Never a dull moment

Well, yesterday seemed to pass off without too much trouble thank goodness. Here in São Paulo at least, the police managed to keep the opposing demonstrators apart by about two miles. What happens next remains to be seen. It is uncanny how the situation here appears to mirror what happened pre-election in the US. President Bolsonaro is an ardent Trump supporter...

Since the protests were happening some way away, my friend and I decided to go to the farmers market which is held on a nearby side street. The market is about three blocks long and the stalls run down either side of the road with a passage in between for customers to walk along and make their purchases. The road is naturally closed to traffic on market day.

I was selecting some fruit when I began to hear police sirens getting ever louder and closer until they sounded as if they were driving into the market. The sirens kept going and there was some sort of disturbance about thirty yards away in the middle of the crowded market. Suddenly we heard shots being fired. My friend and I took one look at each other, dropped what we were doing and walked quickly to the end of the market away from the disturbance, as did quite a few others. Some people, believe it or not, just carried on shopping!

We waited on a pavement sheltering against a wall behind a stall, wanting to know what was going on before risking walking home - after all you never know what you might walk into going round a corner and because of my op I can neither run nor fling myself under a stall table. More police cars appeared and started racing up and down the surrounding roads, evidently in pursuit of someone. 

It turns out the police were chasing two bandits on a motorbike, who tried to escape through the market. The passenger fell off and was captured and a policeman fired (in a crowded street!!!!!!) at the other one who was getting away. Whether he was caught or not I don´t know, we didn´t hang around to find out. There was nothing on the local news last night as, unless someone is killed, it is not considered newsworthy.