Turning Coconuts into Cash

Being a farm girl, I firmly believe in using the resources you have around you. I recently planted a vegetable and herb garden. (And my tomato seeds sprouted in just six days!) We will use the produce to feed the people we host here. I try really hard to collect the fruit produced by the trees on our yard. For example, mango season just finished, so I have a freezer full of mango jam, and Karl made a delicious mango chutney. 

We also have lots of coconut trees. (I do believe we have 17, to be exact.) Coconut trees actually inspired the name of this blog (Falling Coconuts). When we first moved here, we picked the occasional green one do sip on, or a dry one to make shredded, dried coconut, but most of them were just being wasted. Then our gardener, Daniel, told us that people actually buy them! Better yet, they come around every month or two and pick them themselves! Sign me up! Now those coconuts aren't going to waste PLUS it's about the closest thing to free money that I can think of. Yesterday I earned R$20 during my lunch break - sitting in my hammock, playing games on my iPad - while two guys went around and picked coconuts that we would have eventually had to remove ourselves, plus they did a decent job of doing some pruning while they were up there! 

How many coconuts did they pick? Yesterday it was 70, but this is the slowest time of year for coconuts. A month or two ago they picked around 140! That comes out to about R$0.30, or $0.15 Canadian per coconut. Not a bad deal for having done absolutely nothing!

If you are interested, here is a video clip of how they pick the coconuts. It's a job for two people, one long stick with a hook, and a gunny sack. Enjoy!

(Thanks to Karl for being kind enough to get out of his hammock and get this video for me!)

A colourful afternoon

I kinda wish more of my projects could have such colourful, aesthetically pleasing results! Now I just need to pick plants to put in them!

Rhythm of Life

These days, every time I think about Christmas approaching, I feel 'off kilter', or maybe a little confused. This morning it finally occurred to me why I feel this way. In my mind, it makes the most sense if I put it into musical terms: The underlying pulse, the rhythm of my life is changing. I would like to be able to say it has changed, but I don't think I would be feeling so 'off beat' if that were the case.

Here's what I mean.

In Canada, my life beat to the drum of the seasons. Winter, spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall. I come from a farming family, so maybe this rings truer to me than to most, but I know that when snow melts and spring starts to show her face, that the time of planting, has come, because deep within me, I know that all too soon, the snow will be on us again. I know that summer is the time to enjoy fresh food, to savour long evenings, to go to the beach, camp, or sit in the backyard with people you love. Fall is the time to harvest and store up, because we know what lies ahead. It's a time of canning, preserving, returning to routine. Winter is a time of rest. The short days and long nights tell us to slow down. Even the soil rests, and we hope that we produced enough to take us through. (ok, today we can go to the grocery store and get everything we need!)

This is the rhythm I have known my entire life.

In Brazil, especially where we live, there is no rhythm of seasons, because there are no seasons. So the rhythm of life is different. Here the rhythm beats to the day. People live each day unto itself because they know that tomorrow will most likely be the same as yesterday was. There is always fresh food. There is always warmth. Preserving is not necessary. Storing up is not necessary.

I'm not entirely sure how to reconcile this rhythm around me and the rhythm within me.

 I know that Christmas is just around the corner. The calendar tells me so. But I feel lost, not having gone through the motions of fall. Where is the snow? Where are the short days? My metronome, the signs I look for in nature are not here.

I can't help but wonder how these two rhythms are going to play together. Will I always feel the two distinct beats? Will they always be at odds, or can I learn to dance to them both, together? My hope is that they will eventually create a new and beautiful song.

But only time will tell.

Closets

Can you do something for me? Take a walk around your house and count how many closets you have.

How many did you come up with?

My guess is you have roughly one closet per room, maybe more. I am also guessing that most are built into the house (as opposed to free-standing).

I had noticed in the past that Brazilian households tend to have fewer closets. The implications didn't really hit me until we hauled our stuff down here to Brazil and settled into our house.

Then I counted the number of built-in closets in my house. Zero.

This was not a fact that I took note of when we were looking at buying the house and it was full of other people's stuff. I am, however, happy that we decided to purchase a beautiful, enormous, free-standing, solid wood closet that belonged to the previous owners.

Over the last year or two I have grown accustomed to living out of suitcases and boxes. But two weeks ago I'd had enough. I was sick and tired of having ugly grey shipping crates taking up space in my living room, holding all the things that don't fit in our bedroom closet or in the office.

We went closet shopping.

Part of our ugly grey box collection.

If you know me, you know I won't settle for anything but a stellar price. Fortunately we found that stellar price, and quickly. It was on sale for a price I had never expected! So we bought it on the spot. All in all, a relatively painless experience.

Three days later it was delivered. We were told, though, that the people who set it up were a 'pretty busy'. That was a week and a half ago.

And here I sit, looking at my ugly grey boxes. If the set-up guys don't come soon, I might just have to put my handy-hat on and tackle it myself. I've already put together a couple of night stands. How much harder could a closet be?

I guess this is just one more thing that I have taken for granted my whole life - Closets.

I'm hoping that once the closet is set up and the ugly grey shipping boxes are stacked away out of sight that my new house here will feel just a little bit more like home.


ADDENDUM: I wrote this blog on November 14. Today is November 29. I am pleased to announce that after a significant amount of patience and persistence on Karl's part, our closet is now set up! It only took 29 days, and probably 8 hours of Karl's time to sort it out. Let's just say that even though this was not directly the store's fault (they contract a guy to set up furniture), we won't be shopping at that store for a while.

Kim's Embarrassing Language Stories Part 1 of....

I'm still learning Portuguese. I'd like to think I have come a long way, but I know there is still a long road ahead.

For the most part, I have no problem understanding people, and I can communicate effectively, even if it means talking around what I want to say at times. Every now and then, though, I just make blatant mistakes. So I thought I might share some of the funnier errors to lighten up your day.

Here are the two words you need to know for this one: ESPERTO = clever or smart. ESPETO = skewer or spit (like for a BBQ or shish kabobs).

I learned the word for skewer first. And what is a skewer? It's a sharp pointy thing. So when I heard someone describing a clever person, I thought I had heard the word for skewer, and equated it to the English word sharp. A skewer is sharp. So maybe a person can be sharp too. Neat.

Fast forward a week or two, as I brag about how SKEWER my dogs are. After a bit of confusion and a good long laugh, I finally understood that they were two completely different words.

Guess that wasn't too ESPERTO of me, now was it?

As silly as I felt, I do feel the need to recount my father-in-law's epic language slip when he was first learning Portuguese here in Brazil. (Sorry Dad, but it's a great story!)

Key words: CENOURA = carrot. SENHORA = lady. The only difference is the nh in senhora makes a 'nnyyyaaa' sound, rather than a simple n.

Suffice it to say, the guy at the produce market gave him a strange look and pointed him down a sketchy road when he went looking to buy a senhora.

Shifting focus

It feels like we are on the cusp of change. We have finished the renovations for our guest suites. We how have six rooms furnished and ready to host people. We have painted like crazy and everything is sparkling clean. Even the stone around the pool has been scrubbed - tile by tile. The last week or two, our physical labor has been concentrated on our backyard. We are nearly finished building up a large garden area and creating a fire pit area, complete with palm trunk benches. There is still lots of cleanup to do, mostly hauling dirt and debris from all the construction, and we are hoping to finish building a workshop/storage shed in the near future as well.

Mentally and logistically, Karl has let his creative juices flow and been busy with advertising and marketing. About a week ago I posted the pamphlets he made. That's been a great start, and we are working hard at handing them out to people. Our website will be launched soon - there are just a few more tweaks needed.

We have also had an interesting opportunity fall into our laps. The city we are part of (Caucaia) has decided to put on a business expo! The timing is perfect for us. We are hoping to start 2013 off with a bang and jump into business, and we see this expo as a fantastic way to get the word out to people in our community. It will run every evening for an entire week, starting tomorrow (Monday, November 12). Every night they not only have all the business booths set up, but local schools are running their Social Studies and Science Fairs right there as well. Plus there will be a free concert every night. We hope this will be a chance to show our face to the public, plus it will be a great opportunity to get to know other business owners and government agencies at their booths as well. In a country where it is all about who you know, these connections could turn out to be invaluable.

So if you live in the area, come check us out! We would love to chat! We want to take the opportunity to showcase a little bit of what we are all about, so we will have board games and other interactive activities going all night, every night! It will be a chance for people to practice their English, or just learn some new games.

Our excitement is growing as we transition from physical labour and facility work to marketing and (hopefully soon) hosting people.

Check Out Our Programs!

As we continue with finishing touches around our property, we are also stepping up our marketing. I thought I'd give a little taste of what our advertising looks like. 

Our website will be up and running shortly. You can check it out at www.kakibrasil.com.br. 

We will also keep you up to the minute via Facebook. So far we have a Rental Page as well as a Yak English Immersion Page. 

The following images are pamphlets for the services we offer. As of right now we have not translated them to english, so I tried to provide a brief summary below each one to give you a taste of what we are all about. 

If any of these programs catches your eye, or you would like to learn more about what we do, we would love to chat with you! You can email us at info@kakibrasil.com.br, find us on Facebook, or give us a call. For international calls, dial 011-55-85-9734-2273.

Discover - Go Beyond

DISCOVER is our Cross-Cultural program. We give you the opportunity to explore another culture. We offer opportunities for people to discover Brazil, Canada and beyond. We facilitate, plan, prepare, and accompany people on an adventure. With us you will experience the culture, history, food, language, politics, entertainment and values of your cross-cultural destination.

Quest - Grow Yourself

QUEST is our Leadership Development program. We offer events that will grow both the individual and the group. Working together with businesses, schools, churches and other organizations, we create a personalized events for teams, volunteers, students or clients. We use interactive workshops and activities to reach your goals of personal development, conflict resolution, youth leadership, health and well being, teambuilding, communication, and more.

Yak - speak... think... know... English

YAK is our English Immersion Program. The best way to learn a language is to be immersed in both the language and the culture. We bring an international experience to Brazil. Offering events and opportunities for immersion in the language with native English speakers, we use a variety of activities and games to help you learn. At our events, you will speak, think, and know English. 

Facility Rentals

We also offer our property for group rentals. We have 2500 square meters of well treed space, including recreation space, 6 suites, a pool area complete with Brazilian BBQ, and a fire pit. We can host up to 20 people, linens and towels are provided, we provide healthy, flavourful food. If you like, we can also organized activities for groups, as well as table games. Our place (called Recanto das Palmeiras, or Palm Tree Nook) is located just 5 minutes from the beach.

Travels Part 3: Praia

And now the third, and probably most famous of regions in our beautiful state of Ceara... Beaches. Ceara is graced with endless kilometres of white sandy beaches. Just as the fields in Manitoba roll on and on, so do the beaches here.

All of the following pictures were taken in and around Lagoinha, a small fishing village about an hour up the coast from our place. We spent an entire day cruising up the beach on a dune buggy.  As always, photo credit goes to my hubby, Karl and Outtafocus Photography. 

Jellyfish washed in by the tide. 

It seems like every bend in the beach has a palm tree cluster on it. 

Literally, endless miles of beach.

Beachside restaurant on the other side of a river. 

Crossing this river on the 'ferry' (aka, a raft to hold our dune buggy and a kid pulling us along.)

Typical fishing village.

Typical fishing boat, called a Jangada. They are pulling it up out of the water, out of reach of the tides. 

Taking a break from dune buggies to enjoy the views atop a sand dune. 

The view we savoured as we had a most delicious breakfast in our hotel. 

Rainy season vs dry season.

These photos are both taken from the highest point in Ceara, about 1000m above sea level. The first was taken a few weeks ago, right in the middle of dry season. The second was taken in rainy season. 

Travels Part 2: Serra

The second region we explored with Karl's cousin was the Serra. While the word SERRA translates as mountain, don't go thinking we have the Rockies in our backyard. About 100 km's off the coastline, there are several 'ranges' of mountains. They look kind of funny because there are no foothills leading up to them or anything. It's just a giant mound plopped right in the middle of the flatlands.

What I love about the serra is the climate, and with it the flora and fauna. Insert quick history lesson: Nearly all of Brazil's 7941 km's of coastline used to be Atlantic Rainforest, but thanks to European explorers and their lust for natural resources, well over 90% has been destroyed. Much of the serra, though, still has this rainforest, and it is beautiful. Unlike the surrounding sertão, which is plagued by drought, the Serra receives generous amounts of rain. The forests are lush and the flowers are beautiful. Driving through the dry dry sertão and then up into the lush serra feels like you have stepped into paradise. The rain, combined with the altitude helps to cool things down. People from the city like to go up into the mountains to 'get a little chilly', as they like to say. But don't worry, you can buy parkas there. And you might need it, seeing it gets down to 16 or 17 degrees at night!!

A typical centre square. Gotta love all the bright colours!

Public transit.

The road leading up to the highest point in the state becomes more... interesting... every time we brave it. This last time we went, we noticed this sign at the turnoff. "The next 5 km's are intensely dangerous". 

A little chapel, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. That's bamboo on the other side of the road.

We have noticed this building many times before. We finally stopped to see what it was. It is a former Jesuit seminary and church, now used for retreats and rentals. 

To build this church, they essentially chiseled away the top of a mountain (by hand). Then they took all the little pieces and constructed this building, stone by stone (by hand). No cement was used. It took 14 years to complete. 

Alice in Wonderland sized flowers.

Photo credit: Outtafocus Photography by Karl Enns

Travels Part 1: Sertão

One of the perks of having Karl's cousin live with us for a few months (aside from all the help he has provided with our renovations) is that it gives us an excuse to get out and explore. Whenever we have someone come visit us, we always try to visit at least one place we ourselves have not been.

Over the past couple of weekends we have visited each of the three main regions of Ceara (the state we live in). They are: Beaches, Mountains and Flatlands (or the Interior).

First: The Sertão (Flatlands/Interior)

We don't have to go too far to see what life in the interior is like. I suppose you could say we live right on the edge of the Sertão. In fact, I do believe all these pictures were taken within our municipality. In general, this is the least developed part of the state. People tend to live off the land - ranching cattle, goats and other livestock, farming sugar cane and tall grass, and fishing in the lakes and rivers (when there is water). This is an incredibly dry area. It is not considered a desert because for a few months of the year it receives quite a bit of rain, but during dry season, it is not uncommon to go a few months without a drop of rain. Less than half the normal amount of rain fell during rainy season this year. For some communities, this means hauling water, rationing, and many have declared a state of emergency - and we still have almost 3 months left before the rains start refilling the reservoirs again.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the Sertão...

The roots of Catholicism run deep in Brazil, and this area is no exception. This is the Sanctuary of Saint Edwiges, built on the side of hill, overlooking the town of Garrote. (See how brown everything is?)

Quite possibly the most popular mode of transportation in the interior, donkeys and carts are reliable and can go places your car can't (or maybe down roads you don't want your car to travel!)

Typical housing in the interior: Interwoven branches packed with clay-mud. 

While rail transport is not widely used in Brazil, it does provide reliable access to the interior. 

Like I said, donkeys are the way to go!

The capital of our municipality, also called Caucaia, is the centre of commerce and government. We live just about 5 minutes from the Centro (Downtown) where we do nearly all of our shopping. They just finished building a MALL in town, and this is the view from the outdoor food court to the Catholic church and centre square. 

How To Request a Criminal Record Check in Brazil in 27 Easy Steps:

(aka: The Only Way to Get Things Done in This Country)

1 - Go to the courthouse during 'normal' working hours. (in our case, 3:30 pm)

2 - Find out that normal working hours at the courthouse are 8-11:00 am and 1-2:00 pm. (yep, that's four working hours)

3 - Return the next day at 8:30 am.

4 - Have your husband denied entry to the courthouse because he decided to wear shorts instead of pants.

5 - Stand in line.

6 - Get photocopies of all the documents you were told you needed.

7 - Stand in line.

8 - Find out that you actually need copies of one other document.

9 - Stand in line.

10 - Get copies of that one other document.

11 - Stand in line.

12 - Fill out forms.

13 - Run outside to get a signature from your banished husband.

14 - Stand in line.

15 - Find out that you also need a document that has both your parents names on it.

16 - Sigh, because you left your special birth certificates with this information at home.

17 - Drive home.

18 - Make copies of documents at home to avoid standing in one more line.

19 - Drive to the courthouse.

20 - Stand in line.

21 - Submit application for criminal record check.

22 - Drive through downtown traffic. Sit patiently in a traffic jam. (Preferably singing Johnny Cash songs loudly to pass the time.)

23 - Stand in line.

24 - Pay bill (oh, and the machine is broken. Good thing I have cash on me)

25 - Drive home.

26 - Wait until tomorrow at 8:00 and hope that it will be ready for pickup.

27 - Remind Karl to wear pants, because only he can pick up the one bearing his name.

Look Mom! I finally made my bed!

I like hands-on projects. I love starting with nothing and being able to see good results at the end of the day. So much of what I have been doing recently doesn't appease this need in me. Keeping the books? Umm, that's the opposite of productivity. Seeing the money we spend just depresses me. Writing policies? Definitely not. Researching all sorts of things from health care plans to food handling law. Groan.

This week we have entered a new phase in our reno/prep work here: Finishing touches. Today I decided to crawl out of my hole of an office and take it upon myself to make my beds. Literally.

Here's what I started with:

A stack of head and foot boards (Technically these are designed to be bunk beds, so those are the steps on the right)

And everything that goes between the head and foot boards.

For the record, I did not receive an instruction manual.

So I laid it all out and did a 'dry run' of putting it together. It seemed to work ok, so on to nails and screws:

And then...

Ta da!

Then something occurred to me and I started doing the math... It took me 4 hours to put this bed together. We have 16 beds. That's 64 hours, or a week's worth of work. Gulp. So I pondered this while eating my lunch of rice and beans and while I took my daily rest in my hammock. By the time I went back to work, I was armed with a new strategy. 

I think the new strategy worked, because this afternoon I whipped out two more beds in 2 hours. Definitely a better pace!

It was exciting to pull out all the sheets, blankets, towels and pillows we had purchased about two weeks ago and see how it all actually looked together. I think it is pretty sharp, if I do say so myself. 

Yes, there is a third bed. I just couldn't get all three in the same picture. 

So now have one guest room that is totally ready to go. We just need to get some artwork to put on the walls! Tomorrow I'm hoping to put together another four beds in two more rooms and finish off details in the bathrooms and the courtyard. 

I guess the one other thing we need is people to come fill these beds! Who wants to be first?!?

Preparing for the bounty

It's the most wonderful time of the year. 

No, not Christmas, but close. It's the time of year when so many of the fruit trees are laden with ripening fruit! 

I can't claim expertise in the area of tropical fruits. Growing up in Canada doesn't really lend itself to firsthand knowledge like that! It strikes me as odd, though, that this is the time of year that fruit is produced, mostly because we are right in the middle of the driest part of the year. According to weather-and-climate.com, we receive an average of less than 10 mm of rain a month, more than 300 monthly hours of sunshine, and have an average temperature of 29-30 degrees this time of year. How does all this fruit manage to grow when it is so hot, sunny and dry? If someone feels inclined to educate me, please feel free to do so! 

What I do know, though, is that our backyard is getting ready to explode with fruit!!!

We have a mango tree. (Actually, we have three mango trees, but that's not the point.) The mango tree is big. Like the canopy has a diameter of 30 feet sort of big. It started budding in August.

When I saw this, I wondered how many of the buds would turn into fruit...

Apparently the answer is: All of them!

Yesterday I decided I would try counting how many mangos are ripening on that tree. I counted 100 mangoes on one branch. Then I estimated that there are about 75 branches like this on the tree. (That I can see from the ground!) Good thing we bought a deep freeze! Not sure we can keep up with eating all those mangoes! 

Our orange and tangerine (or maybe tangelo, I'm not entirely sure) are also nearly ready for picking. Unfortunately, due to a bit of neglect over the last few years, they only have a couple of fruit on each. We will have no problem eating those as they ripen. 

The other fruit that might just overwhelm us is the cashew. Hang on, I know you are thinking I have made a typo calling a cashew a fruit. But it is. Really!

See?

The nut is tucked inside two shells at the top. The fruit is in my hand.

Except I am holding it upside down. It actually grows with the nut pointing to the ground. 

This is a baby one growing on our tree.

The cashew fruit (or cashew apple, as Wikipedia tells me it is called in English) is an incredibly fragile fruit. I guess the reason they don't get exported is because only juice would be left after transport. And yes, makes a very tasty juice! It tastes a little bit like a mango crossed with a pear crossed with a bit of mouth-drying choke cherry goodness. I love it! 

We have two cashew trees on our yard, and if all their flowers produce... gulp.... They say each tree produces about 15 kilos of fruit a season. Once again, I am so glad we bought a deep freeze!

So I eagerly look forward to the harvest of our bounty over the next few months. It should be a delicious season. And if you want to come taste a cashew fruit or pick your own mango off the tree, you'd better get packing!

PS: I started writing this post yesterday. Then I got an email from my parents in southern Manitoba. They told me they had just had the first snowfall of the year. If you are reading this and live in a climate that is preparing for winter, I want you to know that I do feel a twinge of guilt and like I might be rubbing it in just a little bit. On the flip side, what better way to get people to come here on vacation?!? 

Sometimes I wonder about him...

This seems to be Sandy's favourite pastime. He can do this for at least 15 minutes. Crazy mutt.

How to buy fresh produce

Some people have gardens. Some people have co-ops. Some people go to a grocery store. Some go to the market. Me? I don't go anywhere! My fruit and veggies come to my front door!

How is Kim so lucky, you may ask? First, some background...

When we first moved here, I got used to a lot of different noises. (See my very first post for more on this.) There are a number of noises that come from the street: People blare music in their cars as they drive by. Stores will hire people with massive stereo systems to drive around all day playing advertisements. Most recently, in light of the impending elections, (October 7) candidates like to promote themselves, mostly through writing catchy little ditties about how wonderful our municipality is. (ugg... just writing about it got one of them in my head!)

But there was one sound, though, that just I could not figure out. It was someone driving around with a large stereo, speaking into a microphone, saying something like this: "whoa wha whoa whoa who whassaaa sasaaaa aaa"(If you are confused, think of how adults speak in Charlie Brown cartoons.)

After hearing this a couple of times, I started asking my neighbours what that person was saying. You know what they said? "We have no idea!"... Then they said, "But we do know who it is. It's the fruit and veggie guy!" Hmm....

So the next time I heard "Whoa wha wha wha..." I grabbed my wallet and dashed outside. Sure enough, there was a pickup truck driving slowly down the street. The driver had a microphone to his lips, mumbling incoherently. The box was filled to the brim with goodies. So I flagged him down. Turns out he is not incoherent. He just has a brutally bad sound system. It also turns out that his produce is beautiful, fresh, and is pretty much the same price as in the open air market. The differences are: #1: I don't have to drive 10 minutes each way, wasting time and gas to buy produce. #2: I don't have to dicker for prices. His prices are always the same. #3: He doesn't sell meat, so I don't have to walk through the open air meat market. (While I like a nice steak, the meat market is just... gross.) #4, and possibly most importantly: I don't have to compromise my personal bubble while elbowing my way through crowds.

He comes down our road every Tuesday and Friday sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 am. There are a couple of things I can't get from him, but for the most part, this is now how I do my produce shopping. What a magnificent concept!

So if I am ever in North America and hear garbled voices through a microphone, don't be surprised if my knee jerk reaction is to grab my wallet and sprint for the front door. If you want tomatoes, you've got to be quick!

The truck

The selection

Make sure you turn your volume up to watch the video. Sorry about my bad acting. Can't say I enjoy being filmed!

Soccer

Last weekend we went to a soccer game. Yikes. I've been to soccer games here in Brazil before, but somehow I manage to forget just how diehard fans here actually are.

We arrived in the general vicinity of the stadium about an hour and a half before the start of the game. This was our first mistake. There are only two things Brazilians are punctual for: Flights and Soccer Games. There was no parking available ANYWHERE! So Brandyn (Karl's cousin who is living with us for a few months) and I jumped out of the car to get tickets and left Karl to park the car miles away. To get to the ticket booth, we walked past the square full of fans filling their bellies with street food and raising their blood alcohol levels to the desired pre-game level. (Technically there is no alcohol allowed in the stadium, so I guess you have to go in prepared.) Then we saw the line to buy tickets. Erp. It was more than a city block long and about 20 people wide. I was really not sure we would even get in to see the game. After about 20 minutes of waiting in this line a security guard came out with a bullhorn "Sorry folks, we are all out of the regular price tickets, but if you want, you can pay full price for the discounted ones." Not entirely sure what that meant, or even if it was allowed, I decided we would take our chances and keep waiting. So after another 20 minutes in line, we finally made it to the security check point. Here we were thoroughly patted down and our bags were searched. Pretty sure they had more security for the game than most airports have! Next stop: The ticket booth. Even though they were out of the regular price tickets, for some reason the attendant was more than happy to sell us $15 tickets for $30. No problem there! After another 20 minutes of waiting for Karl, and convincing the security guards we were not a security threat loitering outside the gates, we all managed to reunite and enter.

Now, I thought it was pretty noisy outside the stadium. Walking up the ramp was like opening a door to a wall of noise. And the game still wasn't to start for another 10 minutes! In the stadium, every sense was stimulated. My ears were ringing, my eyes did not know where to focus in the sea of red and blue (Fortaleza's colours). My nose told me fried cheese, hot dogs, beer, sweat and cigarette smoke were near. I could still taste the lingering saltiness of my own fried cheese on my lips, and I was being physically accosted on all sides as people frantically jostled for seats as opening kick time drew near. 

We found seats about eight rows up, near the corner of the field. It was a great vantage point! 

Immediately we were swept up in the excitement of not only the game, but the fan clubs as well. There are two main clubs for the Fortaleza team. And they are passionate. Like, weekly meetings to practice chants and cheers sort of passionate. Each club filled an entire end of the stands. Every single person was decked out in their club's uniform. And they do not sit down. Not even for a minute.  They do not stop cheering. Not even for a minute. They have flags that unravel to cover a section of seats 50 wide by 30 high. They have drummers. One club even has a women's league. I cannot even begin to compare this to anything I have ever seen in North America. It is truly a Brazilian sight to behold.

I should also mention that before we left home, we made sure we were not wearing the visiting team's colours. That could prove to be a fatal mistake. (I would like to say that is an exaggeration, but the idea is not so far-fetched.) There was a fan club that came with the visiting team. There is a special entrance and section for them to sit in. Like, surrounded by bullet-proof glass and 30 armed guards sort of special.) Suffice it to say that we decided we would cheer for Fortaleza. 

The game didn't start off that well. Fortaleza was loosing 1-0 for most of the game. But the last 15 minutes? Hands down it was the most exciting soccer I have ever witnessed. Fortaleza scored three goals within 10 minutes and ended up winning the game 3-1. And here's a little tidbit about Brazilian sports psychology: If their team is winning, they cheer like crazy. If they are absolutely destroying the other team, the fans go nuts. If they are tied, people are apathetic. If they are loosing, people just give up and go home. So by the time it was 3-1, I was fairly certain my eardrums would just burst!

After all that, though, I have to say that the highlight for me was seeing Brandyn's expression after Fortaleza scored their first goal and the complete and utter stranger next to him swept him up in a bear hug and danced around with Brandyn flopping, befuddled, in his arms. The second highlight occured after the second goal when Brandyn took the lead and gave this guy a giant hug. By the third goal, he was just like every other Brazilian screaming and hugging and dancing with anyone within arm's reach. When in Rome!

We all left the game with veins pumped full of adrenaline, sore throats and the distinct odour of sweat drying on our clothes. We decided to top off the night with all-you-can-eat pizza, where instead of getting up to a buffet, the servers bring it around to your table!  What a fun day!

After all this, I need to address those of you who are now thinking, "There is no way I will ever, EVER go to a sporting event in Brazil." Please, rest at ease. I have never felt unsafe at all at a game, and this is truly a unizqely Brazilian experience that should not be missed.

Here are a few pics from the game. Photo credit goes to my hubby, Karl. (www.outtafocus.ca)

You'll notice two things here. #1 The opposing team fans are sitting in the opposite corner. See the buffer zones and armed guards? #2 The police chopper must have had Fortaleza fans on board.  It spent a significant amount of time hovering over the field, checking it out. 

I may have been the only person in the stadium wearing pink!

The giant flag I mentioned. It got unrolled and then rolled back up following each of Fortaleza's goals.

One of the fan clubs is sitting at the end. 

The other fan club at the opposite end.