Part The First Done

We met with Denir the mechanic yesterday and got some good news.

Yesterday started with other plans, a museum visit and a grocery shop until we got a text from Denir. Thanks to Google Translate his WhatsApp message told us the mechanical work on GANNET2 was done and he was in his shop until noon. We called Uber. 

Denir charged us US$565 for his labor, installing our brand new $700 alternator while adapting these plate to protect it. He also gave us an alignment, an engine oil change and a replacement windshield. All of which was needed after our thousand mile detour on terrible roads to the Guyanas.

Interestingly Denir located a small leak from a radiator hose while he was installing our new second alternator and he fixed that. I had noticed a slight drop in radiator fluid but I was wondering if it was evaporation from the heat. Apparently not but he saw it and fixed it. Our new windshield looks great after driving since about September with an irritating crack across the passenger’s view.  The thing about the Promaster is that it shares chassis components with the wildly popular Fiat Ducato sold around the world. That means getting chassis parts for the Promaster is usually very easy and not excessively expensive. 

So now GANNET2 is good to go; however she spends the weekend in Denir’s huge shop…

…so Monday morning Alessandro our Christmas host will come over and drive our home to his shop 50 yards up the street so he can start installing our new electrical parts.

The center piece for the roof will first be our new Dometic 12 volt air conditioner. Then Alessandro will measure the remaining space to add our Starlink receiver which we have at last decided to install on the roof. The idea is to be able to turn it on at the flick of a switch and even use it while driving.

The disadvantage is it won’t be portable if we want superior internet on an apartment when we rent, or our signal may be weak if we park under trees. Overall it will be useful move in South America. After all that we will know how much space is left for new more powerful solar panels.

After that we are converting our fridge to 12 volts, adding a sink drain jug so we don’t put gray water directly on the ground. We used to have a large underbody tank to collection water but we took it out as it hung too low. Alessandro is figuring he should be finished by 20th January.  We have leased our apartment till 23rd and our permit to stay in Brazil expires February 8th. By then we hope to be in Paraguay. Here’s hoping…

A headless pigeon in our apartment complex. 

We have loud busy green parakeets in the tree outside our 3rd floor apartment. They aren’t easy to spot. 

A Brazilian Christmas

 My sister sent me a picture from Christmas in Scotland, a classic, setting the Christmas pudding on fire and trying not to burn the house down.

I meanwhile was having a Brazilian Christmas, under a bright blue sky in short sleeves and shorts, at the beginning of the austral summer and and just past the longest day of daylight just three time zones west of the rainy dark Highlands.

Of course I was better off wasn’t I, in the subtropical heat and in bright summer sun in the southern hemisphere.

And yet.  And yet…

We had been invited to a Portuguese language  Christmas lunch and for a polyglot like me the idea of spending a social afternoon with a strange family nattering in a language l don’t understand…well, a merry bloody christmas to you too. This looked like birth crucifixion death and ascension all rolled into one never mind the plain old nativity  story. I’d have paid in frankincense and myrrh to escape my fate.

It would not have been excessive to describe me as envious of my dog sprawled in the air conditioned apartment. Or of the workers keeping the complex clean on Christmas Day:

But you know what? We both agreed it was one of our best Christmases ever.  Not because the three dozen other guests spoke Portuguese, or because we had never seen “frango escondido” before, a weird creamed chicken dish made delicious with melted cheese in a huge casserole:

And then there was grace intoned by a family elder who I can only assume was not calling out thunderbolts on the tongue tied heathen in their midst, because we escaped unscathed in an Uber five and a half hours later, though we could easily have stayed longer had we not had Rusty at home alone, wondering where his Christmas dinner was. 

Alessandro, on the left above, the man who is rebuilding our electrical system in our camper had been  struck by the fact we had no plans for Christmas so when he invited us to his home we had nowhere to hide. We said yes and took a ride to his cousins house where we’d meet his extended Portuguese speaking family:

The Uber ride to his cousin’s home took half an hour, speeding along empty boulevards further and further from the heart of this weird city called Brasilia, one man’s invention  buried in a vast wooded federal district. And then we were there though we knew not where exactly.

We ate, drank and talked, went into a carb coma and played silly games just like millions of people around the world did. Except we did it in Portuguese and thanks to the easy going kind hearted Brazilians we had a bloody good time. I even learned about the rivalry between two soccer teams from Rio de Janeiro.

Alessandro’s family is all Vasco da Gama, 

…so to piss them off Alessandro nominally supports the Flamingoes. We played charades:

Alessandro’s English speaking (thank God!) cousin: 

Alessandro’s mom playing a desert breeze and a dolphin. Go figure. 

Alessandro (in black) coaching his son: 

They mined Tina loud appreciative audience: 

That’s the  Christmas Spirit  I shan’t  forget in a few years when I’m living near my sister thinking of the warm tropical Christmases past  while trying not to set light to the  tablecloth.

Boxing Day