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On my birthday my slave went on strike and I had to make the cups of tea myself! Thank you to everyone for all the birthday greetings which included lots of e-cards and emails and a video message!
We went out for a buffet lunch which are very popular in Brazil and our first since 2002. You can either go for the All-You-Can-Eat version or pay by weight. We went to Restaurante Pomerode for an all you can eat which we can highly recommend.
There was a nice salad bar plus various hot dishes. There were name tags but only in Portuguese. Most food items were obvious but I asked a waiter for some translations and he provided them via his smartphone. We thought the large drumsticks were turkey - wrong, they were duck! He also explained some of the desserts - one was manioc balls in red wine. We guessed the Passion fruit mousse once we'd tasted it - yummy! He also pointed out the stewed apple which was next to the pork on the savoury buffet. We added it to our desserts!
Helen's birthday meal
It cost us 40 R$ per person ($13 US each) but the real price we paid was for eating too much! Boy were we stuffed or what!! We tried to walk some of it off on the 3km walk back to where we were parked and then we watched the Champions League football. Liverpool beat Man City to reach the semi finals and Roma beat the favourites Barcelona to cause a major upset!
To finish off my big day I sent off replies to everyone and used the sport track to walk off some more of all the food we'd eaten. The buffet lunches are a great idea but we can't do that too often. It's just too much food!
The next day it was time to say goodbye to Livio, our friendly security guard at the fairgrounds and one last goodbye to Pomerode. Great place to stay. Our next stop was only 26 km further down the road - Blumenau. Yet another German stronghold in Brazil and where there is a HUGE (and I really mean huge) Oktoberfest. It's the second largest festival in Brazil after Rio's Carnival, which says a lot! Blumenau goes one further than Germany though, and holds two Oktoberfests every year!! One in October (of course!) and the other in February which is in the main Brazilian summer holiday.
We parked near the large festival grounds where the event takes place and was currently empty. Our GPS had done it's usual trick of taking us on an adventurous short cut through the large city. We ended up on a very narrow, winding cobblestone street that was very steep in places! At least we managed to get to the fairgrounds but couldn't park there, so we found a spot nearby next to a large running track/cycling track.
Kirsten went off to take photos of the city centre where there are some older German style buildings from the 19th century. She picked up a map from the tourist office and thought everything was close by. Wrong!! She ended up having to walk around 12km which took her over 2.5 hours and only just got back before it was completely dark!!
At least one hundred people were out using the walking and cycling track that evening so I took advantage and joined them for my evening sport. The next day we drove through Blumenau so I could see some of the buildings Kirsten had photographed. We also saw a hotel with the large CR7 logo on it. That must belong to Christiano Ronaldo (the famous football player who plays for Real Madrid) but we won't be staying there. He has enough money already so he doesn't need ours!!
Our GPS took us on another adventure to get out of the city and we ended up driving on the wrong side of the road at one point! Well, it was ridiculous because we were on a one way street but it turns into a two way road for about 100 metres and then goes back to a one way street!! There were no signs at all. As we came around a corner there was a line of cars on the right. We thought it was a bit odd but carried on driving on the left hand side for the short stretch.
Then a car turned a corner onto our side of the road and coming toward us! He beeped his horn and drove onto the pavement for us to pass. We wondered what on earth was going on. Very weird. The only explanation was that the small stretch was a two way road and the locals all knew about it but there were no signs to inform the rest of us! Not just complicated but truly dangerous!! No wonder our GPS has problems in this country!
After a short photo stop at the Igreja São Pedro Apóstolo in Gaspar we arrived at our next stop in Brusque - Familia Pelo Mundo, "Family round the world." Jocemar and Adriana travelled around the world in two years in a Peugeot Boxer which is the same as our Fiat Ducato. They left in 2008 with their two children, Julia 3yrs and Miguel 1yr and welcome other travellers to stay at their home.
We bought their book which is only in Portuguese but they will have the eBook version in English within the next few months. They have a website: www.familiapelomundo.com
Here's a quick summary of their journey. They travelled through 65 countries, drove 145,000km, shipped the vehicle three times and used 5 ferries. Total cost $55,325-90 US dollars which is $76-84 per day.
We had only planned on staying for one night but they are a really great family and we ended up staying for three nights! We had too much to talk about and were amazed that they'd managed to go around the world in only two years!
We had a super time with them and were treated to a barbecue on the second night and they introduced us to some of the different types of Brazilian food for brunch the following day - a large ring of Manioc bread made from manioc flour, water and salt and pinao which are the nuts from Araucaria trees.
Next door was a factory in a garage where they cut fabric for clothes and we went in to take a look. A machine rolls out layers of fabric and then a self-drawn blueprint is laid on top of the fabric. A hand cutter is used to cut out all the pieces which are then delivered to another factory that sews them. When we were there they were cutting the pieces to make 700 jackets!
Camping at Familia Pelo Mundo in Brusque
Our hosts also took us down to Itajaí on the coast which is a very large port and where a large event was taking place. Itajaí is one of the hosts cities for the Volvo Ocean Race - sailing's toughest team challenge and one of the sport's Big Three, alongside the Olympics and the America's Cup.
The first race was in 1973-4 and was called the Whitbread Round the World Race starting from Portsmouth, England and the races took place every four years but now take place every three years. This year's race will be the longest distance of 45,000 nautical miles (the previous longest distance was 39,270 in 2011-12) and will visit 12 host cities - Alicante, Lisbon, Cape Town, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Auckland, Itajaí, Newport (USA), Cardiff, Gothenburg and The Hague.
The race started on the 22nd October 2017 in Alicante and will finish in The Hague in June 2018. We didn't even know about the race but just happened to be in Brazil, just around the corner, when the teams arrived in the only host city on this continent! Perfect timing!
We had a great time wandering around the grounds, looking at all the displays and finding out about the race. The more we found out, the more fascinated we became. There was a lot to see including the chance to get on a model boat deck and watch videos of other legs of the current race. The event is free, very interesting and there were lots of people there.
Volvo Ocean Race in Itajaí
I also provided some entertainment! We were standing watching a live band and I decided to go to the toilets that were nearby. I turned to leave but didn't realise that we were standing right next to a step. I missed the step completely and went flying onto my hands and knees!! OOFF!! The floor covering was a type of artificial grass and I ended up with a grazed knee and palms! Fortunately my knee took the brunt of the fall which, along with my hands, saved my back. Otherwise that could have been a real problem. One slipped disc is enough, thank you!
Later we all went out for an All-You-Can-Eat-Pizza. Great idea! A sign on the table lets the servers know whether you want savoury, sweet or a mix of both and then they keep coming around offering you slices of 4 cheese, broccoli, sausage and bacon, chicken hearts (!!), shrimp, pepperoni amongst others. All on thin crust which you can cut off and deposit on plates for waste so you have more room for the toppings!
The dessert pizzas had the same style of base but were a bit too sweet. There were different varieties including chocolate, and strawberry and chocolate. But my favourite was the banana and white chocolate and I ate far too much of it! Well it was absolutely yummy. Now Kirsten wants to set up an All-You-Can-Eat-Pizzaria in Europe!!
Pizza Rodizio in Itajaí
The next day it was time to move on and we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts. We might meet up with them next week because we intend to return to Itajaí to watch the boats leave for the next leg of the race and I will also write more about the race. We have definitely caught the race bug and we'll check on the boats progress whenever we get internet.
