The Joy of the Beach in February (Day 3 in Brasil)

Breakfast was our usual -- buttered rolls, coffee for Mike and Fred, and freshly made orange/papaya juice for Nancy. Cris wasn't with us as she teaches at a nearby high school and had left much earlier. We hung out at the apartment while Fred made a quick trip (3 blocks away) to his office and brought back a bag of cheese bread fresh from the oven (see photos). Then it was off to Santo -- about an hour south east of Sao Paulo (see map at start of photos).

Highways in Brasil are similar to highways back home -- just more interesting things to see along the way. Beautiful flowering trees interspersed with what can only be called slums. There is a brief glimpse in one of my highway photos. We also stopped by one of the large reservoirs that serves the city of Sao Paulo. Just as we have New York City and New York state, Sao Paulo is a city within the state of Sao Paulo. Santos is also located in the state of Sao Paulo. It is best known (at least by me) as the home of Pele, the great soccer/football star.

The city of Rio is known for its fancy sidewalks and Santos has similar ones -- mosaics. Along the street by the beach are many tall apartment buildings. Unfortunately, there is no bedrock beneath them and over time they have tilted, which you might be able to see in my photos. Our first stop was lunch. Mike and Fred went to this restaurant about 3 or 4 years ago (although Fred had been there many times before). The waiter remembered Mike when we came in and was very happy to see us. Lunch was a large platter of fish (badejo, a type of grouper) that had been grilled and covered with a tasty sauce that included tiny shrimp, mushrooms, capers, garlic, and oil) with rice and potatoes. Although it was enough food to feed a small country for a week, we did finish it. Mike and Fred shared a beer, Nancy had fresh passion fruit juice.

To work off our lunch we went to walk on the beach. The water was very, very warm -- it felt like a bathtub. Mike explained it had something to do with equatorial currents. On the beach are mobile bars and ice cream vendors, who will also rent chairs and umbrellas. We then went to the Santos Aquarium, very nice (there are lots of photos). Mike is very happy here because in Brasil seniors are defined as 60 or over; every place has at least a reduced price if not free admission.

We watched a very large ship leaving the port. Santos is a major seaport (looked a lot like the area around Newark with all of the containers). Fred then treated us to fresh sugar cane juice -- one bottle was flavored with fresh lime (which they call limon; the yellow things are lima -- talk about confused!) There are some photos of the sugar cane cart -- the lady who owns it spent about five years in Florida (there's a big Brazilian population in the Orlando area) and was happy to speak English with us.

Then after a wild ride through Santos we found the Coffee Museum. It is on an old,cobble-stoned street with many buildings from the early 1900's. Because Brasil was a Portuguese colony, many of the buildings are European in style. The museum was originally the coffee exchange and now contains photos and old equipment and things (for the glassies reading this, note the Anchor Hocking candy dish). See the photos. Mike and Fred drank coffee at the cafe and we purchased a half kilo of some special coffee to bring home to Sam (my son the coffee drinker).

Time to head back to Sao Paulo. The highways between SP and Santos go through the mountains, including several tunnels. Very picturesque, also a little scary with all of the trucks and crazy drivers. The horn is an integral part of driving in Brasil. We encountered some light rain on our way back but found out there had been a major thunderstorm in SP while we were gone. Cris told us her school lost power twice.

We had a quiet evening at home. And only a very light dinner. Watched some more Big Bang Theory on DVD.

Day 3 photos