Sunday January 3, 2010: Part one: A Perfect Day at Pajucara and Evandro's House

Sunday was a perfect day for us in Maceio. We awoke to an invitation by Pajucara to come spend the day at her house swimming, having lunch, and visiting with her and her lovely family—her husband Evandro, and their daughters Flavia, Olivia and Paulinha.  Barb and her husband Sergio were also coming to visit.

Pajucara’s daughter Paulinha picked us up. She was practicing her English.  I realized today how hard it is to retain any of a language I know when I am never asked on a daily basis to speak another. It is hard to recall even the few words I know in Portuguese when I am surrounded by English. On an everyday basis Paulinha is surrounded by Portuguese. The opportunity to be around an English speaker was a gift. It gave Paulinha practice in English that she would normally have to seek out and which would be much harder to find, however, here it was in the form of me on her doorstop. I also benefited since Paulinha’s bilingualism allowed me to know what was going on despite my inability to speak Portuguese.

I should have known by her name we would get along famously. My best friend Pauline lives in Dallas and I meet her in graduate school. We had an instant connection of friendship as well. Anne of Green Gables would have said we were kindred spirits. And we are. Pauline and I even share the gift of both being redheads. I should have known that anyone else with that name who showed up in my life might also be a kindred spirit.

Paulinha and I grew very fond of each other and continue to email each other. I think it is safe to say we too had a kindred spirit experience upon meeting. I remember admiring how she would not pay the man on the street who always wanted money for ‘watching’ the car while it was parked and ‘helping’ the driver back out. When Ernani asked her if she was worried they would retaliate, I liked her down to earth answer about not having a car worth their time to violate; it was too popular of a car and indicated she was not the richy rich, so no bother to bother. This was my kind of friend: straight shooting and down to earth.

Since it was summer in Brasil, the college students had off. Paulinha is a graduate student in Environmental Science and Ecology. She and her sisters were home for the holidays. As we drove north to her mother’s house, we followed the ocean. We noted that they had closed off a portion of the road again in town and families were strolling the road normally packed with racing cars. Paulinha told us they did this on Sundays. There were a lot of families riding bikes. We commented on what a wonderful idea this was and I could not help but think how brilliant it would be to take the kids here on Sunday and enjoy the air, the water, and the time off. It was super fun and relaxing, the kind of day I did not know we were about to have at Pajucara’s house.

Traffic was heavy even as the road took us off the shore line. Everyone was heading north to the beautiful beaches to spend the day swimming. We all had the same idea. As we drove and gaped at the scenery, we noticed hotels with strange names: Hotel Amour, The Hideaway. They all had high walls and private entrances. We learned that they were hotels to take your mistress to and were common. They had hotels like these, built specifically for these purposes, for all the classes.

Not everyone likes them. Not everyone uses them.

When we arrived at Pajucara’s house, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful yellow walls and wonderful plants everywhere. The house was open. Doors were wide open, windows too. It was lovely. We were greeted warmly immediately upon stepping from the car. Pajucara and Rebecca have a lovely and deep friendship, so it was wonderful to see how much they enjoyed being together again. Evandro taught me how to say very beautiful: muito bonito. That was the description of the house, the family, the beach, and our Sunday with them.

We ordered lunch after getting ready for the beach and a quick tour of the house.  We had to know where to change. I lathered on the sunscreen, but I would have my first lesson in how my skin reacts to the tropical ocean. I now believe that no matter how much I put on or how often I apply sunscreen, I will get a slight burn because of the reflecting water. Plus, I checked the UV levels before we left and they were all off the charts. I knew what I was getting into. The hats and everyday wear worked fine, but swimming was an entirely different matter. And I did have a slight tan and way more freckles when I got back home, so I got my vitamin D without getting a major burn. 

The house is too beautiful to describe with justice.  It is one story with tiled floors and open, inviting rooms. It is also surrounded by porches and outside seating. The main porch had a roof and a hammock and just outside of it was another sitting area where we ate our lunch. Starfruit and mango trees are everywhere in the yard, so the yard and porches are in shade. Plants we have inside our houses line the walkways and lurk artistically in trees. A small sitting place stands in the middle of the yard and in the back corner is an outside shower. We used it after we swam. It was refreshing.

Pajucara and Evandro live about 2 blocks from the beach. So, we walked to the beach and noted the beautiful houses we passed. I noted some for sale signs too. The roads were sand, pointless really to pave, and a good sign we were very near the ocean. We arrived onto the beach and after trying without success to plant an umbrella in the sand (it was a windy day), we ran into the warm, perfect waters of the sea. And it was perfect. Calm, but wavy enough to be exciting. I had perfect ocean experiences in Brazil. Only Daytona’s beaches come close to the experiences I had swimming in Brazil. The undertow was not scary, the waves were fun, the water was perfect.

Paulinha explained that the tide was perfect now and later that night when we went back I found an entirely different, much more wild ocean, but at noonish it was calm, docile and only wild enough to enjoy. We wildly happy swimming.

On our walk back to the house for a late lunch, I learned from Paulinha what Flavio was to repeat later in the trip to me. Brazil is blessed. There are no storms or hurricanes that threaten Maceio and its beaches.

Lunch was ordered and delivered to the house while we were at the beach. Barb and Sergio also arrived while we were swimming. Lunch, again, was one of the best I had in Brazil. We had mashed potatoes of course, manioc, and tuna pasta that I have been trying to replicate at home since we got back, it was wonderful. It melted in your mouth. And fish, fish, fish in heavenly tomato sauces. And fries. And Graviola ice cream for dessert.

Ernani and I have, since we returned, often talked about how wonderful it would be to have a restaurant who would deliver, even that far out of town, and deliver such good food. Our options here are so limited in that respect.

While we were eating lunch and enjoying the good company, we noticed some monkeys in the tree next to us. Evandro began to entice them down further so we could really see them and the tourists (us of course) could take pictures. They would come right down and take the food from his hands. One of them even had a baby on her back. They also were not eating it all right away. We saw that they were taking it and going back up into the tree where they had a nest to store it there. Clever. 

Ernani got a chance to feed them, but they were done by the time I tried, so we returned to our ice cream and the rest of our perfect day.