The next morning I arrived at the
show at 9:00 AM as planned, and found Fabio not there. Finally, at about
10:30, Constantine showed up, and told me that the equipment (the stuff
we shipped months ago) would be arriving at 12:00. About half a hour later,
a workman read my badge and handed me a cellphone - it was Manuel, telling
me that the equipment wouldn't be there until 4:00 pm. I told Constantine,
he called Manuel back, and confirmed same. So there I was, cooling my heels
for another day. I wandered the show floor for a while, including the food
counters, waiting in 90 degree temperatures, 100% humidity, and anticipation.
Once construction of the upper floors of the booth were completeted, they
were able to turn on the air conditioning, which improved things somewhat.
We walked to a local mall which, except for the Portugese could have been in New York - there really was very little different from our local stores. Prices were similar as well; $1 for a soda, $35 - $170 for sneakers. There weren't that many common brands, but the products were essentially the same stuff under different names. A couple of shops specializing in Easter eggs and candy - I imagine that Easter is a big one around here. And one novelty shop was selling an "American Family Puzzle": a Rubick's cube! Recognizable brand names were more common in the supermarket that we visited next, but again, there was a surprising dearth of the exotic.
That evening, at 7:00pm (!) our equipment
eventually showed up...
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...and after the usual initial tempermental
behavior, it began working properly: