Teatro Municipal

Last night we performed at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janiero. This theater is over 100 years old, and has beautiful mosaics and sculpted bulls that hold up pillars. The Greek muses dance around a giant chandellier on the ceiling. We played to almost a completely full house, all four balconies, and the orchestra sounded great -- we ended with our standard encore (an orchestrated Brazillian samba) and by the time the piece ended, a quarter of the orchestra was dancing samba with each other and the audience was dancing in the aisles. Amazing.

We are in Sao Paulo now, after a very long day on a bus. My bus was the drunk bus, unfortunately. We arrived at the hotel and got settled. Our normal announcement board is in the lobby telling us when and where we need to be; in addition to the usual announcements, there is a note saying we are in "a very bad area." Rio and Sao Paulo are extremely dangerous cities, especially for the lighter-skinned folks. Kidnapping and ransom are regular ways some people make a living here. So we are being careful to stay with large groups and not wander around late at night.

One other note: I don't believe we have been more than 150 yards away from a flan this entire trip. At least that's what my friend Dave says.