Brasil!

Yes, I'm here and loving it. I left Thursday morning (but got a 4 mile run in first). Gotta love using miles for the ticket--first class to Chicago, then business class to Sao Paulo. I will never want to fly coach again on a long flight. First of all, you get to use the Red Carpet club at the airports (FREE COFFEE!!) which is a bonus, but the best part is the seats in business have decent leg rest extension and recline nearly full, so you can actually sleep! I think I slept at least 5 hours straight. That never happens in coach. I sat next to a Brasilian guy who lives in the U.S. in Boston and he's an opera singer. Very interesting guy.

Got to Sao Paulo, got my bag and bike and then went to the queue for the flight on Gol to Florianopolis. An hour after we took off, we were landing in Floripa. Met a Brasilian couple who live in Macau and were coming to race. She wanted to know what age group I was in. Also talked to a couple of kids from Southern California who are doing a semester in Buenos Aires and came over to Floripa to surf. They were ready to party. I got the rental car and after a couple of attempts, the car rental guy told me how to head out of the airport to Lagoa. And I did it, without getting lost! I figured that there are a limited number of roads and I was on an island (a big one though), so how lost could I get! After a quick reminder of how to drive a clutch, I was off. And got to Lagoa with no problem, but then drove around for about half an hour before I found the pousada.

Pousada Casa da Lagoa. What a great place. No phone, no internet. Fabulous sleeping, good breakfast and a 5 minute walk to the village where they have phones and internet (and shops and bars and restaurants and bars). It's pretty busy at many of the places here and it's the off-season. I'll bet it totally crazy here in the summer. I got settled in to the room and Adriano, the bike mechanic, came and picked up my bike and said he'd have it ready the next morning. Walked down to the village and had dinner and was asleep before 11PM.

Saturday morning I got a late start, but slept great and stayed in bed until almost 9:00. Picked up my bike around 10:30 and then had to drive across the island (over the morro/hill) and up to Juerere. Parked at the transition/finish and rode from there and did a bunch of laps. Too much traffic and WIND! Esta ventando! It was even windy at 9:00 AM, so I knew it was going to be a hard day. I ended up doing 3 hours out of the 4 I was supposed to do, but at the end of the 3 hours it was 4PM and I was hungry. On the ride, I met a guy (Eduardo from Port Alegre) who is here to do his first IM. He was coming back from swimming and said the water was 24C and flat, but supposed to get colder. Post-ride was a cafe preto and lanches (snack). I took the scenic way back to Lagoa and ended up getting lost in the village/town of Ingeles. I finally got back to Lagoa, showered and headed out about 8PM to get dinner. The thing here is that the restaurants don't open until 7PM and even then, are empty until at least 8PM, if not later. Takes some getting used to!

Today was pretty much a perfect day. Slept great again and my shoulder has hardly been bothering me at all. Go figure. Again, I drove over to Juerere (where the race is) to ride, since around here it's definitely NOT conducive to riding a road bike on the very narrow, busy roads with no shoulders. I headed out by 8:15 which means I was riding by a little after 9:00. I rode a little shorter today, but at a higher intensity and rode an hour, fifteen.

I had planned to swim, but there was no one else swimming and I really didn't want to swim by myself. Plus, the tainha (local fish--very tasty!) are running so they had the nets out where the swim is and I got to see them bring in a big catch. So instead of swimming, I drove back to Lagoa and dropped the bike off and got my running shoes and went to the beach to run. I did 50 minutes of run, hike the sand dunes and rock climb. What a lot of fun! Probably 30 minutes of running and the rest adventure. Those sand dunes are CRAZY! You start hiking up them and they look like a gradual incline, but then you find they bank straight up and had a lip, so you have to climb. Then, at the end of the beach (Pria Joaquina), there are the really cool, large rocks (reminded me of the Pancake Rocks on the West Coast of New Zealand, sort of) and you can climb your way up into them. So I did.

After the run, I changed shoes and had a very late lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach. Mixed salad with hearts of palm, carrots, peas, tomatoes, olives, red/green peppers, onions, corn, with vinegar and olive oil. And a Skol (local beer).

I could get used to this life--run on the beach, learn to surf (about 50 surfers out in the water this afternoon), beers on the beach, fall sleep to the sound of birds and the water. Life is good.

Took a lot of pictures today, but will have to wait until I can download them.

Tomorrow it will be to triathlon=world, but today was really nice.

Later.