The Need for Speed

This past weekend we went with our friends Pella and Christos to Curitiba in southern Brazil to the drag races. Pella and Christos and their children live in Sao Paulo courtesy of General Motors, but sadly (for us) they're going back to the US later this month.

Our going to the drag races is a convoluted, but real-life, example of how small the world is and how you never know when you're going to run into somebody again. When Jimmy and I were in high school, we were friends with a Brazilian exchange student, Fabio Freitas, who had the distinct pleasure (?) of being sent to Moncks Corner, SC for a year. Over the last 20 years, we have kept up with Fabio through mutual Moncks Corner friends. When we moved to Brazil in 2005, we got in touch with him and have had the great pleasure of spending time with him, his wife Claudia, and now their little baby girl Fernanda. Fabio's family is as hospitable as he and Claudia are - they've been gracious enough to welcome us to their family retreat time and time again, and we have loved every second of it.

My short story is getting long... Fabio has two sisters: Gisele and her family live in Sao Paulo and we see them a lot, much to our delight; and Simone and her family live in Rio Preto (along with Fabio and Claudia and his parents), so we don't get to see them as much. Simone's husband, Caca Daud, is the Brazilian national drag race champion in the street car division. He drives a GM Astra that has been really souped up - he covers a 1/4 mile track in 11 seconds at 240km/hr (150mph). Not your average Sunday afternoon drive in the country... Check out www.cacadaud.com.br for complete coverage of Caca's racing.


Caca is in the right lane (looks like a black speck against the white wall). Notice the difference between his car and the other one down low. This is why Caca's the champion and that other guy is not!



Jimmy, Caca, Christos, Pella, Susan (holding Mac who could not keep up the pace at 10:30pm!) - dinner on Saturday night

To see all our photos from the weekend, click on the Curitiba link under Story Family Photo Albums on the right side bar. I didn't label the photos, but there are also pictures from our visit to the Arame Opera House (made solely out of metal mesh and glass), the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, and people playing American football!