Irony in Sao Paulo

Hi again-I came across some interesting moments living here in Sao Paulo. Since we've been told that it's a relatively dangerous
town with kidnappings and lots of robberies-I've been looking forward to going down to the ATM here at the hotel since our
Cirque handlers informed us that the hotel had an ATM. This is a lot nicer than going out somewhere and risk getting robbed.
So I go down there only to be told by the concierge somewhat sadly (but not too much) that the ATM won't work with our cards.
Sure enough-no go. So-I have to go down to the mall. I walk the three blocks to get there. The first ATM (an HSBC bank machine) won't do anything for me. No go #2. So I go to the next ATM there complete with security guard. I feel safe. The first
one doesn't work either. It says to put your card in with stripe up. It doesn't work. I put the card in the wrong way and IT WORKS-or at least for a moment. When I make a selection marking Cirrus as my network-it shuts me down. No go #3.
Then-I go the the other one there-this one has a picture of Ren Jun our trapeze artist on it over the words "SALTIMBANCO". Great-it's the show I'm playing-it's GOT to work. I try it and at first it doesn't work-I can't understand Portuguese and I'm trying to figure it out. There's a chance it will work. So-I get to the point where I put in my account number. The numbers are set differently than ATM machines everywhere else I've been-the top numbers aren't 1,2,3 but 7,8,9. So I have put in a wrong number and I'm trying to figure out how to cancel it and start over. I can't help being a bit frustrated and I say something like
"Damn machine!" only to sense that the security guard is looking me over (and he's armed of course). So-I calm down-put the card back into the machine while Ren Jun is on the screen of the "SALTIMBANCO" display-and finally I get my money.
To top things off-I go to the Cirque site later in the day to start work. There are signs plastered all around the site that say
(translated loosely) "SALTIMBANCO-brought to you by VISA!" I mean-VISA's got their sign plastered EVERYWHERE. I go up to
one of our crew members Sylvain. I tell him about my ordeal. He says "That's nothing. Do you see all the VISA signs here?
If you try to buy a ticket to see the show-guess what card they DON'T ACCEPT here-VISA!!!" Apparently it's true.
Whaddyaknow!