Ivete

On our first day in Fortaleza Mads saw a billboard for an Ivete Sangalo concert for the coming Saturday. Mads was super excited because she loves Ivete. She had gone to one of her concerts three years ago in Rio and had an amazing time. Ivete is one of the most popular musicians of Brazilian Axé (music from the state of Bahia). We were able to get tickets for R$50 (~USD$27). We were given these shirts called "abadás" which we were required to wear in order to enter the event. Celina (our "Fortaleza mother") took us to her seamstress who turned the ugly over-sized tanks into cute little tops.


The concert was suc h a fun experience!! Ratherthan performing on a stage, Ivete played on top of a trio elétrico - a semi-truck equipped with a high power sound system and the musicians on top of it, playing for the crowd below. The truck started outside the concert grounds and made its way into the center of a huge outdoor plaza. As it drove, the crowd followed behind/beside screaming, dancing and signing. Once in the center, everyone crowded around the truck signing and jumping around the entire time while Ivete put on one of the most high-energy shows I've ever seen. We didn't bring a camera as we didn't want it to get stolen, but I have included some pictures I found online from some of her other shows so you can get an idea.

It was such a great night until Mads tripped and fell onto the ground. It was so crowded I needed to have some random guys help me pick her up. Mads attempted to play it off as if she wasn't too hurt and tried to continue enjoying the show. However after a few minutes she could not pretend any longer that it did not hurt and we had to leave. We decided as the show was pretty much over anyways as Ivete had already been playing for over two hours. Outside the venue several taxi men waited. I tried to get a few to carry Mads to the car, but no one would. I am not sure if it was because they were too lazy/weak or because they couldn't understand what I was saying. My guess is it was probably a little of both, but more of the former than the latter.

The next morning we woke up to find Mads ankle completely swollen and black and blue. Sure enough she'd sprained it pretty badly. Celina and her husband Rodrigo took charge to make sure Mads was well taken care of. They wrapped her foot in an ACE bandage and made her walk around in a boot with crutches all day. Anytime she tried to walk without either of the two they would start yelling at her. They even made her sleep in the boot!

It is all pretty funny but also sad. It's kind of put a damper on the end of our Fortaleza trip. Mads was unable to enjoy the fun surf at the beach and had to sit sedentary with her leg elevated during the entire Brazil v. Ivory Coast game. Regardless, we were able to enjoy the day as best we could and the win was definitely a silver lining to her day. GO BRASIL!!!!!

Hopefully her foot will heal quickly as we're about to go on two trips to Jericoacoara- a beautiful beach town about 4 hours outside Fortaleza and Fernando de Noronha- these beautiful islands off the coast. It will definitely suck of she can't play with me.

Soooo 03 and 15..... not the same thing

We originally thought our flight out of São Luís to Fortaleza left at 3:40pm. Luckily Manuella mentioned that she thought it was in the morning as when she looked at our itinerary it did not say 15:40. Convinced there was NO WAY our flight would leave at 3:40am we signed online to check the time. Sure enough it read 03:40....SHIT! After the game we went back to our hotel to take a quick power nap from about 7pm to 1am. When we got to the airport we were surprised to discover that it was packed. I guess early moring flights are common here.

After arriving in Fortaleza Mads and I had to spend three hours attempting to sleep in the airport (see prior post). This is because Mads' friend Rafaela's mom was picking us up from the airport and we felt bad having her come at 5am so we lied and said the flight got in at 9am.

This leads to the funny story on how we came to stay with Rafa's parents, Celina & Rodrigo (told by Mads):Ok so the plan was that I was to call Rafaela's mom, Selena after the game to figure out with her the airport pickup. Rafa had told me that she would call her mom first to let her know who I was etc. Since Vandria and I started pre-partying at 10 am for the big game Brazil v. North Korea you can imagine I was in great form to make a phone call after the victory. When we finally got back to the hotel I called Selena and to my surprise she had no idea who I was. Talk about an awkward phone call hahaha basically I was informing her that I would be staying at her house with a friend for an undetermined amount of time. Selena being the cutie pie that she is insisted she pick us up at the airport and no way we could take a cab....talk about faith! Later on I received a message from Rafa apologizing that she hadn't called her mom earlier as she got carried away with the excitement of the game. However she explained who I was and that it's all good. Long story short her family is amazing and offered for us to stay the whole three months of our trip hahahhaha love it.

Parque Lençóis Maranhenses

The name of this national park refers to its immense expanses of sand dunes, which look like lençóis (bed sheets). During this time of year rain filters through the sand to form crystal-clear pools and lakes. A 4x4 Toyota truck took us through thick foliage and rivers to the base of the dunes. Mads kept saying the drive felt like a ride at Disneyland, which led us to sing the Indiana Jones theme song every time the ride got rough .

Once we arrived to the dunes we were taken aback by their beauty. We kind of felt like we were in the Sex and the City 2 movie, when they visit Abu Dahbi, minus the fabulous clothing and camels of course. Mads and I had so much fun running around taking pictures and playing on the dunes and in the water. We desperately attempted to take photos of us jumping off the sand dunes - which was quite a difficult feat. After what seemed like 100 shots (probably closer to 20) we were quasi successful. It is really difficult to capture a person mid-air! I don't get how some people do it so well (Anna this comment is mainly for you). Being the kid at hearth that I am, I thoight it would be a really fun idea to roll down the dune into the water below. Fun idea in theory... in reality I got a lot of sand in my eyes and mouth and the friction of the sand stopped my rolling far before I reached the water. It's ok thought because Mads got some great pictures of me looking like a beached whale (haha).

On the second day we took a boat tour along the tall-mangrove lined Preguiças river between Barreirnhas, Caburé and Atins. At our last stop we ate a ridiculosusly expensive lunch and then took an hour nap in the hammocks along the beach. We returned to São Luís on the night bus in order to be back for the game the folllowing morning (see prior post). Though we only spend two days in Lençóis it was well worth the trek out there!

**Note: this post was penned in the Fortaleza airport at 6am while Mads is sleeping on the floor. See next post to understand why.