first day in Joao Pessoa and i am happy to say so far everything we heard was correct .. except for the safety issues. The city area where we are staying is touristy of course - right on their nicest beach, but still lots of poverty and street beggars/peddlers. Outside of being pestered (mostly while in open-air restaurants) to buy stuff, no one showed us any attention.

After settling in to our hotel (this took 2 minutes as the room is large enough to handle 4 single beds and a small table and that’s it!) we started our tour of this area, heading for the beach. After walking around a bit to get our bearings, we were pulled into a restaurant (almost physically). However after a few cervezhas and finding they were out of many items on the menu, we moved down the beach to another place. The big “Tiki hut” I had previously seen on googl street view. This place was pretty good and even provided us with a menu in English. Lots of seafood items and beef. The food was good and the beer was flowing. Seems like all these bars serve beer bottles in a bucket with ice, then pour one bottle into multiple small glasses (6 oz’s?). Lost track of how many bottles we went through - the air was cool under the hut and the game was on several big screens so all was good.
By the time we were done it was still only 6ish - seemed like it should have been a lot later. walked around a bit more and then came upon a small plaza - basically an open-air food court with a large screen TV for the games. we found a table, sat down and continued ordering beers. The game was Argentina and Honduras. The game was boring as hell but we found ways of having fun. Shortly after we sat down 5 Japanese fans sat down beside us and by the end of the game we were all drinking together and speaking Japanese.

Mike was done and off to bed, the rest of us wanted more so we went back out. Ended up losing Hanley and Biren so spent the next hour or so wandering the boardwalk and beach alone but never felt worried as there were always lots of people around and no one bothered me. For a while I even dropped down from the retaining wall and walked the beach along the waters edge (mental note when on vacation with only one pair of shoes do not get them wet). The night was beautiful with a full moon and fairly calm waters.