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Oi (hi) from Brasil, our final stop on our round the world tour. Yep, after three and a half months of traveling, Gi and I have ruefully unpacked our suitcases and will be settling here in Sao Paulo for a while. More on that later : but first, a brief explanation of what we've been up to since our last post.
After our brief sojourn in South Africa we flew (with more than a few bottles of good Saffa wine) from Joburg to Sao Paulo, where we spent a couple of days unwinding and unpacking at Gi's mum Cristina's house. We also caught up with Gi's family on Cristina's birthday. Then it was off to Petropolis (north of Rio) with Cristina and Gi's brother PV (Paulo) to Gi's friend Tati's wedding. Petropolis, the seat of the Brazilian Royal Family (Portuguese expats) during the 19th century, is a beautiful town with elegant old buildings set between soaring mountains and flowing alpine streams. We had a good time touring around, then the wedding, which was beautifully done and great fun. And Geoff found out that all his Portuguese classes actually allow him to have a conversation in the language these days, even after a few caipirinhas! Then Geoff and Gi went to Rio for a couple of days of beach behavior and a couple of nights of Carioca (name for the locals there) action. Happy to say that Rio is still Rio baby! The beaches, beach bodies and the scenery are always awesome, the weather isn't always but was awesome for us, and it was a nice way to prolong our peregrinations before returning to Sao Paulo, where we will be basing ourselves at Cristina's house (Obrigado Cristina) for a while.
So, for a while, we will be doing a bit of job-hunting and a lot of admin. After Gi lived in Australia for more than four years it is now Geoff's turn for a bit of cultural exchange, which so far he is loving (in the main :) If you've enjoyed the blog, Geoff will be posting the odd (less frequent than this trip) update on Geoff's Facebook wall with observations and photos on what it's like to be a gringo in Brasil. If you're not connected that way and want to keep in touch with the updates please send him a Friend request.
It seems incumbent on us to make some kind of comment on our feelings after our marathon adventure. A lot of people ask us, what was it like traveling for 100 days? Did you get sick of it? What was your favorite place? What did you learn? The short answers are : (a) awesome, do it if you're wondering (b) not really, only sick of certain food and constant packing and unpacking © Thailand for both of us and (d) perhaps most importantly, that even though the world is developing rapidly, there is still a lot of primitive living. At a time when the world just ticked over to 7 billion people, you do wonder whether it could support everyone to a Western standard of living anyway, whether that's what most people in these places really want, and what the world will look like if it does happen - possibly a lot like Sao Paulo! It was a great privilege to spend so long on the road, to see so many beautiful sites, to catch up with several friends, to meet lots of new people, to sample so much different food and beverages and to savour so many different societies. The world is a diverse and wonderful place. Oh, and Gi won the 'should we shouldn't we plan the trip debate'. It was great to not have to spend time on the trip making plans, but just to enjoy every precious moment. Tripadvisor.com too is a star.
For now, all that's left to do is thank you all for following our journey with us and all the kind comments people have sent. We really did feel like we had our friends and family along with us for the ride. Stay in touch, and all the best.
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