Food !

Awesome little place for lunch while in Guaraja. Michelle had been there the last time she was in Brazil (5 years ago). More like a buffet kind of place with what must be the great beans and rice on the planet Earth. Also had some other vegetables that were unidentifiable - a shredded green that looked like seaweed spinach, a french fry look-alike that was probably some sort of plantain, and a lovely little black bean soup.

Need to get Ron and Carlos to do a little food identification for future reference.

Cold Beer

Apparently the Brazilians have an obsession with cold beer, since they can't imagine it being left out to the elements for more than a few minutes. Enter the beer thermos bottle.

Granted it makes you look like an alcoholic from the first moment the waiter brings you a bottle of beer, but that last glass is just as cold as the first.

Not sure how the local beer was called Buddha, but I'm positive there's a story there somewhere.

What am I thinking?

It's time to play "Read Michelle's Mind" . . . Is she thinking?

1. "Right now, 5000 miles away, my son is throwing green beans at my husband."

2. "Wow, one more beer, and I'm going to be lit."

3. "I'm really concerned if Joe (husband) was able to fit Morgan (karmic debt to Michelle's parents) into her soccer jersey that was too big for Queen Latifa. Hmmm . . . Bartender ?"

If you guessed none of the above and went will the ever popular "It's snowing in Indianapolis", you win.

And they said understanding women was so hard.

Caipirinha

A little slice of heaven.

Doesn't matter where you go in the World, there's always some sort of native alcohol out there - with Brazil being no exception.

Take a little sugar and mashed it into a lime, pour in a little fermented sugarcane juice (otherwise known as caipirinha). Cook her down with a little ice, and you've got a beverage that will knock you on your patuckas after about 2.3 ounces.

Unfortunately I had 26.5 ounces that night.

Beach !!!

Ah the advantages of going to a beach when it's not tourist season.

Not sure why few people were at the beach (it's the end of summer for them), since it was a constant balmy 90 degree fahrenheit the whole time we were there.

I did resist the temptation of picking up sand, seawater, and shells for the collection - it doesn't count since Patty and I weren't there together (hopeless romantic, I know).

Going to the Beach

After a relatively short flight from Mexico City to Miami, and then a nighttime flight from Miami to Sao Paulo (with marginal business class service), we had a driver pick us up and drive us to Guaraja - a small beach about an hour outside of Sao Paulo (thanks again Keiko).

Cover up those Ruins

Next door to the Church practically are the ruins. Interesting history of rebuilding on top of each temple until they had this huge complex. And you can basically walk through the 7 successive layers of structures.

Always fascinating to see how old heritage sites were considered unimportant in different times in their history. For this particular area they ran a water main right through the center of the pyramids.

Downtown Mexico City

Only a couple of days in Mexico City, but we had a little bit of time to do some sight-seeing.

Took a "short" taxi ride of 45 minutes to drop off luggage at Gaby's house (she's close to the airport), and then another quick 40 minute jaunt to downtown Mexico.

The Church is th centerpiece of the downtown area - kind of surprised there wasn't at least one Coach or Starbucks within walking distance, but they haven't gotten to that regentrification thing yet.

The Church actually was kind of fascinating since it was basically built on old Indian ruins - you can actually see the foundations through a glass sidewalk in front of the building which is pretty cool.

And you thought they only did Tacos

Shocking as it may sound, Mexico knows food - and not just the crap at one of my favorite haunts - Taco Bell. Great food culture up there with the Italians, believe it or not. And not too bad on the vegetarian theme, since meat can be so expensive for some.

They know how to cook beans and rice, which is a fast dying art form. And they also have a huge range of vegetables, fruits, and other foodstuffs that defy explanation.

Enter this pasta dish (also at the greatest margarita hacienda) - a relatively simple dish of fettucine, butter, and . . . corn fungus. Actually the name in Spanish is huitlacoche, which sounds a lot better than its other names (e.g. corn smut). They need to work on marketing and call the stuff Mexican truffles or something like that though, since I think most of you were lost after "smut". Basically, the fungus is collected from corn (considered a bad thing in the US), but it has an amazing flavor - earthy and unique. The whole dish qualified for the french stamp of approval in good cooking - simple dish with less than five ingredients.

The Best Margarita in the World . . . I'm serious

Just when you think Mexico City is all about yellow skies, decoy wallets for street muggers, and a short drive considered anything less than 45 minutes, the city surprises you.

Off a back road, hidden amongst some non-descript houses sits an amazing San Angel Hacienda (need to look it up) - that makes the most amazing margaritas on the planet. I've had quite a few in my day, but these were awesome. Not the sickly sweet and sour mixture of TGI Friday's, but great tequila - and a nice presentation as well (note the big bucket of ice holding a big flask of heaven).