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.