Excursão Uberlândia

Today was the first full day in Uberlândia for most of us.  We had the morning to ourselves and met at 1pm for a guided walk to a local restaurant where we had another excellent and filling meal - my choice was chicken fillet with a cheese and bacon sauce and it was very good.  After lunch we continued the tour with our local guide and support person, Larissa, pointing out various shops and facilities we will find useful over the next four weeks.  Not sure I'll visit the beauty clinic or the shoe shop but here are some of us outside the bakers (shut for the public holiday), which might see me back!

After our walking tour of the district we took a bus ride (very cosy, half of the city seemed to be on it already but they willingly made more space for us) to the main shopping mall of Uberlândia.  After a refreshing dessert of frozen acai juice (a "slush") a party of the female members of the team went on ahead to check out the stores. This was followed at a suitable interval by a small party of men who braved it long enough to grab some bottled water and other essentials from the supermarket and then hightail it back along the highway to the hotel, about a 15 minute walk. It's a huge mall and we were worried we might get lost and trapped in it forever - nightmare territory.

In the evening we'd received an invitation to attend the Camaru 2013 - this is Uberlândia's annual Agricultural and Produce (A&P) fair, or something slightly similar to the Auckland Easter Show or Hamilton's Fielddays event. This was their 50th year and Uberlândia is a centre of the agricultural activities in the area so it is a big one.  We were honoured to be addressed by the President of the "Sindicato Rural de Uberlândia" who organise the fair.  He's the one speaking below, the lady to your right is the interpreter.  Also below are some of our team listening to the speech.












We were also addressed by the gentleman in the picture below but I didn't catch who he was - I think he was the head of the co-operative who produced all the produce we were invited to try - cheeses, coffee liqueur, pickles, pates and desserts.  All delicious.

After that we enjoyed a selection of local treats from a series of stalls (next to an aquatic display which included some fairly placid looking Piranha - mind you I wasn't about to sacrifice a finger to check they really  were Piranha)) and some more welcoming speeches from a representative of the Mayor ( who had hoped to be there but couldn't make it) and the Secretary of the Interior (I think) - possibly of the State.  No question but we really were treated as VIPs the whole evening and the city of Uberlândia is extending us a very warm welcome. We then had a native Indian dance (from a tribe that lives in North Brazil) before being introduced to a new breed of cattle that I gathered is going to be capable of regular multiple births.











Finally it was the highlight of the night for many Uberlândians  - a concert by Brazilian rock star Cristiano Araujo (who happened to be staying in our hotel) and his group. Unfortunately I was starting to run on empty after a long day and still reshuffling my body clock so I confess I eagerly accepted the offer of an early (11:30) run home (along with quite few others) - a pity because the group sounded quite good. There was a very large and very appreciative audience, and also a team of firepeople - men and women - in case the pyrotechnics on stage got out of hand - they seemed pretty good from what I could see! I found out later I'd made a wise choice, as the concert party didn't make it back until 2:30 and that would have left me struggling to get through Sunday's schedule (more of which later...)

#ibmcsc brazil