Brazil take 1: Rio Grande do Sul

I love Brazil.

I don't think I've ever been anywhere hotter than Porto Alegre. The heat we experiened in our first few days was ridiculous, we couldn't move it was so hot. It's actually the humidity that gets you, not the heat itself, but still. We have been staying at our friend Fernanda's house, a girl we met in Albuquerque on our year abroad. It's so good to have friends from all over the world because you have an excuse to travel so you can go visit them!

Her family have been so welcoming, and we have been very spoilt this past 10 days and behaving not at all like real backpackers. Her mum absolutely point blank refuses to let us help in either preparing the meals, or washing up afterwards, insisting that we are guests, which is very polite considering we've been here for 10 days and before last Wednesday,  she didnt know us from Adam, whoever he may be. Her brother is on his summer holiday from uni at the mo, so he's been our tour guide while Fernanda has been at work.

We went to her beach house at the weekend, and met her huge family, who all talk at once, shouting over each other, and don't stop to listen. It made me feel very at home - if anyone has ever met the Fernback side of my family, you'll understand :) Unfortunately it rained all weekend, but we still managed to eat almost an entire herd of cows on Sunday when her dad cooked churrasco, which is Brazilian bbq. It was delish, although a bit overdone for my taste. People in South America cook their steaks to well-done, and I'm more of a 'eat it while it's still mooing' kind of girl. We also went on a quad bike on the sand dunes at the beach, and aside from a minor capsize where the bike somehow ended up on top of us, it was so much fun!

We were unlucky with weather again this week, when we went to the little mountain town of Gramado, which looks like a village in the Alps. All the architecture is very German/Swiss, and makes you feel a bit like  you're in the Sound of Music, minus the spontaneous bursting into song. It rained a lot there too, but was very hot and stuffy when we came back to Porto Alegre again, so maybe it was a sign that we shouldn't have stopped being freeloaders? Who knows.

Today we are heading further north to the state of Santa Catarina, to a beach town called Garopaba. This is where we will be spending Carnival, Brazil's most (in)famous festival. Am very very excited! We'll still be with Fernanda,  as well as her boyfriend and some of their friends. Apparently the plan is to spend all day on the beach, eat churrasco and drink caipirinhas (Brazilian cocktails) all eve, and party all night.... sounds good to me!