Happy New 2016! May your year be full of joy, may your livestock ever prosper. Most excellent news about the wedding being confirmed for June - ice cream in Paris for all!
Ilhabela was tremendous fun - on the penultimate day of the year we joined forces with Giorgio and Beth, two of Gaby's friends from back in school, to check out a nearby waterfall where, having slathered ourselves in insect repellent, I was battered from above by torrents of ice-cold water, threw myself repeatedly down a natural waterslide and wrapped up our trip with some home-distilled passion fruit cachaça. You'd have loved it, it was like a tropical Gorge du Loup...
Then we hit the north, and the Praia de Armação, to check out another potential wedding venue - a little chapel on the beach, next to a new three-tiered restaurant and event space overlooking the sea. All looked very promising despite not being completely built yet, and we wolfed down squid bruschettas and pineapple ice cream before having a dip and heading back into town for amazing esfihas and lemon tart ice cream at the foot of an oddly Jewish-looking Christmas tree.
On New Years Eve we went to Goat Beach again to top up our tans, before heading back to the hotel for naps and general beautification, and going to a ridiculously over-the-top, Vegas-themed party at the Sea Club, featuring lots of gorgeous people dressed all in white, Marilyn Monroe impersonators, roulette tables, firework displays, champagne and burgers on tap, a chapel for staging mock weddings, blaring EDM and people throwing themselves into the central pool fully-clothed as the night wore on.
It was a rather amusing experience, but we have since decided to make it a one-off, especially since the next day was a bit of a write-off (apart from an excellent medley of paprikaschnitzeland apfelstrudel at a curiously German beachside restaurant in the evening).
Then on the 2nd we had our final breakfast on the balcony (loads of cake, basically), headed home in pouring rain and grinding traffic, picked up the cats and a pizza, and have been recovering at home ever since. My phrase of the day ("dar um bolo") may be favourite so far - when you stand someone up in Brazil, you "give them a cake", which I would generally prefer to them arriving as planned.
We speak soon! Good tidings to you, sirs.
Fred
No comments:
Post a Comment