proreforma... mmm

navegando por facebook me encontre con un grupo de proreforma. me entretuve un rato informandome de que es lo que esta reforma proponia y no me sorprendio encontrar cosas que no tenian mucho sentido. los invito a todos a leer acerca de eso porque puede que sea un gran error para Guatemala y bueno para algunas personas del pais. algunas de las cosas que me sorprendieron fueron las siguientes...

-un senado con 45 miembros que no son elejidos de manera representativa. los senadores, mayores de 50 años de edad, serian elejidos cuando cumplen 50 años, para ocupar el puesto por 15 años sin opcion a reeleccion.
-dos camaras diferentes que juntas representen el Organismo Legislativo (diputados+senadores) pero las dos tienen tareas diferentes... lo cual no refleja balance en poder, en mi opinion
-100,000 ciudadanos pueden solicitar una revocacion del presidente la cual tiene que ser obedecida por los diputados y los que no la obedezcan seran destituidos y sometidos a proceso penal... uufff

entonces lo que decidí hacer fue unirme al grupo, porque es la unica manera de comentar y escribir lo siguiente;

'primero que todo, felicito al grupo que inicio esta propuesta. es un trabajo dificil y reconozco el esfuerzo. segundo, me gustaria decir tambien que creo muy honesto de su parte mencionar que es una propuesta 'parcial' y 'limitada'. toda opinion politica es parcial y es las limitaciones de la propuesta es el tema del cual me gustaria discutir algunas cosas.

entiendo el pensamiento del beneficio general generado a partir de la libertad individual sin embargo reconozco tambien el rol del estado cuando el sistema de libre mercado falla y ciertos servicios publicos son necesarios para el desarrollo del pais. es por eso que tengo una preguntas que me gustaria que respondieran porque no veo la conexion entre los derechos individuales y la reduccion de violencia y pobreza en un pais con tanta complejidad como Guatemala. en mis opinion, la pobreza no es solo un problema de economia sino es un problema que lleva mucha carga historica. la desigual distribucion economica desde la colonia, los diferentes desastres naturales combinados con pobre infraestructura, la falta de inversion en el capital humano - servicios publicos y medicos - etc. por eso, mis preguntas para proreforma son

-como es que creando una camara como el senado - con senadores elegidos por 15 AÑOS de una manera no respresentativa, ayuda a reducir la pobreza y la violencia en Guatemala? no entiendo esa conexion y la veo como absurda, tomando en cuenta que la razon de esta reforma es reduccion de pobreza y violencia. tambien genera el problema de autoridad desbalanceada. el reisgo de tener un regimen dictado por el senado es demasiado grande si se hace de esta manera.
-como es que 100,000 ciudadanos pueden solicitar una consulta popular por la revocacion del presidente? el peligro aqui es tener un sector de la población con mucho poder y con 100,000 conocidos. eso seria suficiente para revocar a un presidente que haya cometido una 'intromision grave en otro organismo de estado,' por ejemplo - un veto a una decision del senado. esto podria generar un gasto increiblemente innecesario cada dos años solo porque sectores poderosos de la sociedad no estan conformes con el presidente. no se como esta reforma especifica es necesaria para disminuir la violencia tomando en cuenta que la violencia actual tiene poco que ver con las leyes escritas y mucho que ver con las politicas de estado aplicadas que afectan la situacion economica, academica y medica de los sectores mas pobres de la sociedad. ademas, creo que lo que quiero decir es muchas de las leyes estan alli, y reconozco que no son todas ni me atrevo a decir que son la mayoria, lo que falta es aplicarlas.

una recomendacion para el grupo es no definir la palabra 'independiente' como algo que no responde a los intereses de ningun grupo. no creo correcto hacerlo puesto que no tienen el mismo significado y proreforma inevitablemente defiende mas los derechos de algunas personas que de otras. por el simple hecho de tener un pais con mucha desigualdad economica, este movimiento ya defiende los derechos de unas persona que tiene mas poder adquisitivo y posibilidades de emprender en actividades economicas, mas que los derechos de otras personas que por necesidad, no operan economicamente en el sector legal.

hago este comentario con la intencion de contribuir al debate de una posible discusion en el pais y entender mejor esta propuesta. no lo hago con la intencion de hacer de menos sus esfuerzos sino ampliar un poco las opiniones porque creo bueno considerar diferentes ideologias al momento de proponer ideas a nivel sociedad.

saludos'

vamos a ver entonces que me responden y les cuento...
saludos a todos y aqui les pongo el link para que se infromen de la propuesta que tienen ellos...

http://proreforma.org.gt/index.html

maracatu (cont.)

so i went to the Maracatú session again (just as i described in my blog earlier) and here is what i found after looking for it online:

aqui tem um bando de loucos...

so yesterday i went for the first time to support what will be my brazilian team. it might not seem like a big deal for many of you but it is a big deal for a lot of brazilians and especially for my fellow CORINTHIANOS

the game that i went to was not that important, meaning that the opposite team was not that famous or hated by corinthians, but it was still an intense night. there was rain, samba and lots of people from different socioeconomic levels -most of them, of course, seemed to be from favelas.

futebol here is definitely more than a passion, it is a lifestyle. i had never seen the attachment that most of the people at the stadium had with their team, including my host brothers. we sang during the entire 90 minutes + half-time regardless of the rain or the fact that we were tied for most of the game. it didn't matter where people were from as long as they were supporting the same team. many people there would seriously get into a fight for their team if they would need to and it has happened. the team supporters are actually well-recognized for being the violent ones in sao paulo.

i wish i could show you what it's like but it was not recommended to bring my camera and it would have ended very wet so my description will have to do for now...

check this site for the history of the team
TEAM HISTORY IN WIKIPEDIA

check this site for the history of the team
TEAM'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Memorial da America Latina - pt. 1

architecture is something that stands out in São Paulo and one of the best known architects in sao paulo is called Oscar Niemeyer. He made the complex of buildings called 'Memorial de America Latina' which is well known around the city and fortunately it is located very close to my house. and i haven't even told you the best part... it's free.

for more information, here is a little description, in english - my translation - and in portuguese for those who would like to give it a try.

the 'Memorial of Latin America' is a cultural complex, whose architectonic set was designed by the Oscar Niemeyer. it occupies 84,480 squared meters of Barra Funda, in São Paulo. amongst the elements of this public foundation, the museum-oriented space for creativity, 'Creativity Pavillion, outstands from the rest. this space holds close to four thousand pieces of craftwork from Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala and Mexico. another exposition space is Galeria Marta Traba, which organizes contemporary art samples and anthologies of important latin-american artists. erudite or popular music, theatre, dance and cinema also have their space in the Memorial, in one of the largest amphitheatres in the state, the Simon Bolivar Auditorium, capable of hosting 1609 people. created to integrate, disseminate and foster latin american culture, the Memorial also offers to the public a library holding books, journals, periodicals, magazines, films and audible recordings regarding to the history of latin america.

O Memorial da América Latina é um complexo cultural cujo conjunto arquitetônico desenhado por Oscar Niemeyer ocupa 84.480 m2 da Barra Funda, em São Paulo. Entre os equipamentos desta fundação pública estadual, destaca-se o espaço museológico do Pavilhão da Criatividade. Ele abriga cerca de 4 mil peças artesanais do Uruguai, Paraguai, Brasil, Chile, Bolívia, Equador, Peru, Guatemala e México. Outro espaço de exposição é a Galeria Marta Traba, que organiza mostras de arte contemporânea e antologias de importantes artistas latino-americanos. A música erudita e popular, o teatro, a dança e o cinema também têm lugar no Memorial, em um dos maiores anfiteatros do Estado, o Auditório Simón Bolívar, com capacidade para 1609 pessoas. Concebido para integrar, divulgar e fomentar a cultura latino-americana, o Memorial ainda oferece ao público uma biblioteca com livros, jornais, periódicos, revistas, filmes e gravações sonoras sobre a história da América Latina.

Para conhecer melhor a Fundação Memorial da América Latina, acesse o site www.memorial.sp.gov.br

for more information about click on the following link: www.memorial.sp.gov.br

so, this place is very close to where we live so we decided to go to it and get to know it a little better. we only visited one of the buildings 'Pavilhão da Criatividade' and it had various really unique things. inside the building there were pieces that had been gathered from different countries and relfected different aspects of their societies.

RELIGION
the first area had a collection related religion and it had images, objects and figures from different countries. one of the things it had, which i liked a lot, where the different Virgin Mary figures that were used in different country... it also had two large capsules with 'barbara' and 'ken' dressed in traditional bolivian costumes.













BRAZIL
another area had brazilian costumes that were real size and they differred so much depending on where they were from. it was really cool to see them. also, they had a cool corridor with brazilian handicrafts from different parts of the country. they were very colorful and they had lots of dolls. most of the handicrafts were handmade with natural products - lots of wooden-made and colorful figures.













LATIN AMERICA
they made a relief map of latin america where they had represented in sort of a caricaturesque way, the different cities of the region and highlighted some of the buildings or traditions in the countries. the map was placed under a glass floor so you could walk all over it and find the different cities in the region. although, most of central america was not present and many countries had only their capital city represented, i liked it a lot. it looked like a lot of work and lots of detail put into it. this map also reminded me of the map at the Miraflores museum where you can see the streets of the current city and underneath the glass you can see how the mayan city of miraflores was with all its temples, houses and water channels.

the rest of the pavilhão contained five main expositions from latin america. they focused on four countries for the first four sections and the last one contained things from other countries that had not been mentioned. the following are the four sections of the museum.

MEXICO
there was an altar with different masks and costumes from different parts of mexico. it had a lot of figures of the devil, since it is such an important icon in mexican culture - and many traditional textiles. i thought, this section focused more on the southern part of mexico and it didn't really show much from the north which is also a big part of the country's identity. nevertheless, i thought it was very well done and they had recreated an altar that i found to be really cool.

PERU
many of the things in this section contained lots of traditional objects that they inca culture had used and continued using even after colonization. it also showed some of the materials and colors used to make the clothing for the colder regions. it was also very colorful and it had very well made traditional dresses.












GUATEMALA
YAY - first of all, let me tell you that i was really happy to see my country as one of the four chosen to be part of the exposition. it makes me feel proud of my nationality regardless of the enormous amount of work ahead of us in order to improve the situation for a lot of guatemalans...

in the guatemalan section, they had a lot of traditional dresses in exhibition, also some other things in smaller capsules - maximon, textiles, güipiles, traditional jewelry and objects- and two very large kites. that was really cool because it was the first time i see them outside of the country and it made me wonder how they brought them here. it was also cool to explain a little bit of it to the people that came with me to the museum.

ECUADOR
they also had a very nice exposition of some of their textiles and traditional costumes. they had a lot of very colorful handicrafts and since we had Karlinha with us, she explained from where some of these costumes were and we would sometimes even hear that she owned some of them. it's always nice to have someone explaining things about their own country and lucky for us, Karlinha didn't only talk about Ecuador but also about Mexico.

p.s.
the participants of this trip to one of the buildings in the Memorial were only four - Forrest, Sabrina, Karlinha and your blog-host. we shall go again to see the rest of it and hopefully see more about the diverse and unique region of Latin america through the eyes of brazilians...

Stage 1 - Cleared

so ILCP is over and the bahia kids are on their way to salvador. it's a weird day but at the same time it's something i've been waiting for a while. this might be confusing so let me elaborate on this a little more...









i came to a program organized by CIEE - council on international educational exchange. the name of the program is São Paulo - Liberal Arts Program. the program started on january 8th and will go on until june 27th. it is one of the longest study abroads students go on and part of its length is because it has the ILCP - intensive language and culture program - followed by the regular classes at a private university. this university is called Pontificia Universidade Catolica - PUC.





so during the first month, called ILCP, there was a group of 60 people from which some stay in São Paulo, 20, and some others go to the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia, 40. we did this program together and now that it was over, we had to say our goodbyes and go out for the last time.





during this program we had several extracurricular and cultural activities - like going to paraty, maracatu, samba school, futebol museum and other things. also, on a more academic side, we had two courses. a daily 2-hour portuguese lesson and a daily 2-hour brazilian culture lesson. the portuguese lesson was extremely helpful to remind me of all the different tenses and learn vocab. our professor was also very good and funny so the two hours were not painful but rather enjoyable. sometimes i did feel like i would have liked to review different things but i guess it's really hard to adapt to all the different people's needs so it was fine. the brazilian culture class was not as good as i expected it to be. the professor, Carla, was very energetic and talkative but when it came down to structuring the classes in an organized way so that we could all just get the meaty stuff from the class and learn in a more concise way, i believed she fell short. i liked it anyways because we watched some good films and learned a lot about brazil history, considering that i didn't know any of it before coming here. i actually confess that i knew more about brazil's futebol history than any other kind of historical facts... i know, it's kind of lame

anyways, we just finished our ILCP part so we had our last event at the top of the highes point in the city. it is a restaurant at 'Terraço Italia' and it is a very cool building with an amazing view. as you can tell from the pictures we were privileged enough to have lunch with this view and the sky actually cleared up for us to get cool pics of the city. some parts are impossible to see where they end. the city is huge and so full of buildings. looking from the roof, it felt like i was so small in relation to the city but at the same time so big. it was a cool and new feeling. i like it when that happens.
all i can say is that i hope the bahia kids have fun up there and i hope whoever reads this blog enjoys the pictures.

saludos y hasta luego










Pictures are as follows =

me at the top of terraço italia
terraço italia - highest point in the city
MamaSilvia -my hostmother - Karla and I
MACstudents in Brazil
a view of São Paulo
largest residential building in Latin America
last picture together of Kirsten and I before she left for bahia
my portuguese class

paraty - tercera parte

location - PARATY, RIO DE JANEIRO
duration - FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
who - CIEE SAO PAULO GROUP+ CIEE STAFF

SATURDAY - jantar e parque
we came back to rest for a little while after swimming by the beaches all day. before we all went to our respective hotel rooms, however, we celebrated the birthday of one of the people that came on the trip, our professor, Carla. she is the professor for the brazilian culture class - on which i will elaborate later - and she is a very vibrant person. we ate cake, drank guaraná and chilled by the pool for a little while. some stayed longer than others but all of us ended up going to our rooms to rest before dinner. it was a nice pool and a cool place to hang out at night.

-siesta!!-

after our siestas... we all gathered in front of the hotel i was staying in and decided to find a cheap place to eat at. the night before was too expensive for my taste - my parents can testify what kind of prices i like or don't like. we went to this place in a very popular street where they sold a lot of shared plates. by that i mean that you could order food for two people and that the restaurant was so full and tight that sabrina -one of the girls in the group - had to sit down in some sort of hockey pockey style... 'you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out...' as you can tell by the pictures. anyways, Karla and i ordered some chicken which would later become my nocturnal stomach ache. anyways, these are some of the pics form sabrina's interesting seating position...


the meal tasted good and afterwards we walked around the city. we got some ice-cream and talked for a little while. we went into a photography exhibition of an italian guy who had come to brazil and fell in love with paraty so he stayed. he had some really good pictures in black and white and there were other photographs from different themes - society, history, nature, culture, etc - which were also amazing. in the end, we all gathered at the town plaza, some people had some sketchy street caipirinhas - for example; a green one called 'HULK's pee - and others had some cachaça. some people ended up at my hotel and everyone made it to bed at different times but relatively early. we had to wake up early the next morning because we had a very nice day planned ahead of us...

SUNDAY - cachoeira e peptobismol...
i did not have such a good night -food poisoning- but was ready to feel better during the day and so i did thanks to some peptobismol i got from one of the guys in my program. we got onto these jeeps and were given a talk about what we were doing. first we went to one cachoeira - waterfall - that was up in the mountains. it was pretty cool going there and when we got there we had the chance to swim in it and jump from the sides. it was good fun except it took me a little while to jump in because of my delicate stomach situation. one lady that was a tour-guide prepared a tea for people who had drunk too much the night before and she said it could maybe help with my stomach ache. i underestimated her warning regarding the taste and ended up drinking it. i didn't want to make a face and look tough but i ended up doing it because it was hard not to react. after i drank that horrible horrible water, i felt better and decided to jump in. the water felt great and i ended jumping from one of the sides too. i enjoyed it a lot.



also, during our time there, everyone was exposing their different skin colors and most of the people that had gone snorkeling had a red back side -including back, behind the legs, butt, shoulders, calves... - so it was funny to compare that to the people who had their frontsides burnt because they didn't go snorkeling as much.

then we went to this other place with another cachoeira - very beautiful as well - where we ate lunch and i took a nap. i wish i could tell you what happened there but i was not awake enough to do so. all i know is that Jill -another girl from the program, that likes to take pictures of people sleeping - took a picture of me napping. not my sexiest picture! therefore it shall not make it to the blog. finally we finished eating, i wet my feet with the water from the cachoeira and then drove to a fazenda called FAZENDA BANANAL where they used to make traditional cachaça and the tour-guide talked about the process through which they make it. cachaça is the drink made from sugar cane and it is the one used to make caipirinhas. there are many many types and there can also be cachaças with flavors - i.e. chocolate, caramel, etc - so people got to try it as samples. it was a nice tour and would recommend it to many people who are interested in the history behind different liquours and their tastes...

after the tour, we went back to paraty, packed and came back to São Paulo. it was a long trip, since we didn't stop on the way back except for one place to buy something light to eat. we got home at around 9 or 10 pm and some people still had time to go watch the superbowl.

now that i think about the trip, i realize that the level of tourist infrastructure is very good here in brazil in comparison to guatemala and that can make a huge difference. of course, this ought to be done carefully to prevent invasions into protected territories, poorly managed trash management and services that might disturb natural cycles/life. the main reason why i liked the place was because nature was great and sea life was accessible and seemingly healthy. hopefully that is the reality too, and not only an appearance. all in all, the trip was great, people were fun, the beaches were amazing and friends with peptobismol turned out to be incredibly helpful.

what are you people waiting for?, get your butts over here. 'Paraty is here for you!' - that would sound so much cooler in spanish...

paraty para toDOS

location - PARATY, RIO DE JANEIRO

duration - FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
who - CIEE SAO PAULO GROUP+ CIEE STAFF

SATURDAY - mergulhando nas praias
we woke up at this very nice hotel, we had breakfast - lots of pão de queijo, fruit and the cereal - and then we went to the port. during the day, we visited different beaches in different islands. paraty has 365 islands, so theorically, one could go to one island for an entire year. the beaches are amazingly beautiful and much of the area is declared protected areas. it is a very beautiful place and until now i had seen nothing like it. now i understand a little better how beautiful Brazil may be and no wonder so many people fall in love with it.

CIEE rented one boat for everyone in the group. the boat took off from the port early in the morning and we came back in the afternoon. the first stop we had was a place near the rock where we jumped in the water mostly because it was a good place to snorkel in. there was a guide that came with us. we jumped in, swam around and got to see cool fish, starfish, sea cucumbers and other cool animals. we were there for about an hour and then they took us to this other place. in between these places, it was just nice to sit back, look at everything and relax. the nature is amazing, the sky was bright blue and the water too.

when we got to the second beach, we had to jump off the boat and swim to shore. once we got there we snokeled along the beachside and saw some cool stuff. we even saw a ray!! it was not dangerous and it was really cool. we didn't get to touch it of course but we were able to stand maybe 1 meter away from it. we went a long way along the coast until most of us got tired so we decided to come back. we got back to the beach, walked for a little bit and then swam to the boat to go to a different beach. you should all know that boat time = 'putting-sunscreen-on' time. everytime we swam and got on the boat, everyone would put sunscreen on again and again because the sun can be pretty mean down here.

after our second beach we went to a third one but had lunch first. we had options - fish or chicken. place you bets on what i decided to have, i'll tell you at the end of this entry... all i can say is it's pretty good and i had to have some Guaraná with it, it's simply the best soda/pop i've tasted. we got to the third beach and i decided to just swim close to the boat. some people swam to the beach while i swam nearby a little and then i decided to join them and go to the beach with them. they were playing with the sand and burying some people in the sand, so i decided to go over there and give some of those people some nice sand-bodies and siren tails. it was good fun!

after playing with the sand for a while, we aksed for a ball and decided to break it down brazilian style ... play beach 'futebol'. it was also fun! after winning the game - although the other team might think otherwise - we came back to the boat only to return back to paraty. just when we thought fun and amazingness was all over, we were on our way back to the city and guess what se saw... DOLPHINS!! that's right, we saw dolphins, and they were a lot of them. they were swimming and jumping towards our boat, they swam underneath the boat and came up on the other side, behind us. those dolphins are more difficult to photograph than i thought, by the way. we got back on land all merrily and happily. it had been a great day and most of us were a little tired so everyone went back to the hotel to meet later on for dinner.

next entry...
SATURDAY - jantar e parque
SUNDAY - cachoeira e peptobismol...

p.s. i had the chicken with this pink sauce and fried potato strings... it was soo goood!!

paraty - parte uno

so the weekend was very intense. We had a trip to a very beautiful place called Paraty. It is located in the south part of the Rio de Janeiro State, almost in the state of São Paulo. the city was the end of the Gold Route - passage through which they extracted gold from Brazil, in Minas Gerais, and sent it to Portugal. We had a lot of things to do so i'll try to keep it short and show a lot of pictures. enjoy the following couple of entries.

location - PARATY, RIO DE JANEIRO
duration - FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
who - CIEE SAO PAULO GROUP+ CIEE STAFF

FRIDAY - stop at Ubatuba
we met at PUC at seven thirty am. sleepy, excited and half awake. some of us had eaten breakfast and others were eating there - jill macnaughton brought pizza for everyone. we started our trip, i tried to stay awake and see the scenery and movies but it was difficult and i ended up falling asleep. i had gone to canto da ema the night before and came back at 2 am to my place so that's why i was tired. canto da ema is a place where they dance forro which is a type of music, very similar to salsa but a little more sensual. the atmosphere was really good and the group of people that i went with was fun so i'd say it was a place worth coming back to. unfortunately, i won't be able to go with the same people because most of them are going to salvador soon. anyways, i got home at 2 and started packing so i didn't get much sleep and had to make up for it in the bus. i took a couple of pictures of the places we went through but it was very cloudy so it didn't look as beautiful as it could be on a sunny day.

on our way to paraty we had one stop scheduled at a beach called Ubatuba which is well known as a touristy place and a good surfing site. we got there, ate some food and proceeded to jump into the water. it was great. i stayed in the waves as much as i could because i rarely get to go to beaches that have big waves but are not steep on the bottom. also, different from guatemalan beaches, instead of being steep and black sand beaches, the sand was yellow/light brown and it had rocks on one of the sides. we walked a little on them as one group but then one group went back to go into the water and some people continued along the rocky coast.

also, because this was a more touristy place than normal, i didn't get a clear picture of the differences between swiming suits. brazilians are known for wearing very small bikinis for women and minuscule shorts for men called 'sunga'. as of now, i stand proudly as a tourist because i am not wearing a sunga.

FRIDAY - bemvindos a paraty
we got to paraty and to nobody's surprise, it was raining. the historic center of the city doesn't allow cars to go into the city so the bus left us as close as it could from the two hotels where we were staying. waiting outside the bus were staff members from the hotel with a bunch of umbrellas so we all received them and walked to the hotel with our luggage. the hotel was really nice but we wanted to go out and explore so four of us decided to walk together around the city before 7pm which was tour time. we didn't see much except for lots of flooded streets and very few people in the city. i believe we even got the occassional 'look at them, they are gringos' look but it's a city full of foreigners so they were used to seeing lost people like us.

we got back on time for the tour and we understood the history of the city a little better. as i mentioned earlier, it was the end point of the gold route towards portugal and it had different churches for whites and blacks and no official church for indigenous people -the few that were left. the city is also built so that during high tide the water from the ocean comes in and it walks through the city - therefore the flooding -, and during the low tide, the water slowly goes back where it belongs. the houses are made so that it doesn't come in which is kind of cool but it sometime happens that water does come in - not good. we saw the port, the central plaza and some of the iconic streets and buildings. apparently the city had a lot of mason influence because throughout the city it had different symbols and details in the architecture of the buildings that indicated who was part of the masons. this was specifically important to brazilian history because the masons started the independence movement.

after the tour everyone went to have dinner and we went to this thai place which had a good reputation - let me tell you, this reputation could not have been for its prices, because man, was it expensive... the food was indeed, very good. we all ordered different dishes and shared. at the end, all of the guys decided to do something which was not too smart but it showed how much of a man each one of us was... since each plate had a green or red pepper on the side, we all decided to give it a try. TALK ABOUT HOT SPICES!! water, rice, vegetables, oxygen and an occassional napkin bite were not enough to calm the wildfire inside our throats. the worse part was that it walked slowly down our throats and to our stomachs... ah well, at least we all had a good laugh looking at each others' red faces and urgent need for water hehe.

p.s. of course, the picture i'm showing you is not going to be me with my very red face, it has to be one of our very own Dominican morenazas exhibing the lovely display of thai food.

in the next entry...
SATURDAY - mergulhando nas praias
SATURDAY - jantar e parque
SUNDAY - cachoeira e peptobismol...