South of the Equator 2012: The Zip

(By Chris Haines)

Brazilian women are not generally ugly, and always well turned out, and the Expresseo Sorocabana has a never-ending stream of them entering. However on Saturday a seriously jaw-dropping, heart-stopping example strolled in, with wind-blown sun-bleached hair, sunglasses and a tight red skirt, zipped up the front. The anonymous guy who designed that zip can never have considered the epicyclic rotating torsional stresses that lucky piece of ironmongery had to endure......we could barely stand them either. I was most concerned she didn't catch her zip on something and be left in a most embarassing condition: for some reason we are now regulars at this joint, and are now recognised by the waiters.

Sorocaba

The climate………

It is a little known fact that Sorocaba is 653m above sea level.....this is enough to make the atmospheric pressure (and hence oxygen content) only 93% of normal. We had thought that poor sleep and pathetic endurance walking to and from the hotel up the hills was due to post-Christmas weight gain, together with the temperatures being in the high 80’s during the day and the mid 70’s at night. We were wrong. Its not all ‘brain frying’ sunshine though, some days it rains and we have thunder and lightning although the temperature doesn’t drop much. The rain comes down in gallons and gallons and roads are instantly flooded but almost as quickly as it comes down the great cavonus storm drains along the roads swallow it up. These are the sort of drains you see in scary movies were there is something living down there just waiting to grab your ankles as you walk past.

South of the Equator 2012

The Zip

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