My family is just settling in to JP. I am still getting used to my job, my good lady wife to driving round. The neighbours are marvelous and really helpful. Everyone leaves their doors open and wanders in and out. CHildren have new friends in school all that sort of thing.

I still walk all over the knot end at all times of the day and night,finding out new places to go, things to do and see.

The children have recently enrolled in music classes. We have started going back to the theatre and cinema and thats the rub. In JP we are starting to get back to the sort of life where we can do things with a bit of variety. Its a capital city but its very small and easy to get round.

Its also very quiet even its main beaches sparcely populated during the day.

I hope people who come here see that and dont expect a "knickers on the head" fest with all that entails.

And the weather. No more cold Minas mountain nights. Early sunrise, about 5.15am and 30c by 7.00am all accompanied by that magical babys laugh of a breeze. By Midday its about 36c then by 8.00pm its back to about 28c. I am used to it now because its not very humid.

I can see us being here for a long time to come.

I just did a search on Joao Pessoa and came up with about 9 threads  

We just spent the day at JP today and I loved it. Apparently I was there 4 years ago but I couldn't recall, then my wife told me we had only dropped in for an aqua de coco on the way back from Natal so that explains why I don't remember.

Anyway as I was saying I loved it. We spent the morning walking along the beach of Tambaú and Cabo Branco. I got to the beach about 8:30am and there were quite a few people around, I noticed that the Formula 1 was on TV so that probably explains why that was the case. I couldn't find a Barraca with a decent sized TV so I kept walking the kids in the pram, them getting a suntan, me getting sun burnt.

When I met up with my wife later in the morning at about 11am (she was busy at an appointment) it got really busy all of a sudden, along the beaches of Cabo Branco and Tambaú at least. I didn't research where to go prior but I'm pretty sure I was at the best/most popular beach area. One thing I loved about the barracas and restaurants on the beach compared to Recife for example was the size of then. They are quite large and it looks like it would great to spend time there in the evening.

There was a guy starting to build a huge sandcastle, I haven't seen someone do this since I was in Rio. I was going to give him some money but it wasn't finished so I couldn't appreciate the finished product, and I thought what if I gave him R$1 and then he thought ahh stuff it I'm out of here, wouldn't be fair on the other people so I saved my money.

The heat: I'm not sure if it's hotter or more bearable than Recife. In the morning I thought this is nice and not too hot, but a bit later it was quite hot and we had to drive around with the air con on full bore. Anyway it would be unfair to just go off one day.

There were quite a few surfers and surfboards on the beach just north of the city centre. To me the waves looked a bit flat, hopefully it gets better than that.

Anyway I'd live there in a flash. I much prefer it to Recife (not hard I know). If we can get work there then who knows.......

I saw the German bar but it was closed during the day on Sunday. I forgot to mention the fish market right on the beach - is that at Tambaú or Cabo Branco, I wasn't sure where the beach changes from one to the other.

And the guy that sells 70c coconuts on the beach - unheard of here, what a bargain!!!

Are we talking about the same little fish market right on the beach, About 8 or 10 little huts?...  With nice flies having a taste.. :P

Yeah but for right on the beach it's not bad. I'm not walking a block away then back to the beach to drink it, then back to the traffic lights cause I want another, then back to the beach etc.

We pay R$1.50 at the Barracas on the beach here now. When I was living here in 2003 they were R$1...  Everything was um real.. Um Real Um Real Um Real.

If you're sitting under an umbrella on the beach it's R$2 cause the guys have to run up and get it for you. Not gringo price BTW.

It's a hotel. We went inside and walked around it was really nice. The security guy said we could have a look around but we can't go into any of the bedrooms   yeah like we had intentions of doing that.

I was surprised to see a hotel like this right on the main drag of the beach like it is.

EDIT: I caaant spell.