I woke up at my usual time which is around 5:00 a.m. which was great because in BH it was 9:00 a.m. Tarcisio and I had breakfast together. His housekeeper is an excellent cook and Tarcisio is an excellent host. The food was delicious...especially the great number of fresh fruits that hadn't been picked green but were actually ripened on the vine. The special cheese buns were out of this world and because they were so small it was easy to lose count of the number you ate and the calories they accounted for!
We spent the morning lounging around the pool where I go my first case of sunburn. Being in and out of the water did not stop the sun's rays from doing their deed! A few Skol's actually helped make me careless!
In the afternoon, Tarcisio, Fernanda, Rodrigo, Patti and I went on a tour of BH. What a beautiful and what a large city! We visited an important landmark, Praça do Papa (Pope's Square), located at a high point south of the downtown area, with its great view of the entire city. It is named for the July 1st, 1980, visit by John Paul II, who held a youth mass there. The nearby Parque das Mangabeiras (Mangabeiras Park) features extensive wildlife. While we were in the park some parakeets flew over so quickly we couldn't capture them on camera. At Pope's Hill we enjoyed some ice cold coconut milk straight from the pod! We then visited a flower market which stretched a couple of city blocks. The array of cut and live plants on display was dazzling to the eye and the wonderful scents of the blooms was a feast to the nose!
From there we went to a really beautiful mall(Diamond Mall) where we ate a Brazilian fast food lunch which was not only delicious but very reasonably priced. As per usual, as guests we were not allowed to pay for any of these purchases! Here I successfully was able to retrieve $400 from a Banco Brasil ATM. I really don't know why I took the money out as I knew the only way I would be able to spend it was to insist that what I was buying was a gift for family.
We returned home, packed our bags for a weekend stay, and we were off to Polido's and Rosangela's country "estate", their refuge from their jobs(Polido's was quite stressful because of his many responsibilities in the company as was Tarcisio's job - they both worked for the same international company) and from city life in BH. It was located in a gated community built around a beautiful lake. The home and pool and gardens were beautiful from what I could see in the lights around the yard. We were met by Polido and Rosangela, their son, Lucas and his girl friend, and 2 of Lucas's friends.
After a wonderful supper, Tarcisio, Fernanda, and Rodrigo went back to BH for the night. They would return the next day along with Manu and Alessandra. The rest of us greeted Rosangela's brother, Harley( Zhi) and his wife "Zhina". We gathered in a room that was open on two sides to the outdoors on comfortable chairs, a sofa, and a large hammock. Polido is quite a good guitar and ukelele player and proceeded to lead us in a few songs that everyone knew in English...a lot of Beatles stuff... Rosangela distributed some percussion stuff for us to accompany him and we had a singalong session for about an hour. Because I was exhausted( I am 70 years old) I retired for the night. Patti stayed up for another hour and she accompanied Polido on a drum he got for her when he heard she liked to drum. A full and happy day!
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