Porto de galinhas

yesterday at the party, the two spanish girls from the hostel (ainara and sara) and I arranged to go to a very famous beach just south of recife. i woke up at 6:30 without an alarm cause i'm a freak like that, did some qi gong, then had breakfast with them. we hit the buses and, surprise surprise, it took us 3 or 4 hours just like for calhetas (we'd been told this bus was faster, even though the beach was further away). thank god we woke up early.

when we got there, we were dissapointed to find that the beach's most sought after feature, tidal pools off the coast that form ddep swimming pools, weren't going to be available to us because the tide was high. still, the beach was gorgeous and we had a great time.

we bought fresh fruit on our way to the beach. among the fruit we picked up was a "caju." now, this fruit looks pretty wierd. my mom has a wax one at home, and after years of playing with the wax version and never seeing a real one, i long ago came to the decision they didn't exist and the wax fruit was just sort of a cool idea. wrongo tanto. seeing a basket of caju for real was like seeing a unicorn walking around. i had to have one, and they taste even wierder than they look. we also bought mango, which has become the fruit-mascot of my time her ein brazil. really, i can't believe how long it took for me to try mango. the kind the guy sold us was one of the no-fiber kinds, jsut soft and tasty. mmmmmmm

on the beach we feasted on the fruit and fresh crab chowder from a cart vendor, one of many on the beach (as with all beaches in brazil). i picked up a little sunburn out of my no-sunscreen-wearing arrogance, and made a new friend in the form of a stray dog who hung out with me after i pet him for awhile, but was above eating an orange slice i tossed him (not above sitting at my feet though, little cutie). we ran into him again as we walked back to the bus, which was funny cause sara, who was on a walk when i met the dog, apparently doesn't like dogs. sucked for her, cause the mutt followed behind her much more so than he did me, little cutie.

we had pizza for dinner at the beach (deciding catching the bus wasn't worth running back as we had walked a long distance..did i mention that as the sun waas setting the tide was finally low enough for us to have hit the pools? what a jip!). i'm sure i've mentioned that i love brazilian pizza, but i'm gonna put it in print one more time for good measure. the pizza here rocks, and even though this place was mediocre for brazil, it was still quite quite tasty. the spaniards didn't see any significant difference to spanish pizza though. maybe that means brazilian pizza really is european tasting?

sadly, they're heading out tomorrow so i won't be seeing anymore of em anytime soon. good people though, so i'll definitely keep intouch.

i've been really happy with all the freinds i've been making through this hostel. i've decided hostel's are the only way to travel, an opinion which will probably get me into trouble at some point down the line.

after we got back to the hostel, i met some knew kids i hadn't seen around, a canadian named sean and an ausie named tom.....woah, that sorta rhymes! they seem like good kids, so i'm sure we'll hang out. also, i called up rosane, a cute girl i met at the party last night. for details on that call, read the end of the previous post.

in summary, this girl was so forward it made me sorta paranoid, enough so to ask sean's pernambucano friend roberta if i should be worried about a mug-setup. the short verion of her explanation is no, and the anthropological lesson i learned from her is that northern brazilians aren't just forward, they totally reverse the order of courtship we have in the US: first they get to know each other's bodies, then they decide whether or not they like the person.

makes sense to me. brazil sure is different from the US though. i think tonight i experienced real culture shock for the first time in my life. i mean, this girl wants me so bad i thought she might be trying to rob me!


NEXT POST: david gets robbed.