My First Days On The South American Continent.

In 1995, I started touring. In 1996, I made first trip south of the border to Mexico City. In 1998, I made my first trip to Europe. In 2000, I made my first trip to Australia. In 2004, I made my first trip to the Middle East, South East Asia, and well, all of Asia really. In 2007, I made my first trip to Africa. In 2008, I hung up my touring shoes and have since then made efforts to stay home, having never toured in South America.

I considered myself lucky. I heard many horror stories about South America. None as bad as my time in Nigeria, but still wore it like a badge, telling other roadies, "Nope, I've never toured South America."

It took me retiring from the road to finally make it to South America. Not really for a tour, but I'm here for work on a concert none the less.

Sao Paulo, Brazil. The new capital of, well, capitalism in South America. I think I read somewhere that Sao Paulo has usurped Mexico City with the number of it's billionaires.

Huh, I remember when to be a millionaire was a position of affluence. Now, billionaire.

I've been in Sao Paulo for 5 days now. We landed on Tuesday after an all night flight from Los Angeles (connecting through Miami). I didn't think I'd be terribly jet lagged since it's only a 5 hour difference to home, but even today I'm a bit foggy and waking up at strange hours. No matter, I'm flying home tomorrow in time to suffer jet lag in reverse. Which is fine, since I have an Xbox game I still need to play and being awake at 4 AM, it may help to put me back to sleep.

I'm here for an Eminem concert. He's the headline act for the Formula 1 Rocks show. I guess on Sunday they have a Formula 1 race somewhere in the city. To bad we fly home tomorrow (Saturday) and miss the event. They've been taking really good care of us here. We're in a decent hotel, the Grand Hyatt, and there always a woman from the local production team sitting in the lobby. She has access to transportation for us if we need to go anywhere, and even if there's no where we really need to go. She also has a clipboard with a list of all of our (the crew) names. She checks it every time one of us leaves and returns to the hotel. Kinda creepy.

Here's some pictures of my adventures so far.


No trip would be complete if I didn't take pictures of my hotel room. Nicole always likes to see what my hotel room looks like. The rooms at the Grand Hyatt are admittedly "cozy", but what they lack in space in the bedroom, the more than make up for in the bathroom.


One day, I'm gonna have a separate tub and shower in my bathroom. But until then, I'm gonna enjoy this one. I love the downpour shower head. What I don't love, is the fact that I can't get a comfortable water temperature to stay. It always seems to run suddenly hot or cold.


The maids at this hotel are very tenacious. I've had my "Do Not Disturb" sign on my room every day and yet they still knock every time and ask if I want service. Yesterday, I was working at the venue, I think the maids took this opportunity to steal my "Do Not Disturb" sign so I can't put it out anymore. And they don't just come once a day, they come, THREE TIMES. The first time they come, I tell them "No Thank You", then they come again later in the afternoon, I've not been home for this visit usually, I've been out doing stuff, and then a third time in the evening for turn down service. On the plus side, they always line up my toiletries nicely on a wash cloth by the sink. I even think they wipe down my tooth paste and deodorant. Not sure how that pack of Extra gum ended up there, But I should check to see if the maids are stealing a stick or two.

This is the view from my hotel room. The building across the way is a local TV station. This means that they land their traffic helicopter on a helipad near by in the morning. I love the sound of chopper blades rattling my window while I try to sleep. I'm assuming the bridge in the background is a landmark of some sort. More importantly, on the other side of the bridge is a Decathlon store. Although I was very disappointed in this one. No cycling clothing!


Here's the view in the other direction from my room. It's a pretty typical view of Sao Paulo. Lots and lots of apartment buildings and sky scrapers every where. It's a very modern (and congested) city in that respect.

There's more pictures to come, but I'll post them in a second blog... Right now, it's time to go to work. It's show day here in Sao Paulo, but we've been delayed because we've just had to waves of a pretty awesome storm blow through. The lighting was orange. I think it's because of the pollution in the air, but that's just me speculating...

More to come...

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