Soccer and Safaris

We started this Saturday with a much anticipated soccer class for Felix and Miles. They were so excited for it, until, of course, we got there. Abby on the other hand begged to play and we kept explaining she couldn't because it was only for four year olds.

Jamison trying to help Felix get the feel for it.  Poor kid just cried and ran to me.  Miles did great in the drills but ran off the field during the game. 

After a while she recognized a boy, Joao Vitor, from her class at school. Around that same time Jamison asked the boy how old he was, and he said six. So Abby was in! She did great in the drills and good in the game. We might have to get her signed up, she has one more week to try. For the boys, we will put in a little more time of family practice. We were pretty amazed at the little Brazilian kids, they Really know the game, even at five years old! Impressive. They definitely knew a lot more than me!

We were pretty impressed with how well the kids were outfitted for practice, jerseyes, AND soccer shoes do you know how expensive they are?  A Jersey is about $50-$75 US dollars and shoes are about $50 for a kid!  

Jamison took a package to mail for a friend and a small letter for me with American coins for the man we met at a gas station with a coin collection. Apparently it cost $8 to mail $1.42 in change. Pretty ridiculous, but at least I can get it off my list, and I hope the guy gets it!

We left pretty late for our next plan, the Sao Paulo Zoo and Zoo Safari. We got to Sao Paulo around 1:30 and had two hours at the Zoo before we had to leave for the Safari. We saw birds and then reptiles in the Casa de Sangue Frio! ( I love that name, it means house of the cold-blooded) and Bears! Flamingos and Monkeys. And huge pelican-stork like birds.

This is how we roll through the zoo.  We were quite the attraction.  You can see people stop and stare, and point, and try to count all of us.  it is pretty entertaining.

Ant Farm.  I was really expecting a huge plate of glass with the world's biggest ant farm, but this was still pretty cool. 

This creeped me out.  Look at this thing.  Look at those tiny legs, how on earth would they be able to move that big body.  It's called an Anguid lizard or a Brazilian Galliwasp

Then the safari. The kids were pretty excited no anxious. Keep the windows up! Don't let the monkeys in! Keep the windows up the lion is going to get us!

Maybe I should explain. The Zoo Safari is when you get to drive your own car through part of the zoo. We saw peacocks, emus, ostriches. Then a monkey section! They tape the windows shut during the monkey part. We saw a monkey on top of a van in front of us, but they stayed clear from us. We saw a huge camel, as big as a bison. We saw tigers and lions. We saw a very active hippo, which was awesome. It was all very cool and only slightly terrifying for the kids.

Crazy people feeding huge birds with their bare hands!

Crazy birds really inches away from our car window wondering when us crazy people will feed it (we won't!) 

 

The most active hippo I have ever seen.

A HUGE impressive camel

We even had the windows down at this moment. 

But we had them taped when it was time for the monkeys again (the tape isn't going to stop us from opening the window (common sense would ) but I think it is for the zoo people to see if we attempted something stupid) 

We loved the lions, especially Oliver, he said he wanted to print out these pictures and put them all over his room. 

Beautiful White Peacocks

Now a two hour drive home, clean up the house, and clean up ourselves.Jamison and I commented later that this was our first last.  The last time we would be going to the Sao Paulo Zoo.  We won't have to drive through the traffic and past scary places again, unless of course you come down and then we would for you!