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