Back in Brazil again…

It seems like ages since I was here and yet at the same time it seems like only yesterday. I am writing this from the family home of my good friend Alberto, on the outskirts of Teresópolis in Rio de Janeiro state. We are still a little punch drunk from travelling, having left Cornwall at 11am on January 3rd and driven to Heathrow where we boarded a TAM flight for São Paulo. Despite the fact that we were travelling – as always – scum class, Mrs. Voltarol and I did manage to get a couple of hours sleep on the plane. We landed shortly after 7am local time, got though customs and baggage pick-up remarkably quickly and were met by Alberto, who welcomed us back and drove us to his home. Lua, Alberto’s albino boxer bitch, gave us a huge welcome and bounded around us as we unloaded the luggage from the car.

After we had showered and changed clothes, Mrs. V. spent some time sorting through our luggage and preparing a bag for onward travel whilst I changed the strings on Alberto’s Fender Telecaster, which was to be my guitar for the time being. We then went out shopping for essentials, having first lunched in an excellent Mineiro restaurant (specialising in food from the region of Minas Gerais) where I reacquainted my self with Brazilian beer. After lunch we organized a hire car for the next week and then sought out a music shop for spare strings and some guitar leads.

By the time Clarice – Alberto’s partner – got home from work Mrs. V. and I were beginning to fade a little, and by the time we had eaten our evening meal we were severely in need of some sleep, the urgency of this being bolstered by the knowledge that we would be rising at 5am the following day so as to beat the traffic when we drove out of São Paulo.

The next morning we were on the road again by 6.45 am and clear of the city by about 7.30. We then had another six hours of driving before we reached our present destination which is to be our base for the next week. We had an early night last night and slept late this morning, so we are beginning to gather our wits about us properly. By tomorrow we should be back on track. I suppose it must be a function of the aging process, but I’m sure I was generally back up to speed after 24 hours. Ah well, Tempus fugits a lot faster than it used to…

And indeed, it fugited even faster because after I had written this and was about to post it, opportunities to get on line suddenly became rarer than hen's dentures and rocking-horse excrement. Then we got into the inevitable Brazilian state of mind that says..."what the hell - I'll do it tomorrow...possibly..."

Anyway, I have been happily distracted by all manner of entertaining things - waterfalls, rainforests, beer, food, sun, sea,wildlife and, of course, music.

So here is an interim posting until I can get my arse into gear and tell you all about the music and about some of the great people I've been playing with, and introduce you to some of my new friends. I include a couple of pictures to whet your appetites...

The territory around Teresópolis

 

Left to right - Alberto, Dudu, Voltarol, Rodrigo, Silvia