fun productive day in campos

today ended up being fun. i left after breakfast and started walking towards the centro turistico. i must have walk about 6 km today. the first thing i did was go on a passeio by bus through the mountains and to a famous waterfall there. the girl giving the tour was the first "stranger" that was actually friendly here. after the tour she even told the driver to drop me off at my next location. that was the teleferico which went to the top of the mountain where theres a panoramic view. once again, it was pretty hot here today. i think my face even got burned! next i ate a whole bag of chocolates with licquor inside. then i ate two kinds of chocolate ice cream. but this place is famous for chocolate, so its ok...

next i went to the chocolate factory which was kind of lame but i learned a bit about the history of chocolate. i also bought more chocolate! :o

when i was walking back to the hostel i realized that the usa was about to play, so i started looking for a place to eat lunch and watch the game. i ended up at a churrascaria (my first) and had an awesome lunch. i also made friends with the servers and they thought it was funny that i was american. the one guy asked how many cups the usa has won. we had a good laugh after that.

the game went into ovetime and the place was closing so one of the servers and i went to another place to watch the end. the us lost, but i told the guy that i still have hope because brasil is still alive.

now im back at the hostel. i had to move into a new room for tonite. i dont know what the lady's problem was who said the people i would be moving in with were "simple" people.  maybe it doesnt carry the same connotation in portuguese ("simples"), but they seem nice. 

tonite im planning on going to the most famous club here but only if i have enough energy. i have to get up at 8 tmrw to catch the bus to sao paulo at 9. im going to stay there for a few days before i start heading to my final destination, ilha solteira.

oh, the last two people i told i was going to ilha solteira had heard of the place! thats compared to one person during my first three weeks here....

almost everyone here in campos guesses that im portuguese.  i asked why because it seems like they would be able to recognize the portuguese portuguese accent accurately. it turns out its because of my face and because i talk slowly....apparently the portuguese speak more slowly than the brazilians(?). other people either think im from argentina or spain.

also, one of the servers today asked me what language they speak in the us and if it was "americano".  strange.