The island's Fireworks for the New Year were known to be some of the best in Brazil. Cesario and Elvira's relatives were on their way over to see them, and all us YP piled into a few cars with them. When we got out, more than a ten-minute walk from our destination, we needed no one to tell us where we should go. Mobs of people, looking like swarms of ants all headed for the shoreline. EVERYBODY in Brazil (or so it seemed) packed together on the shore overlooking the bay. I've never been in a crowd that big in my life! Everywhere you looked there were groups of families and friends, talking, laughing, or just hanging out waiting for midnight.
Before leaving Cesario's, the Argentinean girls told me they had heard that it was a custom in Brazil to wear all white on New Years Eve, so the five of us girls all put on white shirts, and skirts. Some of the people back at the house kinda smiled when they saw us like that, but didn't say anything. They spoke to each other in Portuguese, and we weren't quite sure what they were saying... but quickly forgot about it upon arriving, and seeing many, if not the majority were also wearing white. It was not until much later, after we'd left Florionopolis, that I asked Mom if she knew what it was all about. We both laughed when she told me, and I felt a little bit embarrassed. Catholics, showing their loyalty to the church had that custom... :S
So, after waiting around for at least half hour, the fireworks started. While lighted from a boat in the water, in they were controlled by someone on shore with a remote. It was pretty impressive, watching the bursts of color in the sky, then their reflection below. All around, everyone was looking up, and with every explosion their faces lighted up. When mid-night finally rolled around, the reason for the champaign bottles in just about everyone's hands was evident. The whole time people had been walking around, shaking them up, and right at twelve, the corks were popped, and everyone anywhere close to them were showered.
A couple days Mateus took us to different beaches. When my parents had come back from Joinville where Danielle lives, they brought back a car Danielle had let us borrow. It really came in handy. And I got to drive for the first time in what, six months?! It was wonderful! Because in Brazil the law is you have to be eighteen to drive, I was the only one with a liscence who could. So Dad drove the other. It's interesting how although January is summer down here, it is also the rainy season. So, while we were at the beach, it rained every time. But, it didn't change the fun we had. I think it was the first time we'd been swimming in the ocean in the rain! One of the beaches was close to where Bernardo and Giseli live, so their daughters came out and swam with us too. Jose and Graciela invited us over for “pastel”, a sort of fried empenada, with shrimp inside, made only in Brazil. They were really good!
A few days later, the conference started. By then, three more sisters and a brother had arrived to the house from Bolivia. They had the option of staying at the luxurious hotel, or in the little three roomed, one bathroom house, already bursting at the seams with five girls, and two guys. Cesario and his wife Elvira, as well as the rest of my family (sleeping at Elvira's parents') coming in to eat every meal. They chose the house. We were all so impressed with Elvira and Cesario's attitudes. The whole time they were positive, cheerful, and serving everyone as best they could. Although it was complicated rationing out the shower, and eating times, it was a really happy time.
The hotel, where the conference was hosted was very different than the majority of the conferences we´ve been to in South America. While many times it was warm outside, they had air conditioning. I'm sure we must have had it in other places on this trip, but that's the first place I remember! During the meetings, if we concentrated really hard, we could understand the majority of what was being said, but were still at that point where once comprehending what was being said, it was kinda hard to connect those parts to complete thought. Finding the books of the Bible were easy for us, which helped us to understand a little more.As we discovered the whole country of Brazil, the food at the hotel was incredible. Some of what we ate was similar to American food, then everything else was amazing too. I don't think there was ANYTHING I ate that I didn't like!
After conference we went to the beach with Jose and Graciela, along with their nieces, Mariana, and Jiovani and all the YP staying at our house. They took us to the sand dunes, where we were able to sand-board. We rented a couple boards, and all shared them. It was awesome! Compared
to snowboarding, you have a little less control of where you're going, but it's easier to get up, and stay up if your board isn't waxed. Another thing is the exhaustion factor. After riding down a dune, you have to hike back up. It seems as if for every foot up, you slide back three. So by the time you get back up to the top, you feel as if you're done for the day after only one run! But, after sitting up top, watching the others for a while, you had to go down again, and again, and again. When finishing for the day, we were all tired, but happy. A few of us, thinking about back home at this time of year there's plenty of snow on the mountains, began to experience snowboarding withdrawals.From there, we had to say goodbye to Jose and Graciela, as well as Marianna and Jioviani :(. They were all so kind!
The next day we had to say goodbye to Cesario, Elvira, and Mateus, as well as Dina, Eliana, Rus Mery and Josue from Argentina. Even though it was kind of hard to communicate with Elvira, I really enjoyed being with her, and she was really a help spiritually to me too. It was almost as if her daughter Talita and I had switched lives. At the time I was staying at the Simoes, going to their conference, hanging out with Talita's friends, she was at L.A. conference, where she hung out with my friends!
Saying goodbye to the Argentineans was hard. They had traveled with us for almost a month I think it was, and I really bonded with the girls. We shared things we were going through, and they encouraged me in the Lord. I will always have good memories of them, as well as the songs they taught me in my mind. Josue was a real encouragement to my brothers too.
From Florionopolis, our next stop was Joinville, where Hanes, and Danielle (Dad's cousin) live with their daughter Sarah and two sons Johanes and Dominique. It was a beautiful little German settlement. They live on sort of mission grounds where Hanes' grandparents, then parents had been missionaries. We stayed in Hanes' in-laws house while they were away on vacation. Everything was obviously German in the whole house. It was as if they had brought a part of Germany with them when they'd come from their home.
Here we were thrown into yet another language hurricane. Sarah spoke mostly Portuguese, and her cousin who was visiting knew no English. With her we communicated in either our Spanish mix of Portuguese, or some English. The boys talked Portuguese with Sarah and Bruno, English with us, and with Danielle, but only German with Hanes. So at two and four they were fluent in three languages (Dominique understanding, but not quite speaking all quite yet)!
We had a really nice time there. Danielle and Sarah took us to a milk, and cheese farm, where we saw goats that were treated the best I've seen, then to a waterfall where we went swimming. One night we had a bond fire where we had SMORES!!! The first time since we'd left home. They were delicious. We also sang in English and Portuguese while Danielle played the accordion. It was really neat to see Sarah and her younger cousin Bruno singing with all their heart, and almost arguing about what one to sing next :D.It was so refreshing to be back in a house where English was a first language, something we haven't had since Ecuador and Leticia!
Piracicaba was our next destination. Pretty much our whole trip we were just winging it, not knowing exactly where we were going, or when, until maybe a week, maybe a day before doing it. Piracicaba was a different story. We knew we were going to go there, and had been looking foreword to it the whole trip. Uncle Nathan, Vi, and Larissa were going to be there, staying with Vi's parents. And, we were going to see our cousin Larissa for the first time, who was born after we started the trip!
Uncle Nathan, and Cristiani (Vi's sister) met us at the bus station. It was so good to see them! Seeing my uncle down here in South America was a little disorienting for my mind at the beginning. :D I hadn't seen Cris since Nathan and Vi's wedding, and it had been over eight months since seeing Uncle Nathan or Vi! Seeing them there made me really miss everyone even more back home.
When we got to the house we were warmly taken in, as if we were part of the family. Although the house was small, and they already had company, they just made more room for us. Here we had more opportunity to speak in Portuguese with Tony and Sueli, although Cris and David both speak English well. And Larissa is adorable! She is the happiest baby I've ever seen!While we were there, they took us out to eat pastel (like the ones some of us had tried in Florionopolis) and asai, both typical to only Brazil. We had never tried asai before. When they served it in a big bowl, I was expecting the dark brown thick sauce to taste something like chocolate pudding, but found it to have a berry flavor. It was partially frozen, and along with the granola mixed with pieces of fruit like papaya, strawberries, mango and pineapple it was really good!
One day Felipe and Carol (Vi's brother and sister-in-law) came over to Toni and Sueli's to make Brazilian Barbecue. It was delicious! I can't say it enough. Brazilian food is amazing!After being there a few days, we said goodbye to Uncle Nathan, Vi and Larissa. Felipe and Carol invited us to stay with them in Limera. It was really neat getting to know them better too. Both of them are so sweet! Because Felipe sometimes has to work out of town, we spent more time with Carol. She was always cheerful, and making us laugh.
In Limeira, we were staying in the appartment, but we were barely there. People were always inviting us out to their houses, or we had meeting or something! The place we probably went the most was Beto and Neca's dentist office. There Anna got four teeth pulled, Ben and Mom two, and I one. We kept them busy ;D. It seemed like we were always over there! We also went over to their house and swam in their pool frequently. One night we were there, they brought out old video recordings that Flavio, a man from there in Limeira had taken years ago when he was in the States. It was hilarious to see some people we recognized, from over twenty years ago (including people like my dad, aunts, uncles, and others, particularly from Southern California)!
Pizinato took us everywhere in his car! The cross between a mini-van and stationwagon was just perfect fitting the six of us and him, so he was pretty much our chauffeur ;D. He and Nate teased each other endlessly, never leaving a dull moment.
Elaine took us all around too. One day she took us to Inez's (a sister in the meeting) hair salon where she, her daughter Emily, Mom, Anna and I got our hair and nails done. Mom remembers twenty years ago on her honeymoon when Inez invited her to come to that exact same place!
We also went to a brother's house named Mario Persona. Both his children are now living in the US, and he lives alone with an adopted son, who has been mostly blind, crippled, and mentally slow since birth. To see the love he has for Pedro is amazing, and I really think that the boy has flourished with that love, and has reached heights he would have never been able to accomplish without it. Although he can't speak, walk, or even control himself completely, he knows when he's cared about.
Mario is a very gospel oriented person, and has been posting videos on Utube called “Evangelio em tres minutos”. From that ministry many are coming to him with questions, and are even getting saved. It was really encouraging to hear about his work.
One weekend we went out to Roberto's “facienda”, which is a big ranch where he has horses, cows, and probably other animals I didn't see. There all the young people have good memories of getting together, and spending time with each other. The weekend we went it was only our family, Roberto and his son Mateus, Felipe and Carol, another Mateus from Limeira, and Cristiani, Vi's sister.
It was beautiful, a
nd peaceful out there. Driving up the long driveway, we passed acres and acres
of sugar cane, then pastures and pastures of cattle. The large, rustic house was built somewhere in the eighteen hundreds. You could tell it had been owned by wealthy plantation owners in the past, but now, it was apparent that there was nobody taking care of it like there once were. Plaster was cracking off the walls, exposing the bricks underneath and all kinds of old trinkets from saddles to license plates to wood burning stoves and a stuffed animals including a cougar and alligator filled the building. The rooms where we stayed were pretty large, and had very high ceilings, and windows. In the kitchen, Roberto had about five ancient refrigerators, most of them didn't work. As one would walk through, it almost felt like a museum in one of the old buildings down by Fort Vancouver, only instead of American relics, these were Brazilian. It was all fascinating. Down below, in the basement, were the living quarters of the slaves. From hearing of how the American slaves were treated, it was easy to imagine how it probably was hundreds of years ago here too (although apparently here they were treated more humanely as a whole, and the Brazilian abolition had been ratified before that of the United State's). From the balcony, you could see looked over the whole valley of small hills, wide, curving rivers, and criss-crossed lines of sugarcane fields. The place was gorgeous. It was obvious why car advertisements were filmed up here.A few of us went in to town to buy meat for a Barbecue. It was a tiny place, with only one grocery store. We packed everything into the back of Carol's car, then she let Ben drive. It started out a little rough, considering he's not too accustomed to driving a manual, but pretty soon it seemed almost as smooth as an automatic. While we were shopping, the sky had become filled with clouds, and it had begun to rain. We hadn't taken this into account before we got to the dirt road, but once we got there, it was a little scary for me. The light brown powdery dirt had become a dark slimy, slippery mess. While he drove up, down, and around the hills, Ben had absolutely no control of the back of the vehicle. I would hold my breath while he would turn the steering wheel one way, and the back tires would slide the other. Thankfully we got back to the house safely.
There, Roberto, and Dad made some amazing barbecue for us all, including sausage, chicken, beef, and grilled cheese (which is a delicious Brazilian way of eating their cheese!) in a little outdoor kitchen by the house. As always, it was WAY too much food for us to eat in one meal.
Because it was raining, we didn't go outside, but stayed around the house, playing games, sleeping, talking, or using Mateus' laptop.
The next day we went on a hike down to a waterfall, getting an even better view of the valley, tramping through the Roberto's fields, past the ranch hands' houses, and little lake, stocked with fish. It would have been neat if we we would have been able to stay more time, but that night we had meeting, and the next day was Sunday, so we had to get back to Limiera.
The next day, we went to the assembly in Sao Paulo. It took us about two hours in Pizzi's car. Even though it wasn't too far away, the traffic, at all hours is awful. The city planning for the city hadn't done a good job at all. It was so bad that during the week only certain license plate numbers can drive certain days! It was a fellowship Sunday, so even though there was only one brother, two sisters (Cida), then a husband and wife (Luis and Vicca) with their daughter (Paula), and her boyfriend, we had a meal together. Luis cooked up meat and cheese on a little grill he had brought to the small room where we had the meetings.
After the meal, Pizzi agreed to drive us to Grandpa's caretaker's (Silvio and Rose) relatives' house, which was supposedly somewhere in Sao Paulo. Because we had no idea where it was, and only had an address, and a telephone number, Luis and Vicca said we could use their GPS, and brought Cida along too. It was a long, almost frustrating process finding the address. Numbers seemed to jump all over the place, and for a while they were even on one side, then odd on the other, then it would switch up, then the numbers went up, then started back down... but, finally, we saw a man, and woman standing out by the road, looking sort of like they might be watching for someone, and pulled in. Are you looking for us? In fact they were! Upon seeing the man, we realized the similarities in both looks, and behaviors of Silvio, and knew he was his dad. The lady was his wife, Silvio's mom.
When we first walked into the small apartment, it was a little bit awkward. We had never met these people, and really had never communicated with them at all either. Another complication was our lack of Portuguese, and unlike when we had been anywhere else in Brazil where most people spoke English, they didn't know much. We sat down on the couches, and kind of tried to communicate. Then, Dad was like, “I'd like to share some verses with you.” And, he did. From there, things started to loosen up. As it became less awkward, more and more people started showing up. Now not only the immediate family of Silvio was there, but Rose's was came also, and their cousins, and cousins of cousins. Then, we mentioned maybe singing some songs. Because they are Seventh Day Adventists, we thought we might know some songs they also were familiar with. They told us to go first, then they sang. Man, did they sing beautifully. Some of them were in a quartet from their church, and whether it was just them singing, or the whole family, it was amazing.From then on, we felt almost part of the family! Each one of us were in another little group, trying to communicate with our Espanportlish. By then, there were probably fifty people packed in the room, and more were outside. It was crazy, but way fun.
Even after knowing them for less than a couple hours, we didn't want to say goodbye. It's amazing how God's love can be so strong. Showing up at someone's house, their WHOLE family coming over, and being able to share the Word, and songs together. It was so amazing.
Back at the apartment, one night Tony, Sueli, and Pizinato had come over to have us try Feshuada, that Sueli had prepared. Apparently it was one of the most-known meals pertaining to Brazil specifically. The story behind it was, in the days of slaves, the plantation owners would throw out all their meat scraps, pieces of the animal they didn't want to eat, to their slaves. The servants would take advantage of the situation, and would cook what they received with beans. Now, most have accustomed to eating it with good meat as we did at Carol's (and were thankful ;D), but there are still some people who prefer it the original way.
We were going to make it to Santa Cruz, Bolivia as soon as possible, but had gotten news that they were voting for a new constitution in the country, so there was a good chance of civil unrest, so we decided to spend a week as a family at the beach. Saying goodbye to those in Limiera, (looking forward to hopefully seeing Cris, Felipe, and Carol in March when they come to take an English course in the US) we boarded yet another bus.
Arriving to Sao Paulo, it was necessary to get to another bus station, getting there on the subway. We weren't looking forward to that. We each had at least one big suitcase, and a backpack, as well as two other extra suitcases, and were NOT excited about squishing into one of those. Being our only option, we kinda had to do it. Our fears were confirmed when the train pulled up to the platform. We stared in through the windows, at the mass of people packed in like sardines. There's NO way the four of us said one to another, but we didn't have time to argue, or even second think when Dad said “Get in!”, and slipped into a car further on. Mom disappeared, and so the four of us, and our luggage jammed ourselves into the already pancaked people in the car. We got some dirty looks, and muttered phrases, but thankfully we didn't understand! The ride was hot, stuffy, and jerky. We pretty much didn't even have to hold ourselves up, because whether we held onto something or not, we wouldn't go anywhere, being plastered against people, or their belongings on every side. When the door opened, we practically bursted out. The six of us together once again, we had to catch another one to the other bus station. Thankfully, although it wasn't empty enough for us to sit, we didn't even have to touch anyone as we stood with our bags jostling through the city.
The next bus ride was around five hours to Maranduba, a little beach town where we were planning to spend the week. We had found the hotel on the internet, and really had absolutely no idea where it was as we stepped off the bus, and unloaded our bags all under the little bus stop cover. It was raining, hard. This was one of the first times my dad really didn't know what to do, or where to go. Although things are usually always last moment, we usually get there, and Dad has an uncanny way of just “knowing things” or at least figuring them out quickly. So, when this wasn't the case, and not “everything worked out perfectly” as it usually does, everyone was a little irritated. It's funny how many times this SHOULD have happened to us, but just never did. So, when it does happen, we're not quite prepared. The rain was puring down, and we tried to keep our luggage under the shelter, but even that didn't work too well. The fact that we were making others waiting for the next bus wait out in the rain, because us, and our stuff were filling the place.
Dad left, and somehow got a hold of the hotel, who said they'd send someone. After waiting out there for like 45 minutes, someone showed up... but, he was on a bike! We kinda smiled at that. He put one of the bags on the bike, which he walked, while we followed him, lugging all our baggage, through all kinds of muddy potholes, and a swinging bridge. Thankfully, the rain wasn't cold, but it was obviously wet. Getting us, and our stuff pretty soaked. While walking along the road, Ben asked the guy if it was always like this here in Maranduba. He replied, “no, the sun does come out sometimes... it was sunny two days ago.” We had been warned about the fact that the next town up, Ubatuba, had been nicknamed “Uballuva”, lluva meaning rain, so we should have been a bit more prepared for seeing only the sun peaking out from behind the clouds a couple times :D.The hotel wasn't luxurious, but it was perfect for what we needed; a queen sized bed, bunk-bed, and a hide-a-bed, with a small little kitchen, containing all the utensils we would need for cooking and eating.
As soon as our stuff was in the room, we all changed into our swim-suits, and went out to the beach. From the hotel, it was only about a seven minute walk. By this time, the rain had stopped, but even so, the beach was pretty much deserted. Mom stayed on the beach, watching us, with her long skirt, long sleeved shirt, wide-brimmed hat, and black umbrella to keep as many UV rays away from her skin as possible. It wasn't easy to loose her! We got in the water, and jumped waves for a couple hours, then went to a little restaurant by the water.
The next day, Nate and I got up before everyone (at nine) and went out swimming. The whole time it was overcast, and rained every couple hours, but that didn't matter, because the water was so warm, even the rain was never too cold. When we came back at noon, everyone was still in bed!
It was a really good time to just be as a family. The first time really on this whole trip we spent time being just us. We cooked our own meals, did our own dishes... it was almost like being home again (only without all our family and friends :( )! We had a lot of cereal and milk, beans and rice. Mom is trying to stay away from wheat as much as possible, which she's heard helps with Lupus. So, for everything we bought we looked for “gluten free”. It's harder than it seems! Practically everything has gluten in it, even the chocolate the rest of us all shared! At meal times she couldn't eat the bread we had with eggs, french toast, and even some ice-cream. But, thankfully, her favorite candy bar has no gluten; snickers. Uncle Nathan brought a bunch down from the US when he came, and, because nobody else in my family reads this, I can tell you that she still has a bunch of them hidden away in her suitcase, and when nobody is looking, she sneaks one every once in a while from her precious stash. I think everybody else thinks they're long finished by now ;D. Other than the diet, (which she really believes has been helping her tremendously with not being so drowsy all the time) which is pretty hard to be on, especially when we're always visiting other people's houses, (and you can't just say “I can't eat anything with gluten”), she has been doing much better than Leticia, improving all the time, and is back to her normal cheerful self. The only difference being she always has to wear the longsleeves, hat, and carry an umbrella as well as the 65spf sunscreen she wears to keep as much as the UV rays from getting to her skin as possible as we travel.
We were there for like two days before we left for Taubate, an assembly about six hours away, to spend the weekend. We left our suitcases at the hotel, and each packed a backpack.
When we arrived at the bus station, we weren't quite sure exactly of who we were looking for. The sister with who Dad had communicated only knew Portuguese, and without hand motions over the phone, it was difficult to know exactly what she was saying. What Dad DID understand, was that he had glasses. So, that was the only hint we had recieved. This was one of the few times we had never seen the person picking us before, but, like always, we found each other. Allesandro, Rosangela, Glauber and Leticia's house was right down the road, so it was easy to walk to from the station. At the house we met Lucilia and Juliano, Marcos, Elaine and their two adorable little kids Gabriel and Giovana. The whole assembly had come to greet us. Once again, we had a little bit of an awkward situation. We didn't know them, or anything about them, and they the same with us. As soon as we arrived, we sat down to an amazing meal they had prepared for us.
From there, we had a reading, where we sang, and read a passage. Afterwards, everyone loosened up a bunch. We took showers, and got our stuff organized. We had another meeting later on (which was there regular weekly meeting). Afterwards we went out to an Arabic restaurant. In Brazil, they have quite a bit of Arabic food. There was where everyone really got comfortable. We all talked there till late.
Because nobody´s house was large enough, our family was split up in twos for the night. Mom and Dad stayed with Juliano and Lucilia, Anna and I with Marcos and Elaine, while Ben and Nate stayed in the house we had arrived at; Allesandro and Roseangela's. Although the house where we were at was very small, only having two rooms, we got Gabriel and Giovana's room, while they slept with their parents. They were the cutest little kids ever. A little bit mischievous at times, but full of fun.
Sunday, because we were visiting, and there were too many to all fit in Allesandro's house, they rented sort of an event center. After meeting we had a meal, and the kids played in the pool, or threw little plastic balls at each other (like the ones at a Mc Donald's play place). Pretty soon, some got a little too comfortable ;D. Ben, Marcos and I all got thrown in the pool with our Sunday clothes on, and Juliano and Nathan got in a pretty serious war with the balls. Nate had little red welts all over his back, and I imagine Juliano did too. We all had a lot of fun.
We spent the evening back at Allesandro's, then stayed one more night before heading back to the houses we'd been in the night before.The next morning, we said goodbye to everyone, and headed back for Maranduba. Being there, in that assembly was really encouraging. The three families all got along together really well, and had all come into the meeting just within the last couple of years. They were all ready, and happy to learn all they could.
On our way back to Maranduba, we stopped in Ubatuba, where we met a whole group of kids, and young adults from YWAM (Youth With A Mission). There were over two hundred of them all from different churches, who had come together for some sort of a camp. We talked to quite a few of the kids for a while, and it was here where I could hear the ext ream accents. They say those from the north of Brazil, and those from the south can't understand each other. Even though we barely know Portuguese, there was a definite distinction in the way some of them talked. They were all excited,witnessing, singing songs, and performing skits for people on the boardwalk. When we were about to leave, they invited us to stay with all of them at the school they had rented, or if we wanted to have free surfing lessons the next day. Dad decided it was too much, so we went back to the hotel.
Instead of taking surfing lessons with those from YWAM, who were at another beach, pretty far away, Dad rented a surf board, and let me take lessons with an instructor. Nate was the first one to try, and he got up on his first wave. Ben did really good too, and with Nathan's help, Anna was able to catch a couple waves. It was really fun.
It turned out the instructor was a Christian too! While Nate, and Ben were out surfing, I talked with him. He had had a hard life, and everything went wrong before he finally turned to the Lord. After his conversion, by his testimony, his wife, two sons, father-in-law, and various others in his family were saved. He had a really neat, interesting testimony.
That was our our last day at the beach. We hopped on a bus to Sao Paulo, from where we got another bus to the Bolivian boarder.
The boarder town where we arrived was hot, humid, jungle territory. Probably one of the hottest places we've been. Dad had went scouting out for a hotel for us to stay in, and found one way out in the country, that was practically a ranch, with a bunch of rooms, overlooking the beautiful “Pantanal”, kind of a marshland (or something), which people come all over the world to explore. Apparently it has all kinds of snakes, piranhas, panthers, crocodiles, and other wildlife, but we didn't have time to see any of that if we were to arrive in Santa Cruz for Sunday.
Thankfully we had air-conditioning in our room, where we stayed the rest of the evening, except when we went out for dinner. Walking down the road we smelled shishkabobs being barbecued over coals, and stopped in. It was too hot to be very hungry, even though it was probably nine at night. There we celebrated our last night in Brazil...
For breakfast at the hotel, we were served eggs and milk probably from their own chickens and cows, as well as bread and bananas. In the place was a HUGE blue macaw, that chased us around during breakfast. The owner of the place came into the dining room to see us all hiding behind chairs, making sure that at least one object always between us and the extraoridinarily large bird. It must have looked very comical. She shooed the menacing creature out of the room, and apologized for it's behavior, allowing us to finish our breakfast. The train was to leave soon, on which Ben, Nathan and I would be riding to Santa Cruz, so we rushed to pack up all our baggage.
After crossing the boarder into Bolivia, arriving at the train station, the three of us older kids said goodbye to Dad, Mom, and Anna as they headed for the airport. We were planning on meeting up in Santa Cruz after about twenty hours...
