Adventures of Cameron & Emma in Buenos Aires

Emma recounted her experience with the friendly people of Victoria here, and I have to say, I am bound to agree.

Preston, Zach and I decided to visit Brazil’s most famous chocolate factory, just outside of Victoria one day (we needed chocolate after out decidedly unsweet night’s sleep at our hotel). We figured we would also kill two birds with one stone and visit the local convent as well, which overlooks the city of Villa Velha and the Atlantic Ocean.

We decided to be economical (the theoretical theme of the trip), and hopped aboard a bus. While on board, we realized that:
1. Villa Velha was not really a villa at all. It was actually rather big
2. We had no map

We decided that it was probably a bad idea to just wander around the city (which we later learned was the largest in the province of Espiritu Santos, bigger than even Victoria, the capital), and in broken portuguese Cam asked a young girl seated across from us on the bus. She informed us that she would let us know what stop to get off at, and give us directions to the factory.

Ten minutes later, she informed us that the factory was on the way to her house, and she would walk us there. We thankfully obliged (which was a good idea in retrospect, given the strange, indirect trajectory to the factory) and walked, partially in silence, partially in half-understood Spanish-Portuguese, to the Garoto factory.

Upon arrival, we learned that the factory was closed for tours during Carnaval. However, our friend (whose name was something like “Marion” but not quite… we have bad memories) arranged an English-speaking employee to come and answer our questions. We then bought an obscene amount of chocolate, including M’s favorite milk filled variety, thanked her profusely, and thought that would be the end of it.

It was only the beginning.

She informed us that she had arranged for her English-speaking friend to meet us at the convent, and to give us an informal guided tour. We told her not to bother, but she said that it would be her pleasure. We walked, bused, and cabbed it to the convent, and once we arrived, we found out that it too was closed. By this point her friend David had arrived (who spoke impeccable English), but neither would give up- they would show us Villa Velha if it killed us. They called the Ferry museum, which was closed. They offered to show us their mall, or a bar district, whatever- but we insisted that we were happy just wandering around, learning about the history of the town (which David knew quite a bit about).

We eventually wandered into a juice shop, and they sat to have a drink with us. We then went to a pharmacy. Eventually we realized that it was nearly 8 PM, and that we had an hour’s bus ride ahead of us- so we excused ourselves, knowing that they had already outdone themselves, spending over four hours with us.

But that was not the end. David insisted on riding the bus into town with us– and then back to his house, in addition to paying our bus fares. We sincerely hope that he did it to practice his English, because although we are obviously charming and interesting, we are probably not worth 6 hours of a stranger’s time!

In the end, although we did not get to see the chocolate factory, climb the hill to the convent, or experience the ferry museum, out introduction to Villa Velha and Victoria in general was overwhelmingly positive.