Brazil, part II, Sao Paolo and wedding

The first part of the Brazil trip in Iguazu Falls was the only part of the trip where we would be travelling alone. From this point forward, we would be travelling with various groups. My old roommate had decided to organize a trip after his wedding for whichever out of town guests wanted to attend, including stops in the Amazon and the northern beaches. When he said jump, we said how high? After the success of our trip to India in February of 2004, also for a wedding and a large group tour after (with locals who knew there stuff), we were ready for another round.

Shockingly enough, given the status of Brazil as a quasi third-world country (easy Ariel), things went pretty smoothly from then on, except for a few minor flight delays. When we arrived in Sao Paolo from Iguazu Falls, we were met at the airport by a driver sporting a sign for myself and my wife. And it was a good thing, because it was a solid hour from the airport to my buddy's parent's house (where he was also living until after the wedding). For the uninitiated, Sao Paolo is HUGE (the worlds 3rd largest city)! Over 20 million people live there. When we were originally flying in, we flew over skyscrapers and urban sprawl for probably 15 minutes. It was very impressive. We got to the house around 10PM, gratefully hugged our lost bags that had arrived from DC before us, met a few of the other characters staying at the house, had a little food, and then went off to our room and crashed.

The next day was visit Sao Paolo day. After a leisurely wakeup and breakfast, we all jumped into a van and headed off to Sao Paolo. After another age just getting into the city, we disembarked in the middle of downtown and walked around for a couple of hours, around the Praca da Se, the Catedral Metropolitana, etc. Nothing truly exciting, but then we went to a large indoor market, and after walking through too many stalls, we went to the 2nd floor and had quite possibly our best and most unanticipated meal in Brazil, feasting on appetizer after appetizer of Brazilian specialties (most of which I can't remember at the moment, but manioc {tapioca} flour was a staple of a lot of them). A quick drive to a park for a walk and sunset, and then off to a bar which was a forested oasis in the middle of Sao Paolo. Many caipirinhas later (the national drink of Brazil), we fortunately caught the shuttle driver home...

The next day was wedding day, which was a lazy day. Hanging around the house, then it was time to get ready for the wedding, which mean the women went off to the beauty parlor, and Eduardo (groom) and I went with them to get 1 hour massages. Unfortunately, the massage was a little less aggressive than I would have liked, but it was still very relaxing. Finally, back to the house, showers, and dress up time for the wedding. My wife had gotten an amazing up-do at the parlor, and she had this very cool dress for the occasion, and let me tell you, she looked HOT! Cool church, nice ceremony, and then off to the reception.

The above picture is taken from the outdoor reception of the wedding.

This reception was quite possibly the nicest reception I have ever been to (barring my own, naturally). It was in this HUGE walled oasis in the middle of the city. First there was an outdoor reception, with what were clearly male and female models distributing hors d'oeuvres and booze, including a guy carrying a tray of Jack Daniels, ice, and glasses. Bottomless champagne bottles made for a very nice beginning (and Georgia and I drank champagne the rest of the night). On into the building, which had 3 or 4 seating areas to house the ~300 guests at the wedding. They had a running slide show on big screen TVs of pictures of Eduardo and Beatriz, most of which were Eduardo in his walkabouts all around the world. That guy has been EVERYWHERE! Included was a picture of me in our old house wearing a green hawaiian shirt, orange and black jacket, sunglasses, beer funnel wrapped around my neck, and other interesting accessories, in our old apartment. Ahh, those were the days... All of this to U2's Beautiful Day. Oh, I forgot, the wedding ceremony had an eclectic mix of music, including 2001 space odyssey just prior to the bride walking up the aisle, the hallelujah chorus when they walked back down, and other slightly jarring but VERY funny and appropriate selections, all played/sung by a church choir and band.

One thing that disappointed me a little was that after all my anticipation of seeing these awesome Brazilian dancers doing the Samba, capoeira (just kidding), and other smooth moves, those people were JUST as white as we were on the dance floor. The locals blamed the music, but c'mon. Naturally, Georgia and I were the last 'men' standing, dancing for hours to hold up the US side of the competition. The American contingent clearly won the party, as the entire group staying at the grooms house closed the party (kicked out some would say), and Ron got the number of one of the hot waitresses for later, when he was going to return to Sao Paolo after our other travels, to teach her English (yeah right!). They had also hired this group of 3 to move around the reception, dress groups in outrageous colored accessories, and then take pictures (hats, sunglasses, boas, condom heads, wigs). I think we rolled into the house around 4AM.

After a late wakeup the following morning, we grabbed the shuttle driver again (at our beck and call while we were in Sao Paolo, thanks Eduardo) and went to the suburb of Embu, which is the artists/tradesman enclave and had a HUGE outdoor flea market. We spent a couple of hours there loading up on ethnic stuff, and rued later when we went into the official stores in various cities and saw the same material for 2-3 times the price! We bought very cute jerseys for the twins, chowed on lots of pao de queijo (cheese bread), and had a grand old time. Back to the house for a huge buffet for maybe 15 of us, and then finally, off to the airport (another LONG drive), and we caught a flight to Manaus.

Other things to remember:
* Awesome picture light at the park during sunset in Sao Paolo
* 8 different kind of chocolate truffle desserts at the wedding. My favorite was the white chocolate, exquisite.
* Excellent meat dish at post wedding brunch.
* Silver statue guy at Embu flea market.
* Dancing for hours with my beautiful wife.
* Cool up-do.
* 2 HUGE dogs at the house we were staying, that were only let out at night for security purposes. Apparently this is the thing to do in Sao Paolo in the ritzier parts of town.
* Shockingly not taking a swim in the pool of the house we were staying at.
* Finally meeting the bride for the first time after the wedding.
* Drinking champagne ALL night during the wedding, and I mean LOTS of champagne, and yet barely feeling hungover the next day.

Next: Brazil, part III, Amazon, Ariau, and Manaus