Sheltered Girl Meets World

To Brazil: Mercado Municipal

Graviola (left), a tropical fruit that has a creamy texture and tastes like a combination of strawberry and pineapple.

One of the big to-do's during this trip was to explore different food not available to Canada.  We've been doing a pretty good job so far - sampling local street vendors, regional dishes and braving the bustling local markets to buy strange new fruits..

In São Paulo the main market is called Mercado Municipal and it is housed in a multilevel building with stained glass windows.  Not only can you buy fruit, meat and spices but you can go to one of the many vendors and order two regional favourites - a sandwich stacked high with mortadella or the savoury pastel de bacalhau (cod filled pastry).  While browsing the different fruits we started chatting with one of the vendors and he let us sample several tropical fruits new to us.  Of course, we wanted more than a sample so we left the market with heavy bags filled with graviola, cherimoya, cupuaçu and passion fruit.

To Brazil: Projeto TAMAR and São Paulo

I want to take you home but I don't think you'll fit in carry on.

One of the highlights of our short stay in Salvador was renting a no frills car (no air conditioning, radio, manual transmissions) and driving 80km to Praia do Forte to visit Projeto TAMAR.  Salvador traffic is an experience on it's own and I am happy that I left the driving to the Boyfriend who is more experienced in traffic that is more like a road race with pedestrians, motorcycles and bicycles as obstacles.

Projeto TAMAR, short for Tartarugas Marinhas (Sea Turtles), is a non-profit organization that protects sea turtles from extinction on the Brazilian coastline.  Praia do Forte is one of their 22 bases along the coast where they hatch and release turtles into the Atlantic Ocean.  While there you can learn about their efforts and see some of the turtles (and other fish) they are trying so hard to save.  Seeing the baby turtles swimming and feeding in their small pool was one of my highlights of the visit.

We are at the end of our trip and in the last city on our itinerary - São Paulo.  It is the largest city in Brazil with a population of 11 million but not well known for tourism.  It's winter here and temperatures aren't as hot as they were in Manaus or Salvador, reaching a chilly 15°C at night and only rising to 22°C during the day.  I could get used to this type of winter.

To Brazil: Visiting The Pelourinho

The colourful houses in the old city center - The Pelourinho.

Yesterday we visited The Pelourinho, Salvador's city center during the Portuguese Colonial Period named for the whipping post in the central plaza where African slaves were punished.  As well as having gorgeous pastel coloured buildings The Pelourinho is home to many shops, restaurants and street performers.

While we were visiting, the old city center was preparing for a festival.  Banners and ribbons were decorating the already colourful houses and workers were busy building stages and filling hundreds of coolers full of beer.  We walked around for quite a while enjoying our surroundings, stopping occasionally to watch Capoeira dancers or to sample acarajé, a black-eyed pea fritter fried in palm oil stuffed with a shrimp paste made with cashews, shrimp, a small chopped salad and hot sauce.  Vendors of  acarajé are usually women and dressed in white cotton dress, head scarf and cap - they are called Baianas.

We've rented a car, a very basic (not even a radio!) Fiat Palio and plan on visiting the beaches and turtles at Praia do Forte.  We don't have a GPS and our cell phone data connection is shotty so I will have to do some tricky navigation - wish me luck!

To Brazil: I Love Sloths!

My new best friend - the Sloth!

We have just come back to shore from spending 3 nights exploring the Amazon on the Iberostar Grand Amazon Hotel Ship.  While on board we took a motor boat and visited a local Caboclo (river dweller) family, took a trek through the Amazon (there were bugs), caught a piranha and woke up early to catch the sun rising over the river.

My favourite parts were the many animal experiences we had.  I saw monkeys, held a Caimen Alligator and hugged a three toed Sloth.  I also enjoyed the food -  açai and cupuaçu are two of my new favourite fruits!

Today we are recovering from the rigorous cruise ship schedule (and all inclusive drinking) and spending most of our time sleeping.  Tomorrow we fly to Salvador, the capital of the Bahia state of Brazil, to discover Capoeira, fresher than fresh seafood and the beach.

I'll miss you Slothy.