As the subtitle indicates, it’s been a while since my last words on living in Brazil. This is meant to bring you up to date with what’s been happening and some of the interesting people who have passed through Fortaleza and our lives.

Let’s go back to just after Thieny and I were married - that would be October of 2004. I took you through my experience with a “fixer” named Ze.

He really did assist with the marriage, so I thought we might have a similar result with buying a car….if a Brazilian car dealer sees a “gringo” coming the price tends to double!

After more than a month of false starts and being put off, it became evident to me that Ze was not doing anything about getting me a car, so  I asked for my money back.  Well, he didn’t like that too much.

After talking to several people who were more familiar with this type of thing, it appears Ze had invested my money in some other vehicle or vehicles and was in the process of moving them between various “clients”.  At one point, he tried giving me an old Ford Courier pickup as part of the deal.

I ended up going to a lawyer who finally got Thieny and I to meet with Ze and the local area police chief, called a Delegado. As we went in to meet him, my lawyer asked me if I had R$300!  “What’s that for?” I asked. “The Delegado has to be paid or he won’t even look at your case!”  Just one demonstration of how corruption seeps into every part of Brazilian life!  There was nothing else we could do and in the end we did get most of the car money back.

Two lessons can be learned from my experience...Don’t pay for any services up front, and make sure you get receipts.  These two things may not solve every problem you have, but there is at least a better chance of keeping your money in your pocket instead of someone else’s.

A somewhat normal life filled the next six to eight months, as Thieny and I got used to living together as a married couple. There were rough times, no question - putting together two different cultures, languages, ages and, at least to some extent, classes.

Thieny’s older sister, Daisy (she has three sisters, two that live in Fortaleza and one in Sao Paulo)...looks after the apartment for us, cooking, cleaning and washing, things for “The Princessa”, as I like to call Thieny.  To be honest, Daisy is an angel who also looks after Thieny’s 5 year old son, Israel, when we are not here.   She is very used to that, being his “tia” or aunt.   She even does his homework with him!

One of the great moments for us came on our first anniversary.  I took Thieny to Guaramiranga, a mountain about 80 kilometres away from the coast.  She had never been into the mountains but always wanted to go there.  I described a little of Guaramiranga in a previous which is linked at the bottom of this one.

We stayed in the Hotel Escole.  It’s a government run place where they do official training for various organizations.  When there is no training going on, they rent out the rooms just like a regular hotel.

I still remember the first morning...we came down for coffee early and the fog was rolling in clouds through the valley, just outside the windows.  Thieny just stood there with her mouth open!  She had never seen anything like that before, and I was amazed as well.

Right next door to the hotel is a restaurant that I described in my first article:

“Speaking of artists, Villa Lautrec, a restaurant featuring French cuisine, is located on the outskirts of Guaramiranga.  It’s named, of course, for the famous French artist and is one of the most amazing eating places I have ever seen.