10 am caipirinas? Of course!

Sunday. Sayonara and a few of her friends took us to the beach at Barro Preto in Iguape, about an hour out of town. It was exactly what we imagined a Brazilian beach to be: white sand, warm water, beach-side restaurants in little huts serving fresh seafood and cheap caipirinhas (cachaça, sugar, lime and ice). Ironically, the Brazilians felt that the water was shivering-cold (its winter here), however in our opinion it was the warmest beach water ever and it was WAY warmer than our shower.

After having a 10 am breakfast of fresh crab and caipirinhas (yea, be jealous), we took a dune-jumping buggy out to a distant part of the beach, where the Bataque river flows into the Atlantic. We spent a few hours at the river and even caught little fish that were swimming upstream. Galina named her fish Piranha (we took a picture and let her go). Leticia, who is around 10, had all of the adults catching her the little fish and placing them in a plastic coke bottle. Joana delicately described this as fish murder. (Leticia did eventually let the fish go, although most of them died.) In the end, both of us left the river with the same thought: please, God, don’t let us have parasites.

Neither of us has ever eaten crab using the little wooden hammers before, so it was an adventure. The best part was when we were told to put some yellow stuff (manioc flour?) on the inside of the crab and eat it with the crab organs. Galina’s face on the picture roughly sums up that experience. Joana was too much of a wimp to even try.

In order to get to the beach, we had to walk thru the erotically themed barraca. Our guide, a self-described Ph.D. in sticks, was a trip with a knick for word play! While most of the “exhibits” were amusingly painted sticks and pieces of furniture, one in particular was disturbing. They had two space heaters side by side with plastic baby dolls and toy planes sticking out of it: the twin towers. Once the guide heard that we were American, he made a point of pointing it out as an entertaining piece. In our opinion the display was not in the best of taste, but the residents of Iguape must not have been affected by 9/11 to the same degree or maybe it was a very effective piece of propaganda, since it’s the only display we are still thinking about and writing about in our blog.

Tapioca! On the way back we stopped by the Tapioca Central. That’s when we found out what tapioca was (Brazilian take on the crepe) and that it can be eaten with anything from bacon to coconut. It was tasty!!!

J & G