Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte is one of the largest cities in Brazil. But after Sao Paulo and Rio, you've likely never heard of it. I certainly hadn't, before they handed me my e-ticket.

I feel like I'm constantly going on trips. Today was a trip within a trip. A long day trip; I was up at 5am to make it to the airport for a 7:30am flight for a 10am meeting. Not bad, except the meeting lasted only 90 minutes and the return flight to Sao Paulo was at 7:15pm.

Thank goodness I was travelling with Joao again! He had the sense to suggest we simply sit and wait (with beer) given the 34C temperatures. That we were both dressed for a business meeting, and both burdened with laptops and all the accouterments, our afternoon of Brazilian food and beer was welcome. Especially compared to walking the hot, hilly streets of Belo Horizonte.



The business merits of today's trip could be questioned. The merits of using a day of my time for an hour-and-a-half meeting certainly won't be. *sigh* But aside from the flights (on an airline infamous for a recently disaster) it was a very nice experience. I saw more of the countryside in the half-hour drive from the airport than I've seen in my entire time in Sao Paulo. It included pasture lands, forest, and villages of dubious architecture.

I saw the downtown of Belo Horizonte with it's tall offices, beautiful old churches, and excellent restaurants. And given the nearly 20,000km round trip from Amsterdam to Brazil, I've now got not one, but two pins on the map here. That's something. It's not much, but compared to spending another day in the company's Sao Paulo office, it was a fun trip.

Not as fun as flying home tomorrow will be. I'm already excited. Home in 32 hours! A score and a dozen. After which, my biggest problems in the world will be to simply stay awake a few more hours, and perhaps doing some laundry. Oh I can't wait to do my laundry!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Help me clarify. Did you just say that you jet all over the world to beautiful and exotic places, and the highlight of your trips is going home to do your laundry?

I Dive At Night said...

Uhm.... yup.

Is that wrong?

I could have mentioned that the flight attendants on the airplane were the most beautiful of a beautfiul place... but given the heat I took the other day, I figure the next best point was the anticipation of clean clothes.

J. D. said...

On a scraggy little plane flying across the jungle.....I'll also be happy when you're home doing your laundry. The only thing better would be ME, THERE, doing your laundry.....Mom

I Dive At Night said...

Well, it was an Airbus A320. Not exactly scraggy. Although it could have used a wash.

Speaking of wash, easy on the starch. I assume you'll iron everything too?

Minka said...

I guess hinting at the laundry instead of the hot stewardesses was a smart choice, otherwise we might put some money together and send something to your front door in tiny clothing ;)

I Dive At Night said...

After fully 24hrs of thought, I just cannot come up with a reply comment to that. ;-)