What Is It About Brazil? (2 of 3)

Next on my list was the Brazilian hand signals which can run from the simple snapping of fingers to emphasise a point, express concern, suggest a coffee break etc, to the complex motion of snapping your index and second finger together whilst flicking your wrist onto your forearm. I challenge any non-native to master this! Some days when I am feeling particularly bored I wonder round my department and see how many times I can get a Brazilian to do this. “Did you see the second goal last night”. Snap snap. “Shall we go to the beach now”. Snap Snap and so on, for me it’s sheer poetry.

We stopped at a small roadside stand to buy some sirequellias. A small orange fruit whose taste is quite difficult to pin down but to which I am truly addicted. It is always a constant source of amusement for me that every time I buy a fruit, the nearest Brazilian pipes up that all the best fruit is instantly exported to Europe, and that if I want to eat the best fruit I should go there. Of course, like many things, there is a grain of truth in this, but for sheer variety nowhere can hold a candle to Brazil.

Next on my list has to be the food. Of course, you can eat excellent meat here, wonderful lobster and crab and if I don’t get my daily fix of rice and beans there is trouble. Increasingly however, I find myself skipping the main course and heading straight for the desserts. Icecreams, yes please I will have two, puddim (a typical desert)- oh, a small one perhaps, more cakes with cream – well o.k. Everything seems to be much much sweeter than in Europe, and in all honesty, I love it.

But of course as everyone knows, it’s not terribly good for your health to eat so many sweet things. So what do the Brazilians do (and this you must agree is simply brilliant), they take the sweetest possible food and eat it with cheese. Brilliant! Puddim and cheese, dolce and cheese, even ice cream and cheese. Fantastic!!

Thinking about food had made me hungry and I was pleased to see a sign telling me we were only a few miles from Lagoiniha. Oblivious to the quiet streets and the beautiful, if decaying, churches which were dotted about the village through which were passing, I was thinking only about my stomach now.

Praia da Lagoinha is 124km from Fortaleza, which is about 2 hours drive, or 2-3 hours by bus. It is a truly fantastic beach. A local once described it to me as one of those places where you notice God is in every detail. I am not normally one for such high praise (unless it’s for desserts, which is entirely different in my book), but I do love this beach and feel half inclined to agree with him.

As we drove down to the pousada I carried on with my list. This time I turned my attention to things I don’t like about Brazil. For example, why is it that all Brazilian coins look the same? I can’t easily distinguish between 1R$, 10 centavos or 50 centavos. The notes are easy, but I am told they will be changed to plastic soon, which I am sure will lead to complete and utter confusion. I wish I had a Real for each time I have counted my money out carefully in the supermarket only to reach the checkout and find that I have in fact 50 centavos, and not the 5R$ I thought I had. I imagine for blind or partially sighted people the situation must be even more difficult.

Read all three parts of What Is it About Brazil?
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

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