Getting out of town!

So, we're finally out of the big bustling city; we made the move to a smaller city to the east of Rio called Cabo Frio. But before we left, we made a stop at the botanical gardens. I don't know if anybody has been keeping up on the weather in Brazil, but we're under some kind of cold front, and it's been downright chilly round here. The temperature changes very little throughout the day, but its been raining off and on, but mostly all day just misting. So even, with an umbrella its hard to stay dry, with tiny droplets of water attaching themselves to you from all directions. But it's okay; we've just been having quite a few Funbrella days. But today is the first day with some substantial sunshine, so I'm going to try to keep this post brief.

Anyway, the Garden is full of all kinds of strange plants. It felt like we were on another planet. Incredible succulents, bromeliads, and orchids, huge trees. But honestly, the most memorable and entertaining thing about Rio are the buses. They are CRAZY! We've decided that they are like flying sardine cans! They barely slow down for anything, if at all, for pedestrians that better hurry up and get across the street!

So, we have found a very friendly and gracious family to host us here in Cabo Frio. With very little notice, they have welcomed us into their home and only the eldest daughter speaks english. She has been our guide around this beautiful city and our teacher of Portuguese. The hardest word for us to learn has been 'dog' (cachorro), which also happens to be the only problem here at the house; that one dog is very sweet, named Vitulho, and the other is mean and bites. His name is Fofão, and he broke his chain and escaped into the house, where everyone is terrified to go near him.

There are elections coming up in Brazil. There are competing sound-systems blaring campaign ads and music from speakers lashed to the roofs of cars driving around the bairro (neighborhood). Its quite entertaining to try and tease out the different sounds, and now we have some cheesy songs stuck in my head. Here, what we would call 'elevator music', they call 'dor de cotovelo' (elbow pain), so to indicate that you don't like this music, all you have to do is point to your elbow and smile! Never going to forget that one!

Thanks everyone for reading and we love any comments. See some more of our pictures on our picasa album!

Quote of the day: 'Deixa estar jacaré, sua lagoa ainda há de secar.'