Riberao Preto.
I had a few nice days in Belo Horizonte with Mariana. It was really great to see her again, and she is in my list of top 10 favorite people in the world (together with 30 others :-)
I left BH on the morning of the 25th, taking the bus to Riberao Preto. At Figueira (and before, at my talk in Sao Paulo) I got acquainted with a guy called Adriano, who runs the local division of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society in Riberao Preto. He had asked me to come to his city (pop. 800.000) to give a talk.

I have had the good fortune to meet a lot of wonderful women in my life, but wonderful guys are somewhat more rare. Adriano qualifies, and I am much impressed by him. At 30, he runs his own internet business, coaching 10 people, coordinates the vegetarian society, and has a wife and a kid. He is a wonderful guy and if he weren´t happily married, I´d match him with one of my female single friends :-)
His dog, Chouchou, may very well be the sweetest dog I have ever met. Perhaps her stays at Figueira have something to do with that.

It was great yesterday to give the talk - to some 20 activists. It is wonderful to have this opportunity, and it also gives me a good feeling to see how people are impressed by the vegetarian work we do in Belgium. The president of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society vaguely suggested me to stay here one or two years, to help launch their magazine. It is an interesting idea, and certainly a challenge, but for now I´ll see what Belgium has in store for me when I return.

Tomorrow I will be travelling to Rio, where I will give a final talk. These were all unexpected and organised at the last moment. It´s great to be able to travel around the world and always meet up with vegetarian activists (I don´t like the word, but for want of a better one...) connect with them, get to show the city by them and stay at their place and eat their vegan food (a great vegan cannelloni yesterday, courtesy of Christiana, Adriano´s wife)...
In Rio I will also see Heather again, who has finished a two week homestay. This time it was with a single guy, who appeared to be very rich (a surgeon). She seems to have had a nice time but I will hear more about it tomorrow.

Portuguese is such a beautiful language. I keep wondering why I didn´t make use of the opportunity to learn it while I was living with uma Brasileira.

I don´t know if I will be on email much in the coming few days, and if am not, this would be the last entry while outside of Belgium. I am back on the night of 3 december - plane is arriving around 19.00. If you have been nice to me I may have a gift for you :-)

Abraçao!