The Good Life

The World’s Biggest Cashew Nut Tree

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This whole thing is actually just one tree – covering an entire city block, and producing 70000 cashew nuts a year!

One Size Fits All

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A common sight in Brazil. Very often you will also see a fully-grown man on a little kid’s bike, apparently with no idea of how ridiculous he looks.

Awesome Assiz

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We met Assiz, an extremely chilled and friendly guy, at the paradise town of Canoa Quebrada. As often happens to us here, he was a Bandeirante fan and came to talk to us about the car. Almost immediately we became close friends, even though he spoke no English. Thanks to his endless patience, after 2 weeks with him our Portuguese had improved 10-fold, and at times it felt we were conversing like we both had the same mother tongue.

Awesome Assiz

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He also invited us to stay with him in his simple house on the beach, and showed us how he makes his living selling jewellery on the beach, which he makes from silver and stones.

Beach Trip

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With Assiz as our guide, we did a 50km trip along the ocean to see the endless beaches and natural sculptures of Canoa Quebrada.

Brazilian Hospitality

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Before we knew what had happened, Assiz invited us to stay at his ex-wife’s place in Fortaleza (170km from Canoa Quebrada), called her up, she accepted, and the next thing the 3 of us were on our way up to Fortaleza to meet Assiz’s ex, Andrea, and their 2 kids, Samuel and Serena.

Brazilian Hospitality

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A few days later Assiz caught the bus back, and Andrea and the kids also had to leave to Canoa to check up on their pousada (b&b). Amazingly, they insisted that we stay on at the place, and so we were left alone with this big house for another week. Talk about trust hey…

Psycho Bird

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Andrea´s beautiful, but slightly evil, parrot.

Polly Wants a Guava

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and maybe Tom´s finger too

Adriano

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The truck mechanic who did the final check-up on our car before the big Fortaleza-Belem trip. There were so many loose screws, we’re surprised the car was still holding together! Adriano was another kind soul we met, who made sure our stomachs were full every day and also let us sleep at his house, where the kids sleep in hammocks – apparently the norm in the more inland parts of Brazil, where he´s from. A truck driver himself, he could also help us lots with useful information on which roads were dodgy and which were safe.

Coffee Break

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On the way up to Belem, we stopped to sleep at the town of Ubajara and stayed at this enchanting coffee plantation.