McDonalds; a luxury food?

It's Monday (and now Tuesday since I did not finish this last night) and things have been pretty sedate since last Thursday's update. I'm blending more and more into the day to day activities, feeling much more comfortable with the language and not in a panic wondering if I can get by handling the basics of day to day living here with such things as shopping, limited socializing and getting around the city.

McDonalds Shock
When did McDonalds become a luxury food? In the shopping mall there are McDonalds ice cream stands and in a separate area McDonalds restuarants. I've not had any interest in eating at a McDonalds here until the other day. I was craving one of the basic McD's hamburgers so I went to one of their restuarants. The menus here only offer the premium items we see in the US. They don't have the "dollar menu" or basic hamburgers etc. As I was looking at the menu board I finally noticed the prices; my eyes about fell out of my head! A Big Mac is $12.50 Reais which is $7.50 usd, add fries for $7.50 Reais ($4.50 usd) and a coke for about $3.00 usd which comes to about $17.00 usd for your basic McD's meal! Needless to say I won't be eating there. I'll take the local, prepared fresh every day Brazilian food for about $4.50 usd for a full plate!

The Movies
Since things have been relaxed I've taken in a couple movies. They're in english with portuguese subtitles. I thought the subtitles would help me learn a little, and granted I did learn a couple words here and there. But I found myself watching the moving, ignoring the subtitles and watching like I do at home. Both movies were pretty good. The first was "Flawless" with Demi Moore and Michael Cain and pulling off a diamond heist in the 60's. Demi's acting was excellent and I alway enjoy Micheal Cain. The other movie was called "The Street Kings". It was a bit voilet and pretty heavy on the dirty language, but once the movie got going it was entertaining and had a plot that kept you guessing.

Camarone Gringoe
I decided to spend Saturday at the beach. During the week the beaches are kind of quiet and relaxed. On the weekends its a whole different story. It's like they move entire cities to the beach. During the week its sand and few people. On the weekends its full on services, chairs, umbrellas for as far as the eye can see. When you approach the beach area you are immediately approched by many "greeters" who meet people and try to point them to the area they're servicing. Since I didn't want to fight my way through the crowds, I acknowledged one guy and let him take me down to the area where he'd set up business. They fix the chair, make sure the umbrella is set the way you want, bring you a little table and make sure you're all set in. For some reason they don't push things, they ask if you want something and if you say no, they go off a leave you alone. However, the moment you look around and or look like you want something, these guys appear out of no where to wait on you. Drinks, food, whatever you want, they'll go hustle it up for you; its a very relaxing way to spend the day.

I decided to forgo the sunscreen and thinking I was under the umbrellas (I did not go in the sun once) I was safe from sunburn. This one vendor kept coming by trying to sell me sunscreen --which is another item that will cause sticker shock, even at the wal mart, sunscreen is incredibly expensive-- and he kept saying "voce irie a camarone" (Camarones are shrimp and are very red) "you will be red". Oblivious I spend the entire afternoon there. Finally I headed home and I felt like I was a little sun burned. Sure enough back at the apartment I looked in the mirror, my chest and legs were bright red. Thank goodness not burned, but still pretty darn red. I guess the UV is reflective even in the shade. Next time I invest in the sunscreen!!

Sunday with Paulo's family
When Paulo and I had dinner last week he invited me to church Sunday and to have lunch afterwards with his family; I agreed. This was my first time in a Mormon church and a little aprehensive a first because I didn't know what to expect. All in all it was good morning. Paulo is the secretarty and organist for the church so he introduced me to a few people and had to run off to take care of things. He put me in the care of two missionaries from the --as they called it-- Missionary Factory in Salt Lake City. I must say it was nice to have someone to talk to in full english! I sat with them through the service. One of them translated for me, which made it nice to understand what was being said. Afterwards I witnessed a baptism and Paulo introduced me to his (seemingly never ending) family members. Sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, it was all a blur. After the services we made our way through the little village to his house (in a downpour of rain!! Thank goodness we had umbrellas). His mother and sisters had lunch prepared and we all ate. I did manage some basic conversation without feeling completely foolish and they did a good job of making me feel comfortable being there. From what I understand Paulo's family is one who hosts new missionaries when they arrive in the area, so they're used to having strangers and people that don't speak portuguese around. Paulo is the only one in the family who speaks any english. All it all it was a very nice day. Needless to say, I did come home with a "Book of Mormon" (in portuguese) as I didn't feel comfortable saying no. The missionary guy said if I can complete the book, I will know Portuguese; I'm sure I would :-)

G0vernors Mansion
Finally I got to the Governors Mansion! It was pouring rain again, but I said I "had to go". The proper name is "Palácio do Campo das Princes" which means "field house (camp) of the princes. As I understand it, this area is where one of the kings would come to "camp" and the park in front of the palace is where his children would play (the princes). He built the first governors mansion there in 1851. Over the years it has grown to what it is today. The Governor does not live the now --though they have the choice to--, but it is still an active government building, thus there is security detail assigned to each of the tours. The rain kept us from touring the gardens -- which looked amazing--, though afterwards I did get a quick photo in front between rain squalls.





















Casa Fort
After the tour, --which my camera batteries died!! and I did not bring my extra, so no photos of Casa Forte-- I wanted to see the older upper class neighborhood of Recife called Casa Forte. It is a very (very) expensive place and I'd read about the old mansions and old architecture there. I managed to navigate my way there and spent a few hours walking around. It was very relaxed, lots of trees, uncrowded streets and an occaisonal mansion from the 1800's to turn of the century. I was finally able to determine the financial history of Recife. It was founded in the 1600's and was the first major european city in Brazil. Sugarcane and slaves where the primary trade and into the late 1800's is was the finanicial and trade capital in Brazil. Remenents of its wealth and power are seen throughout the city and in the older upscale neighborhoods. Two major things contributed to the loss of power: 1. the "discovery" of sugar beets in Europe decreased the need for sugar cane from Brazil, and 2. Coffee in the south (Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo) became the next major export for the country. As that happend, the slaves, the money and the power shifted to the south. By the 1950's Recife was in decline. Recife's economy started recovering in the 90's, as evident by the new high rise buildings, some (very limited) reconstruction downtown etc. It has a long way to go, but if it keeps going it has the potential to be strong city as it was in the past.

Lost and Found again
My languange was really put to the test yesterday!! It has been raining off and on here. When it rains here, it pours. There's no sprinlkes, when it comes down, it comes down. The good thing is the rain never seems to last for more than 20 or 30 minutes. Walking around one day and having got caught is heavy rain twice, I bought a cheap (BIG) umbrella.

I went to the mall for lunch and took the umbrella as it had been raining off and on. Had lunch and walked off and left the umbrella at the table. I got to the other side of the mall and realized I left it. I hustled back to the table and of course it was gone. I looked around in a panic (for two reasons, I wanted the umbrella and I was a bit stricken how to go about asking where I could find it), finally I approached one of the ladies cleaning up. I told her I spoke little portuguese and did she have a "voce tem a grande negra sobrino?" (do you have a large black umbrella?). She paniced a little too and called another lady over, who --very patiently and slowly-- explained to me in portugues where to go find the REC (pronounced hecke) which is the lost and found. After asking directions a couple times, I found the place and managed to convey I was looking for the an umbrella. The guy dissapeared and came back a few minutes later with my umbrella; I was so happy.

Remember this?
I took this picture last fall of the local produce stand. The other morning I had to get a picture of it open to show it really is the local streets produce stand.

And Finally

It's Tuesday and I spent the day in Recife's central market place. Since its very crowded there and there's the possibility of petty crime, I did not take the camera or anything with me. I spend the entire day walking through the many street and alleys crowded with vendors selling everything imaginable. I walked and walked until my feet were killing me. Had lunch in a tiny kitchen tucked away in one of the alleys and shopped for Brazilian flags for myself and some friends. As I decided to leave, I chose rush hour to get on the bus. The usual 25 minute ride turned into an hour and fifteen minutes. By the time I went to the wal mart for evening food supplies and got back to the apartment I was beat!!

Wednesday I'm hoping to go swimming in the beach pools when the tides are out, Thursday I'll be going to Gravata and Friday preparing to leave on Saturday. With any luck I will have another post or two before I leave.

Lost, Found and my 4 Portuguese Mothers

The friendliness of the Brazilian people is amazing. I've been a number of places and you can always find someone who'll assist you regardless. But the Brazilians take passion in assisting and making you feel like you have an instant friend. This week was a good example.

Last fall (Brazilian spring) I'd met Paulo the guy that became my translator and tour guide. I was hoping to meet up with him again on this trip, but now that he's working full time and going to school full time we have not had the chance to meet up. Finally, Wednesday this week he had a few hours between work and school so we decided I'd go meet him for dinner during his break. --It's amazing how the simplest of things become adventures :-)--

He gave me instructions on what bus to catch and where to get off. But we forgot to discuss one minor detail, which was "where" I was going to catch the bus.

To divert from the story, I'll take a moment and describe how I've used the bus system here. As mentioned buses are everywhere and a very efficient means to get around as long as you know the system. At a macro level the system relies on a hub and spoke method where you go from one major location to another. If you know the direction of a major hub and your stop is in between, then you get on and hop off at the location on the way to the hub. I've been very careful to keep my bus rides on the major avenues that have direct runs to the major bus hubs. I have two fall back plans in case I get on a bus and get lost: 1. is to get off the bus and hail a taxi. It may cost a lot, but I can give the taxi driver the address of the apartment and let them carry me back. 2. The second plan is to simply stay on the bus until it returns. All the buses run circular routes and as long as the bus does not go out of service, it will eventually come back to the place you started. With these plans I felt comfortable I had options to deal with most situations.

Back to the story, Paulo said to catch a bus to Piedade and get off at the big shopping center called Shopping Guararapes. He assumed I would catch the bus on the major avenue Boa Viagem which would be a direct route to the shopping center. Well, as it was, I boarded the bus at the shopping center near the apartment. I got on the bus that said "Piedade Shopping". --Thank goodness I was carrying the cell phone with me!-- As soon as the bus departed I knew I wasn't on the right bus. The sign was right, but the direction was all wrong. So I called Paulo and told him what bus I was on (Again he thought I had boarded on the Avenue not at the Shopping center) and he said OK, it will take a little longer, but you will get here, just stay on the bus, so I said OK. About 20 minutes passed and we're heading in the general direction of Piedade but my instinct kept telling me this was wrong. I waited another 15 minutes and just as I was calling Paulo, he called me and said "where are you?". I said "I have no clue". He confirmed what bus (again) and said "OK, you will be here in a couple minutes", I said "I don't like this, I think I am on the wrong bus". --it was obvious to me because this bus was not on any major streets. It was winding its way in and out of all these little streets going many different directions and my gut kept telling me it was not right.-- Finally another 10-15 minutes passes and Paulo calls again and said "you should be here by now!", "I know" I said. The he asked me "where did you catch the bus?" I told him at "Shopping Recife" and his response was all so reassuring when he said "oh you're on THAT bus!", "Oh My God you're a long way from here!" Great I'm thinking. He asked me again, "where are you??", "I have NO Clue" I said.

Meanwhile we had stopped and picked up a load of screaming school kids and with them was a middle aged lady who had worked her way back to where I was standing. Paulo asked if there was an adult near me and I said yes. He said "let me talk to her". Great, here I am a complete stranger, I tap on this lady's shoulder and said "eu nao fala portuguese, pode voce fala meu amigo por favor". (I don't speak Portuguese, can you talk to my friend please). She looked at me kind of strange, I handed her the phone. She took it and listened for a minute, then she started nodding her head and she and Paulo talked for a couple minutes. She handed me back the phone and Paulo said to follow her, she would take me to a bus stop where I could get a bus back to the Shopping Guararapes center. So I said ok.

The lady was short -about 5'2", friendly and full of energy. She immediately started chatting at me a 100 miles an hour in Portuguese. I told her I spoke very little Portuguese and she nodded and kept chatting away like we were old friends having a coffee house conversation. Finally we reached a stop, she grabbed my arm and hustled me off the bus. We were in some far out suburban neighborhood that was all dirt streets and definitely not the city!! Here this little 5'2" pleasant lady with these platform shoes, a purse as big as her body is walking me down these rough undeveloped crowded streets chatting away, pointing for me to step over these big holes, around rocks while never breaking conversation. I know she told me something about her daughter, where she lived, where she worked, but that's all I know. I think I had her whole life story at the rate she was talking. At one point we passed a vendor stand she knew. She stops, they hug, they chat, she points to me and I can tell she told the girl I didn't speak Portuguese and she was saying something about where I was going and she was taking me to the bus. They said "tchau" and off we went again.

Finally we get to a bus stop. --Another side note. There are two kinds of bus systems; the government owned and run buses, and private companies. The private companies run these small shuttle buses with a guy hanging out the door calling to people and hustling for business. They compete for the city business and their differentiators is they're friendly, helpful and add a person touch to the bus ride where the city bus operators are lifeless.-- My lady friend hails down this little bus and she asks the guy if they're going to Shopping Guararapes. He said "yes". She confirms, then in a very stern motherly voice she makes sure he acknowledges where I am going and to make sure I get off at the right stop and he's nodding his head "yes, yes" (quite bothered by all this, but committed). My lady friend gives me a hug, says bye etc...and as I get on the bus there are these 3 other ladies. I really don't know if she knew them or not, but she yells at them that I don't speak Portuguese and make sure I get off at the shopping mall. It was like tag team mothers. They immediately pointed to a seat next to them, and just like the first lady, they starting chatting away. They asked me my name, where I was from, what was I doing in Brazil. For each answer they would nod their head, jabber away for a couple mins with each other, then ask me the next question just like I understood every word they said. All this with smiles, little touches to my arm, just I like they knew me all their life.

Finally we get to the shopping center and the three gather around me, hustle me off the bus and we start walking toward the mall. Paulo had spotted me getting off the bus and came over to meet me. I knew I was in safe hands as he was immediately met with the "inquisition wall" of the 3 ladies!! Finally it was acknowledged we knew one another and they let us go after all sorts of "muito prazer, obrigado, de nada, boa viagem" -Nice to meet you, thank you, your welcome and have a good journey".

By the time I met up with Paulo we only had about 20 minutes, so we grabbed some Acai --a brazilian fruit drink-- and we chatted for a bit. Then he took me to the bus stop, made sure I got on the right bus back, and off I went. I got back to the apartment with no problems, but completely exhausted.

The more I spend time walking around I'm amazed at how social people are here. And it doesn't matter if I speak much Portuguese; they are perfectly happy to have conversations with me just nodding my head and smiling. Today I was looking at a new building under construction; which, if not going to be the tallest building in the area, definitely one of them. I am standing there looking up at it and this old guy walks up, he's looking at it to, and starts to speak. I say I speak little Portuguese, he smiles and chats. He made some mention of 9/11 and airplanes hitting the skyscrapers etc..but perfectly happy to chat away and me with little comprehension. His bus arrived, shook my hand, gave me a big smile and hopped on his bus and waved as he was leaving. Amazing. Life in Brazil :-)

Brazil 2008: The adventure continues

Going Again
When we left the Brazilian adventures last November I knew I wanted to go back, but didn't realize it would be this soon. I must admit the country has a strong calling to me: the people, the culture, the climate, the energy, the diversity just kept me calling me. So here I am, back in Recife. I chose Recife as a base of operations again because of its familiarity and simply said, I love this city.
I left on Friday April 11th. Other than being requested to change flights at the very last minute ---the airline asked me if I'd be willing to give up my seat for a lady who was desperately trying to get to Bolivia after the American Airlines fiasco the day before. I gave her my seat, the airline compensated me $300 and put me on other flight though Dallas and all went well. When arriving to Sao Paulo this time, the weather was clear and I was sitting on the right side of the plane. Last time we arrived I was on the left side of the plane and saw some of Sao Paulo thinking I had seen the majority of the city; WRONG. As we were on the approach and broke though some clouds my jaw dropped. For as far as the eye could see it was miles and miles of city. Countless high rise buildings --hundreds and hundreds of them-- as far as you could see. I was astounded at the shear magnitude. On one hand I was completely fascinated by what I saw, on the other hand I am glad I'm not trying to navigate my way around a city of these proportions!!
The layover in Sao Paulo was smooth. I could not stop grinning from ear to ear when I grabbed an "empanda de frango" (a pastry filled with chicken) as I was immediately back in love with the Brazilian cuisine.
The flight to Recife went perfectly and I arrived without a problem. Again the beauty of the Recife's glistening white skyline against emerald green hills and the turquoise ocean is just to beautiful to describe.
The First Week
Not much to report for the first week in Recife. Work keep me busy 12-13 hours a day. --Side note, I made contact with the lady across the street who makes those absolutely heavily home made lunches!! I would call at 9am and promptly at 11:50 either her or her son would deliver a hot wonderful meal; where else can you get freshly made food delivered to your door for about $4.50 a day? THIS is why I came back to Recife :-) (just kidding) back to the original topic-- I was reminded how much I like working in this time zone. I would wake up around 6am Recife time, be online and working by 7am --which is a hour ahead of east coast time; I've always liked being at work before the boss-- yet in time to work with Asia and Europe while they're still in their work day, then be able to wrap the day up dealing with west coast time zone; its perfect.
With the workload about all I got to do was walk to the local Wal-Mart for necessities and the local shopping mall for other food for the first week. One evening I did go see the Tapioca lady for her wonderful "tapioca com leitche" (tapioca with milk). The tapioca craving also got me a bus ride that I love so much; I still think the bus rides in Recife are the best carnival rides in the world :-) Finally the work week wound down and I made plans to travel into the country side.
Pharmacies
On Thursday I went to the mall for food at one of the kitchens there. These are buffet style kitchens where food is prepared and set out. Evidently one of the dishes I had (I think it was the rice with meat) didn't fare to well with my stomach and by the nights end I knew I was in trouble. Good thing I was in the apartment all day Friday as my system kept me in the bathroom most of the day. By Friday evening things were not getting any better, so I walked down to one of the (many) local 24 hour street pharmacies. These places are wide open (no door, just huge open store fronts) well lit and well staffed by friendly helpful people. I said "eu tenho diariah" the lady smiled, reached under the counter and pulled out a box of pills. I bought one pack (there were 4 pills per pack) and went back to the apartment. What she gave me worked immediately (thank goodness). As it turns out you can walk into any of these 24 hour pharmacies and buy single items without having to buy entire bottles or boxes for common things. This was realized when I stopped in again on Sunday to get a Band aid for a blister. I asked for Band aid expecting to have to buy a box, but instead the guy went to a shelf brought back an opened box a said "how many"? So I bought 5 band aids! Hopefully I won't have to visit the pharmacy again, but its very comforting to know all the basics are close and easy to get if needed.

Adventuring to Garanhuns and Gravata (or so I thought)

The weekend was here and I was excited to head out into the countryside. Two villages were on the agenda; Garanhuns and Gravata. Garanhuns is known to be the coldest city in the state of Pernambuco and Gravata was settled by the Swiss and has significant Swiss architectural influence. The "plan" was I would ride the bus to Garanhuns as it was the furthest city, then on the way back stop in Gravata....at least this was the plan. As the say "best laid plans....."

After successfully getting to the Rodoviaria (the main bus terminal) I bought tickets to Garanhuns. I had some time to kill so waited around studying all the shop signs trying to understand what they were selling etc. Finally it was time to board the bus. Here is a photo inside the Rodoviaria in Recife

Art and Music Promises
As I was getting on the bus there was a sign in the front window advertising an art and music festival in Garanhuns, "cool" I thought to myself. "There will be something to see and experience while I am there!!" So on the bus and off into the countryside. Last time on the bus the trip was north up the coast. This trip was directly west inland. Once out of Recife the land scape became rolling green hills. Again I was amazed at how much native flora and fauna has been burned to open up the country to sugar cane and ranching. As we got further out I could see large beautiful ranches and big homes (obviously country homes of Recife's wealthy) We traveled west for 4 hours and finally reach Garanhuns. Garanuhus' elevation is about 3 thousand feet; quite high for this region of the country. As soon as I stepped off the bus it was definitely cooler here with a stiff breeze blowing. Once I oriented myself I started walking to the central district by following the signs to "centro". I had no idea what kind of weekend I was walking into!!

Hotel? Where?
After walking for 20 minutes --on the way to the central district-- I passed the area where the art and music festival was going to be held. It was about 5pm and nothing was happening yet, so I continued to "centro". The central part of Garanhuns is not much. It is little down town with the basic stores, shops and local government. I figured it was time to look for a room. I saw a couple places so walked to the first. About all my Portuguese allowed me to say is "voce tem uma quarta?" (Do you have a room?). Nao (no) was the reply. Ok I said, and walked to the next one, "Nao", walked to the 3rd "Nao". At the 3rd hotel they had flyers for the festival that weekend. After reading it in more detail I came to realize this was the final weekend of the Art and Music Festival that had been running since December. This weekend was to have a contest of --apparently-- famous artists. At that moment I panicked a little as a realized there might not be a hotel room to be had!! After covering the hotels in the central area, I started walking down the main avenue hoping to find something and I was forming alternative plans in my mind if I couldn't get a hotel room. On the 6th try I was tired and a little frustrated. By now all composure I had in Portuguese was gone and any sentence I tried to speak was "porspangles" a terrible combination of Portuguese, Spanish and English. The guy at the desk sensed my frustration. Of course he doesn't speak a word of English. I was about to leave and he said something that I figured to be "wait". He got on the phone and was obviously calling places. Finally he found something. He took me outside an pointed up the hill above the festival grounds. Pointing to a the place, I made sure I had the directions correct, he nodded and said "vamos rapido" "go fast". He did not have to repeat that twice!! Off I hurried up the hill hoping I had the directions correct. Sure enough I saw a sign for the hotel and went inside. There was one another person there when I arrived. Obviously the guy who called told them I did not speak much Portuguese and they had everything ready and easy for me to check in. As I finalized the check in process, --about 15 minutes after I arrived-- there was a line out the door with people trying to get rooms for the night!..Whew!! I breathed a huge sigh of relief!!

Party all night long

With a room secure, I set out to look for dinner. I found a great place off the central district that served Brazilian Italian food. The food was excellent and I sat for quite a while just to relax. Finally about 9pm I left the restaurant and headed back to the festival. Expecting to see things happening by now, I was met with more people, but obviously nothing happening. So I milled around for awhile and toward 10pm more people started arriving. The festival grounds were large with a huge stage for the performers. They were testing the sound system --which was rock concert scale-- and it was obvious it was going to be a loud night!!

Finally around 11:30 the performances started and there were quite a few people there (15,000 or so I guess, but as it turns out it paled in comparison to the next night). The music was good and around 12:30 it was apparent this phase of the music was over. I headed back the hotel and as I was getting to bed, the live music started up again at 1am!! I cannot describe the volume!! The entire city vibrated with music and I'm sure it could be heard for miles and miles. As it turned out the first group of performers where the warm up act and music reverberated through the city until 4:30am!! Needless to say, not much sleep that night!!

The sights of the "Cidade das Flores"

The next morning I woke up around 7:30 with a pounding headache. I could not stay in the hotel room as it was about as luxurious as a jail cell!! 3 cots (a bunk bed and one twin bed) in a tiny room with little windows for ventilation and a basic of all basic bathrooms. I headed out to find breakfast and found a small cafe in the centro. While eating and reading a flyer about the city, come to find out, Garanhuns is called the "City of Flowers". The day then consisted of touring the two of the more popular parks, a small castle and finally the highest point in the region. The parks were as expected and I covered a lot of ground to see them. The castle was interesting. It was in all the literature and I was expecting to see something special. Come to find out it was built within the past 15 years by a guy for his personal residence. It is very small and he never finished it. But people were curious and over time it became a tourist attraction. When you get inside it consists of 3 barely finished rooms and the back part of the building is incomplete. The last stop of the day was the "monte de christo" "Mount of Christ" which is the highest place in the region. It was late by the time I got there and the lighting was bad to take good pictures of the Brazilian countryside. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was definitely cool, so I did not spend much time there. I got back to the hotel room about 5:30 and took a nap as I was wiped out. I knew this night was going to be a repeat if the last, so I took a long hard nap. Around 9:30 I left the room and made my way back to the restaurant from the night before.

The party continues
After dinner I headed back to the festival area. This night was double the magnitude of the night before! Everyone was there!! ages 9 to 90!! and obviously from the surrounding regions and cities as well. Everyone was smiling and enjoying the evening. Alcohol was everywhere. Not just beer and wine, but 5ths of hard liquor of all sorts. Apparently minors cannot buy liquor, BUT if they have it the cops don't care. So many adolescents walking around with Red Bull and whisky having quite a time. Based in the previous nights music experience I was aware they didn't care how loud the music was because the entire city is at the party. If you're at home and don't like the music, come join the party or to bad! My thoughts were to tough it out because sleeping was out of the question. The party started about 11:30 again and I found a comfortable spot where I could watch the people and see the bands playing. The amusement was watching young guys completely drunk --with their girlfriends-- climb onto a motorbike, wobble and barely hold things up, put on their helmets and ride away weaving up the hill: crazy! The helmet laws are strictly enforced here. I watched guys completely obliterated, get on a motorbike --with helmets-- in front of the cops and ride away. Watched another guy and his friend climb on a motorbike without helmets and as they started up the hill the cop grabbed them and hauled them off!!

Oh, Brazilians always have "music to go"! As I was touring walking around, first heard, then saw this little car with enough watts to power a house! You see these all over. Guys will pull up, turn on the music, people gather and its a party!

Defying the laws of physics

But the most amazing and amusing thing of the night were the women. Brazilian women obviously dress to the 9's for any party. Young and old, they're all dressed to kill; some more moderate than other, but all done up in their best. Some look crazy, some absolutely stunning, and none of them are casually dressed.

The place I choose to hang out for the evening was on the edge of steep hill just off to the side of the grand stand. I could see the band, yet out of the crowds. All the little streets are cobblestones in these towns and are rough and full of holes. The street where I was standing was one of the entry / exit points, so I saw all sorts people coming going. People would walk carefully down the hill coming to the party and the drunk ones would stagger from side to side going up the hill. But here are these women in these high heeled pumps with 3 to 4 inch stiletto heels, with flimsy little straps holding them on their feet and they could walk up or down this rough cobblestone street with all the elegance of a New York model on fashion runway!! Complete composure, complete elegance, eyes ahead of them and never missing a step. It was amazing. Crap I couldn't hardly walk up and down these in my tennis shoes!! This became my entertainment; which woman with the most impossible shoes who could navigate the hill with the most elegance! Yes there were varying degrees, and yes some did stumble here and there, but most were very successful. My hats off to the ladies!!

Ready to go home

After staying up till 4am, I left the hotel at 8am to catch the bus back to Gravata. I got on the bus and immediately fell asleep. I kept waking up as I didn't want to miss the stop to Gravata. The morning drug on and finally I knew we were getting close to Gravata. After stopping in every small town from Garanhuns --the bus I took from Recife was a direct run to Garanhuns, the return bus stopped at all the towns in between, this was the only way to stop in Gravata.-- we reached the edge of town. I got ready for the stop and to my surprise the bus kept going! I watched Gravata's Rodoviaria pass by the window. At first I was going to yell out, but then I figured my portuguese was going to be less than optimal, plus I was totally wiped from the weekend of little sleep, so I decided I needed to go visit Gravata another time. Since I had only paid for a ticket to Gravata, I figured I would have to pay the difference when we arrived in Recifie. As it turns out I was never asked, so I got my return bus trip from Garanhuns to Recife for about 1/2 price!

Back to normal (for now)

Today is Tuesday and I've recovered from the weekend --good thing I'm on vacation now!! This morning I did some laundry, read a little, napped more, got a haircut succefully, took a walk on the beach and spent the afternoon updating the blog. The Governor's Mansion is on the list and I still want to see Gravata, so will plan on venturing back there before I leave. I looked into going to the Amazon to see the forest. Now I know why it takes so long to get there even by plane! There are no direct flights. Apperantly once in the region planes fly up the amazon river stopping at the major ports. By the time you get to Manous you've made 4 or 5 stops thus making it 10 hours of flying. I think I'll pass on it this time :-) I will update the adventures later this week.

Photos have been updated

Follow this link to Flickr to see all the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/14172071@N02/60aRYN

See a map of where the photos were taken (cool feature)

Flickr has this cool feature!! Now you can see where all the pictures where taken on a map!

You can zoom in pretty far by using the zoom slider on the right side of the page. You can also switch between map and satellite views for a better perspective. Only Fortaleza has high resolution satellite where you can see detail.

http://www.flickr.com/map/?&user_id=14172071@N02&fLat=-5.37652&fLon=-35.463866&zl=13

Things I'll miss, won't miss and memorable moments.

What I'll miss the most:

• THE FOOD! I cannot describe how good the food was, especially "rice and beans". Also, what amazed me was how available fresh food was, everywhere! All food was prepared daily from fresh ingredients. After a month of having such good food always available, one of the hardest things is coming back to the US knowing that finding the quality and flavors will be impossible to find!!
• The incredibly efficient bus system. As wild as the bus rides are, the transport system works well and is very efficient for getting around. Nowhere in America can I think of a place were public transportation works as efficiently as the Brazilian inter and intra city bus systems. Simply amazing.
• The weather. I imagine after a full year, the weather would be boring as it doesn't vary much except during the rainy season when its wetter. But warm nights, nice breezes and temperatures not overbearing makes it nice to be outside anytime of day.
• Brazil's obvious effort to promote alternative fuels. All gas stations have: regular gas, alcohol fuel, natural gas, diesel and bio diesel. Brazil has the highest percentage of cars capable of running "flex fuels" of any nation in the world. In part its what's fueled the huge sugar cane plantations as a large portion of sugar cane is now used in manufacture of alternative fuels.

What I won't miss

• Severe water pollution: While there's not a lot of air pollution, in Recife the water pollution and open sewer systems is overbearing. They've managed to keep the main beaches free of polluted water, but all inland waterways are indescribably filthy and smelly. While we may complain about "environmentalists" in the US, after visiting a country and cities where there is no environmental controls, I'll take our environmentalists any day.
• Power systems are antiquated and water systems are poor and unreliable.
• Cost of things: Brazil is not a cheap country to live! Despite almost a 2 to 1 exchange rate (2 reais to 1 dollar) I was shocked at the cost of certain things. Electronics are more expensive than the US by far. Simple cameras costing $100 US will cost you $250 to $300 US Dollars in Brazil. This is due to high import taxes. Want to buy your basic Honda Accord in Brazil? Figure to spend $43,000 USD in Brazil costing $30,000 in the US. Again import taxes. Even the most basic cars manufactured in Brazil (Volkswagen & Fiat) will cost you $25,000 to $30,000 USD. Food from the grocery stores is on par with US food costs. Though the vendor food, some restaurants and the "cafes" are definitely cheaper than the equivalent in the US. The two things significantly cheaper in Brazil than the US: real estate and services labor. I didn't know this, but Brazil has the highest tax structure of any country in the world. Its a shame there's so much corruption hindering this country from moving forward. Again, we have it pretty good in the US despite what we think.

Two of my most memorable moments (both "bus" experiences)

• On Sunday bus fares are half off. This is to get people out, shopping etc. As a result the main bus terminals around shopping centers and beach destinations are crowded. Long lines and people pushing to get on buses. After dealing with the crowd in a long line, as we approached the front of the line for the next bus, I saw guys crowding the gate and their wives or girlfriends would hang back out of the pushing. When the gates open these guys would fight their way onto the bus and run to get seats. Then as their wives or girlfriend finally get on the bus to where their man was, the guys would get up and give the seats to the ladies. I don't know why I found this so impressive, but I know we'd never see this kind of thing in the US. I can say (for the most part) men treat their ladies properly and it really impressed me.
• When traveling with Paulo, it made thing easy as I would tend to stop trying to speak Portuguese and let him speak for me when interfacing with people. What made it worse, is Paulo is learning english, so he wanted to speak to me in english with me correcting him when needed. So I became lazy and would talk to him in english and when he was around I'd look to him to converse with whoever in Portuguese. One day we got on the bus --at which point I could buy tickets, pay, take change and ask the most basic questions in Portuguese. Anyway, Paulo had gone ahead as I was paying for my ticket. The ticket taker asked me a question I didn't understand and I responded, "Eu nao fala Portugues" (I don't speak Portugues). Paulo turned and said in a very surprisingly loud voice -he was always soft spoken and the loud voice shocked me-- Sim! voce fez fala poqueno Portugues (Yes, you do speak a little Portugues). He turned to the ticket man and told him, "voce de vaga, e ele irie entendo voce" (you speak slowly and he will understand you). We both looked at him in shock. With both of us looking like scolded school children, finished the transaction, in Portuguese. What was kind of cute, the ticket guy got a bit of a twinkle in his eye, with the slightest of smiles and shaking his head, he kept saying "voce nao fala portugues, sheesh" (you don't speak Portuguese). In that moment I knew I had to begin being responsible for my communications going forward regardless of who was around!!

Fortaleza 11/5 to 11/7

The trip to Fortaleza by bus went smoothly. The geography was much different than the Recife to Natal trip. Where the first trip was agricultural and green, between Natal and Fortaleza, the terrain is all desert. If I didn't know I was in Brazil, I would have thought I would have been traveling through southern Nevada and Arizona; it was almost identical.

Around 7:30pm we arrived in Fortaleza. What a pleasant suprise. Frankly, Natal was a bit to tourist and "hustling" for me. After Natal I wasn't really looking forward to "just another beach town in Brazil". But Fortaleza quickly dispelled any concerns; it was very clean, very modern and quite upscale. Fortaleza is also a tourist city, but taylors to more high end clientele from southern Brazil, other South American cities and Europe. Beaches are clean, streets are clean, modern infrastructure, professional people etc. Also, for the last few nights in Brazil I wanted to stay in a nice hotel. We asked the taxi driver for a recommendation and he was more interested in taking us to places he obviously had "connections" to. After a brief moment of "discussion" he took us to the main water front where he asked another taxi drive to recommend a place. Mind you most of these were 5 start hotels and I began to wonder if I was asking for the right thing. As luck was with us (as it was on most of the trip), the "local guys" sent us to one of the 5 star hotel where "locals" stay. The hotel was on the waterfront, impeccable views, near all the activities, I couldn't have been happier, and better yet it was only about $95 dollars US. Since my objective was to purely relax in Fortaleza, we did not do a lot. We walked a lot around the city the next day. Visited a local shopping bazar, saw a big church --like what you see in europe. Then we had to do something to satisfy my "real estate curiosity". A new apartment highrise had an open house. We toured the penthouse suite and some of the lower floor apartments. The penthouse was selling for $1.4million Reais = $750k usd. While it wasn't a kind of place I'd be interested in, the views were absolutely stunning.

The next day we decided we'd leave for Recife that night. Since it was going to be a 12 hr bus ride, we spent the day relaxing on the beach waiting for the bus time. I took this photo of one of the fisherman. These guys are on their little boats from sun up to sun down fishing; what a hard life. After a quiet afternoon we headed to the Rodaviaria and took a "red eye" sleeper bus back to Recife. Oh My Gosh, was the bus PLUSH!! each of the seats made into sleeper beds. The bus was manufactured by Mercedes and it's obvious it was engineered specifically for comfort and sleeping. There was hardly any sound (lots of sound proofing and deadening), the suspension was tuned to be soft and non-jarring even on the roughest roads. The only complaint was the had the AC on and it was freezing. Thank goodness they handed out blankets!!

I slept well and we arrived back in Recife at 8:00 the next morning