Sao Paulo vs Santos

The Sao Paulo fans getting rev’ed up for the game… 

Day 252 – Camburizinho to Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 252 – Camburizinho to Sao Paulo, Brazil      04/30/11       Mileage: 0

After a leisurely morning it was back in the car to Sao Paulo. I could have stayed there for days, but we had to be back in Sao Paulo this afternoon for a soccer match. But, not just any soccer match, we got tickets to see Sao Paulo vs Santos (the team Pele played for back in the day) in the league semi-final match! Catching a pro soccer game was high on my list of things I wanted to do, and to see these two teams play in an important match like this was amazing!

Gisa’s son Nikki and her husband Guto’s son Fernando were going with us…or…actually we were going with them!

Guto also gave me a great Sao Paulo jersey to wear…thanks Guto! The crowds of fans are famously rough here, particularly when they are playing their biggest rivals. And, of course we had to sit in roughest section of the stadium!

To prevent what would be almost certain bloodshed, the Santos fans arrive by bus under police escort and are seated in a cordoned off section of the stands not accessible to Sao Paulo fans. Kind of makes the Eagles/Giants rivalry look tame by comparison.

The game was good but Sao Paulo fell to Santos 2-0. Despite the loss we had a great time and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see the match.

Day 251 – Camburizinho, Brazil

Day 251 – Camburizinho, Brazil       04/29/11       Mileage: 0

I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but it’s fair to say we did a lot of what you do at the beach….eat, drink and do nothing…

That night Johnny and I went out to a local bar and took in some great local music….and caipirinhas….

Day 250 – Sao Paulo to Camburizinho, Brazil

Day 250 – Sao Paulo to Camburizinho, Brazil       04/28/11       Mileage: Local miles

The bike was ready to be picked up so John gave me a ride over to get the it. It was pouring out which was a shame because the bike was showroom clean. I thanked Edu and the mechanics for the great job they did.

Me and my man Edu…

They even lubed all the cables, cleaned the air filter and really went the extra mile to make sure my KLR was ready for the last big leg of my journey.

If you need work done on your Kawi in Sao Paulo, Studio Kawasaki is your shop. So with my bike squared away and Sabine done with her business meetings, the 3 of us split for the beach!

We did make time for stop at a proper Brazilian churrasco!

It was around a 2 hour ride to the sleepy beach town of Camburizinho where her family has a really nice beach house. The rest of the pictures will have to wait for tomorrow, as right now there are many caipirinhas that need drinking….

Day 249 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 249 – Sao Paulo, Brazil      04/27/11       Mileage: 0

After another leisurely morning, Sabine and John took me for a look around Sao Paulo. We drove into the city center and walked around a bit. We passed by their equivalent of Wall Street in NYC with all the big banks and trading houses. We also went to have a light lunch and some caipirinha’s at the Terraço Italia.

Watch out for those nuts…not the ones in the seats…the ones in the bowl…!!

The view from up there is unbelievable with the endless cityscape stretching out in every direction. We also got stung by the couvert….a trick some of the “nice” restaurants play on you. This time, we ordered 3 (very expensive) drinks which were delivered with a bowl of nuts, which like in the US we assumed were free as we were drinking and we did not order them. We ordered another round of drinks, and some food and asked for a refill on the nuts. Well, they charged us $20 for EACH bowl of nuts, even though we didn’t order it and it’s not on the menu. Sabine told me it’s called a couvert…..an unsolicited and often very expensive snack that you have to decline or you will get charged! Sneaky fookers.

Anyway, we took in the view for a bit and then started making our way back to Gisa’s. Along the way we passed the BMW motorcycle dealer and stopped in to have a look. Like the KTM dealership, it was a good size shop but with few motorcycles…maybe 6 1200GS’s, 8 650/4’s, an F800 and some used bikes….but nothing else. Oh, and the price of a R1200GS….R$91,000, or around $58,000 USD!! That night we all went out for some sushi which was good….(but not as good as Ota’Ya!)

Roughing it again….

Day 248 – Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 248 – Sao Paulo, Brazil        04/26/11        Mileage: 0

Sabine had some meetings and business to tend to, so I went over to the Kawi shop to check in on the bike. When I got there they had all the bodywork off and were giving it the most thorough cleaning it has ever gotten.

Yes gents, that says R$57,900…or roughly $37,000 USD for a 990 Adventure…crazy!! 

With the bike in good hands I left to run some errands, one of which was to find a good road map of Brazil. Well, despite the fact that I am in the largest city in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, this did not prove easy. I did finally find one but it is a best mediocre. I returned to the shop and they had the bike on the stand.

Taking a peak at the valves….

The Ricor shock still going strong after all these hard miles!!

From behind me…in English, someone said “nice bike”…and I turned to see my friend Johnny O standing there! What the…damn….they put one over on me! Johnny is Sabine’s husband, one of my best friends, and rides a KTM 625 SXC like a bat out of hell. They told me he wasn’t able to make it, but he did and it was great to see him.

Here’s Johnny leading me out on the road 8 months ago on day 1 of this trip…

My bike wasn’t going to be done today so we split and decided to go check out the new KTM dealer that opened up not too far away. All I can say is wow…what a shop!

We were told it is the largest in the world….and it even has a bar on the showroom floor. Oh, and the beer is free…and I guess it should be if you’re going to pay $37,000 for a stock 990 Adventure!

So after a healthy dose of sticker shock we returned to Gisa’s house for dinner with the family.

Me and Johnny….and some caipirinha’s…

Me and Uli…

Sabine’s sister Geli (yep, that makes 4 sisters all together if you’ve been keeping score) lives in Germany and brought some gifts for John and Sabine which were a big hit.

I think Sabine where’s the leterhosen better…in my opinion…  lol

We had a great dinner and even got some good laughs out of a tumbled glass of red wine….another fun filled and memorable day.

Day 247 – Valinhos to Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 247 – Valinhos to Sao Paulo, Brazil 04/25/11 Mileage: 86

Warning to parents: Do not show this post to your teenage boys or they may run off to Brazil in search of a girl!   😉

I had found a big Kawasaki shop in Campinas not to far from Uli’s house. Sabine lead the way there and we found it easy enough. I of course don’t speak a word of Portuguese so having Sabine with me to describe the work I needed down was a godsend.

Sabine at Sudio Kawasaki in Campinas trying to translate “check for play in the steering head bearing”….

As it turns out they couldn’t work on the bike for at least a week but they gave us the address of their other shop in Sao Pauo. That shop ended up being not to far from Sabine’s other sister Gisa’s house and they could get me in today…great! Or plan was to head to Sao Paulo anyway, so we packed up and I followed Sabine to the other shop. We arrived and were greeted by the service manager Edu who is an awesome guy and took great care of me.

Me and Edu from Studio Kawasaki in Sao Paulo….a great shop that I can highly recommend!

With Sabine’s translation assistance Edu got me and the bike squared away and reassured me that the bike was in good hands. The background of his computer desktop was a great shot of a supermoto rider, and when Edu told me that it was his 16 year old daughter I was floored!

And as if that weren’t enough, she is also ranked number 1 in Brazil having won the championship! And no, there is no girls division…she wooped up on all the boys!

She is in fact such a talented rider that she got a U.S. sponsor and an invite to race in Las Vegas….how cool is that.

So, with my bike in good hands we went to Sabine’s sister Gisa’s house, had a nice dinner at home and called it a night.

Day 246 – Morungaba to Valinhos, Brazil

Day 246 – Morungaba to Valinhos, Brazil      04/24/11      Mileage: 36

It was a leisurely morning, for me anyway, and I didn’t get up until 10. Uli and her daughter headed home and Sabine and I went for another mountain bike ride. I haven’t been on a XC bike ride for 9 months now and my legs and lungs were letting me know it.

Towards the end of the ride we were both famished and stopped into a roadside corn stand that Sabine knew of. It’s a place that serves corn every kind of way you can think of, but we settled on sampling what I would describe as a chicken stuffed corn fritter, a sweet corn polenta and a salty corn polenta both served in a corn husk, a cup of corn juice, and for dessert a sweet corn custard…and we washed it all down with a couple of Coke’s.

Both now stuffed like the corn fritter we mowed down moments ago, we got back on the bikes and wallowed the rest of the way back to the farm. We took a quick dip in the pool, showered and then packed up to head over to Uli’s house in Valinhos a short distance away. That night Uli, Bobby, her two daughters, Sabine and I went out for sushi (no, it wasn’t as good as Ota’ya!) which was a tasty way to end another great day.

Day 245 – Morungapa, Brazil

Day 245 – Morungapa, Brazil      04/23/11      Mileage: 0

The whole gang had breakfast together after which Sabine and I went to see the farm next door that her and her husband just purchased. She showed me around the property for a bit and is quite a nice place itself. We were soon joined by the rest of the gang and all walked around the main farm and down to the river adjoining the property.

Back at the house we played some tennis, got some pool time and then 2 of the guys made a proper Brazilian churrasco which was all great fun!

After letting lunch settle a bit Sabine and I went for a mountain bike ride. We decided to take the long way back to the farm, ended up running out of daylight and had to call back to the farm to have one of the guys come get us from the side of the road with a pick-up.

Back at the farm most of the gang was packing to head home except Uli and her daughter Julie. So after seeing everyone off Sabine, Uli and I got some sauna time which felt great after the ride. That night the 4 of us played cards until midnight before calling it a night. It was another fun filled day for sure!

Day 244 – Salto to Marungapa, Brazil

Day 244 – Salto to Marungapa, Brazil      04/22/11      Mileage: 58

It was a short ride to Morungaba to the church in the center square which was where my friend Sabine and I agreed to meet as she had just walked off a flight from the U.S. I found the square easy enough and she waved me down just as I got to the church.

 It was so great to see a familiar face and a dear friend after all these months! We grabbed a beer in a bar across the street and then headed up to her families farm just outside of town. We arrived at the farm and I have to say that calling this a farm is like calling the Beverly Willshire a motel. The property is in an amazing setting with great views of the surrounding countryside. There is also a pool, 2 tennis courts, a small soccer field, a bocce court, a volleyball net and well stocked bar.

One of the two tennis courts…

The soccer field…

If I’m not home in a few months you know where to find me. Her sister Uli was there also with a nice group of friends so there was a bit of a party going on already! I quickly unpacked, got out of my riding gear, popped open a beer and jumped in the pool. Soon after everyone gathered for a nice lunch which we followed up with a rousing game of bocce that went on until sunset.

That night we had a wonderfully evening of dinner, drinks, good conversation with great company and a huge barn fire to cap it all off.

Me and my friend Sabine….

That’s me standing in front….now that’s a fire!

That was such a fun day I don’t know how I will bring myself to leave…