São Paulo and Ubatuba

Açai! Açai! Açai! 

Açai is a breakfast dish that is like a thick smoothie specifically with the açai fruit. Açai is pronounced a-sa-ee. It it similar to an enlarged blueberry but different. You can get it with one other fruit mixed in (my favorite is banana) and you can ask for extra banana slices, granola or honey to put on top. It is sooo good and is known to give you energy. I love it!

The people of Brazil have been very kind. People have helped me a lot already and are guenuinely interested in me and where I come from. 
I visited my friend Piero in São Paulo. I met Piero in college when I was working at an international extension where people from all over the world would come to learn English, which is what Piero was doing there. I stayed one day at Piero's house and hung out with his mom, cousin and 2 young brothers. Their maid made us lunch which was 2 different kinds of gnocchi and a small salad. We drank wine with lunch and had really small coffees afterwards for dessert. Since there is a large divide in Brazil between the rich and the poor, most people have maids that cook and clean for them. In Brazil, they don't eat much for breakfast, maybe a coffee, but then they have a large lunch and a small dinner. Everything happens later though. 

Piero invited me to go to his beach house with him and a couple friends. His beach house is located in a city called Ubatuba, but the particular area we stayed in is called Promirim. Ubatuba has over 200 beaches, Promirim being one of them. It was beautiful! Nice beach with a small bar, which served açai, beer and other things and played perfect beach music. We also visited a beautiful lookout point where you could view the beach, many surrounding islands, and prominent moutains from overhead. Very pretty view. Then we visited a waterfall that pooled for swimming. There was a ropeswing too! 

At night, at the beach house we went to the beach to listen to the waves. It was so beautiful, with the full moon and crashing white waves. There was a lightning storm a mile or two away which was crazy to watch. I had never seen so many lightning bolts and it was lighting up the sky violet. 

I spent another day in São Paulo which was lovely. Perfect weather and we had a great lunch of Spanish seafood rice, salad, BBQ chicken, baked potatoes and this Greek inspired topping that had yogurt, cucumbers and rosemary in it, oh and of course wine! I spent most of the day planning and reading. I also took a walk around the neighborhood. 

A funny story from the beach house is they had me imitate every english speaking nation. I did quite well and they thought it was hilarious!