Brazil Part 3 - Back to the park

I loved the market, but my very favourite thing to do was visit the park. Sometimes I'd get a glimpse of the little tamarins with their big eyes and glossy fur, and sometimes I'd see different birds like this pompadour cotinga or this swallow-tailed cotinga (look at her beautiful nest!).

Often Theresa Christina came with me. (Her mother is a friend of Vanda's.) She's very active, and I needed some exercise too. (All that travel time in the envelope meant that I got really, and I mean really, out of shape.) Anyway, Theresa Christina made me a track suit just like hers, and we went running together in the park. She made me the overalls and striped sweater, too. Now I had something to wear again while all my other clothes were in the laundry.

On one of our walks in the park we met Gladson. I like this picture on the left a lot: you can see Theresa Christina, Gladson, and me in the middle; and in the background you can see how green and jungly the park really is. It's much more interesting than our parks, where the grass is mowed all the time and there's no place to hide.

Brazil Part 2 - the markets

I never got tired of going to the market with Vanda. They sell everything there! It's a bit like going to Walmart, with an important difference. In Walmart, one store sells everything in one place. In the market, there are all sorts of little stores, run by different people, selling everything in one place. It's so big and noisy that I was afraid of getting lost.

I got really scared in the hardware section. I was following Vanda down the aisle and she stopped to sneeze. When I looked up to say, "Bless you" I realized that it wasn't Vanda at all. I'd been following the wrong person! I was so scared, but when I looked back there was Vanda at the end of the aisle waving at me. Then I was just plain embarassed!

These candies and sweets were delicious. Let's see: dulce de leche, which is a kind of caramel cream; guava paste candy, coconut paste candy, chocolate cream, and figs in syrup. They gave me a little taste of each one so I could see what I liked best. To be honest, I couldn't make up my mind!

It was great getting to meet all these different dolls. Look at their hair! I wanted to dye mine green, like the boy I'm standing beside, but Vanda said I have to make sure that I always look like the photo in my passport. Oh, well, maybe I can colour it with magic marker when I get home!

One of the things I loved about Belo Horizonte was all the different kinds of cheese. I mean, in Mallorytown you can buy cheddar, parmesan, feta, cream cheese, cheese sticks, and that's about it. But just look at this cheese booth! They had hard cheese, soft cheese, ripe cheese, orange cheese, white cheese, gold cheese .... I had no idea there was so much cheese in the world.

And as I already said, you could buy anything here. Look at the tiny pots and pans for a dollhouse. They had the most beautiful flowers around the corner, too; I had fun playing hide and seek among them. I forgot to bring my basket to the market, but my new overalls have really deep pockets for my change.

I wish that you could all have come with me; we could have had a terrific time playing hide and seek here! On second thought, that may not be the best idea ... we'd probably have all gotten lost.

love,

Sally

Brazil - Part One

The trip from Peru to Brazil took a long time. To get from Lima to Belo Horizonte you have to cross some desert, climb or fly over the Andes Mountains, and travel through lowlands of the Amazon basin. The first thing the Brazilian immigration officer wanted to see was my vaccination record, but luckily Erasmo had made sure that it was up to date. Then she stamped my passport and I was in Brazil!


Vanda met me at the post office and took me to her apartment. She lives waaaay up on the 15th floor. I spent a lot of time looking out my bedroom window at all that green; I pretended that I was a bird flying over the park. The prettiest little ring-tailed monkeys, called tamarins or saguis, live there. (You can see some of them if you go to the Biodome in Montreal.) Vanda gave me some bananas, and one of them let me feed her!





















I'd really hoped to be there for Carnaval, but I just missed it. Pity - Vanda had a special samba dress already for me. It was beautiful, and I liked to twirl in it, but I haven't worn it much because I wanted to keep it looking nice.

Here's a picture of Vanda, her esthetic doctor, and me. I love the way Vanda is always smiling - she is always happy and making jokes. She's sort of like the aunt everybody wishes they could have, the same way that you'd love to have Elias and Erasmo for uncles.

Vanda teaches English at a couple of colleges here. One of her classes is all teachers. Well, not teachers yet, but they're at teacher school learning how. It's funny - they go to school at night! They asked me about Canadian schools and what we do at home, and I taught them some English expressions like "Dude!" and "Cool!"

It was still light when Vanda and I took the bus out to the college. It's 25 km from her apartment, but I loved looking out the window and seeing more of the city. I shared my seat on the bus with Ana Clara. I tried to talk to her in Spanish, and she just looked at me - then I remembered that in Brazil they speak Portuguese! Boy, did I feel silly!

I have to get off the computer now, but next time I'll tell you about going to the market with Vanda!

Medical Check-up

Before Erasmo mailed me to Vanda, he had to give me a health certificate so that I could enter Brazil. I didn't mind him listening to my heart and lungs with the stethoscope (although it tickled a bit). He let me have a turn with the stethoscope, so I got to listen to my heart too. It goes thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.

I hope I'd remembered to wash my ears that morning! He said that they were in perfect shape, though.... no more ear infections. I used to get them all the time, remember?

What I most definitely did NOT like were the shots. I had to have two of them to go to Brazil: one for yellow fever and one for hepatitis A. Look at the size of those needles! The only reason I didn't cry was because the nurse was taking pictures to put on the blog. I sure didn't want you to see photos of that! But, you know, Erasmo talked to me all the time and it didn't really hurt that much after all. He put a bandaid on each arm and it was all done.

I hated to say goodbye to Erasmo. He is cool and funny, and he did so much with me. I LOVE his family! I love Peru, too.

Muchas gracias, Erasmo! Te quiero mucho.

abrazos,

Sally

Sally Mallory, Tomb Raider

One of the most exciting parts of my trip to Trujillo was visiting the Moche valley. The Moche lived a long time ago, before the Incas made their mark on the Andes. The culture died out around 1,200 years ago, but you can still see where they lived. They were wonderful artists, making things like this portrait out of clay; and these ear ornaments. Erasmo and his mother took me right to the top of the Huaca de la Luna. In the distance you can see the Huaca del Sol, and a little bit of Trujillo. The huacas are a little bit like pyramids: one for the moon (Luna) and one for the Sun (sol). They say that it took 50 million adobe bricks to build the Huaca del Sol!

I was a bit scared to go down inside, because they've found lots of skeletons and National Geographic talks about people being sacrificed here. You never know, there might have been a curse or something! Erasmo's mom let me hold her hand in the scary parts. Each new generation of Moches made a new row of murals. Some of them were kind of spooky... there was a sort of Terminator dude in there killing people. It was really cool, though, like being in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

On the left is a picture explaining about the murals inside the courts. They also had all sorts of different pamphlets about the Moche culture, but I'm only reading at Level 22 in English. The pamphlets must have been at Level 40 or something like that, and they were in Spanish! You can read more about them in English here, but you might want to ask a grown-up to help you out. I had to!

Erasmo said that the King and Queen of Spain visited the huacas last year. That must have been cool! I wonder if they found it creepy too!

A visit to Trujillo

Erasmo took me to Trujillo to visit his family and see where he grew up. Here I am in the central plaza. Erasmo showed me this poster about a famous breed of horse here: the Peruvian Paso. I didn't see them doing any exhibitions, but they're supposed to have beautiful gaits.

This is the cathedral in Trujillo. Do you notice that the sky's blue here? I have to say that sometimes all that grey sky in Lima really got to me. I'm a sunshine sort of girl!

The Freedom monument is at the central plaza in Trujillo. It looks as if it would be really fun to climb on, but of course I was polite and just asked Erasmo to take my picture with it.

One of the things I really really like about travelling is trying all these new foods. Here on the left is a plate of mote with green maracuyá juice. (Maracuyá is passion fruit.) Ms. Wright says that you were able to try mote, when you made Hundreds Day soup in class. How did you like it? I love mote, especially when it comes with chicharrón (which is a little bit like bacon). The other picture shows another typical Peruvian lunch: ceviche (a kind of pickled fish) with cancha and ñuna on the side.

Sally

(As written by Sally)

Whew! I've been so busy that I haven't had time to sit down and work on this blog. Right now I'm in the Central Post Office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While I'm waiting for Fernanda to come meet me, one of the postal workers let me use the computer. Here's an update on what's been happening.

These photos were taken when Erasmo, Giannina and I ran the 7 km pedestrian race at the town of Santa María Beach, south of Lima. (Well, to be honest, I only ran the last 500 m - when I saw Erasmo coming to the finish line, I ran out and joined him.) Then the three of us went to the beach for a while. I put on sunblock and tried to lie down and take a nap, but that's hard for me. Instead I watched the surfers ... there are some really big waves here!

Here I am with Erasmo and his cousin Sandra (in the dress), and his friend Giannina (ready to run). As you can see, I still have my basket. I packed extra sunblock in it.
Here we are at the beach. Pity I forgot my swimsuit, but maybe it was a good thing .... at least I didn't get a sunburn!

I love hanging out with Erasmo ...he's always doing something interesting!