Meat, meat, meat and more meat

Wow.

Last night I had the ultimate Brasilian experience - a visit to a churrascaria, followed by a soccer game.

A churrascaria is a Brasilian BBQ restaurant where you don´t actually order anything. You just set your table card to green and the waiters keep bringing meat. Then, they bring more meat. Then, they bring more meat. Then, they bring more meat.

Then you set your table card to red.

Then they bring dessert.

Then, you hope your next meal is a long way off.

A trip to Black Gold

Today I visited a town called Ouro Preto with Guy and Geli (my hosts in Belo Horizonte). It´s a colonial town that was the centre of Brasilian gold mining in the 18th century.

The man responsible for many of the religious sculptures in the region carved most of his work after losing his hands and legs. The political correctness and kindness of the times granted him the caring nickname of Aleijadinho. For those of you who don´t speak Portuguese, this means Little Cripple.

Afterwards, we went grocery shopping, and purchased the wolverine of pineapples.

Rio de Janeiro

So, I zipped in and out of Rio.

While there, I took taxis, buses and the metro. Nobody got shot, mugged, stabbed or even intimidated. The worst thing I saw was a fellow gringo overpaying for a bag of popcorn at a soccer game. I kinda wish I hadn´t heard so many negative things about Rio, as I would have felt more relaxed.

Whilst there, I went to visit a spaceship museum with a crappy exhibit, went to the top of sugarloaf mountain (absolutely stupendous views), wandered around and went to a futchball game. -- The game was really cool - interestingly, when two enemy teams play, it´s possible that when enemy fans meet outside the stadium, one of them can be killed -- brings soccer hooligans to a new level.


VIDEO: Just after Flamengo (Rio´s most popular team) scored a goal.

Portrait of a family

I spent the first three weeks of January living with Rene and his awesome family in a small town called Ubatuba, Sao Paulo State. The experience has been one of the highlights of my trip, and as a result, I´m currently staying with some of his cousins in Belo Horizonte that I met in Ubatuba.

Family life was quite simple, but a few things stuck out.

Firstly, they thought our eating habits were crazy, and we definitely thought theirs were! Since going to Rio, I discovered that many of those eating habits are 100% typical Brazilian.

Secondly, the family unit is really close - I got the distinct feeling that it´s common for family members to move into one another´s houses - not sure if this is for convenience, economic necessity or a desire to experience life in a different city - or a combination of all three. Also, much like the Mediterranean folks - kids stay at home for a looong time - and their parents are happy about it!

The entire family was (and still is!) super welcoming, which is of course wonderful - but even more so because for the first few days communication was quite a challenge - I wonder how many of us would welcome a stranger (that we couldn´t talk to) into our houses.

If you'd like a closer look at family life, take a look at this short movie.