brazilian cars

So, we've been here about a week, and I heard that unmistakable crunch of metal...
It was a car accident, of course.
I wasn't surprised though, because the driving style here is to go fast, brake late, and try to ignore the existence of pedestrians.  I'm a bit miffed about that last one, since I am a pedestrian here all the time.

But anyway - from my bird's eye view up on our balcony, I could actually see the aftermath of the accident.
Don't worry, nobody was hurt.  Everybody hopped out of their cars and worked together to roll the disabled vehicles off to the sides of the road.

It's a pretty awkward intersection, so it's not hard to see how this happened.
My favorite part was when some dude - who wasn't involved in the mishap - and who wasn't even wearing shoes - just hopped out into the middle of the road and started directing traffic.  He actually did a pretty good job.  After the police arrived, there were two officers directing traffic, and they weren't facing each other...so they may have both told their oncoming lanes of traffic to go ahead at the same time.  Hmm. They sorted it out, though, after a minute.

Personally, I'd like to know how many flat tires needed to be fixed the next morning.  Hundreds of cars must have rolled through that pile of broken glass.

Across the street from the accident (and directly below the balcony) is this junkyard. 
If their cars are really messed up, they don't have far to go!

There are a TON of Volkswagen Beetles, though.  Actually, most of the cars on the road are pretty compact.  I've seen a few SUVs and minivans, but they certainly don't dominate the road here, like they do at home.

So that was my official concession to my New Jersey heritage - a quick chat about traffic.

If you drive, please be kind to pedestrians.  I get tired when I have to run across every sunbaked street.

Tchau!