Boa Brazil

Jungle boy takes a break during our 8-day thrashing of Brazil.

Brazil may never be the same.

Eoin flew in Saturday to Sao Paulo and we spent most of the next 8 days touring southern Brazil in a rented car. And drinking beer in little towns. And doing our share of chowing down on local fare.

All done in Portugese, which is not understandable at all, a touch of Spanish and much sign language.

Eoin grabs an empanada, kind of a cross between a taco and a meat knish, in some hellhole in southern Brazil.

The prices of stuff and the size of the towns make Sao Paulo and the rest of the southern nation seem like two different countries.

In Sao Paulo, more than 12 million people, we ate two steaks and drank about 10 beers each ~~ for 145 reais -- or about $65. A decent hotel near the city center was 99 reais -- about $45.

In Cantagalo, a tiny town halfway from Sao Paulo to Iguazu Falls, we stayed in a hotel for 40 reais ~~ or maybe $18. We ate a bunch of shish kabob some guy cooked on a little wood-burning grill outside his tiny store, and drank a shitload of beers -- for 23 reais -- maybe $10 or $11 total.

In Assai, we suffered our worst breakdown in communication of the whole trip. Basically, it seemed they were giving us two menu choices. We picked the second, with a liter of local beer. They brought a buffet to our table, with the beer.

Flank steaks, curried chicken, rice, pasta, pepper rings (like onion rings, only with red papper), salad, chorizo sausage, and some other stuff.

The final bill? 23 reais -- maybe $11.

El gringo loco´s usual smart dress contrasts vividly with the red dirt of a farm, cut through here for the highway.

And they have red dirt here. The dirt roads, the fields, every -- the dirt is very, very red. Sweet as hell.

In the middle of nowhere stands this Eiffel Tower, with some Portguese signs for context.

Halfway back, going from Guariá to Paranepenema, we passed this one-twelfth scale Eiffel Tower. On this highway with nothing for 50 miles. Someome at some time planned to build some kind of resort and only got as far as the tower and a nice wall out front. Weirdest thing ever.