Have Churrasco Will Nap

2/25-2/26 Saturday and Sunday

Coconut water, a stew from slave times and banana cachaca out of the back of someone’s car….?  Count us IN!

Morretes is on a river and is so pretty!

Saturday, Barbara and Marco took us to Morretes, a town in the mountains that is known for a special dish called barreada (pronounced “ba-hey-ada”).  During the times of slavery in Brazil a long time ago, the slaves would make a special beef stew with rice and bananas that was so tasty, it spread throughout the country and eventually even the slave owners ate it.  We quickly figured out why!

As we sat by the rushing river, surrounded by palm trees, under a wooden awning at a restaurant called Villa Morretes, we enjoyed an all you can eat meal of barreada, three different kinds of fish, shrimp, and rice.  Delicioso!

Banana cachaca and the car it came out of!

As we left the restaurant a couple of hours later, the manager who was from Belgium and spoke English, was telling us about the banana cachaca he makes and sells to the local vendors.  Cachaca is like vodka, but usually made from sugar cane.  He asked if we wanted to try it and then disappeared to….his car?  Our friends Barbara and Marco did not seem to think it was a

terrible idea, so when he returned, we tasted a bit of this organic, sweet, but strong concoction…not bad!  He told us if we bought some he would give us the wholesale price he gives the vendors.  So, Josh, who loves all things banana, bought a bottle mostly just so we could tell this story over and over, and Marco bought one for his visiting boss.  We did, however, check the vendor booths just to make sure it was legit…they definitely were selling it for double the price, with official labels and all!

In the course of the afternoon that followed, we visited several little booths and purchased coconut candy, banana candy, dried bananas, and had our first taste of “coconut water” where drink from a straw out of a green coconut.  It was hot and the drink was the perfect antidote, along with a quick dip of our feet in the cool river.  Then we drove home at top speed (as is the Brazilian way) on the side of mountains the whole route. 

After a nap, we had pasta with the family and went to bed, exhausted from the hot day.

Today we visited the fair!  Picture a farmer’s market on steroids.  The vendors stretch for what seems like miles and you can purchase anything from kites to boomarangs to jewelry and clothing, and even a lovely Brazilian drink made of fresh sugar cane.  The dry sticks of sugar cane go into a big juicer machine and when the juice is mixed with lime, it tastes like a very mild type of drink that we might have from a place like Orange Julius.  YUM!

After the fair, the moment we have been waiting for since we were both last in Brazil…..our first CHURRASCO!  Barbara’s family held an official churrasco (Brazilian barbeque – say “shoe-hoss-co”) and invited friends over to meet us and eat a great meal.  Churrasco is a traditional Brazilian meal that includes large amounts of meat, namely sausages and steaks.  They are cooked on skewers in a churrasco oven, usually with salt or, in Curitiba they marinate the meat beforehand.  It was a savory feast!  We ate for a long time, had some wonderful desserts, and then sat for the next five hours and vegged out and watched movies in Portugese and English. 

A very good afternoon.

The only exception was that our tummies were feeling HUGE and we felt like big slugs...  So after our food had a chance to settle, we asked if there was a good route to run.  Turns out that a couple of blocks away there is a running and cycling path and it was well populated in the cool of the evening.  Josh and I went out for a half hour run and decided that running through a city is indeed the best way to get to know it.  That's how the Smiths roll! 

It also turns out that all over the world, things are the same, as told by the picture below with all four of us on our laptops after supper.

We said goodbye to Marco before he went home tonight, and had to say our farewell to Barbara since we won’t see her tomorrow before our flight to Porto Alegre.  Thank you to you both for being wonderful hosts for our weekend in Curitiba – my first time here!  And thank you to Debora and Vilmar Smidarle for welcoming us into your home and family for a few days.  It has been marvelloso!

This has been an excellent start to our vacation and we are hoping the rest will be muito goode as well.