Getting down to the details...

We are leaving for the beach on Sunday, March 8th. The van will come to Carol's parents' house in the afternoon and take us all there. For those of you who are there early in the day, you can shower at the house and we will all go to the Mercado Municipal in Sao Paulo's downtown to eat lunch and buy some supplies. I would strongly recommend a mortadella sandwich and a pastel (fried pastry stuffed with tasty things - I'm a carne seca / dried beef guy, but the salt cod one is legendary for good reason as well). See the place where I am going to consume at least 1000 calories.

We will stay at the Pousada Tabatinga in Caraguatatuba. It is a relatively private place - the beach is shared by the hotel and some condo complexes, and isn't surrounded by lots of stores and bars. Your breakfast and dinner will be included, and there is a bar there. But with the privacy comes some remoteness.

So, when you are at the Mercado I would suggest picking up some fruit, cheese, sausages, wine, liquor, and other stuff. You'll be able to get to these things in Caraguatatuba but it will mean a taxi, and the supply quality at the Mercado is fantastic. See the fruit stands and the sausage stands for the deliciousness.

The gringo bus will come back to pick you up on Wednesday. I am going to have to leave on Tuesday to fly back to the States to deliver a speech and make a major announcement at eTech, and Carol will go with me back to Sao Paulo to attend to some wedding details. Yes, I owe Carolina a HUGE present for this.

The hotel in Sao Paulo is the Bourbon Ibirapuera - you need to book your rooms *NOW* for this hotel. Make sure to mention our name and get the special rate. Email them at grupos.conv@bourbon.com.br and get yourself hooked up!

I get back Thursday morning. Thursday evening, we have a churrasco at Carol's parents house - this is a kind of Brazilian BBQ. It's not a southern BBQ - don't expect slow-cooked meats - but it is a damn wonderful and tasty thing. You should plan to experience a meat coma and you might want to wear loose, flowing clothing to accommodate your belly. If this is your first picanha experience, get ready - it's a cut of beef we don't get up in the Norte, and it's awesome.

There is also going to be a caipirinha open bar. Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil, and it is going to kick your ass, so you probably should leave your cell phones at home unless you want to wind up drunk dialing someone, for better or worse, to tell them what you think of them for reals. Here's the simple part: it's booze, crushed fruit, sugar and ice, and it tastes like fruit juice. After four of them, you might even ask a Brazilian to dance. I did, and look where this all wound up. We'll arrange some group transit to and from the hotel.

Friday is going to be a relaxed day for the non-family folks. My family and Carol's family will eat dinner together to get to know each other better, and you'll all be sent out on the town with choices on where to eat. I would strongly recommend Rei Do Filet downtown for steak with fried garlic - oh god, it's good - but Carol will take care of getting you a list. We'll meet you out later that night for a fancy cocktail in one of Sao Paulo's many stylish, chic bars - there's some amazing ones.

Saturday is the wedding. We'll be kind of occupied during the day, obviously. The wedding will run from 8PM to 3AM. This is a short wedding for Brazil. There will be shuttle service to and from the hotel - it's a LONG WAY AWAY, 45 minutes or so. Dress up. Think cocktail party, not church. This ain't New England. Be ready to dance. Lots. Be ready to eat. Lots. And be ready to have some fun. The buses will go back every hour or so, so if you get tired and you need to go home, it'll be easy.

More to come. We are so excited you're joining us for the festivities, and we're doing everything we can to make sure you have a great time!

Babysitters

For those of you gringos and gringas bringing kids along, here's the straight poop:

http://www.babysittercenter.com.br/

They have babysitters who are bilingual.

If you go in "ENTRAR" and then in "TABELA DE PRECOS", you will find the

price. For example, from 3 to 6 hours it is 132 reais total, something like

60 dollars. For a period of 7-12 hours it is 172 reais = 83 dollars

approximately.

Their phone is + 55 11 30346467 and they probably have someone that can talk

in English with you.

David Byrne on Brazil

We're preparing a pretty comprehensive set of posts here as we approach the wedding - Carol has to finish going to Istanbul this week, and I have to finish a short but painful run of travel around the US (DC, Portland OR, Ann Arbor MI, NYC, Chapel Hill NC all in about 10 days) first. We'll be posting information on the beach trip, the hotel in Sao Paulo, the visa requirements, wedding registry, and all that good stuff. You should also be receiving written invites in January. And here's hoping you already have your passports in place...

In the meantime, David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) has just posted a lovely set of journal entries from his recent new year's trip to Brazil.  He writes about the difference between North and South, a bike ride in the forest and a sought-after session guitarist who doesn't accept those offers because he doesn't want to wear shoes, new year's eve in salvador, and much more. Byrne is a very thoughtful guy who's spent a lot of time in Brazil, and his writing is a good entryway for those of you contemplating the experience of the global South for the first time.

I was lucky enough that my first official work event for Creative Commons was a concert with David Byrne and Gilberto Gil at Town Hall in New York. That's when I knew I'd found the right group to work with...although meeting Byrne at a WIRED mag party filled with a mix of authentic geeks and out-of-place supermodels was surreal.

Getting started with serious planning

Hi everyone, apologies for the long delay between posts! 

All goes well with planning. You'll receive email soon from our wedding account - casamentogringo (at) gmail (dot) com - asking you to provide some information. Please respond as soon as you can and watch your regular mailbox for invitations.

Tourism Suggestions in addition to John's

I do not hate Rio!!!!!...hahaha!!!!

Also, I would suggest some other places, too, for you to enjoy after the wedding:

- Fernando de Noronha: the Brazilian Carib - dolphins, beach and nature
- Looking for some wine tour? Go to Serras Gauchas - good food, wine and where you can visit the Brazilian "Grand canyon"
- Want to fish, caving and to dive in blue lakes? Go to Bonito, in Pantanal!!! It is amazing there!
- Looking for tracking? Take a flight to Brasilia and a bus to Chapada Diamantina!
- Florianopolis: beautiful island city in the south


It is difficult to decide, isn't it??!!!

You will need to get flights for all this options.

For all of them I reaffirm what John said: update your vaccines (including Yellow fever)!!!! Them you will be guaranteed to have just good interactions with nature!

I originally wrote this to my friend Mat, but applies to all you gringos reading this blog. Here's the early version of the planning.

Planned activities will likely start on the 7 March with a feijoada (brazilian meal - think a red beans and rice party, but with black beans) mid-day and a night out at a bar. 8 March there will be some Sao Paulo tourism downtown and then transit at night to the beach. 11 March there will be transit at night back to SP. 12 March there is a churrasco (brazilian BBQ - oh hell yes) at Carol's parents house. 13 March is a dinner between the Wilbanks and Rossini families, followed at night by a luxury bar for fancy cocktails, TBD.  14 March is the wedding.

You gringos are welcome at any and all of this, of course :-) but your presence is...demanded...from the 12 March to the 14 March. If you want to see the rest of the country before or afterwards I think you've have a great time. The beach is also going to be awesome and I know my family will be there and would love to have you along telling bad stories about me.

There's also Rio. Carol, as a paulistana (SP resident), has conflicted emotions about Rio. I think it's a lovely place, great beaches - but very touristy and crimey. But it's worth having on your list as a potential place to go. Or you can fly up to Manaus and check out the Amazon - I've never done that and would love to do so. Salvador on the upper northeast coast is wonderful, Brazil's version of New Orleans, home of my favorite indigenous music and food styles, great beaches. Each of these is a flight away from SP but served by Brazilian national airlines GOL and TAM.

If I were you, I'd show in SP on the 6 March, work the gringo schedule, then go back to the beach after the wedding for a few more days of R&R before you go home. You can stay in a pousada (think fancy motel on the beach) with cable, internet and air conditioning for like $50 a night and get in a bunch more tropical sun time, to go kayaking or surfing or shopping or a mix of all three. Or I would fly up to Salvador at some point and poke around there, buy a ton of forro music and eat nothing but acaraje on the beach while drinking copious amounts of coconut water and pineapple juice.

You should also probably get your vaccinations updated. I'd recommend the whole megillah if you plan to hit the beaches - hepatitis, diptheria/tetanus, tyhpoid, etc - makes it easier to eat all the local foods without fear. 

açaí

Oh, açaí.

This is one of the great things about Brazil, at least, speaking as a Gringo. You've heard about French bread when you go to France. You know that you're going to drink vodka in Russia. 

But Brazil, well...most people think about beaches and teeny weeny bikinis - and those are true - and maybe these days they think about the caipirinha (also true, and to be the subject of another post itself). But Brazil's full of things you have never heard of that are insanely good.

Açaí na tigela is one of those things. It's the fruit of the Açaí Palm, pulped and iced, blended with guarana syrup and other fruits (I like it best with banana) and then topped with granola, condensed sweetened milk, and other fruits. Quoth Farva, it's delicious.

Not only is it delicious, but it's incredibly energizing. Between the caffeine and sugar in the guarana syrup and the natural energy from Açaí it's like eating a bowl of sweet healthy sorbet and getting the benefit of a cup of joe. Good stuff. Only downside is that it makes your teeth look like, well, the stuff inside the bowl.

You've been hearing a lot about Açaí in the States lately. It's packed into all sorts of food products and juices as the magic anti-oxidant, at the low low cost of $5 for 6 oz of juice. You can get it cheaper. If you live in a big city, find the Brazilian neighborhood (there's always one!) and buy yourself the good stuff for $1 a pound frozen. But you'll still need guarana syrup to make the dish the right way...