Ibirapuera Park

Or as they call it here Parque do Ibirapuera. Imagine. The spell checker says that is wrong. While on our two week break back in August Mike and I visited this park. It is Sao Paulo's version of Central Park in NYC. It is a large park with several museums, lots of traffic free roads, trees, lakes and of course lots of people. Here is a main road. The bicycle path is to the right and the walking/running path is to the left.

As the day wore on vendors set up their wares along the roads. We went on a Saturday and it was very busy. There are several lakes.

This is the same lake as above but from a different side. You can see buildings in the distance.

There were lots of trees. In this spot there was a walking/running path that wound around the trees, doubling back and forth. It made for a long trail but not in a lot of acreage.

This is bamboo growing on both sides of the road.  There were a couple of soccer fields that were filled with very competitive young men. Sorry, not picture.

There were black swans in the lake. These people are feeding them bread crumbs. I did not see any white swans but there were ducks.

This is looking back to where I took the first picture of the lake.

We spent a couple of hours walking around the park and people watching. Brazilians love their dogs. We saw a lot of fat dogs but the dogs and their owners seemed to be happy to be out and about on a warm clear day.

We have been told that during the Christmas season they have an impressive water fountain display in one of the lakes. I look forward to seeing that. Stay tuned.

Not an Enrichment meeting

A Brazilian friend from the MTC invited the American sisters to a Relief Society enrichment meeting, but we don't call it enrichment meeting anymore. This was the Sao Paulo Vila Sonia ward. It is not the ward  that meets next to the temple but about a mile away. The sisters were making things for Christmas.

They were making napkin rings and beaded netting that they place over pitchers of juice, salads, desserts, etc to keep the bugs off the food. (See previous post about bugs.)

We learned how to do the beading and it was really quite simple.

You can see there were quite a few people were there. The sister in the coral shirt had just returned from a three week trip to the U.S. The sister next to her speaks wonderful English. She helped us with our Portuguese and our beading.

We shared lots of laughs and great conversation. It was a very enjoyable evening. The next meeting is scheduled for the end of November and we are invited. I wonder what they will be doing at that one.

Visitor

The Brazilians comment that they have a lot of insects but they do not have screens on their windows. We have been battling mosquitoes lately. Our air conditioner is not hooked up yet so to cool off we must open the windows. Along with some cooler air coming in we get visitors.  I was sitting on the sofa this morning when Mike came in and pointed up to the ceiling. Oh my goodness. We had a visitor.

This moth was huge. Here is a shot with our fly swatter for reference. It's wing span was about 5 inches. My friend Ann would of loved it.

Bug lovers will be happy to know that we did not kill the beast...ur....bug. Mike gently coaxed it out the window. So much for the unexpected visitor.

Pineapple at the temple

The other day we were on line looking at images of the Sao Paulo temple and noticed someone had posted a recent picture of a pineapple. What? I didn't recall seeing a pineapple plant. When we went to the temple that day sure enough there was a pineapple growing right in front. I have walked by those plants twice a day and never noticed.

Can you see the little pineapple in the upper center-left? And yes, it really is that pink.

I wonder if is ornamental pineapple or the real deal. I am keeping my eye on this.

Election Time

Before I begin I must apologize for not writing. To be truthful I hate to write and I have been reading a lot plus I have won over 600 games in a row of free cell. (I said I would be truthful) Anyway someone asked if I was all right since I hadn't written for awhile. To that I say Sorrrrrrrry.

With the Presidential election campaigning going on in the United States I am glad I am not there. The news slant and campaign ads just make me angry. I do get to vote absentee by way of the internet. How cool is that?

Here is Brazil it is election time also. It is not national election time but the races are local. Sao Paulo is deciding on a mayor and some city council people. It is interesting because voting in Brazil is obligatory. When a person votes they are given a card that certifies that and many employers require proof of voting. From what I understand a voter must return to the place where they originally registered to vote. There is no absentee voting either. Election day is a Sunday and people make it a family day often returning to their original homes.

Look at the signs and notice anything different? Yup, those numbers are larger than the names. Something that I find interesting is that voting is done by numbers and not names. On the ballot the candidates are listed by number and not by name. I was told that here in the city voting is done on computers. You click on a number and a page opens up with a picture of the candidate and the name. If that is the one you want you choose to cast your vote for him or if not you close that window.

The primary was held two weeks ago and this Sunday is the general because no one received over 51%. Someone said there are lots and lots of different parties here. Not like the US's main two. When the primary was held the streets were littered with business card size flyers from the candidates with their number and picture. I guess they wanted something a voter could easily take along into the voting booth.

You Knew I Couldn't Live Without It

I now have a sewing area in my apartment. You really knew it would happen sooner rather than later. I found a sewing machine sitting in the laundry room upstairs. I don't go there very often and hadn't noticed it but Mike pointed it out. I hauled it downstairs which took some effort. I weighted it to see how heavy it was. Thirty-five pounds. This is definitely not a portable sewing machine. It is a Singer 288. I did a little research and I think it was made sometime around the 1970's. It didn't have a needle but a friend gave me a couple. They worked. The presser foot also has been taped on somehow. I don't dare mess with that for fear it will fall completely apart. When I sew the foot wobbles a little from side to side. It makes it kind of hard to get a straight seam but the stitch is wonderful.

I had it here for several weeks and would set it up on the little dining table but would have to move it for meals. Not a whole lot of sewing was happening. The other day a bit of inspiration hit. I could set it up on the little desk in the bedroom.

I could also put the cutting mat on the ironing board and I could use the bedspread for my design board.

Now I go in and sew several wonky butterflies a day. I get so much more done when I don't have to keep lifting that anchor. I am making a butterfly baby quilt for my first grandchild. It is a girl and will be born in January. I wasn't feeling the love on the applique project so I looked around for a project that would work with what I have. I settled on the wonky butterflies that everyone was making a year or so ago. I don't know if my daughter-in-law will like this but I know I do. I think I am going to call it Brazilian Butterflies. I have 16 out of 63 blocks completed.

This is fun.

Santos - the beach

The beach at Santos is really quite amazing. Here is a statue for the first European explorer.

The beach is at least 100 yards wide and about 4 miles long. The sand is a very fine white sand.

There are a few palm trees which I suspect were planted. They are located up near the park that runs along the main road. The beach was very clean.

Off in the distance I could see many cargo ships anchored waiting for their turn in the port.

All the housing is built just on the other side of the main road. On the summer weekends the city about doubles in size. Many Paulistas love to leave the big city and go to the beach.

If you look real close you will see people in red shirts. They were teaching kids how to surf. The waves were small and not very impressive.

The beach was not very busy since it is still winter here and a weekday. Although it was about 80 degrees and a beautiful day.

There are clubs that you can join and they go out and stake out some territory and provide chairs, umbrellas and carts that sell food.

I didn't take off my shoes to dip my toe in the ocean. I figured a shoe in the ocean would be good enough. I didn't want to have to deal with sandy feet.

There were fountains in the park area all along the way. This one has a surfer with water splashing up around him.

This statue honors the Brazilian who introduced surfing to Brazil. Now that is a long board.

This city is very bike friendly. This bike trail runs the length of the beach and there were lots of people using it. All through the city there were bike paths. I think I would be tempted to come back and rent a bike and go riding up and down the beaches.

When Mike was on his mission he worked in Santos a couple of times. One time he lived on the 17th floor in an apartment that overlooked the beach. It was memorable because it was leaning. While driving down the road he spotted the building and I quickly snapped a picture out the car window. He was surprised to see the building still standing after 40 plus years. Maybe they went in and shored up the foundation.  The lean is hard to see in this picture but believe me, it was doing some leaning.

The drive home was interesting since the road climbs up about 2,000 feet in elevation and we had lots of trucks leaving the port to keep us company. It was pretty slow going until we topped out and then it opened up. It took us about one hour to get to Santos and about two hours to get home. But the drive was beautiful and the whole experience was totally worth it.