Museus

Today was the equivalent to Valentine's Day in Brazil. There were couples everywhere! Most of them displayed some major PDA, which grossed me out and made me want to throw up. I hate when people are just sucking face making loud smacking noises. At least go somewhere private haha.

We visited two really awesome museums today. The first was the Museu do Forte do Presépio. It had really great art inside the museum. There were pots and all different types of paintings and displays of gadgets and gizmos that were dug up dating back from the 1700s. The outside of the museum had old cannons looking out over the Amazon and the market that goes off everyday. We weren't there for very long and we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, Therefore, I have no footage to post today. Sorry!

The next place we went to was the Museu de Arte Sacra. This particular museum was really beautiful because it is an old church. In Belém, the church is called Santo Alexandre and it is the oldest church in all of Belém, which was built in 1698. This Jesuit church was built by Indians who were forced to work using brick and clay and they used fish oil as glue. I was disappointed because we couldn't take pictures here either. I would totally get married in this church, that's how beautiful it is. The walls and the front of the church where the priest gives his sermon had the most intricate carved wood. They had used cedar wood because it is large enough to made such huge carvings! The pieces of wood were painted using gold leaf paint and made the church light up when the sun would reflect off of it. What thought was nteresting is that the church isn't used as a church anymore. Instead, they have mini concerts, recitals, and private events such as weddings instead.

Upstairs, they had an entire section that tells different stories of different churches in different religious order. They also had a room filled with silver. They had silverware crowns, plates and candleholders. The church had almost everything donated to them that weren't already discovered in or around the area. I was really amazed by the church today. It seems like such a great and central part of the city.

I took this picture today of these four guys who were putting up a kiosk. It's probably one of my favorite pictures of the trip. It was actually kind of funny because I asked them if I could take a picture of them and one of the guys stood up and thought I was asking him to take a picture with me. Awkward!

By the way, I love our van driver. He always has a huge smile on his face, and even though he has no idea what we are saying to him, he seems to have an understanding of what we are trying to say to him. He always nods and laughs anytime I say something to him.
Today was a really nice day. We go to go to shopping and i did almost all my gifts to bring home for friends and family. I would write what I got for everyone, but I want it to be a surprise. My roommate Emily and I ate lunch alone because everyone was having lunch while we shopped around. I had the best chicken today!! It was on a drumstick and was marinated in teriyaki, I think.

I also bought the cutest pair of havianas today. They're bright orange, one of my favorite colors!! They have a store that sells only havianas and let's just say I stocked up. Emily's card wasn't working in the store and we were late meeting at the van. Raúl kinda got mad but hey, at least the van didn't leave without us.

My roommate's computer just broke and she's really upset about it so I'm going to close this short entry from today. Be sure to check out tomorrow's blog because we are going for a boat ride down the Amazon and I'm pretty sure we're going to the beach there too.