Recent stuff + Brazil.
Brazil pictures are up: http://picasaweb.google.com/ytsipeny/
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Today, Katrina and I put in an application to adopt a cat. Her name is June, and she's a 13 mo. old short-haired blue-eyed siamese mix with a very gentle temperament (at least when terrified of all the strange people hanging around.) They're concerned about us not being home enough on weekdays, but I think we've got a good shot.
Today we also took a first swag at our taxes. Looks like we might take it even harder this year than last. :(
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We went to Dave's birthday party yesterday, which was impressively organized by Kat. There was much bouncing, cheap Mexican food, and good people. All in all, a very good time.
Thank you, Dave and Kat!
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Brazil, cont'd:
Katrina posted a bunch about the rest of our stay in Brotas. From there, we headed out to Regina's sister's beach house. On the way, we stopped for lunch a few times, once at Fazenda Santa Barbara, the other at Frango Assado. At Santa Barbara, I covertly had my Mom purchase Katrina's BD present. I hadn't been able to figure out what to buy her earlier, so I had decided to buy her a nice souvenir in Brazil. That worked out pretty well --I got her a nice relief carving/painting thing that goes pretty well in our dining room.
We got to the beach house community, and went through two armed perimeters before pulling into the driveway. We were staying in a pretty exclusive joint.
We took a walk around the block, and took some night photos on the beach before turning in.
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The next day was basically set aside for just lounging around on the beach, which was perhaps the most perfect beach I've ever lounged upon. The water was very calm, more like a lake than most ocean beaches, and about as warm as any pool I've ever been in.
Regina got us some BBQ cheese sticks, and we ate them in the ocean.
Later, we took a stroll down to Misery Village (not as bad as it sounds) and had pastels and drinks at a beach on the bar. I fell in love with Acai juice. Apparently, one can get it in some Jamba beverages over here, and I keep meaning to try to get some.
Speaking of fruit, the fruit in Brazil is exquisite. I was particularly fond of the mangoes, but the starfruit, pineapple, passion-fruit, guava, and cashew fruit that we had with breakfast was all good as well. In pretty much any restaurant, when you order fruit juice, they squeeze it there.
The next morning, we headed out to Paraty.
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Paraty was the major commerce center in Brazil before pirates forced shipping traffic northward to Rio de Janiero. The feel of the town doesn't seem to have changed much since then, and they've shifted more to a tourism-based economy now that the Gold Trail and slave trade aren't paying the bills any more. (I might be missing some details about the transition.)
Our first day in Paraty, we took a boat ride around some of the neighboring islands, of which, there are many. We swam, and snorkeled, and subsited on a diet primarily consisting of fried calamari and crackers. It was glorious.
That evening, we cruised around the historic part of town, souvenir shopping.
- -
The next day Katrina and I went on a Jeep tour of some of the surrounding jungle. We got stuck with a group of all English-speaking foreigners, with an English-speaking guide, but we kind of had to crack the whip on the guy a bit to keep him from absconding and leading around the other, Portugese-speaking groups instead of ours.
We visited a few waterfalls, a farm-turned-museum, had a nice lunch, and in general, cruised around. I have some good pictures.
When we met up with Regina and Mom again, we hit town again and purchased all the stuff we had scoped out the day before, then headed back to the beach house.
- -
We had 1.5 days left. Pretty much all of which was spent similar to that first day on the beach, minus the cheese (we couldn't find the guy.) I gave Katrina her present on the last day (her Birthday) and we swam in the ocean one last time before flying home to the winter time.
It started raining pretty hard on the way to Sao Paulo, and there was concern about being able to make it through, and about Regina being able to make it back, but it worked out.
- -
Today, Katrina and I put in an application to adopt a cat. Her name is June, and she's a 13 mo. old short-haired blue-eyed siamese mix with a very gentle temperament (at least when terrified of all the strange people hanging around.) They're concerned about us not being home enough on weekdays, but I think we've got a good shot.
Today we also took a first swag at our taxes. Looks like we might take it even harder this year than last. :(
- -
We went to Dave's birthday party yesterday, which was impressively organized by Kat. There was much bouncing, cheap Mexican food, and good people. All in all, a very good time.
Thank you, Dave and Kat!
- -
Brazil, cont'd:
Katrina posted a bunch about the rest of our stay in Brotas. From there, we headed out to Regina's sister's beach house. On the way, we stopped for lunch a few times, once at Fazenda Santa Barbara, the other at Frango Assado. At Santa Barbara, I covertly had my Mom purchase Katrina's BD present. I hadn't been able to figure out what to buy her earlier, so I had decided to buy her a nice souvenir in Brazil. That worked out pretty well --I got her a nice relief carving/painting thing that goes pretty well in our dining room.
We got to the beach house community, and went through two armed perimeters before pulling into the driveway. We were staying in a pretty exclusive joint.
We took a walk around the block, and took some night photos on the beach before turning in.
- -
The next day was basically set aside for just lounging around on the beach, which was perhaps the most perfect beach I've ever lounged upon. The water was very calm, more like a lake than most ocean beaches, and about as warm as any pool I've ever been in.
Regina got us some BBQ cheese sticks, and we ate them in the ocean.
Later, we took a stroll down to Misery Village (not as bad as it sounds) and had pastels and drinks at a beach on the bar. I fell in love with Acai juice. Apparently, one can get it in some Jamba beverages over here, and I keep meaning to try to get some.
Speaking of fruit, the fruit in Brazil is exquisite. I was particularly fond of the mangoes, but the starfruit, pineapple, passion-fruit, guava, and cashew fruit that we had with breakfast was all good as well. In pretty much any restaurant, when you order fruit juice, they squeeze it there.
The next morning, we headed out to Paraty.
- -
Paraty was the major commerce center in Brazil before pirates forced shipping traffic northward to Rio de Janiero. The feel of the town doesn't seem to have changed much since then, and they've shifted more to a tourism-based economy now that the Gold Trail and slave trade aren't paying the bills any more. (I might be missing some details about the transition.)
Our first day in Paraty, we took a boat ride around some of the neighboring islands, of which, there are many. We swam, and snorkeled, and subsited on a diet primarily consisting of fried calamari and crackers. It was glorious.
That evening, we cruised around the historic part of town, souvenir shopping.
- -
The next day Katrina and I went on a Jeep tour of some of the surrounding jungle. We got stuck with a group of all English-speaking foreigners, with an English-speaking guide, but we kind of had to crack the whip on the guy a bit to keep him from absconding and leading around the other, Portugese-speaking groups instead of ours.
We visited a few waterfalls, a farm-turned-museum, had a nice lunch, and in general, cruised around. I have some good pictures.
When we met up with Regina and Mom again, we hit town again and purchased all the stuff we had scoped out the day before, then headed back to the beach house.
- -
We had 1.5 days left. Pretty much all of which was spent similar to that first day on the beach, minus the cheese (we couldn't find the guy.) I gave Katrina her present on the last day (her Birthday) and we swam in the ocean one last time before flying home to the winter time.
It started raining pretty hard on the way to Sao Paulo, and there was concern about being able to make it through, and about Regina being able to make it back, but it worked out.