… kill me with feijoada!  After the wonderful meal the previous Saturday Marçal invited us to their weekend house a couple of hours away in the hills for a home made version prepared by his brother-in law. It was just as good.  There were eight of us for the weekend and Saturday was spent eating, drinking, sleeping it off and then eating and drinking again. Marçal and Lourdes are very generous hosts.

On Sunday morning we drove around the area. Their house is on a secluded hill on a large estate similar to a Spanish  urbanisación. Eventually there will be around 120 houses. The neighbours seem to be exclusively bankers and senior judges.  Somehow the President of the Appeal Court loses some of his majesty when you meet him on a weekend morning wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else.  It is a very natural wooded area full of wildlife and plants. Lourdes is a keen gardener and has a magnificent collection including a black orchid.

We stopped for lunch in the shadow of the Pedra Azul which is a rock with a sheer face of 600 metres.  The whole area is a State Park and is well developed for tourism.  They promote all sorts of local food and agricultural products and handicrafts as well as the environment. We had an excellent lunch in an Italian restaurant.

After lunch we returned home for a week of penance, eating lettuce and painting the kitchen.

Bossa Nova This year is the 50th anniversary of the Bossa Nova and the City of Vitória held a free four day festival in celebration.  On the final night we listened to Roberto Menescal and  his partner of 20 years Wanda Sá. Menescal, along with people such as Tom Jobim, Carlos Lyra, Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz did much to popularise João Gilberto’s new style of music in the 1960s.  We really enjoyed the concert in spite of the appalling acoustics in a converted warehouse theatre in the middle of the docks. There was a ship moored 20 metres away where the crew were also enjoying the music.

Rio de Janeiro

The next report will be from Rio where we will spend a long weekend with Flavia’s Uncle.  His suggestion for an exciting tourist activity is to fill an old camera case with rocks and hang it off your shoulder, then stuff a wallet with Monopoly money and put it in your back pocket. Now go for a stroll along the beachfront and then tell the world how you were mugged.

Delay in Posting new reports

It has been a bit erratic recently. I was trying to organise some more photos but they do take a lot of time to get right. I have published the last two or three reports without any photos but will soon add some so keep watching.

It is too easy to look at things through rose-tinted spectacles and there are things which are not good here. These are some of them:

Mosquitoes and the diseases they cause. Malaria in the North and dengue fever are a major problem here. The authorities are fighting them but the battle is far from won. I am preparing an article on this subject.

Inter-city highways Some are very good, others are terrible! We have been thinking about driving to Bahía but have been put off by a friend describing badly pot-holed roads and traffic zig-zagging in every direction trying to find a safe path. There was a truck driver on the TV proudly showing his 50 year old truck with almost no suspension, bald tires and all sorts of other problems. He claimed he did a 4000 km round trip in 4 days driving 20 hours a day and used amphetimines to stay wake.

Crime and the fear of crime.  So far I have not had any problems at all but the constant warnings and TV reports of violence are depressing.

Pavements Even in the nice areas the pavements are often non-existent or in very poor condition in a way very similar to Spain. It must make life for mothers with young children and the handicapped very difficult.

Beggars They are not as bad as in India and Indochina and are rarely aggressive.  At most red traffic lights a beggar will approach and remind you that Brazil has not completely left the third world behind.

Street advertising Loudspeaker vans tour the streets shouting about the wonderful things for sale in the supermarket. I have even seen a shopkeeper stand outside his shop with a microphone haranguing the passers by.

Slow broadband internet The connection here is about 10% of what I get in Spain and is nearly double the price. Of course we complain about it in Spain as well.

Bumpy cycle track There is a cycle track along the beach and when it is finished will be 7.5km long. Brilliant! The snag is that the surface is a bumpy brick which slows you down and rattles your teeth. Many cyclists prefer to use the road or the pavement.

Unreliable tradesmen Flavia has a number of jobs recently completed or in progress involving an electrician, new curtains, some tiling, a carpenter, a water leak from a neighbouring apartment  and the apartment block telephone system. In every case appointments have been broken and quite simple jobs take several weeks, numerous visits and phone calls and a lot of frustration.

Food They sell many of the cheeses you find in Europe but the only interesting one I have tasted was in a  good Italian restaurant. There is what they call cheddar which is orange and bears little relationship to the original English product. Other cheeses I have tried have been a bit dry and chalky with not much flavour. Maybe they should import some Stinking Bishop They don’t sell Marmite, loose tea, ginger nuts, mint sauce, custard and many other things necessary in the life of an Englishman.

You can tell from the last couple of items that I was struggling to find ten things that I do not like here.