Thursday - Sunday 18-21 July 2002
Today we were leaving for a long weekend at the beach. Gui took generously two days off from his practice in order to join us. We packed the car and together with Claudia and Gui we drove north to Laguinha, located at the beach somewhere between Sao Paulo and Rio.
The drive was quite interesting as we were able to see some of the country land. Halfway through we had lunch at a German owned restaurant and was once again reminded about the European influence.
The drive was about three hours and the last half an hour was steep downward by hairpin bended roads. We were excited about the weather. As this time of year was winter, we could not count on perfect sun and warmth.
The place turned out to be absolute gorgeous and warmer than Jundiai. This was almost Bounty-land and we were told that in the summer this was filled with tourists and very, very hot. At this time we had some 20 degrees Celsius and almost all on our own. It felt well to feel the warmth after three weeks in the cold mountains.
The beach house was located in a condominium only one block from the beach. It previously belonged to Inger, who is Claudia's mother. Today Claudia owns it and it has been extended to fit perfectly for modern beach life, complete with a barbeque stand on the terrace. When we realized that we only had 50 meters to the water, Ane and I quickly jumped in to get a swim. We Scandinavians just have to enjoy every bit of summer we can get.
We had some lovely days at this place. Claudia and Gui were the perfect hosts and took us for walking along the beaches, to visit old Portuguese ruins, a bit of jungle and to visit the city Ubatuba. Ane particular enjoyed the latter as she clearly remembered all the T-shirts she got as a child with this funny name on, whenever her grandma had been in Brazil. The city itself was a very charming Latin American city with bright colors, but unfortunately also very effected by growing tourism. In Ubatuba we visited the local aquarium and terrarium where we could admire all kinds of animals from octopuses to penguins as well as poisonous snakes, spiders and other kind of creep.
In Brazil they do have very poisonous snakes, Gui confided to me as we asked to determine with of two different snakes were the poisonous and which were a fake wannabe. To me they were exactly the same. Fortunately Gui was also trained to treat snakebites which made it very comfortable to have him as guide in here.
It was obviously that Claudai and Gui loved nice food. They turned out to be excellent cooks and spoiled us well. We had the most delicious fish courses and had also the opportunity to enjoy their outdoor barbeque all night long, eating big steaks, fresh salad and drinking lots of nice wine.
After days of diarrhea in Peru this felt very well. The fresh salad and fruit juice was especially delicious after weeks in Peru with stewed beef, French fries and overcooked vegetables.