Belo Horizonte, Brazil
June 30
We arrived early in the morning to Belo after taking a red eye from Miami. We took a bus into the city, dropped off our bags at our hotel and went into dad’s office for the day. At night, we went to look at their new office location and then walked to a sports bar with a huge TV to watch the World Cup game Germany vs Algeria. Germany barely won, which is good for us because we are seeing them play now when we go to Rio in a few days. We stayed at the bar until around 11:00 pm drinking and eating with about ten people. It was a fun first night.
May 1
We went into the office early and after lunch, Tiago, Rick and I drove to one of the higher points in Belo. We hiked up the side of the mountain and to an overlook. From the top, you can see all of Belo. It is a very hilly city and is pretty big. We hiked back down and drove to a square to drink coconut water. The pope came to this square some time ago so now it’s famous. We drove back to our hotel, Rick and I changed, and then we drove back to that sports bar from last night to watch the USA vs Belgium World Cup match. We met a guy who worked there last night from America who now lives in Brazil. He hooked us up with a table right by the huge TV for the USA game tonight. We drank and ate, but ultra tell felt defeated when the USA lost in extra time 2-1. Belgium outplayed us the entire game, and if it wasn’t for our goalie, Howard (who broke the record for most saves in a World Cup game this game), we would have lost by a lot. After, six of us went to a good pizza place for a while, then Rick, CJ and I went to a bar down the road with unlimited beer for a fixed price. We went home around midnight.
May 2
We slept in and then went to the office. In the afternoon, we took a taxi to the central market, which was a pretty big indoor market that sold everything from live animals to clothes. We had a beer at a small bar inside and just walked around. We then walked down the road to a big square with fountains and people hanging out. It reminded me of a park in NYC. We walked back to our hotel and for dinner at an all you eat Brazilian Steakhouse! It was awesome and I are an entire cow probably all by myself. My body couldn’t take much more, so Rick and I headed back to the hotel and called it a night. I was stuffed.