Quarta-Feira, 12 Março 2008, Buzios.
The roosters waited until 4:30 AM to raise a ruckus. We’ve heard geese (they are great “watchdogs”) at the green house across the way. I guess that it’s the roosters and geese getting into shouting matches.
We took Café de Manha no casa (breakfast in the house) and then figured out how to use our remote control to the TV and Sky satellite so we watched Bom Dia Brasil (Good Day Brazil) When that finished we hoped we could find Rua Sesame (Sesame Street) since that’s about our speed. Not finding suitable children’s fare, we sampled a little Oprah with Portuguese subtitles. Now we know how to say “multiple orgasms” in Portuguese (multiplo orgasmo—I’m not making this up).
While watching Oprah we saw scads of propagandas (commercials). Most commercials are given in Portuguese though we caught one for a reality-TV style chef program. The chef says in English, “un-f***ing-believable” and the translation was the Portuguese word for “Incredible!” We watched for maybe an hour, then Mary did a little work and I did a little travelog writing.
After that, we walked across the street to the praia. We were solicited to buy a baseball cap with a Brasilian flag for $R25, he had dropped it to $R15 before we finally begged off. Later we saw similar caps downtown for $R8.
As we walked along the beach, we saw cheese-on-a-stick, corn on the cob, shrimp on a stick, assorted packages of food being sold from small carts, vendors carry racks of swimming suits, dresses, beach towels from umbrella to umbrella trying to make sales. The per capita income (about $7,600/yr) for Brazilians is 25% of that of Americans. Everyone scrapes to get by. It’s free enterprise.
Hoje (today) there were more vendors on the boardwalk downtown selling handmade items. We suspect that they take Monday and Tuesday off and begin anew on Wednesday.
We ate pizza, drank agua com gaz (sparkling water), and chatted with a pleasant fellow named Antonio at a restaurant. We traded English/Portuguese words and phrases. A contamenina (girl) curled up behind the counter on two chairs. It was Antonio’s four year-old daughter; she’d already been to school.
On the way back, we saw a man returning from fishing with a net loaded with fish (a package the size of a bowling ball). Later, he stood at the edge of his yard overlooking the water, his dog swam and barked in the sea below him, and the man threw waste pieces of the fish to the dog in the water.
It felt hotter and more humid today. Though I can’t prove it since Bom Dia Brasil’s weather report didn’t post the cidades on its graphics. Neither did we see any temperature predictions. It sprinkled a little in the evening and we heard thunder in the distance.
My head is full. Amanha (tomorrow), I’ll look for acerola-a cherry-flavored fruit that’s a mega-source of vitamin C and pupunha -“a fatty, vitamin-rich Amazonian fruit taken with coffee.” I need to kick it soon. Air travel with a head cold can hurt.
Nullius in Verba 