This Saturday's adventure

We were hoping for a sunny Saturday in order to do some beaching after a week of working hard (by some of us... hehe) The morning was overcast and a littlewindy, so the boat was againrejected, but we packed up and headed off for a new beach in a little citynearby called Paripueira. It's a little bit past Praia Ipioca, our first beach outing, so we drove north and finally got out ofMaceio. Kelson found the little street leading to the new beach, and as we rounded the corner of the brick road and the ocean broke into sight, our viewstarted to blur a little, clouded by little drops of water. Yes, as we pulled onto the street along the beach, it started to rain.

Not exactly a sunny day, but what is a little rain when you have a beautiful ocean to admire, right? That's right,

us hard core beach aficionados can't be daunted by rain and wind and dark cloud-covered sky, so we

drove up and back down Paripueira's strip (literally, a little strip of land covered by brick) and admired the houses lining the beach. It actually really liked the area - most houses along that front street had low if any fences, some had yards, most had front porches; it was a really cute neighborhood. After cruising, we picked a restaurant on the beach and by this time the sprinkling had stopped, so we chose a table in the sand and I explored a little and took some pictures of the fishing boats anchored along the shore. When I returned, Kelson and Zairinha had ordered drinks and bought some nuts from a vendor, and to my delight, they had bought boiled peanuts!! No joke - the deep south delicacy can also be found in Brazil!! I sat down, it started to rain again, we moved inside, and enjoyed

the view for a little while.

This weekend I am again Luiza-less, but to my surprise the three of us could carry on some

pretty good discussions!! Low and behold, I am learning

portuguese!!!

After Paripueira, we drove down to Ipioca but the tide was too high for our off roader (aka VW golf-type car), so we defaulted to plan C, Restaurante de Zezé. As Zairinha said, it was quite a simple place, but the food was phenomenal: steak, fried cheese, beans, rice, farofa, salsa... really, amazing. (I know, I know, you say "fried cheese?" Hardly sounds like a

Bladdie-friendly food... but I ate a lot of salsa to make up for it, ok?) (PS Amber was the only one to submit a name, so you are all now being subjected to hear about "Bladdie"... you should have posted...)

On the way home we stopped at a place that has a neighborhood of vacation homes and a

restaurant at the beach access. The houses were amazing, although the lots in between the houses were untouched, and some looked like ruins of houses that used to be. The restaurant, called Hibiscus, was incredible - it looked like a movie set. There were fountains, pools, trees loaded with coconuts and bananas, a section for massage, a restaurant, hammocks, painted tables, mosaics on the sidewalks, bean bags on the beach, wooden bridges lined with cattails (what can't you grow in the tropics?) and this gorgeous beach. The place was beautiful.

We bought some lobster on the way back to the house, and the rest of the day was fairly calm. Kelson and I looked at pictures of when Livia was an exchange student in TX, and Kelson, Zaira, and Kelson's mom and dad rented a minivan and toured from Florida to Texas. Zairinha and Kelson made a Lobster-Potato-Cheese-Cream type of casserole for dinner (at midnight), we watched a novela, Zaira studied, Kelson and I looked at more pictures, and so the night went.

I have only 2 more weeks here before going to Rio, and when I return I have only 2 days before leaving for MI! Crazy how the time passes!