June 24, 2012

A Weekend Away

The last holiday weekend, we had an opportunity to get away for a few days.  It was awesome.  We headed south along the coast to a place called Tamandare.  Because it was a US 3-day-weekend, and not a Brazilian 3-day-weekend, we were able to get a great rate on a fabulous place

There was a fairly large group of us - Brazilian and American families.  It gave us an opportunity to get to know people better - and to spend the weekend like a Brazilian!

The place we stayed was right on the beach and was set up with several bungalows - each with a few bedrooms and bathrooms and a little kitchen.  Hammocks were strung about all over the place. 






The grounds were glorious and even had a flock of peacocks running about.





It was absolutely relaxing!  The kids ran and played all day and had a blast. 













And then were cozy when they rested 







We slept in, strolled on the beach,











relaxed in the fabulous water, and read in the hammocks. 







 There were piscinas naturais (natural pools) similar to what they have in Porto de Galinhas.  When the tide is in you can't see the reef that is submerged beneath the water. 
















 But when the tide goes out, there are deep pools in the reefs that are filled with fish and other sea animals. 




You can swim out to the reef and then walk along the top. When you get to one of the pools, you can swim in it with the fish.  It's pretty amazing and there wonderful tidepools to explore.  I'm used to California tidepools - which are fascinating.  These were decidedly different - starting with the water temperature and lack of waves crashing about.  The pools created were a lot calmer.  There were little crabs to watch and lots and lots of sea urchins.  So much that you're better off with sea booties to where - I got some spikes in my foot and it was a challenge to get them out!

Cafe da manha (Brazilian breakfast) was served in an open air pavilion each morning.  Lots of wonderful fruit juice (mango, graviola, caxa), pastries, eggs and tapioca (not what you're thinking) crepes to order and even hot chocolate! 

One would think that hot chocolate wouldn't make sense in a tropical paradise, but when there's a downpour during breakfast and you want to run around in it, it's nice to come back to some hot chocolate!



There were wild monkeys in the trees





















 And lots of coconuts for playing games with











A walk on the beach turned up all sorts of fascinating things







crab holes













seaweed that looked like green grapes













beautiful sea shells













fisherman going out for the day














and even a little church.

















And when you came back from your walk, you could wash your feet before you came inside

It was a great weekend to get away and relax with friends!


Walking in the Rainforest

We had a wonderful opportunity to visit a special rainforest preserve.  A friend of ours (who also blogged about the visit) arranged the visit with friends of theirs who teach at the university.  This preserve is not open to the public.  It's a private preserve that the owner has set aside and protected and then allowed the university access for research.

It's a fabulous place.  It's hidden at the end of a dirt road. There are no signs to get there - you'd have to know where it is.







We met our guide at the entrance and started hiking into the rainforest.  It was just beautiful. The trees made a wonderful canopy and there were so many interesting things to see.



















We saw some amazing mushrooms














and poisonous berries,


















an armadillo hole,


















bright red mushrooms,

















a beautiful chrysalis,
















and a termite nest (they're big helpers in the forest since they eat all the dead wood - they clean it all up!)
















We saw the trees that Tarzan uses (and who knew that they really grow from the ground up - they're just very bend-y so the monkeys can swing from them as they rest against other trees.
















And hummingbird nests 








Our guide showed us the river where there were different kinds of snakes and fish,

and a tiny frog.








We hiked for about 45 minutes and then we came to the research bungalow.


 In addition to researching the plants and animals in the area, they also have a lot of animals that have been rescued and are protected and rehabilitated before being released back in the wild.


Unfortunately, many of these animals have been rescued from poachers who capture them to sell as exotic pets.  It's very sad.



We saw monkeys from the Amazon,


and a sloth.  She moves very, very slow but if you make her angry, she can move her very sharp claws super fast.  We got to stroke her back.














 Her fur is very thick with two coats.  The overcoat is designed to shed water and the undercoat is very thick to keep her warm.  It's gets cold when you live in the tops of the trees!


This guy isn't a snake, but a giant worm.  He moves by wriggling his coils up and down - like an inchworm.  It's really kind of icky because he's so big - about 2 feet long.  Think scarey worm thing from Land of the Lost!



This armadillo blends right in with the forest floor.  She was struggling so hard to get away, she dug a hole for half her body in about 5 minutes!



a type of porcupine / hedgehog.  Her quills were fun to stroke - as long as you went the right direction!












And what's this???


















And we got to hold boa constrictors!
 



We had a great day day learning new things with our friends!

June 10, 2012

Fresh Bread

Bread has always been my favorite category.  I have some friends whose category is cheese, and for many others it's chocolate.  But bread, with all the varieties, just hits home. 

Maybe it's growing up in California with sourdough (which is a way of life).  And then living in the San Francisco Bay Area with all the fabulous independent bread bakers.  Arguing over who makes the best seeded sandwich roll (Semifreddi); the best sourdough baguette (Acme); and whether it's going overboard to create a menu around Metropolis' Walnut and Scallion bread.

And making bread is such a wonderful grounding experience.  Whether you're doing the basic recipe in your bread machine, or spending a day making by hand the whole wheat loaves from the Tassajara Bread Book - when you pull that loaf out of the oven, the sense of accomplishment is fabulous!

I knew that in this life - we'd get to try lots of different breads from all around the world.  It's great to see what people do with some flour, water, salt and yeast.  The breads in Brazil are lots of fun.  There's pao de quiejo - the wonderful Brazilian cheese bread made with manioc flour, and hard french rolls.  My friend did a great post about the varieties of bread here.  But I've been missing a good, crusty bread - both the making and the eating.

A few years ago there was a great article in the NY Times about a new way to make bread - the "no-knead" method.  It inspired many to try it and was very successful.  It even created a shortage of instant yeast in New York for a time.







It's great to make, super yummy and comes out beautifully.






It also helps that I've got a wonderful clay cooker to bake the bread in.  The recipe I've been using is from the Breadtopia website - which is also where I got my new sourdough starter - can't wait to have sourdough bread again.









 But in the meantime - this is nice and crusty!

June 02, 2012

Seahorses and Mangroves

On one of our weekend day trips, we headed south just past Porto de Galinhas to Maracaipe.  A good friend had written about what a wonderful time she and her family had had at the beach and also visiting the sea horses so we thought we'd check it out.

The place with the seahorses is at Pontal de Maracaipe. We drove south past Porto de Galinhas and came to the town of Maracaipe.  It's a cute beach town with lots of surfing schools as the waves there are a nice size for surfing and body-boarding.  When we got to the beach, we asked where the pontal was and were told to drive along the beach and turn right when we got to the fazenda (means farm). 

We drove along and at first there were restaurants on one side and the beach with beach snack spots on the other side.  But pretty soon, the paved road seemed to end and it was just a sand trail along the top of the beach.  It seemed pretty well traveled - we were driving with other cars and some dune buggies.   Very quickly, however, it became apparent that it wasn't really a road - just a track in the sand at the top of the beach.  I was worried about getting stuck in the sand, but as long as we kept moving, I felt we were OK.  But then the cars came to a stop - traffic jam up head.  Luckily, we were on a stretch of sand that had been strewn with palm leaves so we were alright.  After the cars started moving again, we came to the turn and I realized why the cars had stopped before.  The right turn we needed to make was perpendicular to the track in the sand, very narrow, with stone walls on either side and a telephone pole at the corner.  There was no way to swing wide to approach it.  The only way I could do it was to slowly ease back and forth into the turn.  And I had to do that because there was no way to turn around and no way to reverse direction all the way back - especially with all the cars behind me.

I started working on the turn and got about half way into it when about 5 or 6 dune buggies came down the road we were trying to head up.  Of course this road was a narrow one lane road as well.  The drivers tried to persuade me to back up so that they could get by, but there was absolutely no way that was going to happen.  Eventually they realized that I wasn't moving and they backed up so that I could finish the turn and head up the road.

Finally we arrived at the pontal.  It was beautiful - shady trees on the water edging the mangrove swamp. 











There were jangadeiras (traditional fishing boats) there waiting to take people into the swamp to see the sea horses. 













We parked the car and got onto a boat and headed into the swamp.









The mangroves grow right in the water - at high tide, even the lower branches are submerged, and at low tide, the mangrove sits on a sandy beach. 





















Our guide took us into the swamp and then stopped so we could get out and swim and he went to find some seahorses and other sea creatures for us.




After seeing a lot of wildlife, we headed back to shore and I prepared myself for the drive out.  The road we had come in on was the only way in or out.  I was not looking forward to heading back down that road.  Luckily, a system had been devised by the time we headed back.  Someone at each end would stop the cars going one way and allow the other cars to go through - then they'd reverse direction.  It made it much easier getting out.

 We found a place to park the car and went to one of the beach-side restaurants for lunch and swimming.  We had a whole fish for lunch - delicious!  There was a body-boarding competition going on which was a lot of fun to watch and we also got to play in the waves.  Nice day.