Sao Paulo cockroaches are prolific, verging on plague proportions. You can meet one walking down the street, in your kitchen or bathroom, in the hall … thank goodness they don’t fly! Or perhaps they do … I leave my bathroom window open, but that will change.

One was spotted walking along the cloisters at school; war was declared, with chemical warfare, heavy machinery (well, alright, pumps, and levers for the drain hole covers) and the whole area bounded by a cordon sanitaire – black and yellow striped tape. Kids reacted with predictable “Euughh YUCK!” But you did get the impression of life literally teeming just below the surface, a tile and concrete civilisation with another, crawling world underneath. Apparently this procedure – or at any rate a milder version – is needed just about every week. And they would survive a nuclear blast …