The Beach...

Allana,Andréa and I arrived home from São Luis safely yesterday evening. However, I was too tired to write a blog, so I am catching up tonight. Our flight there went well...it was Allana's first plane ride, but she loved it(although her ears did bother her when we were descending). As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we noticed how humid it was. Here in Brasília, it is very dry and chilly right now, so that was a bit of a change. Our hotel was nice, not overly big by any means, but close enough to the beach. After we settled into our rooms, we walked down to the beach. Wow, the ocean is beautiful! And the sand here in Brasil is very fine and almost white, compared to the sand at the local lakes in Canada. The water was so warm, and I went in right away! So different from a lake, and when I licked my lips I could taste the salt still. So cool! The waves weren't really that big, but big enough to scare Allana. She didn't even want to go in! It was so much fun. On Friday we went back to spend the day at the beach. I put on lots of sunscreen lotion, but forgot to reapply until too late, so I did get burned(not too badly) We ate crab legs and rice and farofa and this vinagrette stuff and chicken heart. The meal was really cheap, I guess because it's right by the beach. The next day we decided to take the city bus and go see what downtown São Luis looked like. It was really neat, and we went to this little museum(we only paid $ .50 for a little tour, pretty cheap, huh?!) and then walked around some more. Allana and I were soooooooooo tired and hot, and I think Andréa was the only one with energy! But it was nice, and so different from Brasília. It is only 40 years old, so the buildings don't have much of a history. São Luis is very much influenced by Portugal, especially when they first arrived there a long time ago(by the way,São Luis is a little island). Because of their influence, many of the buildings are VERY VERY old, and we're also talking cobblestone streets in some places. So neat. After a little dabble in their old culture, we went to their new culture(the shopping mall) where of course has the latest stores and such, and we ate lunch. Then we went back to the hotel, swam in the little pool they have(because we were really hot) and then stayed in our room and rested. Also, São Luis is very famous for Guaraná Jésus...Brasil has this soft drink called Guaraná, and there are many different brands. My favourite is Antarctica, but there is also Kuat, and now we've discovered Jésus. Not entirely sure why it is called Jésus, but hey, it's Brasil! So, the next day we went to a different beach that was not so close by, because we had to take a bus. This is the first experience I've had on a Brazilian bus where I have had to stand up because it was pretty full of people going to the beach. It was craziness, let me tell you! This was a cleaner beach, and people could actually drive their cars on the beach and park by a picnic table that had a little umbrella. Some people turned their music on and played it at full blast, so it was nice for us to listen to it while we were swimming. I did stay in the shade most of the day, put sunscreen on, and even put my t-shirt on to play in the sand with Allana. However, after all this precaution, at the end of the day, I was even more sunburned. I wonder if sand reflects sun???!!! Thankfully we had airconditioning in the room, so we were able to turn it on full blast. Andréa got a little bit sunburned too. Allana has really neat skin. We only put a little bit of sunscreen on her in the morning, and she doesn't even burn. She doesn't tan very much, but it's like the sun doesn't affect her at all! Thankfully she got over her fear of water(she can't swim) and found some friends to play with at this beach and they just played in the shallow parts. Yesterday we were all too tired to go anywhere so we stayed in our room and finally got up to take showers and go to the airport. It was a really nice trip to the beach, and I love the ocean! Today we had classes at the English school, but both Andréa and I were really tired, because we didn't sleep very well in the hotel. But it was a good day today, and I got to help a little more, with reading some dialogues. I hope you all are doing well. I had so much to say, and I keep thinking of things to write about Brasilian culture, but usually by the time I sit down to write a blog, I forget. However, I shall start writing down as I remember, and then I will be able to type them up here. Love you all, Ashleigh