First miles (er, kilometers) of 2014

Let the biking begin!  For this trip down south, I brought an actual bike with me to take advantage of the extended riding season.  No disrespect to the BikeSampa three speeds, but sometimes a guy needs more speed and comfort than they can provide.  I'm hopeful that last week's 45 miles in Sao Paulo are the first of many before I return north for winter's thaw.

As alluded to in the title, being in South America means that I'm actually logging kilometers, not miles.  The 45 miles was translated from kilometers at the spot rate of 1.60934.  I just hope I don't lose any miles due to differences in the conversion rate between now and March.

Three Quick Steps to BikeSampa

My last post reminded me of the challenge I encountered in May of 2013 when I wanted to make use of the BikeSampa program in Sao Paulo.  From the BikeSampa website, registration appears rather straight forward, but the requirement of having a local phone number threw me for a loop.

Luckily, I was able to complete the process in three quick steps(*see note below):

Step 1 - Acquire an unlocked cell phone
After almost a year out of service, my Blackberry was pushed back into duty when I brought it with me to Brazil.  I consulted a few videos on YouTube to learn how to do the trick, then $8 and five minutes later and my phone was ready to use.  

Step 2 - Purchase Brazilian SIM card 
These are readily available and cheap, about $5 for the chip itself at any number of retailers.  When the phone is powered back on with the SIM card installed, a text messages provides the assigned cell phone number.  Technically, I think the process could stop here, because the phone doesn't actually have to be activated to complete the registration at the BikeSampa website, only a valid phone number is required. But the last step will allow the phone to be used to actually access the bikes, so it's worth doing.

Step 3 - Register chip with mobile phone provider
I bought a chip from the Brazilian provider TIM and their customer service line even had support in English.  All that's needed is the number of your passport and a few other details and the phone is activated. The first time I did this there was a two hour delay until the phone was actually ready to be used, but I think the current setup is pretty much instantaneous.

If you have a smart phone and international data plan you can also download the BikeSampa app which is very easy way to get a bikes.  To do this, you still need to follow steps 1 and 2 because the registration  requires a phone number.  The app itself is very easy to use and there is an English version available.

Alternatively, you can use the activated cell phone to withdraw a bike by calling the number on the station placard, pressing the station and bike numbers, and waiting for the bike to be released.  After that, it's happy biking on the concrete jungle of Sao Paulo!

*In all actuality, my first attempt at accessing BikeSampa took me closer to 10 steps, mostly because I didn't know which steps were required and doing them out of order.  For instance, I first purchased the SIM chip but didn't realize it needed to be unlocked or my phone needed to be registered.

Three Speeds

After three months in South America, I'm finally back in Minneapolis. I've spent much time recounting my work experience in Sao Paulo to friends and family, and as I told them about switching among English, Portuguese, and Spanish every day, I realized that the perfect metaphor for this time could be found on the streets of Sao Paulo: the ubiquitous BikeSampa three-speeds.

I can get anywhere I need to go in Portuguese, it might just take a little longer than usual and the crank just might have to spin a few more times than in the other gears.  I am still working to expand my vocabulary, but for the most part I can express myself as I need to.  I can typically talk my way around a gap in my verbal arsenal.  I stayed primarily in Brasil, so I also lived a lot of my day in first gear.  Although my co-workers could have upshifted and dropped me like a bag of dirt at any time, I was able to keep pace well enough for them to let me stick around. 

My Spanish is quite serviceable for almost any circumstance, which is good because I usually have one or two calls a day with my colleagues from Argentina.  I’m never moving too slowly here, even on the days that I’ve spent a lot of time in Portuguese and am shifting out of low gear.    I studied Spanish for a long enough time and have picked up enough business vocabulary that I can get anywhere I need to go without problems, even accounting for some variations in Argentinian "castellano".  People always ask me if I’m
“fluent” in Spanish.  All I know is that my second language almost feels like a first language after I've stayed too long in Portuguese, but I'd have to defer to my colleagues on whether they'd call me "fluent" or not.  

There are absolutely no impediments to my ability to communicate in my native tongue.  If my legs (or lips) are willing, the bike is able.  Of course, if I need to slow down to first or second in English to accommodate my colleagues that have it as a second (or third) language poking along in those gears, that’s obviously not a problem either.


In all honesty, I much prefer riding my 20 speed carbon fiber bicycle, but I don't plan on picking up another 17 languages just to push the metaphor further.