Ecological Park, Belo Horizonte

Matt has started his 9 days of Folga. I thought this just meant vacation, but I think there is something more to it, but I'm not complaining--this is one of the big reasons we decided to move here; a good job with LOTS of days off! The kids have a four day weekend because of the Corpus Christi holiday. We were thinking about heading out of town (apparently MANY people leave BH, because it is very quite here now!) but we didn't get our act together. I think it was a good thing that we didn't leave, because we've been able to hang out with some new friends, and just relax at home. On Thursday, we went to the Ecological Park of Pampulha and had a practically perfect day! We took the bus to Shopping del Rey, our friend Corinne and her son came and picked us up, and then we went had a picnic at the park. The area used to be a landfill, but a few years ago it was made into a park. It has tons of nice grass, an area for playing soccer and flying kites, several small ponds, a Japanese Memorial (there are a significant number of Japanese Brazilians in Minas), a playground with swings (Dora was VERY happy about this), and nice walking paths. It was a beautiful cool day, good company, good food and a great time. We also got our first view of a Capybara, which Matt thought looked like big R.O.U.S's.