Once we met up she gave us a run-down on the various places to go. We agreed to meet up around noon at the central market where there were bar/restaurants as well as local craft stalls and live Samba dancing later.
I headed off down one of the main shopping streets, managing to find and buy what I needed despite my lack of Portuguese and a lack of English from the shop assistants - from time to time I resorted to my phrase book but generally we got by with sign language in a good humoured way. I don''t think Uberlândia gets a lot of English-speaking visitors yet. I returned to the square and thought I followed Larissa's directions to the central market but after calling her a couple of times with my location we agreed I wasn't anywhere near where I should be. Eventually I saw a sign for the market and made it to a landmark where Larissa was able to come and guide me to where I should have been. After browsing the stalls I settled down with the others for a very welcome very cold beer and then we had some lunch - a selection from the buffet and it included a caipirinha. Some of the others wanted to head back to the hotel so we piled into a taxi and by the time I got back I was well and truly ready for a good snooze.
Around 4 a couple of us were refreshed and ready for the next shopping trip, to the mall to buy some supplies for a "pot luck" dinner we are having tomorrow night at Larissa's father's home. I also decided I wanted to get a pair of Brazilian men's shoes - I'd been told they are very good. Spotting some suitable ones in a shop window I went in and tried to demonstrate that I needed them to measure my feet as I didn't know what size I was in Brazilian shoe sizes. This didn't seem to register so we agreed I'd try on a pair. They were 38s and far too small so a 39 was brought, then a 40 and so on until we found my size - 42. The shop assistant thought the whole thing hilarious and we had good fun finding the right size!
Suitably shod I then went down to the supermarket, where I ran into another of the team on the same mission, looking for suitable things we could use to make up something for the pot-luck. I couldn't get what I wanted to do some of the things I was thinking on (OK, I confess, suggested by my wife in response to a cry for help) so I reverted to an old favourite - a cheeseboard, with kiwifruit as the centrepiece and therefore reflecting my country (whilst the kiwifruit are imported, I am not sure they are NZ ones, but hopefully the difference won't be noticed).
Fortunately there were plenty of cabs waiting at the entrance as I was now fully shopped out and ready to melt down. The temperature for most of the day was in the high 20s (Celsius), as it has been for much of the time we've been here. So back to the hotel and cool off in the aircon.
Around 8 some of us gathered in the lobby to decide where to go for dinner. A sushi restaurant was suggested so we piled into a couple of cabs and headed downtown. Once there we were ushered into a private room with a sunken pit for our legs so we effectively sat on the floor (on cushions, thank goodness!). We had their version of all you can eat with sashimi, sushi, and various cooked dishes. It was all very good but the second plate of sashimi plus some other dishes weren't attacked with the same gusto as the earlier dishes. We soon ran out of steam and slowed down. Eventually we did justice to most of it (although we passed on the ice cream and caramel sauce) and I think everyone enjoyed the meal. After a long wait for our taxis (our original order got lost) they turned up, we turned for the hotel and soon I'll turn in.
#ibmcsc brazil
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