My recent visit to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro rates as one of my best travel experiences ever. Here are a few highlights:
- Watching the Corinthians win the Brazilian league with my friends from TerraForum.
- Swimming on the rooftop of the Hotel Unique.
- Swimming at Ipanema.
- Watching the sunset from Corcovado.
- Drinking beer and eating "shrimp balls" at a famous Rio bar with Carlos, Marcelo, David, and Laura.
- Drinking beer and talking IA with folks from aifia-pt.
Also, I can't resist retelling the story of Carlos Franco and the Lemur. A couple of weeks before my visit, Carlos took Ambient Findability to the beach. He fell asleep during one of the boring bits, and awoke later that afternoon with a terrible sunburn. Carlos realized he had been cursed by the lemur (which he now calls "the evil monkey from hell").
Speaking of the laughing lemur, I was surprised to learn how difficult it is to get the book in Brazil. It's not available in bookstores, and shipping either costs a lot or takes forever. Fortunately, Livia is organizing an international book smuggling operation. Just don't tell O'Reilly.
One of my favourite songs is Corcovado by Antonio Carlos Jobim. He also wrote the Girl from Ipanema.
If you're not familiar with Jobim's work, there's a great best-of:
* http://tinyurl.com/9syzl
(link to Amazon)