We were gone for THREE WHOLE WEEKS. It was a great experience, filled with beautiful souls, gorgeous landscape, and wonderful food. And so. much. traveling. I loved being able to meet and love the people that I've heard so many stories about, and see all the places that are so near to Jordan's heart. I have this thing where I'm excited for someone about a trip somewhere, until I hear that it's back to someone's mission. And instantly I'm like ugh. Seriously? That's all? There's more to life. Find somewhere else to explore. I know. Terrible. But luckily people were so sweet and excited for us to go visit. And let me tell you, once I actually went, I get it. And I should have gotten it before we went..
Being there and meeting these families who loved Jordan and who played such a huge role in that two year chunk of his life was a sweet reminder of the importance of those things, and getting to see the locations of spiritual growth for him were so cool. Plus, playing tourist when one of you has already been there is 10x easier. (i.e., driving and navigating)
We went with the expectation of attending the Germany v. USA game in Recife (heh-see-fee), and enjoying the on-the-equator heat on the beach as an escape from the winter we'd be experiencing in the South. Turns out the friend we were going to buy our tickets from got scammed, and was out something like $2000, but luckily for us, we hadn't purchased airfare to Recife yet, nor paid the friend for those tickets. All we'd done was book a hotel, and that was easily canceled. So, small blessings. And it ended up saving us about $2000, on airfare, food, hotel, and game. I was pretty bummed about not getting to actually GO--it's a once in a lifetime experience! And the beach...! But, the game was rainy, we would have gotten soaked, it was a tie... Oh well. I've tried to talk myself out of feeling bad about it. ha.
Instead, we flew into Floripa, drove 2 hours and spent 5 days in Joinville (join-vee-lee), drove a few hours up to Curitiba (koor-ee-chi-ba) to make it to the temple, then 6 hours to Videira (vee-deh-ra) where we spent another 4-5 days, and finally drove another 6-8 hours back to Florianopolis, or Floripa, where we stayed at a beach front hotel for a killer deal, and had the beach to ourselves. Thanks, "winter" time! And flew back out of there to get home. A map of our travels:
And here's where we were in terms of South America:
Sure, we didn't get in a stadium for any games, and that was a bummer. But we still watched almost every game, and let me tell you--watching soccer with lots of passionate fans is a good time. Even if you don't speak the same language. Or particularly care about soccer.. ha.
