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Published: September 17th 2009
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A gift for my baby
Jackie came home to a nice bouquet of flowers. Wednesday
We had another quiet day starting with an early morning visit to Doctor Taranto’s office. After returning to the hotel we rested until about noon when I walked down to pick up my laundry at the 5-a-Sec (this is pronounced in Portuguese as Cinc-a-Sec). I chose to carry the clothes there since it appeared that the hotel rates were too high. I found out on Tuesday when I dropped them off that the rates were about the same. What we had was normal for about one week: 12 pair of underwear, 3-pair blue jeans, 1-pair pajamas for Jackie, some tee shirts, etc.
What you would guess was the cost? How about $160 Reais or about $90.00US! I think I could purchase new more than half of what we cleaned. I had forgotten about the price to clean clothes. While living here we had Gloria, our helper, to wash and iron our clothes so we rarely took anything to the cleaners. Now I realize how much value she added. We were definitely spoiled…well, Jackie was.
We learned our lesson. It is not common here as it is in Europe to use laundromats but we found the location of one and plan
Jackie venturing out
Walking back from Doc's office we passsed our condo and the adjacent grocery store. We could not resist checking out the wine counters. to check it out next week. Of course, we will not get the ironing of the underwear like we got from “5-a-Sec.” In fact, all of our clothes were on hangers with the exception of underwear and socks. That includes tee shirts, shorts, pajamas, etc.
Today we also learned another important lesson. When traveling overseas, do not use travelers’ checks!!! At least think about this before you do. We planned to bring about one half of the price of Jackie’s ‘tune up’ in cash and one half in travelers checks. When I went to purchase from our bank (Ironstone Bank), we discovered that we could get them at no cost. Our credit union wanted us to pay 1% of the face value. So, instead of bringing 50% of the cost we decided to bring 75%. Great idea, right? Wrong!
We found out how wrong when we went to exchange the checks at the cambio bureau. Earlier, when we paid cash to the doctor he gave us the commercial exchange rate of 1US$=1.8 Brazilian Real (BRL). That was a very fair exchange. Then on Tuesday, Maria and I went to an exchange bureau, we discovered that the exchange rate for travelers
checks was 1US$=1.61 BRL! So, for each $1,000 US you would receive $200 BRL less than the standard commercial rate. As a result, we are now having the funds wired directly into the doctor’s account. I should have considered this before we came so consider this another lesson learned.
As we walked back from the doctor’s office to the hotel, I thought about how middle class people live in Brazil and Belo. It is very common to live in a high rise condominium, like our place in Atlanta. In fact, it was our experience here that convinced us that we would enjoy that life style. I took a few photos of many of the condos on our way back. Each has its own style. But all have wonderful balconies, great security with gates, guards and swipe access cards. They all use lots of marble and granite, which is mined in the state of Minas Gerais. I also noted the interesting zoning in the neighborhoods. There are restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores and chic shopping mixed in between the condos. Larger shopping malls are in walking distance, many with movie theatres, food courts and more shops. We felt like we were
My studio
Finally I have a place to draw. living in downtown Manhattan while we were here. I guess in a way it is due to the zoning laws.
That sums up a pretty lazy day for us. I did do a little more art on the hotel roof by the pool. I plan to do more on Thursday. Tchau.
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Melissa
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Cool
I love the pirate photo. Too cool!