Feijoada

I apologize for my bad blogging habits of late. I should be used to travel and long work hours by now, but it's still a struggle. I have lots to write about, so set aside some time and be patient because I may not be able to post it all right away.

First, my trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil:

Day 1: Learning from my last trip when I saw nothing but the inside of the office, I came a few days early and left a few days after our latin american team meeting. I didn't, however, have anything planned when I got there and I forgot that I don't speak Portuguese. After a 14 hour overnight trip, I arrived on Saturday morning, Feb. 24 and. After a long ordeal getting from the airport to my hotel, met up with a colleague and explored Pinheros' saturday market in the summer heat and humidity.

Day 2: Sunday, more people began to arrive and I went to explore the city with another two colleagues who showed me some favorite spots of the city including the historic district and the market, where I bought some Cachaca (aka Pinga) for Caipirinhas and tried Pastel (Brazil's version of empanadas).

During the week: The team gathering went well, though a bit short for all we tried to cram in. The Brazil team took us out past Sao Roque to a tranquil retreat where we spent the whole week eating and working. We got our first taste of all kinds of traditional dishes, including feijoada, a historically-charged food of the slaves which is a rich mix of pretty much everything (rice, beans, meats, etc.). Overall, it was a good week to get to know our teammates better, asking the same questions and trying to find answers, and creating a new language mixing english, spanish and portuguese.

Day T-2: After our meeting, I still had a weekend left to explore, but most people returned home right away. I managed to recruit Marcelo (a colleague from Argentina) and Daniela (a collegue from Brazil who was recovering from a long hospital stay) to flea the city and head to a "nearby" beach. I figured I had to see a Brazilian beach before leaving. We took off on a road trip and ended up at Ilhabela, a gorgeous getaway 3-4 hours from the city, near Sao Sebastiao.

The island is 70% national park, a weekend escape for the rich and has an impressive mix of mountains, lush vegetation and tropical beach. Although everything in Brazil is ridiculously expensive, we managed to find a hostel for $18 a night per person and a 5 min walk to the beach (to be honest everything's close to the beach 'cause it's an island). We began our stay swimming in the beautiful pool with naturally warm water and a view of the stars.

Day T-1: We went to a nice warm breakfast, we visited Dani's old beach house (they'd just stopped renting it a month before). We couldn't beat the view!

Around lunchtime we went to the Ferry to met Yadira (my roomie in mexico who came to Brazil for a meeting the following week) and went to a delicious lunch overlooking the sea. Dani took us around to all of her favorite spots and we ate, drank, slept, swam and sunbathed to our hearts content.

Last day: We went back to the beach one last time to get our fill of vitamin D and to test out the water before speeding back to Sao Paulo so I could catch my 8pm flight. The 14 hour flight home was a bit more bearable with remnants of saltwater and sand and memories from a great week in Brazil.