Itamaraca, Brazil – Aug 1, 2006
This morning, we had breakfast on the boat with the Dutch hotel owner and two of the three archaeologists I referred to in yesterday’s entry and they then took us on a tour of the fort after explaining what they are doing. The boys seemed interested but they have both been to the fort in St. Augustine and this was much more basic and not as developed.
We then had lunch at a very small beach-side restaurant that the Dutch woman had suggested. It was within walking distance from the boat and she had told Phil to look for this beer-bellied guy he had met the night before at the big party–he was the owner and cook. Please try to picture a room with a thatched roof and no walls within 50 feet from the beach with plastic tables and chairs that you could move right down to the water if you wanted to. Then picture a wood-burning stove under another roof and a very small table for food preparation and two big metal containers on the ground, one with lots of small crabs and one with lots of bigger crabs, all trying to climb their way out. The guy was really glad to see us–no English, of course–and he showed us this really big fish that he had just caught that morning or the day before. He had styrofoam coolers with fish of all types and sizes and later showed us a piranha with the biggest sharpest teeth I have ever seen. So we said yes to the fish and started drinking beer.
About an hour later, he brought out our lunch. The fish had been cooked whole over the wood-burning stove and we all agreed it was the best thing we had ever eaten. And the “sides” were incredible–we never could figure out how they were able to fix all this in that very small area. We had fresh tomatoes and onions, rice fixed perfectly with green onions and what seemed like scrambled egg, cold pasta with some delicious-tasting sauce on it and then fresh fruit for dessert with the absolutely best pineapple we had every tasted. Were we ever happy!!
We then walked back to the tender with our left-overs and there was more jumping off the top of the boat. We had an early dinner, which was composed of the left-overs we had from lunch. It was still great food. What a wonderful adventure!