“My bread! Where is my bread?”

“I’m sorry Mark, no sweet corn bread here.”

“What do you have here?”

“Um pastel de brócolis.”

“What?”

“It’s bread with broccoli inside.”

“You’re a giant broccoli! I’m a big banana!”

Mark thinks I’m joking but I actually just bought an empanada of
broccoli. What? I love broccoli and unlike Argentina where the Holy Trinity of empanadas
filling is meat, cheese and ham, Brazilians actually stuffed theirs with
veggies. It’s funny how each country deals with food and nutrition. Chileans
eat wholesome
meals at home (judging by the fresh ingredients they buy at the supermarket
and in markets) and junk food on the go, they don’t seem to care about food
that much. Like French, Argentinians are bons vivants who sit down for
a meal and enjoy meat, Italian cuisine and good wine. On the other hand,
Brazilians seem to be into health food even if it doesn’t always translate well
into their daily diet. I guess Brazilians do show their body a lot at the beach
so they care about their figure.

Still, Mark thought I was joking about the empanada because I
always try to make him eat broccoli (he doesn’t mind veggies, actually, yet
chips are more appealing).

“I want it.”

Mark was also very hungry because there isn’t much food available on the
Southern tip of the island. So he ate half of my empanada. That helped
until we found a supermarket and chips (“Mommy, I ate chips, I’m really taller!”)

After crowded Praia de Canasvieiras,
we went into the wild. The South of the island is very different from the
North, less touristic, harder to get to. I noticed it as soon as we arrived on
Praia do Campeche. As usual, I left for a walk while the guys were sitting by
the water. There were sand dunes far away and I wanted to see if I could walk
up to there. The beach was completely empty.

Two minutes into the walk, I noticed there were many jellyfish on the sand.

A minute later, a giant crab crossed sideways right in front of me.

Five minutes later, a wave brought a fish as big as my arm to my feet.
I took a quick picture and throw it back into the water. Bye Nemo, enjoy your
second chance at life!

Then a flock of birds took off right in front of me.

That was wild… literally.

An empty beach to myself and a bunch of critters. Loved it.

Then we took a short drive and went to check out another beach, Praia da
Armação. There was a tiny town, a church (“it’s CLOSED, Mark!”) and of course,
a nice stretch of sand. This was a surfing beach with perfect waves and a very
laid-back atmosphere (and pastel de brócolis for sale). I found a giant empty
mussel shell and I started to wonder how many mussels people ordered in
restaurants in Brazil considering the size of them. In France, you typically
get a giant bowl of dozens of steamed mussels cooked with white wine, shallots,
parsley and butter and served with fries. Here, it looks like two of three
mussels would be enough for a meal!

Coming back to the busy freeway and very urban Floripa was tough in the
evening. We listened to Crowded House in the car, then Pink Floyd, singing
along and joking around. Even though we were only a few kilometres from the
other beaches we visited, it felt like we had stepped into another world.