Porto Alegre

Day 4 - second visit to Botanical Gardens.
It was a beautiful dawn. We breakfasted and were in a taxi by eight.The taxi driver was Marcel - he was the product of an Italian father and German mother - not unusual in this part of Brazil as there is a huge immigrant population from both of these parts of Europe,
He drove us to the botanical gardens while giving us his life story and his ambition to go to London to live later this year.
We were dropped off and had a thoroughly lovely day with the birds, mostly on our own as the school party only ventured to the obvious places and there were some photography students on an assignment who were respectful of the place and of us..
After a morning of quiet enjoyment and photography we went to the "snack bar" for lunch. We had some fish with rice and beans. Very tasty. When we went to pay for it, we were informed that it was the worker's canteen and therefore all free. Later we paid for an ice cream there as were feeling guilty.
We whats apped Marcel when we were ready to be picked up and he brought us back to the hotel via a pharmacy for some face wipes. He took us back via his Dad's house and we met his Dad. He and his family (extended) all lived in what I took to be a very middle class area away from the favelas in the city and they all lived in the same street.
We got back to the hotel and processed photos, later we dined with two other vets who didn't want to go to the gaucho restaurant tourist trap with the rest of the speakers.Read more