Random Adventures at the Shopping (AKA the mall)

We have been to a few shopping malls here. They are not referred to as a mall here, it is only shopping. Well, at this one shopping we went to the other day, they had a store that looks exactly like LUSH from the UK, but it was called Passion. I even asked if they were related to Lush and they weren't. Ha! Compare for yourself:

We also ate at a churrascaria but for pizza. Basically they would bring over all kinds of different pizzas to your table and offer you a slice. The broccoli pizza was terrible; however, the pizza with little french fried potatoes on it was surprisingly tasty. :)

The biggest box of Tic Tacs in the world is here.......in a shopping in Brasil....

...and I was there to see it! :)

Beach weekend - Maresias, SP

Saturday we left on a little getaway to the coast. This required us to rent a car and navigate our way through the city and drive about 2.5 hours to our beach destination. Here is Ben in front of our chariot of adventure - a FIAT!



It was actually a pretty nice ride. Ben did a great job of getting us through the city with no major problems. And believe you me, it was hairy during certain times.

We decided to take the scenic route to the beach and drove through the mountains. It was kind of like driving in the mountains of Colorado we decided, but with all the wrong trees. Sadly, none of my pics of the mountain areas came out - they were all too blurry.

Here was a little spot that we stopped at on the side of the road to admire this lovely waterfall. Strangely enough, there were other tourists there swimming there as well.

The views of the coast were amazing as well. What an amazing drive.

Finally we made it to our destination - Maresias!

It is a beautiful beach town surrounded by mountains. The weather was warm in the sun and cooler in the evening.

There were plenty of people out on the beach enjoying the great weather, even though it is winter here now.

We ate at a great beachside restaurant appropriately called "The German"! Ben was happy.

Such a lovely lunch with a great view.

We had this amazing meal of pumpkin shrimp served in a baked pumpkin. It was fresh shrimp served in a pumkin cheese sauce with rice. OMG it was amazing.

We stayed at a great little hotel right on the beach.

Relaxing in the lounge before hitting the beach.

It was such a lovely view. This is the hotels pool and beach access area. So nice to have breakfast while enjoying the sounds of the ocean.

We spent the morning walking down the beach. At one point, we ran into a surfing competition.

Hang loose, Ben! Surfs up!

The mountains running into the ocean......Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwah!

Overall, it was an amazing adventure. It is hard to believe that it is winter here and we were enjoying cocktails on the beach in our bathing suits. We loved it!!

Not sure what out next adventure will be. Hmmmmm.......

Making Dinner in our tiny kitchen

We can barely both fit in our kitchen, but it is fully equipped with the basics. We fumbled around a bit trying to figure out how to light the burners and the oven, trying to chop and bake and boil and steam all at the same time, etc. It was fun. While everything tastes different, we were pleased with our result.


Some pics of the grocery store just down from our flat. Yummy seafood. Very impressive.


Beer.

Lots and lots of meat to chose from....

Elvis Tribute Dinner - Aug 16

On the anniversary of Elvis' Death, we went to have dinner at "The Fifties" - a little burger joint that is supposed to be fashioned after a 50's diner. It was different for sure.


Oddly enough, the most popular thing on the menu was the special fries, which was made up of fries, covered in almost fluorescent cheese sauce and bacon bits. This french fry is for you EP!

Pet stores, birds and the Ceasa Market

We had some fun adventures with our friends Joao and his wife Suzi last Sunday. We went to this enormous outdoor market. It was at least several footballs feilds big. We tried fruits we had never even seen before. They had everything from plants to sea food to fruit to flowers to spices to veggies to...well you get the picture.


We went to a pet store where they had some amazing birds. We also had some fun with the translations of different pet products.

These aren't your typical birds from a US pet store.

For that matter, this isn't your typical monkey either. Ha! Not sure why they had these masks in the pet store. Maybe it was to scare your dog?

Tucan Sam at your service!

Back to the market. My pics are out of order. This is me eating fresh passion fruit. I felt very Anthony Bourdain at the time. It was slimy and weird, but tasted pretty good if you could get past the texture. :)

Meet Joao and Suzi. This is us at the market grabbing a traditional brazilian snack from a vendor. It is a fried pastry shell with cheese and chicken (or whatever you want in it) along with a drink that is made or fresh squeezed sugar cane and the fruit of your choice. We had it mixed with Pineapple. Yum!

A night in Bixiga - the Little Italy of São Paulo City

Saturday night we went to Bixiga (pronounced Be-she-ga) for dinner. This is an area filled with Italian restaurants and a party atmosphere. And what a party we found -a street party infact celebrating the religious holiday we had seen at the mass earlier that day. Crowds of people filled the streets with bowls of spaghetti and cups of beer in hand. The music filled the air and there was a live DJ talking to the crowds. It felt like 6th Street in Austin after the bars dump out all the people, but instead of getting a slice of pizza, everyone eats bowls of pasta! Ha!







We went to dinner at Cantina Roperto, a small and charming Italian restaurant just down the street from the party. Good food, wine and music in this little cantina.



What a lovely night! Cheers!

The Centro downtown and the Municipal Market

So we spent Saturday wondering around downtown. It was a day filled with people and walking. This is a picture of Ben reviewing the menu at this amazing sandwich shop on the second floor of the mucipal market that you literally had to fight for a table. Check out the size of that sammie? Yummy!



This is the shot of the downstairs level of the municipal market. It had all kind of wonderful fruits, vegetables, meats and wines for purchase. Tons of people.



We spent sometime just walking the streets and wondering in and out of shops. This was crazy. This store had bins of clothes that people would just dig through to find their purchases. There was also loud rock music pumping up the crowd and a live DJ walking around the store making announcements. It was really strange.



Here is a great shot of the crowds just filling the streets. I can't believe there are so many people in such a small area. Wow!



We walked through this amazing cathedral during a mass on Saturday. It was really beautiful and there was clearly some sort of special celebration going on as well given that all children were wearing red and white acolyte outfits. We learned more about this later that evening...more to come on that in the next post....