Finally, this time I am really posting here. We have established an office right in Sandton, less than 100m from the Sandton Convention Center, where the most important events will be held. We have aircon, phones, cellphones, internet connection... well... if you can call that an internet connection.

Ever wondered how crappy internet can be? Come to South Africa! ...you'd be amazed. They call any v.90 56k dialup connection "Full Speed Internet" here. Really shameful. They have digital and analog leased lines (expeeeeensive, with 3 year minimum contract), the digital going up to 2Mbps... but nobody uses it. The closest they have to our broadband connections is ISDN and dual ISDN... and they are almost not used as well. I've been to a few cafes before finding this place here, and only one had a SINGLE dual ISDN connecting 20 terminals! ...that is insane, I know... well, this office facility here has 8 dual ISDNs, and Arnold (the Internet guy here) said he'd route 2 of them exclusively to us. ...we'll see that... anyway, I am about to profile a dialup dual ISDN connection and see how it turns out. I'm getting only around 32kbps upstream, and I need at least something around 90. Otherwise we have some serious re-planning to do.

Jo'burg is VERY beautiful, and is not africa at all. I've never seen so many Mercedes in one place... This actually looks like england and netherlands, but as clean as germany. In Sandton (where I am right now btw) there are policemen every corner... suppose we are going to need them. There are supposed to be criminals everywhere... weather here is fine, a little colder than in São Paulo, as we all expected. ...but not nearly half as well organized. traffic is messy, taxis take long to come by... and few natives speaking inteligible english (the white ones have the UK accent, which is very fine - with the others you just have to tell them to repeat over and over until you make something out of it). ...but they are always willing to help, specially after they find out we're from Brazil. They really treat us like their own... if not better.

Two days ago, in Hilton, I had Springbock (I guess that's spelled right, if not I will edit later. It's "carne de antílope")... unforgettable meal. Lamb SUCKS. Beef SUCKS. Pork SUCKS. ...guess I will need to go back to Hilton for lunch before I leave the country...

In short, everything is fine here for now. I'm just sitting here in the office, listening to Dream Theater, waiting for the rest of the crew and the equipment (they arrived in SA today) to arrive here to set everything up. Didn't even have lunch, I will grab a bite later. ...I need some extra sleep, you see...

Well everyone, this is CYX, from Johannesburg, South Africa, directly to La Baticueva!