Country life

Natividade da Serra is a little town of about 2,500 – maybe 5,000 if you count the entire county. It's cute and quaint and I took a walk this morning with Zezee, Peter's Australian Shepherd mix. (I'm sure it would have been possible to track our progress through town based on the barking of dogs. )

ZeZee

Random observations: 

• Brazilians like to power wash. I saw several people out washing their patios, the side of the house, whatever, it was getting blasted. Apparently there's some truth to this stereotype: Peter says water is free in Natividade, so everyone tends to be rather free with using it. It's actually quite expensive for the city to pump the water out of the reservoir, but it's a political boondoggle to try to start charging for water. No one wants to run on that platform.
• There seems to be four types of dogs. Shepherd mixes like Zezee, a boxer/pit bull mix, a small dachshund-type hound, and a poodle cross of some sort.
• Speaking of dogs, people have baskets on a pole outside their houses so that they can put the garbage out without worrying about the neighborhood dogs getting into it.
• Brazilian cows pretty much look like cows.

Peter lives on a hill above the town, so sound travels easily. This weekend is Carnaval, so there's music and festivities all weekend long. We could hear the band down at the town square playing until about 1 a.m. This morning on my walk, I could hear hymns, so I wandered around until I found the church.

I was surprised at how many stores were open in town on a Sunday. There are all sorts of little shops, but for food there are the traditional stores such as the butcher or fruit and veggie store, but there's also a  small-town grocery (Benedino's) and the Supermarcado (modern, but not all that super-sized.)

Apparently Brazilians like their tomatoes less ripe than Americans. When they're perfect and red (lower right), they get cheaper.