Return to Sao Paolo - Aaron's 3rd Post

Early saturday morning, the green family departed their villa enclaves to drive 4 hours back to Sao Paolo - home of the Geld family residence (our very kind and hospitable hosts). We packed our bags and loaded our volvos for the long drive home. BTW - tinted volvos are quite rare down here, most cars are very small and their an inordinate number of old school vw bugs...perfect for entertaining Danielle and I with the punching game "insert color of vw'' and state punch bug no punch back while punching your partner.

Danielle slept most of the way while I stayed awake to enjoy the picturesque scenenry - a perfectly sunny day so you could actually see the mountains covered in rain forest. The traffic back was horrific, but the slow ride provided ample opportunity to enjoy the scenery including golden coastlines backed by mile high mountain tops covered in rainforest lush green. The surfer crowd was out and about well represented and the waves were pretty killer...am thinking next summer, if take some serious time off, to learn how to windsurf...looks awesome..only one problem is the people here are so tanned they dont even need sunscreen....where i am practically an albino incapable of tanning...i would be burnt to a crisp...will have to think about how to manage....any ways, i digress.

We hit the mountains, and two way tiny passage wrapping like a snake up the 7k verticle foot mountain...the old cars in front of us were holding up traffic as they perpetually over heated. Once over the crescent, we meandered down the softer hills and i slowly fell asleep for about an hour.

We arrived into Sao Paolo, a sprawling city reminiscent of my travels to mexico city. On the outskirt are slums and shanty towns, similar to those portrayed in the movie "city of god' but in person they look much more ominuous, depressing, and saddening especially when contrasted with the pure wealth of inner Sao Paolo. You feel small, and it becomes very clear why you are told not to walk around alone should you wander into the wrong neighberhood. When we arrived at the Geld's residence, centered in an extremely affluent portion of town, you understand that security is no laughing matter. The houses are all enclosed by 10-30 foot fences, depending on the importance of the resident, most fences are topped with electrified wiring so no one jumps, and each block has a guard & booth monitoring the neighberhood...some houses even have private security guards standing outside wandering the premise. But like much of brazil, wealth is often hidden behind walls. What look to be small, narrow, dark homes in fact open into brightly lit palaces with large terraces and gardens that remain removed from the eye of the passerby weather because they are enclosed by walls or have immediately adjacent properties that conceal the beautiful treasures that lie from within.

Today, Ezra and Richard showed Danielle and i through Sao Paolo, taking us through the various business districts, parks, residential areas etc. The city simultaneously extremely eye opening, but stare too hard and it can be very harsh on your corneas. Many of the buildings and avenues are styled in American and French grandeur but the buildings are an absolute hodgepodge of glistening glass against harsh soviet era concrete towers and edifices. However, you don't grasp the 22MM plus people in Sao Paolo until you go to the 50th floor of a fancy restaruant (forget name) and look out at the panoramic views that are Sao Paolo. The city center is surrounded by lush mountains, similar to those scene in RIO pics, but smaller and with no water. the mountains are probably 30 miles outside the city. However, for as far as the eye can look, even beyond the mountains, spans the city, skyscraper upon skyscraper, town upon town...it literally goes on for as far as the eye can see. Imagine looking out from the empire state building and seeing into brooklyn, and NJ...now put the skyscrapers of Manhatten in brooklyn and NJ for as far as you can see and that is Sao Paulo - truly amazing that so many people can live so closely together and still function...well sort of.....

Dani and I then went to dinner with Ezra and Richard and enjoyed a wonderful Asian brazilian fusion meal....Im still waiting to have a true brazilian meal that consist of something other than rice and beans which is claimed to be native. As i write this message now, dani and I are monitoring the Eagles game....fly eagles fly on the road to victory.....who knows...miracles occassionally happen...for Philly to win to championships in a single year...it could be too much to believe...for both Philly and Boston alike....

Tomorow we depart for the ranch and hopefully we will be able to add more pics at that point....until then I hope everyone is having fun from your respective homes on the world wide web....take care.

-Aaron

New Years Eve and Day - Days 3&4

Dear devoted followers,

This is Aaron posting for the second time. Day 2 i need to backdate a bit to update everyone - so Im not gonna lie - the beaches here are a bit dissapointing. Well dissapointing isn't a fare statement either. In fact - there are no beaches, or there are, but they are private and on islands. So we chartered two boats with a captain, 7 people on each boat, ...think Gilligan's island meets rastafarian island vibe. You get on the boat which looks like it is about to sink. Its got shoddy paint, an engine that goes putt putt and a captain who lets just say has very red eyes, skin like a crocodile, and several bottles of rum port side. However, this is not just any boat. It is fully stocked with a wet bar where Marley himself (el capitaan) makes fantastic caprinhas with fresh lime and guava on command...truly special. The goal is to either lounge on the top of the boat while the intense sun burns your skin to a crisp or until you get hot enough that it is so unbearable you have to immediately strip naked (thats the thing in brazil...guys and gals wear thongs...yikes) and you jump from the top of the boat into the beautiful serene water (half inebriated and impaired by other possible substances that may cause bouts of intense hunger). So the boat pulls up to these beautiful rainforest islands, kind of like the one from leonardo dicrapio movie in Thailand. Anyway, you jump off the top of the boat and begin to swim in what is the warmest and clearest water you have ever seen. We did some killer snorkeling and saw lots of yellow, purple, and other striped fish not to mention a bright orange 1 foot diameter star fish! beautiful. Day 4 ie today, we even saw a 3 foot sea turtle...I thought those only existed in zoos!

As the day meandered on I became more and more sunburned. We stopped off at one of the islands for lunch. Now imagine a rainforest with a single hut, a bunch of tiki torches and fresh fish...that is lunch...plus lots of booz...mainly beer and caprinhas. Now, since my ulcer, I kind of been having trouble drinking without my meds. although, I forget my meds for the past few days and not kidding, i wake up at 10 am and have a beer before i leave the house for the boat. As soon as boat leaves port everyone must drink two beers. Once we jump in water caprinhas are made by el capitan...and these are super strong...mind you its not even noon!!! Lunch there are several drinks shared, followed by a smoke or two, and then dinner and later evening is like a shit show...but every night...and people don't sober up in morning, just repeat! So on the one hand this has got to be killing my ulcer and liver...on the other hand, i haven't gotten sick yet (danielle has several times). I attribute the coincidence to sanitization...excessive alchohol kills whatever is in the water and food!

When you get back to port, tired, haggard, just wishing for a dip in the pool and a beautiful brazillian to massage your back (other parts perhaps as well :-) ) there are street vendors selling coconuts...nothing makes an adolescent's mind wander than big, juicy, green on the outside, milky white on the inside coconuts! Monty python comes to mind...no? Any event, these coconuts are three times the size of the ones we get back home, (i swear, im not jealous) the locals take a machete, hack off the top (briss style), and stick in a straw...its the most sweet, succulant, and refreshing drink I have ever had...and according to steve goes fantastic with rum, gin, and lots of other alchohols.

Later that night, I decided to ditch the older crowd and go to a club in Paraty called 33....I was warned many a time that it was likely shit, but in the spirit of trying new things while in brazil, I decided to give it a whirl....definately dissapointing...was tiny, hot as hell, and the combination of not speaking portugese and a relatively uninteresting crowd (at least visually and they refused to speak english...what gives?) the night only lasted a few hours...that and they were playing eighties music via a portugese cover band...arghh...so i went home around three with one of the boys...this goes under the fall off the horse get back on again category...to be continued...

Day 3 (ie New Years Eve) started off a bit slow - We slept in super late anticipating a late night. Mom, Dad, Aaron, Danielle, Steve and Eva decided to take a stroll in the town to do some shopping. The town is lovely, a portugese version of Williamsburg virginia meets Soho/Chinatown. Lots of little posch shops mixed in with vendor stalls selling chatchkes (spelling?). After a bit of walking Dani and I decided to break off and do our own thing. Suprisingly, food here is quite expensive ie 20 bucks for meal, yet bracelets, tshirts, and other small handicrafts are quite inexpensive...so if you're lucky you might get a gift when we return..yay...

After meandering the streets for a long afternoon, a swim and nap were in order. Then the New Years Eve party began. Now, I have been in brazil for 3/4 days already, drank more than I ever have, and like any good explorer i need something to bring back to my queen...thats right..the one who does not exist (even if we are staying in the king's house). So for all you ladies out there back stateside, you better watch out, because i learned how to make the meanest Caprinhas the northern hemisphere has ever scene...not those fancy night club crap...this is the real deal, lime, guava, strawberry, kiwi caprinhas with just the right amount of sugar...(note: I learned from our host Steve, the sugarman himself...he heads up brazils sugar/biodiesel program...that, the less sugar you put in the less potent the drink, for increased sweetness add more fruit, however, if you're fancying a particular lady and hoping for a lucky night, two teaspoons of sugar are in order as sugar, when reacting with the canchasa (spelling) reacts in a way that makes the drink more potent)....in any event, the point is that when i get back to NYC, in the cold of winter, a little brazilian sun will be coming our way to Apt. 5A where caprinhas and warm apple pie will be on tap for all!

So after learning the art of mixology, we had dinner and rushed over to the firework display on the water. We had the best view in the town, as we were staying at the King's house, a waterfront property overlooking the fireworks. I was told of a beautiful brazilian tradition where everyone wears white for New years eve. Once the clock strikes midnight, everyone jumps in the water and swims into seven waves which symbolizes something I have forgotten...lets just say/assume ( I am a consultant) it represents good luck...now as we all know, what happens when light white clothes get wet?? So apparently, ones undergarmets says a lot about that person, and the undergarmets for this particular occasion are chosen with much consideration - where red represents passion, yellow-money (gold), white- peace (F***ing hippies)...also people throw in roses to the goddess of the sea....although I dont get why you would throw red roses...I mean are you trying to get it on with the sea? Weird...in any event, it is a particular fancy for brazilian men to pick out the colors of their female compatriots....however, one thing I did not understand was that...its F***ing dark outside! maybe they look afterwards in the car? moving on... the fireworks were out of this world, mainly because they were so close that the ashes were falling at our feet, it was the NYC spirit, glamour, and pomp met with third world style execution...So the bottles of champagne popped, everyone kissed, and we went back to our house to continue the party.

As you may have scene in the pictures, the town is kind of shabby looking on the outside but palatial on the inside. Its warm down here, so how better to celebrate new years then in an enclosed enclave with a pool out of MTV cribs, with banna trees and orchids hanging over head? Seriously, the place makes hollywood/malibu look cheesy...so we dove in for a swim, champagne in hand, music blasting, surrounding by a 15 foot wall with climbing plants...nothing says ëlite"status like a giant wall protecting the garden and pool from the rifraf. The night went into the wee hours of the morning and I took my leave around 4 am after much drinking, smoking, and merriment....although, am not gonna lie, kinda weird when you're mom, the pathologist who taught you to do no wrong, especially when it comes to smoking, stands next to you as you take a drag, or two, or three....yikes...her comment, in a non-challant slightly inebriated happy state " What am I gonna do?" ... I replied...join in? Needless to say...she declined....its 2009....not 1969.

Day 4 - Woke up this morning, plastered myself with pasty white sunscreen to cover my burned forehead, downed two cups of expresso, bought a gilligans hat to protect my ears, and set sail for another beautiful day. I decided to forgo swimming and instead chose to sit on the roof of the boat with a beer and my new book in hand, entitled 2666....was pretty good....after getting some good rays, and possibly some heat stroke, we returned home. Now here is the strange thing about brazil, and i guess other BRIC / developing countries....its called disparity of wealth. Now, as a person raised in the green household I consider myself quite independent, when it comes to cooking, cleaning, planting shrubs, and even navigating an automobile....but here things are done a bit differently. There are 4 attendants in the house, and you're eating a meal its like a 5 star resteraunt in that at least one person is watching you eat and waiting to pounce to get you anything. Well, its the middle of the afternoon, I have the munchies and want to make a sandwich. Our brazilian hosts are no where to be found, and I ask dad the spanish word for sandwich....completely useless. So I am trying to explain that I want to make a sandwich. This turns into a disaster. I find some bread, and like sharades try explaining that you put two pieces of bread together...instead, the attendant (I don't like the word servant, maid, assistant perhaps)?...i digress, anyways, the guy goes to the refrigerator and gets me a beer....very thoughtful...but not what I wanted. So then again, i try explaining, i take out the bread put the pieces together and pretend to eat it, pointing at the gap between the two slices....cammon...do they not have charades down here? Or sandwiches for crying out loud?...this goes on for several minutes where my props tend to get more creative, a knife to "pretend"I am spreading mayo or mustard etc....fed up, and clearly seeing the frustration in the attendants face, eva comes to the rescue, translates in portugese, hands me some turkey and says, Äaron, you can now make your self a sandwich!"...relieved i did what I had not done in 4 days, lifted a finger...and let me tell you...such empowerment felt great! Although, the attendent eyed me with nervousness, as if i was not making the sandwich correctly....finally, just as I began to put the mustard, and food back into the fridge he flipped and insisted in muddled terms that he do that....as gesture of good will, he lunged for the freezer and handed me a cold one....ahh the life in the southern hemisphere.....

Now it is getting late. Dani and I went out to dinner with mom, Dad, Eva and Steve for a early evening (ie before 3-4am) with minimal drinking...only a few beers...so this is why I am able to catch up on all this blogging....ps...dont worry, cooler photos will come when we return but there are two many cameras and slow internet conncections.

Before I sign off - I wanted to address the question everyone is dying to know without sounding like a superficial piece of shit...which you all know I am....so here it goes....so what are brazillian women really like?....I've debated long and hard how to address my experiences thus far....to say I was a bit dissapointed isn't fair....it depends what you are looking for. First of all, they are all tan, like SO-CAL tan but nicer, and yes, they all have huge bootys! and for the most part beautiful faces....but here is the problem...and maybe this is a result of staying in a upper echelon family resort area rather than being in the deep south where supposedly the likes of Gisel and other goddesses emerge or on the rio beaches where sheer probability based on vast numbers of population ensures hottness (Tim...can you verify this mathematical assumption for me?) ...who knows...the bikinis, or lack there of, leave little to the imagination, which in some cases is quite nice, but most often is kind of....hmm...a little too much skin....I guess what comes with a nice booty, which they have, is a little extra padding elsewhere, which is cool if you like really really curvacious women....hey, Im not judging...just observing. And then, out of no where, you see some of the rare beauties, the kind that dont exist elsewhere....but there are only two problems, one more obvious then the other. The first, they are usually flanked by at least one dominant male...never alone, and two, at least according to the women who are with me....and im not gonna judge and say its jealousy...but their immediate responses are inevitablÿ, "She's fake"...apparently thats very often the case with all parts down here...ashame...oh...and the third problem, sort of,...the really really hot ones, are typically sitting on large yachts/sailboats 60-100 foot, docked to a remote island house that specifically says no trespassing, and in the back has a helicopter landing pad, which you would be suprised how frequently gets visited...maybe a drop zone for food, supplies, and other "key" life essentials that need to be rotated quickly...so yeah, again not judging, just observing...one thing I have come to realize, I had an ok bonus this year...but by the looks of it I got some major work to do if Im gonna play with the big boys....but who knows, maybe my luck will improve later in the week..any event, Im going to bed, .to be continued at during my next sober run....

new years eve

On the day of new years eve, we took a stroll around paraty. We walked through the shops and chatted with the retailers. They didn't all speak english but that added to the fun.

At night we had a new years party at our place in paraty with about 25 people. Apparently it's custom here to wear white on new years so as the crowds formed or the fireworks, it appeared as though a bunch of sailors have reached land. The fireworks were absolutely fantastic and were only a few hundred yards in front of us. Yeah, prob not the safest idea, but hey, we're in bazil.

I'll have aaron write some nice flowery blog entry later today, but I must not wake the boy, cause a grumpy aaron is no fun.

Hope you all had a lovely new year, and happy 2009!

Greens in Brazil - Day 1 Continued

Arriving late afternoon, after a hair raising ride through the amazon forest, (our hosts drive like they are Formula drivers on hairpin roads, that are more like gravel, in a volvo...frightening) we settled into our palace. When i say palace, it is really closer to a malibu crib meets the jungle. We have two coconut trees in our backyard, a deep blue swimming pool, and wild orchids growing all around....oh and did I mention the monkeys? The weird thing about this place, in addition to it being set in the middle of a rainforest, is the town is very unassuming - all the houses look very simple from the outside (see first picture) but then you walk into these courtyards that are unbeleivable. The other slightly bizarre thing, but I guess is normal down in developing countries, is the abundance of staff around the house. There are 4 staff people for 6 of us, and when you want a drink of water or a snack, you have to ask them...if you want cigarettes you don't go to the store but give them cash and they fetch it for you....I guess that is what its like to be a king...I don't dig so much....I just am glad to put my pants on one leg at a time like everyone else....surprisingly the house everyone else is staying at belongs to the king of brazil, that is the current heir to the throne which was abolished in the 1880s. Needless to say it is quite euro gentry...not my style but nonetheless posh.

After meeting the crew Danielle and I were immediately wisked away in a tiny vw and hiked the amazon rainforest right into these beautiful waterfalls. The water is cold, crystal clear, (think Ithaca gorges meets amazon rainforest). The thing to do here is sit on the dry rock and slide down the wet rock into the pools below...but as it is a natural formation there are some slight problems, namely speed, direction, and large rock bumps (not so good for the future children if you have problems managing speed and direction)...nonetheless invigorating and a good wakeup from the plane ride.

After a nice swim and an almost near death experience being swept away down the wrong fall (thanks buddy for lending me a hand) we went back to the place for dinner. No one wanted to cook and we were drinking like fish (these guys drink down here a lot....imagine a DB team outing 24/7...they have caprinhas at noon and don't stop till late) we settled on ordering pizza. We got into a little tiff - I was like, I didn't come all the way from NYC to have pizza in brazil which they claim is fantastic and better than NYC pizza...the crew was relentless, so I had to settle (don't worry fascatis...I still got your back). Dinner went late into the evening after which the parents and danielle retired....without going into too much detail, the rest of the youngins, including myself, took part in some illicit activities which apparently were shipped all the way from Sao Paolo under cover of paper bags and saran wrap...supposedly high quality stuff so i was feeling pretty good...in any event....i walked the streets I used to roam (coldplay reference) late that night and managed to find my why home...to the dismay of my parents and our host families.....until next time.

Picture time

We also went to waterfalls yesterday, and Aaron and the boys went down the "rock" slide. Aaron's a bit concerned he can't have babies...I told him he'll be fine.

We also got to drink directly out of coconuts. Yummy!

Day 1/Day2

So we got to Philly international airport, checked in...the woman at the counter took forever...similar to the SNL episodes. But it was all good. Then we sat in our terminal for a bit, relaxed, had something to eat, and drink, and our flight slowly got delayed more and more. Eventually it hit us that we were going to miss our layover in Miami, and thus would not make it to Sao Palo. So we left the terminal, went back downstairs to check in(because of course American Airlines has a policy to not have representatives at the gate, or in the terminal for that matter). They told us the next flight wasn't until the following day, and we would not make it to Brazil until Sunday. Well...when traveling with Greens, most of you know, we don't take no for an answer. So mom played good cop(i know, surprising, right?), and after about 45 minutes, we got the dude to put us on a Continental flight that was departing in 3 hours. Yeah, seemed ideal, right? It was even direct! Okay, so the setback was...our direct flight was departing from Newark NJ, which is about 2 hrs from philly, when there's no traffic. Man, we rushed our toushies. We had a nice cab service drive us to newark, we put no pressure on him, but let him know if he didn't get us to te airport by 8, we were screwed...so we drove fast, got there with 5 minutes to spare, and got the last 4 seats on the flight. Yeah...we were assigned middle seats...except for Aaron, because he has -elite- status. yeah, whatever, i know, he must have kicked some poor old lady out of her spot just so he could get a window.

Okay, so we arrived to Paraty, beautiful and scenic drive. We are staying in two homes. One happens to be the home of the Portugese royal family. They have pictures of themselves all over their walls, it's a bit creepy, but they have a gorgeous garden, and a beautful beach front view, which should be fabulous for new years firework watching. We are staying in another home that is more modern, with an unbelievable garden and pool. We'll post pictures later, as soon as we figure out how technology works.

Today we took a boat and traveled around paradise. We jumped out of the boat into the bay and swam. The water was warm, and clear. We saw amazing schools of yellow and black fish, and also saw a ginormous lizard. We pulled up at bloody mary's beach headquarters for lunch, had passion fruit caprinias and fresh fish. We''ll make you all this drink at our party...that we'll host one day, it's that fantastic, and they also had their sugar cane alcohol in the drink, which can be substitued with Vodka!

Alright, gotta go to find more liquor. (yeah, that's how the green family roles...righghght?)

Still In Philly

"it's not a vacation if we're not in a fight yet." (says Aaron)

Mom is screaming at dad, and danielle screaming at Aaron...vacation has begun.

So our Limo should arrive at 4:00 PM sharp, mom will be stressed...dad will almost forget the visas, and if we're lucky, dad's eye glasses won't get run over this time ;)

Alright, we'll keep you posted on our Brazilian Adventure, so check daily.  We'll even post photos if dad learns how.