Typical Week With My Brother

There were a few things that we just had to do with my brother while he was here in Manaus. After checking off the must-do boat trip on the Amazon over the weekend, we still needed to take him to a churrascaria, a typical Brazilian all-you-can-eat-meat-fest. No trip to Brazil is complete without stuffing your face with every variation on beef known to man, especially when it is brought right to your table and sliced fresh.
Jay and I had actually never been to a churrascaria here, only in New York City, but we live only a 10 minute walk from one so we gave it a shot. I sort of figured that on a Tuesday afternoon we might be the only ones there, but I was wrong. Apparently, these restaurants are not just for tourists after all.
Shortly after we sat down with our first course of salad and veggies (trying to not be sooo gluttonous), we were bombarded with waiters and their meat. I started off by thinking I would take it easy and not eat too much, but my good intentions lasted til the first bite. We all enjoyed our leisurely lunch and ate to our hearts' content, or perhaps discontent.

My bro 

Can't get enough 

We also spent some time doing things we would normally do during the week, like go grocery shopping. 

I think he ended up going to three different supermarkets while here, all at varying levels of cleanliness and ranging in size from small to huge. In fact, one of the stores is so big that some of their employees wear roller skates to get around faster! Now that is an idea that makes sense. 

He also got the chance to see some of the crazy high prices for food. Because Manaus is rather isolated from the rest of the country, literally in the middle of the Amazon, lots of things travel many miles by plane or ship to get to us. Produce is unfortunately one of the most expensive things at the store. One medium sized melon, for example, can cost more than about $40US! We have yet to eat grapes here because they are $15US a pound. Here is a pic of a small head of broccoli at our local Carrefour, about $7US. Underneath it, a box of taco shells is more than $10US. I remember when I used to hate paying the high prices in NYC, but they've got nothing on Manaus!

Heart-breaker :(

Another typical weekday experience for him was going to see a concert at the Teatro Amazonas. Our orchestra normally performs on Thursday night, and I was so happy Aaron could be there to see/hear. It's been a long time since he has seen me perform, so it was very special for both of us.

On stage at the Teatro

I'm pretty sure he liked it cause when he came backstage afterwards, he thought it was only intermission (Jay's lil joke on him). It's always a compliment when someone wants to hear more after almost 2 hours of music!