BRASIL!

Day two of my free time finds me crawling out of bed after another unsettled night's sleep. This is annoying because I am relying on good sleep to repair my voice and to bring me back to the land of the living generally. I have a theory though, the city of Sao Paulo is so loud, so brash, so crowded and so in your face that by the time I get into bed, no matter how tired I am, my mind and body are still ringing like a bell, reverberating throughout the night.

Eventually, it is decided that I am going to the Brazilian jungle today. Not into the deepest darkest bits though, there is no real jungle in this part of the country,but far enough into some countryside to not want to go further. Demente picks me up and we go hurtling through town as he tells me the background to Sao Paulo life.
He tells me that everyone is late, it is so hard to get across town either in a car or on the public transportation system because of traffic jams and the crippling rush hour on the subway. He says that arrangements are always fluid because people find they can't make it to a certain place or they have run out of money or their credit has run out on their phones so you never know if something you have arranged or some plan you have put in place is going to happen right up until they happen.
He said, people coming from Europe cannot adapt easily to this culture shock, as they are used to things happening as planned most of the time, here it is the other way around.

"It is incredibly frustrating but you just have to be adaptable". he says.

Hmmm, I thought, yeah I see that, and I do need to get a bit more adaptable and relaxed while I am here. Now, I don't know if that conversation was deliberately instigated to soften me up, it didn't feel like it at the time. But 15 to 20 minutes later he turns to me and say's...

"It's such a pity that the band cannot play with you on your series of gigs in Brasilia"
"What!" I reply.
"Yeah, it is bad, but I have arranged for another band to back you while you are there".
"Another band" I gasp!
"Yes, it is a real pity because David cannot get out of work and by the time he could get away, Brasilia is so far away that he would never make it on time. The band I have for you is the Squints, you know them, they have done a cover of Kick Out The Tories".
"Yes, I know them but that is only one number" I say.
"Yes, I know", Demente replied. "But I have sent them our set list and told them to learn all the other songs".
 This is devastating for me, the Brazilian Neurotics are so good that I don't want to lose three gigs in this tour when I could be playing with them. Plus, being backed by another band is reaching the pinnacle of adaptability for me. Lets see, I'll be playing with a band I have never met or rehearsed with, I will be using an amp I have no knowledge of and everyone around me is going to be new and unfamiliar. I will be flying out to Brasilia with one companion and I will be there three days.

I resign myself to this craziness and chant 'adaptability' again and again to myself like a mantra.
They are doing a great job, don't get me wrong and I am really enjoying it but life at the moment is full of surprises.

Meanwhile, Demente's car is a real joke with everyone here, because the floor of it is covered with empty beer and water bottles so when you get in, there is the sound of chinking of bottles right up into the moment you get settled and when you move position. It is like trying to get comfortable in a recycling skip.
Anyway, to get to the our 'little jungle' we need to escape the city and to escape the city we need to drive through a ton of it, to the last outpost of this megatropolis.  I watch it peel by my window and at times if feels like it is a large photo on a drum that is rotated next to me like on a film set.
As we hump, heave, jolt and bash across the uncertain roads, I (despite seat belts) am springing into the air and back down again at regular intervals, the bottles sound like drunken maracas and I can't help it, but in my head I am humming the Xavier Cugat song Brasil. you know the one, it goes...

Bum bum bum, bum bum te dum, bum bum bum, bum, bum te dum. Dooooo, do,do do do do do,do,do. Do, do do do do do,do,do, Do,do do do do do do do, do wah, do wah do wah!

And I continue to hum as we disappear through a cloud of dust into the beginings of the countryside.