kitty leader and the fat fifty

in paraty now. pirates used to come here and it was once the 2nd most important port in brazil. nice hostel with our own room and ensuite bathroom, and a slightly crazy owner. i thought i saw a bat but it was a big moth - i have some spare glasses and yes i was wearing them, but it was that big.
in a fit of my-bag-is-too-heavy rage i have sent a small parcel of things home from the post office - watch out for it mum, though i think it will take a while to arrive. i went to the post office and said 'quero enviar uma encomenda para via terrestre a inglaterra'. he looked at me and said 'this parcel here? please put it on the scales'. we carried on in english but at the end i said obrigada which means thank you. i think he was fairly impressed.
wandered around the town, very big cobble stones on the streets. lots of tourists as it's got some of the best beaches in brazil, and lots of stalls selling wooden handicrafts. laura nearly bought a sarong with tutankhamen on but we thought it was too confusing and abi bought some new flip flops. i had 2 ice creams.
for dinner we found a nice place and got meatballs rice beans and salad for 10 reals, which equates to about 3 pounds. for breakfast this morning we had had our dinner from last night - cold pasta at 830 in rio bus station isn't the best way to start the day, so it was nice to have some proper food. we ate our weight in biscuits on the bus journey too.

in an attempt to make the blog more interactive, and if anyone has actually read this far, we have some questions:
what does favela actually mean?
what came first, the favelas or the rich areas?
what does sardonic mean?
would you rather have cold bolognaise gnocchi or ham and cheese cannelloni for breakfast?

over dinner abi was explaining that someone had once told her to imagine her 'powerhouse' whilst doing some breathing exercises as a metaphorical strengthening exercise. i asked her what her powerhouse would be and she said it would be a factory with lots of smoke and steam, and i said mine would be a little wood chalet in the snow. we laughed our heads off and a brazilian man came over to ask what we were laughing about so we had to explain in very slow english what a powerhouse was, and what we had said. at which point he looked at me and said very deliberately 'you're not funny you're just crazy'. and walked off.