Feeling well rested, I woke up eary in hopes to photograph the sunrise somewhere over the lake. It turned out to be an overcast morning and there was no chance of that. The early morning to myself gave me the opportunity to start writing this journal. I have to take notes on my I-Touch as memorable events happen because it could be days after that I have the chance to recall and write about the events. There is so much happening every day and I am now three days behind on writing.
There is one thing I love in the early morning and that is having a nice hot cup of coffee. Down here the coffee makers are much smaller. I would say that they are half the size of a 12 cup coffee maker in the U.S. But when one makes a full pot of coffee, it will hold 24 cups. I had 24 cups of coffee before the girls woke up and joined me on the veranda for breakfast.
Breakfast here is comprised of a little bit of creamy cheese, bread and butter and coffee. The coffee is typically one part coffee, three parts milk and a few drops of some kind of liquid sugar. We don't have scrambled eggs with bacon and toast. Breakfast is always light. Followed by a lunch that I would compare to a typical dinner back home.I was dying to take another shower in the morning. It is the fall down here and the weather is supposedly cooler. It actually felt quite humid and one might find themselves in need of a shower a couple of times a day. At the lake house there are two showers. One is inside and one is outside. On this day I chose to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the outdoor shower. Yes it does have it's privacy tucked away in the back corner of the house.
There was much to do today as Elaine and Adriana had to prepare for the party on Friday. Our first stop was at Adriana's house. We are staying with Adriana and her son Giovanni this week and so brought all of our luggage to her place first.
Upon arrival we were greated by the housekeeper, Graca. Graca is a very kind lady and as Elaine and Adriana have so much to do together, I have found myself spending time just talking with Graca. Graca doesn't speak any English and I might as well say I don't speak Portuguese. But when you are face to face, you will find that spoken words are not the only thing used to communicate an expression. Graca quickly showed me how she works in the kitchen as she was preparing chicken for the evenings dinner. I watched closely as she cut up onions and garlic and mixed them with many bite-size cuts of chicken. She would show me each of the ingredients and tell me the name of them. I was able to recognize and can only recall frango and cebola. That would be chicken and onion. I don't remember the name for garlic at the moment and the white pepper she used. All of these ingredients were mixed together with 2 cups of white wine. The marinade was left to soak until our late night dinner.
When the work was complete, Graca offered to give me a rooftop tour of the place. We went up one flight of stairs to an area that overlooked the house and the motel that Elaine's father owns. On the roof there are several clothes lines hanging. This can be seen on every house in the area. They don't have clothes dryers here. Everyone hangs their clothes out to dry. Furthermore every rooftop has at least two huge water tubs on it. At first I thought it might be where the days hot water came from as they bake in the sun. There is no such thing as a hot water tank down here either. They have little electric heaters attached to the shower heads for hot water. After speaking with Elaine's father I learned that the tubs are just reservoirs for all of their water. There are so many people here that at times water can be in short supply. The tanks maintain a supply in periods of high demand.
After my tour with Graca we went to Elaine's parents house.
Today was her father's birthday and we all wished him a happy birthday. We sat and had lunch together. It is a tradition to make lunch the biggest meal of the day. We always have a lot of food at midday. It wasn't long before it was time to hit the road again. Giovanni had school and it was time to pick him up. I went with Adriana and picked up Giovanni to go grocery shopping. I was rather excited to go out and see what a supermarket was like here in Marataizes.In true "gringo" form I took my heavy camera with me. It was a dead giveaway that I am a tourist. Nevertheless I kept it tucked under my arm and asked Giovanni to assist me in getting some mosquito repelent and a few other items. Apparently we didn't start off very well. He took me to a cosmetic isle with spray cans that at first glance I thought the can said Rogaine. I looked at Giovanni and said I don't think this is mosquito repelant. He then realized what I was trying to say and took me to the right place and we got our repelant. Upon our trip back to where his mother was shopping, I was stopped by one of the Supermercado employees. She asked me if I wanted to sample some of her coffee. Much in the same way that someone in Wegmans would do. I politely responded in my brief, broken Portuguese way. I tasted the coffee and tried to say that it tasted sweet. It was clear the clerk did not understand me. So I quickly turned to Giovanni and asked him in Portuguese to help me. He smiled and shook his head no. I groaned. Then the clerk asked me if he didn't speak Portuguese. Oh so funny. I am the one standing there without a clue and I just passed off as the one that knew what they were doing. LOL. The next time this situation happened was at the checkout counter. Giovanni and I were unloading the shopping cart as Adriana was still shopping. I got a little wiser this time when the clerk asked me a question. I said "Sou Americano e nao falo Portugeus" and turned to Giovanni and said "me ajuda." I left the work to him as we went through the checkout line.
Around here I find that there are many people to assist you in every way. We had a lot of groceries and it took two attendants to push our loaded carts to Adriana's car. They provide door to door service. As I am thinking of it, they actually will deliver your goods if you ask them to.
When shopping in Brasil, there are several places you need to go to get what you need. We had to go to two supermarkets to get our food. Apparently the first store had the best prices and the second store had the best produce. I took a little self guided tour of the second store without my camera this time. I really wanted to see what it was like without people starring at me. I remember most what I saw in the meat case. There are large slabs of beef and other various meats. At one end of the case I saw hanging, what I can only say resembled a cow's tongue. Below it layed legs of some kind of cow, cut at the knee. It didn't look very appetizing.
We spent a little time in the produce department. It gave me a chance to see the many different fruits and what they are called. Don't ask me to remember. The only way I remember anything is if we are actually sitting down at the table and start talking about the specific food we are eating.
I got to check out the liquor department in the store as well. It gave me chance to look at prices and get a feel for how expensive things really are. There aren't many brands here that are the same as home obviously but there were some. They have Bicardi Rum, and if I recall correctly it costs R$95.00 for a liter. Depending on how you exchange your money that could be the equivalent of about $45.00. You see, if you want to exchange U.S. currency for Brazilian currency there are a few ways of doing it. I went to my bank at home and asked for an exchange. The bank can do it and it takes a couple of days to do. Plan ahead at least one week. I received R$760.00 for $520.00. Or you can wait until you are in the JFK Terminal to exchange your dollars. At that point we found they were paying R$1.45 for $1.00. Your best choice is to wait until you are in Brazil and can find someone who buys U.S. dollars. We haven't done it yet but I understand we could get R$1.75-R$1.80 for $1.00. Who knows?
In the evening we had a chance to settle down and relax at Adriana's house. Adriane prepared a nice dinner with the chicken that Graca marinaded earlier. Mr. and Mrs. Bellinelli came over to join us for dinner. We had spagetti with a red sauce along with the baked chicken. And thank God we had a bottle of red wine. I prefer the red wine over the beer any time.
After dinner Elaine wanted her father out of the house as she and Adriana prepared to give him gifts. She asked father to give me a tour of the motel. He gladly obliged. We don't talk much but this time I was supposed to stall and ask lots of questions as I was on my tour. Giovanni went with us. He helped me stall. Mr. Bellinelli introduced me to the working staff as we encountered them in the kitchen.
He explained that I was a visitor and all I could see was a look of confusion on some of their faces. Mr. Bellinelli has a nice little motel with about 16 rooms. Some of the rooms are really nice. Like any other motel or hotel, the costs of the rooms vary depending on the comfort level desired. His best room had a bathroom with a hottub and shower that was larger than the main quarters of the room. I'm not sure but I think it costs R$19.95 per hour at the Lua Nua. Mr. Bellinelli had a lot to show me. Even his little office in the back with a monitor attached to 3 security cameras. Later Elaine got the gifts for the family out. I was really pleased that all of the gifts survived the trip down. Elaine gave her father a new fishing pole. It didn't fit in the suit case without bending it. It's a good pole with lots of flexibility. Elaine gave Giovanni a nice, big remote control truck. And with these granite floors and Giavanni's experienced hands, the Bigfoot truck is a lot of fun in the hallway.
I must say that I am very tired after a full day here. I met a friend of Elaine's the other night and he described best what it is like when Elaine comes home. He said "it is like a tornado around here when Elaine is in town." Everybody wants to see her and she is on the go all the time. I found myself taking advantage of the invite to go to bed early as Elaine and Adriana cleaned the kitchen. Bed's here are little bit different than those at home. I have become spoiled by our bed at home. Elaine's sister let us use her bed and I have to say that I think the furniture company forgot to give Adriana the mattress that was supposed to come with the bed set. I was exhausted and was asleep in minutes.
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