It continues...

Today is the first day that we've failed to do absolutely anything in Sao Paulo, shame on us! But as it is Friday, the night will probably tempt us outdoors. Last night the four of us went to a bar, meeting friends of Marco and Juliana, one of whom was having a birthday. There was limited opportunity to use any language whatsoever due to how loud the music, and incredibly crowded the narrow bar was, but I managed to bust out a 'women? enter?' in Portuguese when I became very confused at the door of a unisex toilet. Bravo Kyah. Bravo.
The bar was celebrating its first anniversary, and did do by cranking out tunes in a deafening mix spanning (more like spamming?) from J-Lo to Kylie Minogue to Brazilian stuff that made the crowd go completely ape shit. Instead of ordering and paying for drinks at the bar, we were issued a card on entry that had a drinks and price list, and the bartender tallied your orders against that. At the end of the night you had to face your total tab in one staggering hit, and if you can't pay says Marco, you win a date with the police.

I don't think I'd enjoy an evening of any sort with the cops around here, exploring the super sized food market downtown, we saw commotion on the road ahead, and then a guy being chased by police, barreling along a fruit cart. When he was stopped the policeman drew his pistol immediately and had it pointed at the guy's head as they struggled with each other. Yikes! Apparently it's illegal to sell food in that manner (without a permit, on that bit of road, I'm not sure) but it's clearly an even worse idea to try to run from an inquisition cause these cops don't 'fruit' around. That wasn't the scariest thing we saw that day, no. Adam ordered a 'traditional' mortadella sandwich from a restaurant at that enormous market, and it was a meaty monstrosity that will haunt my dreams forever. How he could have ordered that after we had to pass by rows upon rows of strung-up pigs through the valley of death on the way up there I will never know.

So back to the bar. I started with a cocktail made with the Brazilian sugarcane liquor Cachaça. Marco had given us a taste of this on an earlier day, without anticipating that if you serve an Australian a drink in a tiny glass, their instinct is to shot it, not savour and share it, which gave us all some embarrassed laughs when I did exactly the former. The liquor is very strong, a little sweet and pungent, like tequila but not horrible. Apparently however, when prepared in a cocktail by our smiling bartender with his questionable multitasking skills, cachaça can taste precisely like an orange dipped in petrol. And I like the smell of petrol. I stuck with beer from then on, and the longnecks were served in enormous custom stubby holders which Adam and I couldn't quite get over.

So it was a pretty good night but after the painful traffic on the way there and knowing the other two still had work the next day, we all took it pretty easy. I did manage to meet a friend of theirs who called himself the 'Karaoke King' which means that as the rightful queen, I must think of the perfect duet and make some royal magic with this guy at a later date. Karaoke is meant to be incredibly popular here, but Adam and I have only explored the Japanese district of Sao Paulo in the daytime, so I have yet to experience it.

Fortunately all of our wages and some backpay I was owed has come through and we have been able to smother the monster that was becoming the credit balance on our back-up card. We are now relatively free agents ready to party and shop, but first of course, there is some lying around to do...