The Bottom of the World

For Easter, Fernanda and I went as far south as we could go, almost to the very bottom of the world. We took a plane to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, which means the Land of Fire. That's a funny name, because Ushuaia (pronounced Oos-waya) is cold, and I mean cold. The wind came swooping down the mountains, and sometimes I was afraid that I was going to blow away from Fernanda and right out to sea. While everyone back in Mallorytown was admiring daffodils and crocuses, I was looking at fall colours on the trees and blankets of snow on the mountaintops. It felt a bit backwards to see people getting ready for winter in April!

You know, this is the first time I've really had a chance to see the stars. The rest of the time I've been in cities and all their lights were so bright that I couldn't see the night sky. Here, the stars are brilliant! They are so bright that you can read by starlight if you hold the paper close enough. The night sky is completely different from ours, and I couldn't recognize even one constellation at first. Then Fernanda taught me how to find the most important constellation, the Southern Cross. Its stars are so big and bright that they look like jewels floating above the Andes. I don't see a cross when I look at it, though - I think it looks like a kite and the kite string! It's funny, all the stars seem brighter here, and there seem to be more of them. The only constellations I knew from home were the Big and Little Dippers, and you can't see them at all from here. We're just too far south.

You'll never guess what else I saw! The southern lights! I thought there were only northern lights. The southern lights are just as beautiful. It was wonderful to see their pale green curtains shimmering and dancing over the dark sea and mountains.

When we flew here from Buenos Aires, I finally had a window seat in an airplane! Every other time I've been on a plane, I had to stay in my envelope in the bottom of a mail bag. Seeing everything was soooo exciting! The inside of the plane is a bit like the inside of a coach bus, but much brighter. The windows are like portholes, and they all have little blinds you can pull up and down. While the plane rolled slowly toward the runway, the flight attendants showed us where the oxygen masks, emergency exits and life rafts were. Fernanda and I looked at the map of the plane carefully, so we'd be ready for any emergency.

I can't tell you how awesome it is being on a plane during take-off. It's better than the most exciting ride you've ever been on at the fair or at Canada's Wonderland. The plane taxis to its assigned runway - and then stops. You wonder what's happening, when the engines suddenly start getting louder ... but the plane still isn't moving. The engines keep getting louder and louder, like a scream that goes up and up and up, and the whole plane vibrates faster and faster as the noise swells and grows. Then, all at once, the plane begins to move forward, racing faster and faster and faster until your tummy gets squashed against the seat. When you don't think you can possibly go any faster, the ground just sort of falls away and you're flying. The world drops down and away beneath you, spreading out like a wonderful living model of the real thing, and then you notice that the clouds are almost right on top of you. Next thing you know, you're in the clouds (it's like flying through fog), and then all of a sudden the clouds are underneath you and it looks as if you're flying above a meadow covered in fluffy white bunny tails. The sky changes colour to a deep, dark, intense blue; and the sun becomes blindingly bright.

Here is a video of take-off from Buenos Aires (I love the view of the city as we fly over it), and here is a video of our landing at Ushuaia. I didn't take them myself, but I hope you have fun watching them anyway. (There's a little bit of kissing in the last video, but it's just a tiny bit. If you don't like kissing, you can stop the video early.)

Next time I'll put up photos of Ushuaia!

besos (that means "kisses" - everybody in Latin America is much kissier and huggier than in Canada, and now I kiss and hug everyone too)
Sally

a party for Vanda's aunts

Before I left Brazil, Vanda and I took a 300 km a bus ride to Ubá, where her parents live. I can't get over how green everything is in Brazil! California, Mexico and Peru were pretty dry places, and of course it was almost winter when I visited la Tabatatière. We were going there for a party for Vanda's aunts, so we took presents and some treats for the party. Remember those french fries and pizza you made for me? I took those to share with everyone.

First we nibbled on some delicious appetizers and everybody exchanged presents. To be honest, I got completely mixed up about who was related to who. I just know that Mirian is in the patchwork skirt, Marina is wearing the dark grey dress, and Renata in the sundress with spaghetti straps. Maria Helena is the lady in the beige blouse and the black trousers, and Amaziles is wearing the striped blouse.

Vanda makes a wonderful basil mousse, but I don't have a picture of that. I do have a picture of the dessert table (of course!). Look at all these yummy desserts! Chocolate and milk flan, coconut bavaroise roll and green corn cream. Doesn't it all look delicious?

Here are Maria Helena, Amaziles, Renata and I chatting at the table. What do Brazilian women talk about? The same grown-up things that our moms and grandmas and aunts talk about: how fast we're growing up, who's getting married, who's had a baby, who's moving, where their outfits came from, how good the food is ... you know. It's really kind of comforting that people have the same sort of conversations wherever they happen to live!
Once we went back to Belo Horizonte, it was time to say goodbye. I hated to say goodbye to Vanda! She was so kind to me, and I had so much fun staying with her. I wish I could have stayed longer in Brazil, because it's a huge country and there's still so much to see. Anyway, I gave Vanda a huge hug before climbing into my envelope with my passport. I'm going to miss her so much.

I wonder how I'll like Buenos Aires, Argentina?

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!