Fabian is a pretty cute girl from Switzerland that’s in my surf class. She’s been in South America for 3 months, has spent a fair amount of time Argentina already, and took a language course like I did. She got a job offer back home after being here for only a month, and they wanted her to return within a few weeks. She asked if she could start in two months and they said no, so she turned it down. A couple weeks later they called her back, and said she could start in March.

I’m getting a pretty good tan by now, even though I always use #30 sunscreen. I’m on my second bottle, which cost R$29.00 for 125 ml, or about US$18.00 for a little over 4 oz’s. I also had my hair cut really short, which was a much better deal for R$10.00.

The temperature is generally in the middle 80’s with some humidity, which is hot, but that’s fine with me. The water is in the 70’s and feels great. No need for a wet-suit. You don’t need to bring anything to the beach, vendors rent or selling anything you could want. And it’s all useful stuff; you don’t get the Mexican hard-sell for cheap jewelry. An umbrella and a chair are essential – they rent for a few R$’s for the day, or just plop down in front of Beer Praia and order a beer. Regis will bring out an umbrella, and a 650 cc bottle of Bhoemia for you in its own little cooler.

Believe it or not, the city actually operates drink tents in 3 or 4 locations. They sell healthy stuff, like fruit drinks and ice cold coconuts with a straw in them. The grilled cheese vendors are interesting. They have sticks of cheese, and they grill them over a charcoal box that they carry around with them. To get the coals fired up, they swing the contraption round and round like a softball pitcher winding-up. I would’t think of buying cashews on the beach, but there they are, guys carrying around 5 to 10 pounds of nuts in a big Tupperware container. Beer vendors wheel around cervejas in a can-shaped cooler. Sandwiches, surf boards, swim suits, and sunscreen. It’s all for sale or rent, right here at the beach.

The booze cart guys are fun. There are a couple of them here, and they’ve got their boom-boxes and blenders spinning. Caipirinhas, again, are the Brazilian equivalent of a mojita. The booze is called cochacau, and is a liqueor that’s made from sugar. It’s generally only about 50 proof, but they use a lot of it. Sometimes it’s favored, like naranja, and a lot of people just drink it straight. I think it tastes as bad as Argentine fernete, and its only redeeming quality is that it costs about R$2.25 for a 750 ml bottle.