Today I got up around 8am and had a really nice chat with Fernanda, shared a few rounds of Argentinian Mate (in my new mate cup - thanks to Lu; going away present). I then did my exercises as I plan to spend the whole day in the city centre visiting the Municipal market and seeing some of the city squares.
I walked into the city centre which was about 6km away and had a really nice walk; observing all the great street art and graffiti and seeing a few interesting shops. My focus was to get to the Municipal Mercado and not get side-tracked so I tried not to let anything get me off track. I had some really good thoughts about getting more proactive with my blogging and trying to setup both a guide and off track kind of information platform for travelers wanting to experience more culture in their travels through: food, walking cities, people, music and art. Walking through Republica square (city square) was quite impressive with all the huge buildings impeding over a huge green and public space which was being used to host a music event tommorow. Just before the market was a bunch of streets selling all kinds of Brazilian souvenirs, cheap clothes, shoes and electronics - once again I controlled myself and kept on track. I made it to what I thought was the municipal market and at first it is was rather disappointing - a few shops selling vegetables and fruits, a few selling spics and one selling nuts and dried fruits; it turns out this was like an overflow building and the market had not even started. The municipal market was situated in a huge old colonial building and upon entry I was met with not only an immense array of smells and sounds but an absolute color treat for the eyes. In the first stalls there were stacks of bucalou - codfish that has been dried and salted; mountains of the stuff in different styles and cuts and very very expensive (to eat you soak and boil in water for many hours). Next was an array of hams, salamis, Spanish meats, cheeses, olives and preserved vegetables. It was not long until I spotted the dried fruits and nuts and oh my good literally hundreds of stalls with many different fruits, nuts, candies, biscuits and chocolates - and the best thing is you can sample to your hearts content. I tried glazed tropical fruits the best being: the figs, jackfruit, Guiaba, caramelized bananas and a number of others I can't name. I tried some of the most delicious Dates I have ever eaten: soft, sweet and creamy and things like dried berries, cherry Tomatos, coconut, absolutely everything you can imagine. Unfortunately nothing was cheap and the dried fruits started at about $6 a kilo and went all the way to $50 but that wasn't a problem as today I was just a sampler. I spent the first hour politely asking if I could sample before realizing it was not necessary and it was quite acceptable to sample to my hearts content without asking. Next came the nuts and wow; cashews, pecans, walnuts, almonds, pistachios - roasted, toasted, dusted, caramelized, spiced, sweetened - I had no idea you could do so many things with what is already a delicious nut. I ate, talked as best I could with stall attendants, got confused and ate more and thanked my blessings for what was to be one truly amazing day. I came to this area where I could sample all the salamis, dried meats, spiced hams, preserved vegetables, cheeses and crackers - as expected I went to town trying everything twice. I ate this very strange cheese that has been fried and has turned into a hard biscuit type thing and as I imagine the lactose has been cooked out of it gave me absolutely no stomach problems. There were also many Lebanese and Arabic stores and I was able to try halawi - something I have wanted to try for a while; similar to peanut butter but more oily, sweet and with a slightly different texture. By the time I got to the fruit section I was already about to explode but found some more room. I tried many different exotic fruits of which a lot were identical to those in Malaysia however they were far far more expensive; most at $7 up for one piece. My favorite fruits were the chiramoya, Brazilian mango, Anerican pineapple and the dragon fruit; I tried many more that I wanted to buy but the prices were ridiculous so I left it. The Mercado is very famous for its sandwiches and people come from all over Brazil to sample the famous Mortadella sandwich; a thin bread roll is used and then it is stuffed with about 20 pieces of mortadella, cheese and salsa if you want - it looked absolutely delicious but at about $9 I decided to not try and instead go and try some of the mortadella (of which in my country is the crappiest and fattiest cut of ham). I wondered back through the market for a second time sampling more things and asking more questions and getting an idea of what Brazilians really like to eat - although the market is more for delicacy type foods. After 5 hours I was done and started my walk back to Fernandas - this time choosing to walk a slightly different way along a walking avenue where I found some more interesting shops. I ended up stumbling across many stores selling snack and sweet foods and couldn't help myself and ended up with some white chocolate coconut slice, dark chocolate coconut slice and a chocolate/caramel/peanut slice - I know how could I not try such things. I walked and walked but was continuously distracted and tempted into shop after shop, I met a guy on the street caramelizing chunks of coconut and after sampling had to stop myself from buying. I made it back to Fernandas around 6:30pm and soon after she arrived with her lovely friend Paula who will also be staying here for the next 4 days. We talked for hours about life, travel, Brazil before the girls decided they were hungry and we headed to a kind of Resteraunt grocery store down the road and brought some soup, bread, cake and sweets. It was a really nice night out and would have been nice for a nice walk around the city centre however it is not so safe in the city centre at night. We talked the rest of the night away and the energy in the conversation was amazing - I learned so much about Fernanda and about her passion as a Reiki master - we talked about good and bad energies and I was able to relate everything to my daily life and have some sense of understanding of my habits. I also got to talk all about my travels and how wonderful all the people and places of the world are and without even knowing it started convincing Fernanda to quick her job and go traveling. When I talk about my travels I realize how lucky I am but more importantly how happy I am and I can't help but convey that and encourage others to do the same. When you are around beautiful people constantly you can't help but be beautiful yourself.

OBSERVATIONS
- very modern city
- lots of good graffiti on buildings towards Centro (commissioned work)
- Away from Magdalena prices significantly drop
- Not so many tourists in city??
- republica square - awsome green space with seating and huge areas for festivals and events
- a lot of old buildings still present
- As like all big cities people are in a rush here
- pollution from cars very prevelant - everyday itchy eyes
- energy - energy of the city (4-7am why I am awake everyday?? No bad energy as everyone asleep)
- Fruits here identical to Malaysia/Thailand