Peru-Brazil 2013 – Day 30 – A do-nothing day

Not to tempt the fates, today we did nothing but rest, rehydrate, read, and watch TV (mostly in Portuguese). Annie went out for 20 minutes to roam around the hotel, but was otherwise a home body. I held until 4 pm, at which time hunger forced me to leave the hotel in search for food. Of course the hotel has a restaurant, but like other high price places they are closed between 3 and 7 pm.

My good fortune guided my steps to a nice store, Lider, where I had a big bowl of minestrone soup for less than 5 reais. Annie and I will have to look for big supermarkets once we start our road trip, because you can eat very well in them for very reasonable money. Afterward I took the escalator to the third floor, where I bought a book for my Beloved (G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories), and then back to the ground floor to buy her a bar of chocolate (big bonus points when I got back to the hotel!).

The supermarket is three or four small blocks from the hotel, at the edge of a totally different part of town. All around me were very tall, very elegant condominiums, and the folk walking around had morphed from everyday Belemians to fashionable and chic Brazilians. One block into the ritzy part of town I found a big mall with icy air conditioning, glamorous stores, and the hustle and bustle one could expect at the mall back home.

 
Since I was still in recovery, at least in concept, I decided not to overdo it and headed back home. My Babe was delighted with the chocolate and the book, and had enough appetite to order frago a laranja (chicken in orange sauce) and a chocolate mousse. We are happy and contented and plan to sleep from 8 pm to midnight, wake up and shower, and then head for the airport around 1:30 am. Here we go again!