Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Backpacking in South America - Porto Alegre

What to say about Porto Alegre.... hmm.... seriously don´t understand this city.  It´s SO densely populated.  So many cars.  So much poverty.  I don´t really feel the ´gaucho´culture here.... not like I hoped/thought I would at least.  They do have a very cool Mercado Publico here that we spent some time in today - started by going into the fish market part which was filled with vendors and shoppers and tons of varities of seafood.  We ended up in the public market where you could buy fresh fruit, more fish, and there were plenty of botecos to have a beer.  We ate a place upstairs and figured we should order some of the fish so we got a type of white fish I have never heard of that came with rice, sauteed potatos, salad, and a caper mushroom butter with the fish.  YEOW it was good.  reeeeeally good.  I think we decided it was the best meal we had (aside from the hostel room bread/evoo/meat/cheese combo we had in Mendoza).  We also tried the local beer, Polar.  It was watery and refreshing with an interesting aftertaste but we liked it!  Two liters later (and two chopps) later, I was drunk (again).  How many times have I written that on this trip? 
I decided after this trip I am goin on a detox from beer.


Soooo that pretty much sums up our time in Porto Alegre!  It´s not the most beautiful city ever, or the most cultural in my opinion, but we did actually spend some time by the river which was lovely. 

Until next time in Curitiba ...... take care!!

2 comments:

  1. Hello, I ran across your blog, I am an American married to a Brazilian and looking to moving there soon. It is nice to get to know the experiences of others!

    My husband is a gaucho, I think Porto Alegre is one of those cities where you need to "know" someone to take you to the good places. It is HUGE. From your description, it doesn't seem like you got to know the cool, fun areas, that's a shame. They have a very cool bohemian and musical culture there.

    Also, from what I have seen, the traditional "gaucho culture" is more in the smaller cities away from Porto Alegre. ;)

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  2. Hey! Thanks for reading my blog! It is a shame we didn't get to experience the awesome part of P.A. because I've heard/read some very cool things about it since our trip. Unfortunately we limited our stay to the central area and also Ro had some very bad food poisoning? the first night and that sort of put a stop to fun as well.

    It's tough when you reach a city and you're already tired and don't really have a plan...
    But i'd be up for going back and seeing what it really has to offer!!

    When are you planning to move here?

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