Brazil Tour 5: Gouchos

January 4

Thank goodness someone woke us up and that we had packed the night before. We unfortunately didn’t have time to shower, just to throw our carry-on stuff together and go down to the lobby. Then we went to the breakfast buffet to grab some food.  So then we went to put our stuff on the bus and I was really tired and out of it so I was like leaning all over my cello.  That is probably the only useful thing  traveling with a cello involves. Normally it is just me trying to hold onto my luggage, enormous purse and awkward cello, but in terms of something to sit on or lean on, a heavy duty flying cello case picks up the slack. So we got on the bus and the stupid parents on the bus had decided to move around (us kids were keeping to the same seats).

A 6 hour bus ride made even longer because we had a lunch stop in the middle. I was sleeping for a bit, then Rebecca said she was feeling sick because she gets motion sick. So I went to the front of the bus and asked Linda one of our trip leaders if she could find someone to switch with Rebecca so she could sit in the front so she might feel better. Linda said she’d switch with her. So then I sat with Linda for a couple hours and went in and out of sleep. So then we stopped at this rest stop that was like fast food. But it was really confusing because they didn’t have the toilet paper in the bathroom-like you had to bring it in with you before you entered-who knew? And then we only saw the place to buy snack food first and didn’t realize that we could buy actual lunch food. Rebecca still wasn’t feeling well, but we were having trouble finding someone else to switch with her. So when we got back on the bus we finally found a couple that would switch with both of us so we sat in the very front of the bus (our bus driver was actually on a level below us). Unfortunately this was when they put a movie on (Jingle All the Way) so now I couldn’t watch it because we were too far forward. And we were next to Donna, who luckily wasn’t too annoying. (She makes this weird smile that looks like the Wallace face on “Wallace and Gromit”). The parents were being really obnoxious about trading with Rebecca even though she was really sick-why is it parents are always more immature than the students on orchestra trips?

Then after the bus ride we checked into our room which was the same set up as the last hotel (little sitting room, a bathroom and two bedrooms, one with a twin bed and then one with two doubles where Rebecca and I were). Luckily our room had the phone in it this time so we could set a phone alarm and not worry. So then we took a nap, some people went for walks and stuff.

So when we woke up we went to dinner at this Gaucho place. The dinner was TONS of meat. It was like every part of the cow (and pig and lamb) imaginable and these guys would come out with the meat on sticks and cut some off into your plate. (Needless to say I actually didn’t eat much of that). We had little coasters that said “sim, por favor” or “não obrigado” which indicated whether you wanted a hunk of meat sliced into your place. (When I was in China I heard that there was a restaurant like this in Wuhan, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go.)

Then the Gaucho’s did a cowboy dance thing. One of the dances was this spear dance where they had to dance over a spear but not touch it. Then they made our conductor come up and try the dancing and dressed him up in cowboy clothes. Then they started dancing and pulled people from the audience to dance with. Then we paid to leave the food area (there was always a receipt like thing that would be filled out while you were in a place and then you’d pay at the door to leave). Then Rebecca and I were looking for souvenirs. So we got this green tea stuff and this hollowed out gourd to drink it in and this special spoon straw. But we aren’t sure how to make it because the directions are in Portuguese . .. oops.

This is the Lizard story:

Ok so one night Rebecca and I were in the lobby and Sara was in the room and our friend came and knocked on the door:

“Are Sarah or Rebecca here?” Sara said no we weren’t.

“oh, there’s a lizard in my room” long pause

“do you want to come in?”

then he walks in, walks around the room and keeps repeating that there is a lizard in his room she asked “do you want me to come back with you?”

and he said “no, it’s ok”

so then he came downstairs and found us and told us and he was all upset about it his roommate was downstairs too, not caring at all and he was like “I was looking for a book big enough to crush it”

“What?! You don’t crush lizards!” I exclaimed, “it’s not like a spider! You get them out of your room, not crush them!”

He seemed disappointed, and had trouble sleeping cause he was worried about the lizard. At the time I was imagining something close to an alligator, but in retrospect I realize it was probably a tiny one…