Porto Alegre

Aslkjls laksdjfn lkjasld asne gnaen gneosn aytgwqj alknfea alsn vçh0o sjhhnbg anshygenq asztqn alng al? Njeqyh ngloyqp alkjqngalk lkanonon lnm anqun. Aj qulkj qoiknm qneny nthyh qjuidl.

That is how we feel now that we have moved into Portuguese-speaking Brasil. I thought we would at least be able to pick out some of the words, but no, it´s not as easy as we (or at least I) thought it was going to be. It is actually getting a little better now that we are at least somewhat familiar with the way Portuguese sounds, but I am not as optomistic about picking it right up as I was before we came. We will be taking a week of language classes starting next week, so that will help.

Our stay in Punto del Diablo, Uruguay, was nice - it is a small beach town with (as one brochure described it) ecclectic architecture - read: thrown together - and a large fishing community. But the people were friendly, the beaches were great, and we were adopted by two dogs who sensed that we were missing our own at home. And our cabaña had a hammock on the porch from which we could sit and listen to the waves. We will post some pictures from the next place we can download from the camera.

Anyway, we are in Porto Alegre, a large city that is on the southeast coast of Brasil. I compared it to Houston, Texas, in the fact that it is a large, busy city and there is plenty to keep a tourist occupied, but there aren´t too many of them here. Oh, yeah, I think it is prettier than Houston (no offense to Houstonites). We´re headed to a smaller place on the coast, then to Florianopolis at the beginning of next week for our classes.