Americana

We made several visits to Americana, a city about 45 minutes from Piracicaba. Both occasions were fun-filled, tasty dinner parties with our friends.

There's loads of cool history surrounding this city, like the fact that it was partially founded by refugees from the American Civil War - that's a long way to go! Fittingly, slavery was still legal in nearby Santa Barbara and the Brazilian country as a whole which is why Confederates fled here. (see the link above) In present day Americana, there is a cemetery where only Americans are buried - weird!

On our first visit last Friday, we went to Beppo, a hoppin' indoor/outdoor restaurant where we tried some new drinks and foods, like escondidinho, a cheesy mashed potatoes with the Brazilian equivalent of corned beef. It was amazing! I finally found a beer that both Lauren and I love - Brahma black. It was pretty sweet, and looked like a flowing milkshake waterfall in the glass. Similar to Guinness, but you don't feel like you've just imbibed a loaf of bread.

On our second visit we went to Mr. Little Joseph's (english translation, pictures to come later!) and sat outside to enjoy classical Brazilian country music. The duo was called Guaira guaiba, two guys playing guitars and singing some old-school Brazilian favorites. Even though we knew none of the words, it was really cool music and our friends translated. Our new friend Maycon even passed them a napkin with a request a "song for the gringos" and they happily obliged and pointed us out to the whole place!

After we had tried lots of tasty appetizers and heard many songs, the Brazilian cowboys made the rounds and visited the patrons. They were really friendly when they came to our table, and explained that one of their ancestors had fled Alabama during the Civil War to come to Brazil. We just said "Hey we're from Chicago!" Even 5000 miles apart, we are connected through history - crazy.

At this particular restaurant, for every drink you order, they give you a coupon that you can redeem on another visit for a free drink - so we asked them to autograph our coupon. They discussed, went back to the stage, and returned with one of their cds. Now we have an autographed copy and some Brazilian country tunes to reminisce upon during the drive back!