Dreaming of a Vacation

Written By: Ingrid Chowrimootoo

Chow Publishing

Dreaming of a Vacation. Copyright ©2012 by Ingrid Chowrimootoo

This book is dedicated my mother.

It’s the last day of school. Winter break is finally here!!

James lives in New York, the largest city in the United States. James’ family lives in an apartment in the center of the city. James and his twin sister Madison are looking forward to winter vacation their parents have planned through Central and South America.

After a long day at school James was so exhausted he went straight to his room to take a nap. Before he knew it, he was on a beautiful sandy beach with turquoise water with his sister Madison.

They were in MEXICO!!!!

A few feet away they saw a bunch of children taking turns whacking a piñata with a stick. James and Madison wanted to join in the fun.

“Hola”- said a little boy named Alex.

It was very hot and Alex was wearing a big straw hat called a sombrero.

Javier told the other children to let Madison have a turn. With one whack of the piñata, toys and treats came falling down out of the paper mache figure hung from a big string.

After a filling lunch of tacos, chocolate chicken mole and hot chilies, Alex, James and Madison went on an excursion at Chichen Itza.

Chichen Itza is an old pyramid with 365 step-one for each day of the year. It is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. The kids began to go up the steps and…

Poof!

They were all riding llamas high in the Andes Mountains in Peru!!!

Machu Picchu, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, was built by the Inca people in the 14th century. It is a great lost city made up of stone high up in the Andes.

As they rode the long neck llamas, Alex told James and Madison of the llamas many uses. People ride them, eat them, drink their milk, and make wool from their fur. They burn the poo as fuel.

The children got off the llamas when the Andes Mountains met the Amazon rainforest.

Madison felt like she was in heaven.

They were in the jungle!

A place where pumas, jaguars, toucans, and more than 4,000 species of butterflies lived in harmony. The exotic plants and flowers and the canopy of the rainforest were magical.

James, Alex and Madison walked through the rainforest until they reached the world’s largest river, the Amazon, which starts in Peru and eventually flows through, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Venezuela, and Columbia.

They rode in a canoe through the Amazon River until they reached a village on the shores of one of the world’s highest lakes, Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.

From Lake Titicaca they hoped on a tour bus travelling back to Lap Paz, the capital city of Bolivia.

As the children walked around they noticed children on a street corner skillfully twisting stick handles to score a goal on “table soccer”. Alex exclaimed “Bolivian kids are crazy about foosball!”

La Paz is the world’s highest capital city. Being up so high in the Andes, the children started to feel dizzy and cold. In La Paz, the locals told them it helps to drink coca leaf tea and they offered the children colorful hand-woven shawls made from llama wool to keep warm.

The children rested their eyes for a bit.

“Look at the big bird!!!!” exclaimed Madison

The boys jumped up!

“Oh my, that’s an Andean Condor, we must be in Ecuador” said Alex.

Andean condor is Ecuador’s national bird. It has the largest wing span (10ft 6 inches) of any land bird. James was amazed that this big bird was cruising high in the skies without flapping its wings even once.

“I have an idea” Alex said, “since we’re in Ecuador, let’s go to the Galapagos islands!”

The children took a small cruise to the islands. There they found many strange animals found nowhere else on earth.

They saw one of the world rarest marine animals, the pink Amazon River Dolphin. It was almost 8 feet long!!!

There were big giant tortoises swimming through the crystal-clear waters.

“Look! It’s a swimming lizard!!” James shouted.

“That’s a marine iguana and they can live only on the Galapagos Islands. They are the only lizards that can live in the sea.” Alex told him.

“This is the most amazing trip ever!!” said James. “You think we could go to Brazil next?”

Brazil almost takes up half of South America and is home of the mighty Amazon River. Before they knew it, James, Madison and Alex were on a plane flying to Brazil.

When they got there they travelled to the rainforest. They saw homes made of mud bricks, with wooden roofs. Next to one of the houses sitting in a hammock was a girl named Celma.

Celma lives in the world largest Amazon rain forest of Brazil. She told James, Madison and Alex stories about her life here in the Amazon. Her family farms. They grow most of the food they need and sell what is left. Her village is very close to the equator, so the weather is always warm, and day and night are the same length.

In this part of Brazil it rains every day. Celma told them about her fear that a lot of the rain forest is being chopped down which is really bad news for all natives’ tribes-and animals, insects, and plant- who live there.

After an afternoon with Celma, the children decided to travel to Rio de Janeiro. From the plane they could see the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer stand on top of a mountain.

The statue watches over the people of Rio de Janeiro. It is about 130ft tall and 98ft wide. It weighs 711.2 tons and has small spikes on its head to stop bird landings.

At the blink of an eye James realized something strange has happened. There’s a chicken sitting next to him. He looked around and they were on a bus. Madison was sitting next to a pig.

“What’s going on here?” James thought to himself.

Alex tapped James on his back and said “We’re in El Salvador!”

“Oh, and can you explain why there are pigs and chickens on this bus??"

“That’s because locals here use the brightly painted colored country buses to transport livestock.” Alex told James.

During the bus ride Alex began telling James how El Salvador is Central America’s smallest and most densely populated country. There are many volcanoes and the country experiences plenty of earthquakes. Six of its 22 volcanoes can erupt at any time.

“Earthquakes?!?! Volcanoes !?!?!?” James said shockingly.

“James?”

“Jaaaaames????”

James could hear his sister calling him.

He slowly opened his eyes.

He was in his bed; his room!

“Mom said you need to start packing.”

‘For what?”

“Where leaving for vacation to the Amazon tomorrow, silly!”

Confused at first but then James smiled at the thought that he could relive this most magical dream ever.

“You won’t believe the dream I just had.” He told Madison.