Hello, I’m writing to you from the bottom side of the planet. I wonder how these people manage to do it, to stay firmly rooted on the ground and not fall off into space. I am currently sitting a few thousandths of a degree north of the “Tropic of Capricorn”. I haven’t looked at where the sun is in the sky yet, but I suppose it’s on the north side of the sky down here.

I’ve not really thought about how humongous the country of Brazil is. To me it seems like it’s the United States, but in Portuguese. Brazil is larger in land area than the entire lower forty-eight states of the United States of North America, with about 2/3 of the population.

The place I’m heading for volunteering work, Novo Hamburgo, is as far south of the equator as Houston is north. The more well-known city that it’s close to is Porto Alegre. After chewing up the Wikipedia facts, it looks like they have very similar climates. They are both close to the coast, and at similar latitudes. So if you want a reference to what it’s like there now, just imagine Houston in early December. This of course might be all wrong, since it’s conjecture. I trust my South American friends will correct any inaccuracies.

To tie this in with my earlier butter articles, they actually have packets of Président butter here! Maybe not everywhere, but definitely at my present location. I’m quite sure it’s the cultured kind too… They also have limitless plates of pão de queijo at this place too. It’s nice. Although I’m sure there is a limit to the amount they would let me eat.

I met up with my co-conspirator Cody from Canada in Chicago O’hare, after his nail-biting wait filled with maintenance delays and planes frolicking back and forth on the taxiway. We flew into São Paulo this morning and got through customs with no trouble. Now I’m just spewing filler for the blog while we wait for our next (and last) flight into Florianópolis.

I’m looking forward to helping out down in Rio Grande do Sul.

Till next time.