February 20 - Day 6

As usual Tarcisio and I, because of long standing habits, were the first ones up that morning. The house keeper arrived shortly and then he and I had a breakfast that stretched out over 3 hours. We were discussing language and teaching each other how to speak in his case, in English, and in my case in Brazilian Portuguese. We used a mixture of the 2 languages to communicate. Because he had been taking English for a long time with Betsy, he was becoming more proficient by the hour. When words failed, we used rough drawings and/or used Spanish in which both of us had some knowledge.

When the rest got up around 10:00 and started on breakfast, we had already had a good visit. We made plans to tour BH that Monday in the early afternoon. Welkeria and her boy friend, Leo, joined us. We toured the beautiful downtown area which was remarkably quiet because of the fact most people were on Carnival holiday. Unfortunately as a result of the holiday, everything was closed so we could only see everything from the outside only except where we could look through the windows.

We had sodas and beer and canapes at a lovely sidewalk cafe/bar while we waited for 6:00 p.m. which was when the restaurants opened on this strip. Tarcisio treated us all to a wonderful meal at an Italian restaurant called Fabrica, which is Portuguese for factory - Spaghetti Factory! Our table was outside and besides good food, the service was excellent, especially when they found out that we were guests from Canada.

Upon returning to Tarcisio's wonderful home, we discussed what we would do next day. There was some tension about where we would go. But it got resolved and then while Tarcisio prepared drinks and snacks, Patti and I discussed politics with Fe and Rodrigo while we relaxed in the warm water of the pool. While enjoying what Tarcisio had prepared, we watched the carnival parade from Rio de Janeiro on his huge plasma TV that was located outside near the pool. What an affair that parade was and what crowds were there! It was a competition among many groups that was elaborately staged and with outstanding costuming and presentation!

Off to bed early because we were going to make an early start next day!