Started my day, post coffee of course, with a stroll on the beach to one of my fave places Praia Do Forte, or Fort Beach.

To get there from where I am, is a 30 minute beach walk followed by a steep incline up a cobblestone winding road barely wide enough for a car and a human to pass by together and so much darting to the side of the road is needed to save life and soul!

While passing through quaint hobbit-like homes overlooking beautiful classic beach scenes a negotiate the steep drop over the mountain to the other side. The descent is so steep, I wonder if my brand new runners with be gripping the road sufficiently to brake my descent, and soldier on!

I pass by the beachside restaurant selling an abundance of local sea fish mostly oysters, shrimp, octopus and crab with its red plastic tables and parasols in abundance all the way to the sea edge. 

I pass by all this to continue my walk westwards and come across my first reptilian local lurking around a small lagoon of water between the end of the beach and the beginning of the bush that heads up to the mountain top as far as the eye can see.

A caiman, I come to understand later, about 4-5 feet long maybe asleep maybe even not living but I decide to take no chances and change direction heading back to the restaurant for relief and a thirst quenching drink! I had on previous occasions seen warning signs of these beasts but it's the first almost face-to-snout encounter. Are they dangerous? I just don't know, and I'm not hanging around to find out!

I order a pineapple juice without sugar, using my finest Portuguese, from local friendly waiter Christian who already calls me by my first name, and sit facing the sea looking out at the fishing boats, a variety of sea mountainscapes scattered in front of me, and enjoy the sea breeze in my hair - "This must be paradise", I think, and count my lucky stars!

It's only 8:30am and already, much has happened.

My drink arrives with usual Brazilian flair... in a tall glass with the top one third foamed up, so it looks like a milk shake and Christianson brings me an individual bendy straw and a smile. You get the feeling he is enjoying watching me relax... after all, I am his first customer of the day.

The juice costs 10 Brazilian dollars or $2.50 Canadian and tastes pure and refreshing... I remember I want to publish this blog and head home along the beach past the old fort and back home.

I'm shaken but not stirred from my morning encounter and already looking forward to my next adventure!  

Now it's no longer a 2-week vacation but a feeling of making a second home away from home.

I am gradually finding it easier to go out without my 'interpreter' and with a mix of limited Portuguese, hand signals and grunts, find and see and buy the things one needs in daily life.

Fabulously, alcohol is cheap here but dark British style beer hard to find! Most scotch is 10-15 Canadian dollars a bottle and rum about 10. The local drink Cachaca, sugar cane based, is also around 10-15 and beers about a buck a beer so.... happy times!

Some grey days have haunted us but mostly we have been enjoying around 22 degrees and sunshine... can't complain for October. We're grateful to be here and are enjoying the adventure.

I'm  volunteering to entertain some local kindergarden children with my ukulele next week to raise spirits and bring some extra fun and sunshine to them- one of the teachers there has created a program where they move and dance to music. Can't wait to roll out those Raffi songs!

Nigel   

Most of you have heard all the commotion about the elections here... it IS a big deal as it's all about democracy and if the values you and I are used to, will flourish in the world.

Of interest to all of us in Canada, where voting turn-out is notoriously low, here it is MANDATORY to vote... if you don't, you're facing a prison sentence!

Also shades of what happened in the US not so long ago, being a race between two leaders, one of whom is claiming that the electoral system is fraudulent, and that should he lose, he will not accept the outcome.

We will see what transpires tomorrow.

Nigel

So our first week and a half here in southern Brazil is going swimmingly!

We like:

the 42 beautiful beaches, the weather in the 20s and heating up, friendly service everywhere with a creative flair, inexpensive eating out and free busses for the over 60s and alcohol cheaper than we are used to, and an opportunity to enter into Portuguese immersion every day!!!

We'd rather not be dealing with:

bank cards that don't work here, Canadian telephone numbers that can't be reached by two step authentication protocols, cool apartments in the spring with minimal heating

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but... it's a good move and these are early days with lots of time to iron out the challenges.

We arise to a chorus of singing birds every morning and I'm up and walking on the beach and enjoying the sound of the surf by 8am. 

There is an old fort not far from here that was built by the Portuguese around 1772 as a deterrent against a possible Spanish invasion. The view is beautiful as are most of the views around here.

Tomorrow we go south of the island as we are invited to a Brazilian BBQ with some of the friends here we know from Canada -looking forward to it!

OK that's all for now

Nigel

Musical Wellness