Brazilian State Flags: Rio Grande do Sul

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Exorbitant Grocery Prices

We have one really fancy grocery store here, Pao de Acucar. It's got an organic section, but in general everything they have is more expensive, not just the organics. They do offer some things that I have a hard time finding at other stores, which is helpful. And I really love grocery shopping, so I go there a lot. Over Thanksgiving (November) I was on the search for marshmallows. They're pretty simple, and yeah, I know you can make them, but I thought I'd be able to find them in a store. After going to literally (okay, maybe not totally literal, but close!) every chain of grocery store, I finally found them at Pao de Acucar. And the price was ridiculous! I didn't get them (so our canned yams had to go without their delicious marshmallow topping), but really wanted to take a picture. I finally went back and brought my camera. I caught a few more goodies that cost way too much. Mostly from one brand, La Preferida, which is mostly Mexican type food.

Check out these prices (I've roughly translated them to USD so they make more sense):

Canned Nacho Cheese: $11.00

Marshmallows: $13.00

Canned Salsa:  $14.00

Are you kidding me? Canned nacho cheese sauce? I would have thought it would be the 'cheap alternative' to using real cheese, but I think real cheese would be more reasonable in this case. And cheese here isn't cheap, by any means, so that's saying something!

 

Water traffic

Our coastal area has a shark problem (read about it here), which doesn't concern us completely because we have a great reef right in front of our house which provides an enclosed swimming area. But locals are super weary about swimming past the reefs. Surfing is prohibited because of the shark attacks, but there are a few beaches where people still do it. Lately I've been seeing other water traffic. These two stand up paddle boarders were out past our reef, headed towards a set of covered reefs (where we've seen tons of sea turtles before, so I totally understand why they were headed that way). I figure if surfing is prohibited, these SUP's probably would be just as easy a target for a shark. I didn't watch them the whole time, so I can confirm that they weren't eaten, but I think they probably survived. We also see windsurfers all the time, but they go SO FAST that I think even a shark would have a tough time catching them. I swear, they must be professional windsurfers or something. 

Also, a cruise ship. I don't remember seeing a ton of them the first year we lived here, but I see them all the time now, I've probably seen like 15 total? They're super pretty traveling at night, with all their lights on. I've taken pictures of them at night, but, haha, the photos are horrible. You'll just have to imagine them.

Brazilian State Flags: Rio Grande do Norte

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Super yellow avocado

I can't remember if I posted this already or not, but a few weeks back we had the craziest yellow avocado. It was just insanely crayon colored yellow. Super bright. I assumed it was also just as packed with nutrients! Right? Color equals nutrients? Oddly enough, today we had an extremely green one. Like grass green. I didn't get a photo of it though. Next time.

Brazilian State Flags: Rio de Janeiro

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Rainy Days and Sailboats in Recife

It hasn't been too rainy yet, people have told us the rainy season is starting though. I thought it was a bit later. We'll see. But when it does rain, our street floods like crazy. The dog uses the bathroom in front of the house, but if there is a flash storm, the drains clog up and make our front sidewalk an island. Buses go by and it's tough to take her out to walk without getting a splash of drainage water. 

But the rainy days to make for some beautiful views. Sometimes I still can't get over the view. I'm constantly taking pictures of it. Just waiting for that professional photographer to come live with me so that they can be captured a bit more accurately.

Also there have been quite a few sailboats lately. I think it's something like weekend regattas. Last weekend there was a large group (like 7 maybe) catamarans followed by a much larger (like 20) group of single hulled sailboats. For two weekends there have been large groups like that. And of course plenty of little single sailboats scooting around during the week.