Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Brazil is full of cool surprises.  We are starting a wonderful journey discovering all the fresh fruits and vegetables that don't exist in the US, and there are so many.  Some we have to look up on wikipedia to figure out how to enjoy. 

We tried the Caju (cashew fruit) juice, it is very nice.  Who knew how those cashew nuts grow on the end of a very delicious fruit?  The girls also got to try some Graviola [Soursop] flavored yogurt, super yummy.  Even though there is a health warning, Daddy enjoyed a Graviola juice while out for dinner tonight, and it was tastey as well.  The waiter brought us tiny cups to sample other juices as well.  But without a container, we couldn't tell you exactly what they were. :)  But they were tastey...

Also, the shower is a surprise.  It is not common in this area to have hot water available at the sinks.  Only at the shower, and only if the shower has this electric heater that the water goes through.  Very dangerous with electricity and water, but that is how it is done here.  No central hot water heater/boiler running all the time.  The showers are cold/luke warm at best, with the heater on the winter setting and maximum output.  There is a safety off switch in the shower to turn off when done, to prevent further shocking incidents no doubt. :)  We are adjusting to the invigorating morning, afternoon and sometimes eventing showers.

I ventured outside the apartment for the first time this evening, to go to dinner at Mangai restaurant.  I've been busy catching up on rest, so this was my first outing.  We got to the restaurant and they handed us these cards, we explained that we didn't speak much Portuguese, so the guy walked us to the buffet style set up of food and tried to explain how things worked.  So we grabbed a plate and were delighted to see that below the Portuguese name for each dish was the English translation, so I jumped right to cheating and just read the English.  We then brought our plates to a woman by a scale, who traded cards with us and put the price per what our dish weighed.

We had some really yummy things, and a man came by to get our drink order.  He was patient while I tried to translate for the table and figure things out.  We got a coconut water, a caja fruit juice with milk, and some other fruit drink.  Our waiter's name was Pedro.  Another young man came by and explained that he spoke a small amount of English, which he seemed eager to practice with us, his name was Flavio.  He helped me out with the survey that was handed to me at the end of dinner.  Oh, and I can't forget this delicious dessert Nonno Ernie ordered.  It was delicious real vanilla ice cream with something like shredded coconut in dulce de leche (like a carmel almost), it was so good.

I thought for sure that Abby and Zoë would wake up early this morning.  With going to sleep at 4:00 PM yesterday, they only got up when we brought them one at a time to use the toilet, they never really even woke up.  Zoë slept until 6:17 this morning and Abby didn't get up until 7:05.  They were super tired.  We tried to wake them for dinner that night, but they fell right back to sleep on the couch.

With the weather clearing up and warming up we headed out to the tourist center and the Tambau market.  Abby and Zoë made the walk there without any problems.  It was a probably a half a mile or so.  With the morning heat and sun though, it was hard not to sweat.  Nonno Ernie got his tourist map, Chris bought an actual street map.  They browsed the stalls at the small neighborhood produce market and settled down at a kiosk/cafe for a cold drink before heading back.  Nonno Ernie stayed in the Tambau area until close to 5, which was slightly worrying, as Uncle Matt inherited his sense of direction. He showed up right as we were set to leave for dinner.