Coffee in Brazil is very strong and very sweet. It's served in tiny cups. To give you a better perspective, I took a picture with a sugar packet. As you can see, the cup is very small. There are several people in our group who don't normally drink coffee -- yet, they love Brazilian coffee! :) It's strong but not bitter at all; so good... :)Today we had two lectures -- Amazonia Ecology and Amazonian Folklore/Culture. The first speaker was a Superintendent of IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Renewable Resources). The second speaker was really struggling with English but who are we to complain? We came to a foreign country and only learned a few words in Portuguese so far. Brazilians are gracious hosts who try their best to make sure we have a good experience.
After lectures, we had free time so I had lunch with several people from our group, read a little, worked a little... It was nice to slow down a bit... Then we had dinner at a very nice (and expensive, yikes!) restaurant that serves the local food. I tried Tambaqui fish, a local delicacy -- yummy! In the Amazon region, tambaqui is generally classified as either the first or second most delicious fish species. It was served in a broth with vegetables.
After dinner, we stopped at a fruit stand and enjoyed fresh coconut water (I am holding one, as you can see). They slice off the top and give you a straw to drink directly from the coconut. It's very refreshing. Coconut water is the clear liquid inside young coconuts (fruits of the coconut palm), not to be confused with coconut milk, which is made by grating and squeezing mature coconut meat. As the fruit matures, the coconut water gradually is replaced by the coconut meat and air. By the way, coconut water is sometimes used as an intravenous fluid in some developing countries where medical saline is unavailable.
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