.  They ate 7 of our bait (raw beef) but we only caught one, which we ate for supper that evening.  Despite catching a caiman and a piranha I swam in the river twice, very refreshing.  I also went canoing.  Though it wasn’t a concrete canoe, I enjoyed passing over submerged trees.

Brasilia was very nice, and the weather cooperated.  The architecture was interesting and the layout of neighborhoods was great.  Everything was in walking distance from home, school, stores, work, parks.

Sao Paolo is a traffic nightmare!  Never will I complain about Houston traffic again.