nutbehindwheel

Sunday, November 06, 2005

At the Copa... copacabana

It's been a while since I've been back from Brasil only to return to a bad head cold which is still lingering. However, I still haven't really posted pictures or blogged about it yet.

I noticed a variety of very interesting things down there. Well, can't say there's a lack of cars... traffic was horrendous on many occassions. Though the cars and trucks are small in general, VW and GM cars minicars being the most popular, the lack of roadway and mass amounts of vehicles made traffic jams commonplace. It's no wonder why people typically eat late (9pm-ish). It takes them friggin forever to get home usually. It's not like they have too much of a choice in their commutes.

My uncle wants to get together with a motorcycle supplier in Taiwan and start importing them. I can definitely see a potential to it... but I think the window may be small. If mass transit infrastructure is established, opportunities may drop severely. Then again, it may not... Taiwan still sees a very high demand for scooters and motorcycles. It may end up in a similar situation in the larger cities of Brasil.

The majority of cars and trucks are either flex-fuel (Alcohol & gas) or diesel. Fuel was indeed expensive even though alcohol was significantly cheaper than gasoline. And of course, a motorcycle or scooter is great on gas (even those crotch-rockets get insane mpg). Also due to the warmer temperatures even in the south of Brasil in Foz du Iguacu, it doesn't really get that cold to really hinder use of alcohol as a main source of fuel.

Well, I did visit a few places and was able to try out my new Panasonic digicam. Unfortunately, I suck at teh photography so, but I got off my lazy butt and put a small gallery up. I definitely need to doctor the brightness and contrast on some pics so bear with me for now and you'll see updates... for now my crap photos are there.

EDIT 11/6: I've updated my web gallery so it should be pretty good considering I can't keep my hand steady... even with image stabilization on my camera!

http://www.albertko.com/albertko/index.htm
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All love to my family down there for taking care of me during my visit.

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