Lulu... Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post about Lulu, our tortoise, Lulu is feeling a little put out about his home being upgraded to human living quarters. I've noticed him hanging around the house area the last few days, something I hadn't really seen before. 

I'll also mention that in this tropical climate, doors tend to stay wide open to help with air movement inside. 

I'll bet you can see see where this is going... I didn't. 

First he took the liberty of relieving himself in the corner. Then he tucked himself into our cupboard. The brown liquid? One litre of insanely sweet, thick, sticky sugar cane honey. 

Guess I might have to start closing the doors. 

Lulu

When we bought our property here, we inherited Lulu, and I have to admit that I have grown rather fond of him. He's pretty cute, eats our rotten mangoes, and you never know where he will pop up next. Lulu is a tortoise. I do believe he is a red-footed tortoise to be exact. And I think he is a he, although I may be wrong about that.

The sad thing is there used to be a Mrs. Lulu, but she and her babies have somehow escaped the confines of our wall. I think they are living next door in an overgrown area, so maybe we can reunite the family one of these days. 

I've never had a tortoise before, and have only recently begun doing a little bit of research about them. I have, though, spent some time observing Lulu. I've discovered that he is a persistent fellow. Before we started doing renos on the property, Lulu lived in the back apartments. From the amount of poo we found back there, I'm guessing that had been his home for a long, long time! When the major construction was happening, Lulu tended to hide out away from the action, and we didn't see a whole lot of him. Now that things have quieted down, though, he's coming out of his shell again. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!) The thing is, he's not happy about giving up his living quarters. If we leave any of the bedroom doors open for more than 5 minutes, I can guarantee that Lulu will have snuck in and will be hunkered in the corner. We move him to the opposite corner of the yard to munch on all the fallen mangoes, but 5 minutes later, he has made the trek back and is getting into the rooms again! Painting posed an interesting challenge. Let's just say we had an albino tortoise for a few days! 

Before I met Lulu, I didn't think tortoises were that smart, but I am convinced he is learning. It used to be that when a door was closed, he would just walk on by to check on the next one. Now he stops and pushes on it with his head to see if it is latched or not. He also understands physics. I used to wonder how he was able to climb and descend stairs. Then I saw it. To get up, he extends his neck way out, puts his chin on the step and lifts himself up. Getting down is the funny one. He walks to the ledge and lets his font legs dangle. Then he thrusts his neck in and out until he is rocking on the ledge. Eventually he tips over and slides down. Smart, eh?!

So if you come to visit us, be prepared to find Lulu in all sorts of places!

Me and Lulu

Freckles, Lulu and Sandy. They get along fairly well!

Lulu Jr.

February 2012 Update

September Update

Neighbours

I love our place here. To me it is a piece of paradise. Yes, it is a ton of work. But when we take a couple of hours off and just chill, this place is perfect. One thing I struggle with, though, is living behind a wall. Yes, our entire property is surrounded by an eight foot wall. While I recognize this is culturally expected, and probably somewhat necessary here, the country girl in me who loves wide open spaces and would rather choose to trust people is bothered by it. One of the greatest challenges of living behind walls is getting to know our neighbours. Here we cannot just chat with our neighbours as we work in our backyards.

Several of our neighbours, though, seem to hang out on the street corner outside our wall. Occasionally we try to join them. Oddly enough, we discovered that we already know one of our neighbours! Three years ago when we were here for a few months, I trained in Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art. Our neighbour is one of my fellow students from that class! It's a small world! 

Anyways, we decided that we need to be intentional about getting to know our neighbours. We don't want to be perceived as standoffish rich white North Americans, plus we really are truly interested in getting to know as many people as possible in our area. So we thought about the best way to meet everyone, and came up with one answer... FOOD!

 Last Saturday we hosted a giant barbecue for all our neighbours. We put the word out to a few people and told them to invite neighbours as well as all the people who have worked here on our renovation project. (Most of them also live within a few minutes of our place.) And word spread! About 40 people showed up for an afternoon of relaxing, visiting, eating, swimming, eating, playing soccer and eating. It was a great time! While I still don't know most of my neighbour's names, I have at least seen many of their faces, and they have seen mine. We hope they know they can come by to chat or hang out, and we hope that these relationships can continue to grow as we become more settled in this little community of Jardim Icaraí.

All set up, waiting for people to arrive

A bunch of the guys who worked on our renos

Chef Karlos preparing the most important part of the meal... MEAT!

We loved that people brought their families!

Just a little bit of the meat we BBQ'ed that day

My Less-than-Favourite Task

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not really a city person. Ok, I admit it, crowds actually turn me into a crazy person pretty quickly. I am perfectly happy spending 90% of my time in our beautiful, tranquil yard.(And about 8% of my time on the beach!) Don't get me wrong, I am not a hermit. I love hosting people here. Our kitchen is the perfect place for whipping up tasty meals, and there is nothing better than chatting with friends around the pool. But every now and then I must leave this paradise and take care of a necessary task... Shopping. In Caucaia (where I do pretty much all my grocery shopping), it's not usually too bad. I can be in and out within an hour or two. But there are times when small town shopping just doesn't cut it. Not when there are better deals to be had in downtown Fortaleza (a city of roughly 3 million people). And we are shopping for our business, essentially needing everything a small hotel, or pousada, would need. So this morning, I am psyching myself up for a day downtown. When I say downtown, please, do not picture Manhattan, or any other high powered, North American urban centre. I'm not talking about incredible high rises and people strutting around in business suits. I am talking about gritty cobblestone roads jam packed with cars, trucks, horses, donkey carts, pedestrians, motorcycles, stray cats and dogs, street performers, family run shops overflowing with merchandise, street vendors selling all sorts of goods and snacks, horns blaring, people shouting, church bells ringing, and donkeys braying. The kind of city where every one of your five senses is assaulted. We are on a mission with a shopping list that would realistically take us a week to finish checking off. Off we go with high hopes, nerves of steel a quick prayer for an extra large dose of patience today, and a stack of cash. The day will be full of asking prices, making a surprised/disappointed expression upon hearing the price, then waiting to hear the new offer as we politely make our way to the exit to repeat the process next door. Then we know we can start bartering from there. How do we choose a store to buy from? It is a precise calculation of: Original price offered, Percentage the original price drops in the first few minutes Availability of stock, and a gut feeling of "I like this sales person". Now in a way we are fortunate, because as chaotic as the city seems, there is a distinct element of organization to it. You see, first, we will go to the kitchen district, where 99% of the stores within a couple of blocks all sell the same kitchen supplies. Then we will move on to the light district in search of fixtures, and so on. See? Organized! I anticipate that we will come home with lighter wallets, a heavier car trunk, heavier steps, and a sweaty, grimy stench to top it all off. But you know what? We will go to bed smiling, knowing we got the best price in the city, and that we are one step closer to opening our doors to guests.

...And Other Unfamiliar Sounds

Welcome to my blog! I cannot count the number of times over the last few months I have said "I need to write this down!" ...And then I don't. So I thought, maybe if I had a little external motivation (like the possibility of other people reading it), I would be more consistent. So here we go!

Having grown up in southern Manitoba, there are certain sounds that are comfortable to me: Flocks of Canada Geese flying overhead in spring, the dull roar of farm equipment working day and night on the fields, wind whistling around the house as a blizzard rages outside, and the list goes on.

Settling into our new home in Brazil,  has involved not only getting used to the climate and language, but also to the sounds. The first few nights we were here, I lay in bed and listened to... Falling Coconuts. I really shouldn't be surprised by this, seeing the name of our place is Palm Tree Nook (or corner). And this really is an appropriate name. By my count, we have 17 Coconut and 17 Imperial Palm trees. That doesn't include the other varieties of palms scattered here and there.

But back to lying in bed. I would be nearly asleep, and the muted 'thump' of a coconut hitting the ground would jar me to wakefulness. This would happen multiple times a night.

And then there are the sounds of dogs barking, roosters crowing, geese squawking, and cicadas chirping. Oh, and the occasional super-sub-woofer pounding out the latest samba beat.

Needless to say, the first number of nights were less than restful.

It is amazing, though, how fast the unfamiliar becomes comfortable. We have been here a month and a half now, and while I still take note when I hear one fall, I now remember how beautiful our place is, and smile. And maybe - just maybe - the next time I am in Manitoba, I will lie in bed at night, listening to the blizzard howl, and think of Falling Coconuts.