Tuesday 16 July 2002
Late in the morning we flew with Varig from La Paz and over fly again the indescribably beautiful Andes Mountains. This time we had fewer clouds and a very good view.
We had a short stop over in Santa Cruz that happens to be the major industrial center in Bolivia, located near to the rain forest. We felt that immediately when the plane was landed and the door opened. Even though we weren't allowed to leave the plane, the humidity in the air was perceptible inside the cabin. During the stop over we had a conversation with a Belgian woman, who worked as a NGO in Bolivia. She told us that a lot of the Bolivian industry were owned by foreign companies and mostly produces goods for exporting. This means, however, that the Bolivian inhabitants very often have to buy their own products as imported goods at considerable higher prices.
We arrived in Sao Paulo at 9.30pm. We were excited, as we would stay at some of Ane's family, who we haven't met before. Knowing a bit about the size and poorness of Sao Paulo, we felt comfortable when we were picked up in the airport by Ane's relatives.
Of course this part of the journey was especially exciting for Ane. During her childhood, her grandma has told her about the family in Brazil. Grandma's sister, Inger, immigrated when she was 25 years old. During the years the two old sisters have visited each other, and lot's of tales and stories has been told to the families.
It was nice to meet the persons she had learned about for years. We met Inger's daughter Claudia and husband Gui (Guillame). They offered to be our hosts for the first week in Brazil. We also met their adult daughter and son, Cindia and Raul.
Claudia and Raul was the two who waited for us at the airport and drove us from Sao Paulo to the smaller city Jundiai, where they live. This city is located an hours drive from Sao Paulo and during the drive we learned bits and pieces about life in Brazil and crime in particular. The latter is a rising problem and matters a lot to the family. Her husband, Gui, who is a doctor work previously in Sao Paulo. One of his colleagues was once kidnapped for a week after being out for a call and had to pay $10,000 ransom to be released. Today Gui has his own practice in Jundiai.
We arrived at Jundiai which turned out to be a nice city with about 300,000 inhabitants. Jundiai is Indian and the name of the river running through the city. The family have a nice house, a dog called Jimmy and very uncommonly in Brazil, the have 3 cats as well. Brazilians usually feel uncomfortable with cats as they cannot be trained, they told us.
We moved in and enjoyed some beers and goodies with Claudia and Gui till the small hours and could easily understand why Ane's grandma always praised these people as warm and nice. We were convinced that the coming week would be both cozy and funny.