Two Beers and a Pretzel

Hello from Brazil!!!!

The 6th country on my world tour (yes, I’m counting Panama since I was stuck there for nearly 4 hours).

I’m with my uncle and his family in Porto Alegre.  He took me for a tour of the town last night…  It turned into a godfather/godson mini pub-crawl.  I sampled some local euro-style pizza and a number of local beers an a really hip neighborhood.

Today we dropped off my cousin at kindergarten, went shopping for the coming Christmas party, and I unsuccessfully tried to find a spare battery for my Canon camera.  We need to find a real camera shop…  the electronic boutiques do not carry the fancy pro-sumer camera gear.  Still, I tested a few camera modes and even tried the time lapse video mode, which was pretty neat.  We were just driving, so the video is not special, but it gives you an idea of the potential of this new camera on longer journey’s…

Aside from everyone speaking Portugese, this could be Miami.  Very cosmopolitan and modern.

Also, yes guys, there are some stunningly beautiful women here (no photos of them yet – wait until I hit the beach at Florinopolis in a few days), and the average is higher than normal.  For the regional battle of who has the hottest babes, so far Brazil is beating Argentina.  Word on the street is that there’s 5% more women than men, and closer to 10% if you discount the men who bat for the other team.

The downside here is that it’s expensive to get things you’re used to getting in the USA for minimal expense like cars and electronics.  Take any car and multiply the US cost by 2x to 2.5x to get the cost in Brazil in US Dollars.  A loaded Honda Accord would be near $60,000.00.  Yowza!!  You’re buying one for yourself and one for a government official…  One small 99 cent bag of Snyder’s of Hanover pretzel snacks was $5 in a “gourmet” shop (the only place you could find them).  However, commonly available items and food are generally cheaper and you get a level of service from every shop that is completely lacking back home.