Don’t let your Web worries eat you alive

I know that Brazil is a First World nation. BRIC and all that. But, seriously, the wireless capabilities here are fairly pathetic. Both in Rio and Sao Paulo. You should be aware of that before coming here expecting to do business. You can, of course, spend all your free time in a hotel business center – as long as you’re willing to work on a strange PC trying to dodge the nasty looks of other people wanting to get online.

Even then, no one can guarantee your continuing access to the Web. We’ve been battling this problem since arriving last week.

That said, Brazil is one of the few countries I’ve visited lately where public phone booths are still ubiquitous. Not to mention scenic. The booth pictured above sits on the vaunted Avenida Paulista, not far from the city’s most noted art museum, the Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP).

And regarding that museum, after arriving here in Sao Paulo a few days ago, we were fortunate to see an exhibit of Caravaggio paintings, featuring a few works by the Italian master along with a number of others by painters, from Brazil and elsewhere, who were influenced by him.

We also enjoyed a superb lunch, for a reasonable price, in the museum’s basement. Again, it was a Brazilian specialty – a buffet. But what a buffet, filled with meats and vegetables and pastas and soups and salads and sweets of all sizes and shapes, all offered at a fixed price (about $20 a head).

Made me forget all about my Internet anxieties. For a while, anyway.