Look for a woman with a blue shirt, then a bookstore called Saliva.

Directions. They are never quite what you expect in this country. If a Brazilian tells you it is near it may be far. And everyone has a different idea of how you should go. No one really tells you the names of the streets and usually not the business so you just know you are looking for some kind of place that sells this maybe in this nearby area? So much for clear communication.

Well it makes for a good adventure usually.

Yesterday, Krista and I decided to be spontaneous. We woke up really early, packed swimsuits and sunscreen and flagged a bus near our house to take us to a bus station up north where we haven't been yet. After winding through some favelas(?!) we arrived at the Rodoviário Rio Novo and purchased tickets for another bus to Búzios. It is a beach town about 3 hours away from the city where all the rich and famous that live in Ipanema go on the weekends to escape to their amazing oceanfront mansions. Once we arrived we were bombarded with English speakers trying to pull us onto their boat tours. Eventually we were persuaded. Our boat was really cheap and it took us around to all the beaches and anchored so we could jump off and swim. We met a lot of nice people on the boat, especially this couple from Argentina. The views there are lovely, the weather was perfect and I am declaring it as my favorite day in Brazil so far. It was just so fun to try to navegate our way through all the bus stations, etc. only speaking in our broken Portuguese. Did I mention we almost missed our bus because we didn't know about the time change -- wish I had a video of us running through that bus station when we realized our bus was leaving in 5 minutes. Good times.

Friday was Children's day. No one had school and businesses were closed. What does Children's day sound like, you wonder? Like screaming children and a hundred squeaky toys all going off constantly from all angles while you try to lay on the beach. Ha. But it was better for me later when a friend of mine threw a housewarming/children's day party at her new apartment. This one girl kept telling me in portuguese, this party is soooo cosmopolitan, there are people speaking english and spanish and portuguese here, from all over the world. Whoa. Today is also a holiday. I'm not really sure for what, I just know we don't have school. Oh, Brazil.