Marcos and the fam in Sao Paulo

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Spent last weekend in São Paulo with my buddy Marcos and his family. I met Marcos last year in Italy on the train from Pisa to Rome. We were the only two people on the train and both only had backpacks with us. We started chatting and ended up hanging out in Rome and have stayed in touch ever since. He is a great friend and his family’s hospitality was more than I could of asked for.

The weekend was exactly what I needed, not much touristy stuff just chilling with Marcos, his family and friends. On Friday we went to the pre-graduation party of a friend of Marcos’s. They don’t play around here, it was a month before the actual graduation and they started partying hard at 12:30 in the afternoon. The band was pretty funny, check out the photos. Friday night we went to a cool bar and drank cold beer til early in the morning.

We did check out the city a bit on Saturday. São Paulo is a huge city, 18 million people. To put that into perspective, it is over twice as many people as North Carolina. Saturday night was very cool, we went to a concert of Jorge Ben Jor. He is pretty famous here and plays Samba-Rock, basically samba music with a bit of rock. It was a great show and I am beginning to learn the night life in Brazil definitely runs on a different clock than we are used to in the states. For example, the concert began at 2:30 in the morning and he did not finish until shortly before 5.

Sunday before I had the time to brush my teeth, I was drinking caipirinhas specially prepared by Marcos’s dad followed by a huge meal prepared by Marcos’s mom. It was a very typical Brazilian meal which is focused around arroz (rice) e feijoado (black bean dish made with sausage and much more). A great meal and it definitely made for a nice nap on the plane ride back….

Again, since the photo tool with this blog is no good here is the link to view all the photos from the trip > Click here for more photos

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Photos

Graduation party
First beer with Marcos, lots of catching up to do

Me and the Graduates
I did not even try to keep up with the Grads. We left at 3 and I can't imagine the scene by 10

the band
what the hell were these guys wearing

downtown Sao Paulo
oldest law university in downtown Sao Paulo. Marcos was a good tour guide just as he was in room. Told me about how the jesuits founded SP and let me to watching the movie "The Mission" A very good old Robert DeNiro movie based in Brazil, would def. recommend it

Jorge Ben Jor show
lots of fun and he puts on a good show. knows how to work the crowd and called up some lady friends near the end

Me and the pops
enjoying his special caipirinha blend on sunday morning. tasted better than my normal coffee

Me and marcos
caipirinhas still

Feijoada
Nice hearty meal with Marcos and the family before heading back to Porto Alegre

Comments

[anonymous]

Enjoyed your blog-looks like the red hair stood out in Sao Paulo-there was a graduate at the School of Math and Science named Adam Richard Davis-dad tried to hunt him down bout out of about 300 graduates-no luck!!! I'm grateful to them for taking such good care of my boy!! Love you! Mom

[Oma & Opa]

Love hearing from you---DIDN'T KNOW THAT MARCOS HAD SO MANY BEAUTHFUL SISTERS

[DONALD J]

MISS YA
seems like the grandparents, parents, and me are the only ones who leave comments. hahaha. anywho, i'm glad that your seeing lots of beautiful places, the family is beautiful and through your eyes i'm seeing all that i could ever dream of. i'm working to get down there. me and carrachi are talkin' bout gettin' there. holla at ya soon. love ya buddy. peace