Martin McMorrow
Despite his London roots, Martin found himself quite
disoriented
in the even bigger city of São Paulo, Brazil. “There are so many similar apartment buildings, you don't get a sense of where you are,” he says, “and it's very difficult to find the bus stops because most of them are just small, green, wooden poles with nothing written on them. For a long time, the routes were a complete mystery!” Martin still managed to find his way to the local churrascaria restaurant. where the waiters come around with vast plates of meat. "You have this little disk on your table. If you turn up the green side, they come and serve you. When you're full, you turn it over to red and it means, stop, I'm about to explode!” Martin also quickly adapted to the Brazilian habit of heading for the beach every weekend. However, there was one aspect of beach culture he found rather unusual. “People will try to sell you anything, like normal umbrellas — which is the last thing you'd want at the beach - or clothes, or electrical goods and you don't even have your wallet, so it seems a bit optimistic! But a really nice thing was the
coconut
milk — they chop off the top and give you a
straw
!