More stuff we've done

We've had a couple of weekend rambles that I haven't posted pictures of yet.

A couple of weeks ago we went out to see the Bosque do Papa (the Forest of the Pope).  It is, specifically, the forest of Pope John Paul II.   Here is is with Bean-

It's also, more generally, a Polish memorial and has several little log cabins representing what the living conditions of Polish immigrants would have been like.  And other famous Polish people, like Copernicus-

  It's a nice little piece of woodland with a bunch of very large Parana Pine (the symbol of the state of Parana, where Curitiba is location).  It was a really pleasant place to walk around on a sunny day (yes! we had an actually sunny day on a weekend!)

I don't know what happened to this picture, but I think it's pretty neat.  It looks like they're in a time warp, or something.

And we must stop at every playground, even if said playground consists mainly of old cement tubes in a sandbox.  Here are my three kids in the "foxhole"

Right before our walk in the park, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant nearby.  It was rodizio style - they just keep bringing food to the table until you tell them to stop, all-you-can-eat style.  We all ate too much, but it was good.

The next weekend was sunny again!!!!  So we finally headed off to see the Brazil Telecom tower.

Can you see the little family at the bottom for scale?  We rode the elevator up to the top and got to look out over the entire city of Curitiba from the 360 degree viewing platform. 

In the middle of the picture - in the open spot beyond the buildings- is the glass house of the Jardim Botanico.

The lake in this picture is in Baragui Park, the one with the capybara.

Around the inside of the viewing area was a  cement mural telling the history of Curitiba.  Maggie found this horse, declared it was hers and named it Patch.

Finally, and completely unrelated to anything above, from the "food that makes you feel like a giant" category, a very tiny banana.

You can get bananas in several different sizes around here.  We'd do a banana mania, except that neither of the girls like or eat bananas, so you would be left with me and Mac drawing faces which I don't think would be nearly as exciting.  And they pretty much all taste the same so far.