Today (Sunday, April 6), Kristin woke me up early and told me to pack my bags because we were going to be leaving Sao Paulo later in the day. But first she said we were going on another great adventure.
After we piled all of our bags into the van, we drove to a place called Santos. We have to drive down a steep and winding road to reach Santos. Here you can see the city from the winding road.
Kristin says Santos is important because the largest "port" in Latin America is located there. I had no idea! I wasn't sure I understood what a port was. Kristin told me to be patient. She said we were going to visit the port. Man, it is SO hard to be patient.
It seemed to take forever to get to Santos, so I was really excited when we finally stopped. First, I got to get out of the car. More importantly, I saw this really cool boat. That's when Kristin told me that we were going to take a ride on the boat. How cool is that?!
The boat was named "Master of the Seas." Don't believe me? Check out the pirate on the front of the boat.
How awesome is that pirate?! Once we got on the boat, I noticed that no one outside of our group got on. That's right. We had this HUGE boat all to ourselves.
There was one new person in our group today. His name is David Brown. He is going to host the new radio program (my friend Mr. B in New York was busy). The new Mr. B is really, really nice. I'm really glad he was able to join us in Brazil.
The boat ride was really neat. There were other boats like ours out on the water (except they were full of people...and we had our boat all to ourselves).
At first it seemed like we were boating through a lake. But then the captain told us we were actually going to go through the port! He also told me the port leads straight to the Atlantic Ocean. I had no idea!
It was really cool. I saw some of the biggest boats I have ever seen!
I asked Kristin why the boats were so big. That's when she told me the boats..or ships...carry items like food, cars, televisions and other electronics, and even toys from one part of the world to another. Who knew?
I learned that the items are put into these HUGE colorful boxes that Keith calls "containers."
The containers remind me of the trailers I see on the back of semi-trucks on the highways in America. Keith agreed and told me that sometimes the containers are used with big highway trucks or are placed on trains. But in the port, the "containers" are loaded onto the ships using cranes and other big machines.
Do you see how big the cranes are in the port? I don't think I've ever seen cranes this big in my entire life!
Here you can see me with Keith. Look closely and you will see some big cranes behind us.
Since the Port of Santos is the largest in Latin America, Kristin pointed out there were ships from all over the world in the docks. This one has a flag that I've seen before. Can you tell which country this ship is from?
If you guessed North Korea...you are right! I had no idea ships from North Korea visited places like Brazil. Did you?
It was cloudy during our boat ride. It was also VERY windy. So I spent most of my time looking at the port from my special place inside Kristin's purse. I was too afraid I was going to blow away!
Halfway through our boat ride, I saw something that looked like the large buildings farmers store grain in. Kristin said I was right. There were several "grain elevators" in the port like this one.
Kristin told me that Brazil sends more soybeans to other countries than any other country in the world and that's why there were are grain elevators in the port. Who knew?
I saw a few other interesting ships. This one is something Kristin calls a "cruise liner." That's a HUGE boat that takes people on overnight trips on the ocean. Cool!
I wanted to take a cruise on a big ship like the one in the photo above, but Kristin told me we didn't have time. :( Oh well, at least I got to spend some time on the "Master of the Seas" in Santos.
Just before we got off the boat, I noticed a huge Brazil flag.
I told Kristin I really liked the flag because it was so colorful. Kristin told me she was glad I liked the flag because we were leaving Santos to head to the airport so we could fly to a placed called "Brasilia." Brasilia is the capital of Brazil. See if you can find it on the map.
That's all for now. I'll update you again once I get to Brasilia.
Bye for now...
