Thursday January 14th

Today is my first full day in Sao Paulo and it is raining. How dare it! It is still 80 degrees but from what I can gather, I am going have to get used to this as during the summer months it is a regular occurance. No wonder the place is so lush and green

But here is a funny thing. You know how in Disneyworld/land, the minute it rains, vendors pop out of no-where with bright yellow ponchoes with Mickey Mouse cartoons all over them? Well here they pop out with white towels. On every street corner we drove down today, there were vendors selling towels. I have no idea why they are selling them, maybe it is for the car or maybe for the person. Marcelo's English is about as good as my Portugese so no chance of asking him but I have never seen anything like it.

When we were in Istanbul, vendors popped out with umbrellas. Now that would be useful. In Manila, no-one popped out with anything because the rain was usually so torrential that by the time you had stopped to buy something you would be soaked through. In England it rains all the time so you always have an umbrella. In Israel I don't think it ever rained and in Sweden it was so cold most of the time that the rain was in fact snow.


So, my task is to find out what on earth white towels - white I ask you - are for. When I find out I will let you know.