Monday, June 05, 2006

Hopi Hari

As the school year is coming quickly to a close, we're now into the end of the year events. The big event for students in grade six and seven is a trip to the country's best amusement park - Hopi Hari. It compares with an older park in North America, but the star attraction is a wooden rollercoaster, and there are only three rollercoasters in the park. While nobody would dispute that most American parks are superior, Hopi Hari has something that no American park I've seen has--a circus! At three and five in the afternoon, you can watch a very good circus while you rest from waiting in lines. I've seen Barnum and Bailey's circus, and I must admit that while this was a much smaller production, it was very entertaining.

The highlight of the day for me was the haunted house called the "Katakumb" (Catacombs) Twelve girls from grade six decided that they were going to face their fears by entering this attraction. They each had to pay an additional five Raeis ($2.50) to get inside, so you'd think they were committed. However, they couldn't convince each other to go unless they had one of the adults to go with them. I volunteered and twelve of the thiirteen of us entered the huge building. The character in the first room was enough to scare off an additional four girls. The rest of us survived the ten minutes of "terror" which mainly included real people dressed up as mummies and such chasing us around a labrynth of walls. Maybe I wasn't scared because I couldn't understand a word these scary people were saying. But the girls were terrified, and it was quite a treat to see them having such a "good time" screaming their lungs out. This is a picture of the survivors.
Like many things in Brazil, the quality might be lower, but so is the cost. Imagine going to an amusement park all day (which includes all but the elite rides) for $13. Even the food, which everyone compalined was a rip-off was about $6 for a big burger, fries and a Coke. All-in-all it was a great day. Perfectly sunny with a high of about 26 celcius (80-ish F). Summer got to go this year, and Sydney gets her turn next year. I'm looking forward to it already.