View of the Amazon from the plane.
My first lunch. Most days we ate fish for lunch, and it was really good!
I enjoyed the meat, but the others "fought" over the eyes and crispy skin!
We went to the Equator.
Twice a year the sun shines right through the hole at the top of the tower. Daniel is pointing to the Northern Hemisphere, and I'm pointing to the Southern Hemisphere.
Here we are at 0 degrees latitude.
On Christmas Eve I was able to take a boat ride on the Amazon! Some friends of the people I stayed with live here.
The boat next to us had this lovely delicacy (pig).
Daniel and Samuel help navigate down the river.
Maybe I will teach at this school next year!
Kiddos out fishing
Wow! A different way to get around!
First one man got up on the roof of the boat...hmmm...that looks fun thought Samuel.
Later both boys went up.
Then I joined as well. We rode down the Amazon with a great view!
The friend's house next to the Amazon. Notice all the açaí trees around. Açaí is a fruit from the Northern Region of Brazil. I really liked these palm trees. They looked so soft. I also like açaí!
Another boat with some water buffalo...notice the head on the right and feet on the left.
Lunch- we ate some typical food from the northeast. We had fish soup and two other types of fish with rice.
The kids and I took a couple minutes to go down to the river.
The kids had loads of fun!
I put my feet in and it was quite hot. The water is so cloudy. The water was not even ankle deep and I could not even see my feet!
Then we went out for ice cream/açaí. Dani and I both had açaí ...can you tell?! Yum!
At night we went to a Christmas Eve service. I really enjoy hearing songs I know in another language. It always makes me think about heaven and how amazing it will be to have people from all around the world worshiping the same God!
I never thought of singing "Shine Jesus Shine" at a Christmas Eve service, but when I thought about the words it fits!
After that we stopped at a park. There were tons of lights everywhere and a Santa Clause in a little house. Here the kids are on a train. After that we went to another friend's house and had dinner (around 11 PM) and the kids each got a present.
Here we are at the fort. The Amazon is quite strong here with large waves and lots of wind. The water is very deep and the waves are going in all directions. It is fun to watch.
That evening we got big bowls of fresh pineapple...yum!
After dinner we ate açaí ...the way they do in the north...straight! Whew! It tastes different, but we could add a little sugar and farinha which made it taste better...it is much darker than the ice cream!
The next day we went to another river far off the paved road. It was nice and better for swimming than the Amazon. We spent the day here with friends of Antonio and Cristina.
It was a peaceful day...except of course for the canoe experience!! We realized that the boat would sink with all 4 of us inside, so just two of us went first. Even then the boat was only an inch or two out of the water, so every little tip allowed more water to come inside and gave me a bit of a scare! I scooped water out as we went along. On the way back we were going through a narrow passage. I looked up to see the back of the boat sinking down into the water! Sure enough within a few seconds the whole thing sunk to the bottom. The bottom of the river was filled with vines, moss, branches, black goo, and who knows what all else. I could not keep my feet down there. I found a bit of a dead tree stump and hung from it while Antonio finished getting the canoe back off the bottom of the river. I could not stop laughing. We came back with little bruises, cuts, and loads of plants on us...but we had a great story to tell!
Ya, I was a little nervous!
At the end of our day on the lake a friend of Antonio and Cristina gave me a hat. The boys and I had fun with it the next night!
On New Year's Eve we went to church. A family presented some special music. The mother played the saxophone, the son the drums, and the father and daughter sang. I thought the little girl was amazing...not to mention cute!
Typical food in the north
Little girls and pink ice cream :)
Daniel and I on the plane heading home.
