"ask one of our monitors at the beach what are the good spots to get into the water..." - The lady at the Surfboard Rental shop tells me about the tide at the Juquehy beach…

(image from a previous trip in 2003 at Ilha Grande ~ 200km north of Juquehy)

2 minutes after getting into the water I was thinking to myself if I should start this post with a good thing or a bad thing about Brazil, the previous title I had in mind was something like "you should not be carrying your laptop outside alone at night..."

Those who know me, are aware that I usually say that Brazil is my most hated Business Travel destination… I fact I lived in São Paulo for almost two years, and for some time I even enjoyed the experience but today I see that period as a burst of mixed feelings…

I once read a statement from someone famous saying that São Paulo is one of those places where you find the best and at the same time the worst that can be found around the world. Although I've traveled a lot I still find this place has the best Restaurants and Night Life that can be found around the globe. Still you can get out of a fancy restaurant and be shot by someone that did not eat for the last couple of days…

If you get out of the typical tourist traps, Brazil has some really fine beaches, where you can walk freely and even leave your wallet unattended without fear of not finding it when you get back… Unlike Portugal, there's plenty of room for surfing and surfers are really friendly (even when they notice your not from the place and not very skilled they're always available to help you - pretty much like mountain bikers in Portugal)... In fact I gave up surfing in Portugal due to the unfriendly and elitist character of surfers back home…


Back to the bad side, I feel that the worst part of me comes to play whenever I come to this place… I wake up in the morning before work wondering who's going the stab me in the back during the day, I deal with people that see corruption as something normal, companies that use their power to abuse their workers and keep them in fear so that they don't react, people that try to take advantage on anything anyway, you name it… As a result, I always go back home using more slain that what's normal in Portugal…

Summing up: two weeks in political hell, T-shirt stock reestablished, one hour of surfing, four waves surfed… Pictures: almost none… Sandy beaches and palm trees: yes… Caipirinhas: I stay far from them after the only real hangover in my life… Worth it? Well…