São Paolo to Joinville

We left Elko at 1:00pm on Tuesday, got to Salt Lake at 4:00pm MST and left for the airport somewhere around 10:00pm MST. Jordo watched Mooch for us. It worked awesome

Our flight took us to JFK with a couple hour layover, where my traitorous body betrayed me, then we jumped on our flight to Sao Paolo and landed something like 10:00 local time, waited around for Jordan’s old companion to pick us up, but for our bodies it was midnight or 1:00 and we were so bloody tired.

At noon I got my eyes dilated, and got to deal with that while I finished packing- I can't imagine having that done any more frequently than once in a lifetime! It's awful. More power to you. Other good news is I don't have eye issues that lead to my blurred vision and seeing spots. So there's that.

My sweet parents dropped us off and cute mama snapped this photo I'm fond of. 

When we got on our plane to leave the country, we were greeted by this plastic wrapped pile on every seat. Plus the world's tastiest chocolate treat after a mediocre dinner, that my stomach had a hard time handling, but that I enjoyed anyway. It was quite the setup. 

I also discovered games on my TV--seriously?? Technology, man! So that helped pass a half hour.

We landed at midnight on Wednesday and the Pimentels picked us up at 2:00am. It took about 5 calls and some confusion on our end about when/where they were, but after lots of waiting and lots of tired, and Kelli starting to get grumpy, Leandro found us in the airport. They took us to Habib’s to get something to eat – little pizza looking things to eat with lime, and the most delicious OJ I’ve had in my life.

We drove to their home where I had my first experience with hot water out of the USA. In Brazil their showerheads are the size of 2 fists, and have a heating coil to flash boil the water to make it warm.  We showered and went to bed for a few hours of sleep before we had to get to the airport the next day. They gave us their bed and slept with their baby in their modest living room.

The short time we spent with them was delightful. I wish it had been at the tail end where I was better at understanding and communicating, but they are sweet souls I look forward to spending more time with, sometime in our lives. 

The next day (Thursday) we were up at 6:00 to get back for our 8:00am flight. Leandro dropped us off and we left him with a hymnbook in English to thank them for their hospitality. On our drive, we were right behind the garbage men getting onto the freeway. WHAT! #safetyfirst

When we got to the airport, we got to our gate and they had JUST closed it. Jordan explained our situation to an employee who took pity on us and led us around the airport to find and book us the next flight out at 10:00.  No stress… Our hour long flight left Sao Paolo and took us to Florianopolis, but our first stop was Joinville, so we rented a car and drove North to spend a week with the Borges. 

We had told them we would arrive around noon, and didn’t have any means of contacting them to tell them we would be late, until we arrived in Joinville and found a payphone. Jordan was hoping to be able to remember the street to get to their house, but after driving in circles we pulled over to call them and apologize for being late and lost.

Jordan told them where we were, they jumped in the car to come get us, and guided us to their house.

Let me tell you. The SWEETEST souls on the planet. Oh my, I love them. We arrived home to a churrasco, with BBQ’d ribs, steak, sausage, rice, potato salad (called mayonnaise [mayo-nay-zee], pickled quail eggs and beans, and guarana to drink. We ate, toured their house, and Jordan caught up with the family, and I tried to follow the conversation while we watched soccer on the TV and relaxed on the couch.

They are very well off, and we were fortunate to enjoy many comforts of home. Also wall decorations are uncommon, but they had wall hangings and bright walls in every room. This is my I'm beyond exhausted and loving this wall color face.

The rest of the weekend included food constantly on the table. Oh my goodness, so must food! Double-larger than life eggs, meat and cheese for breakfast, Osmar going to market on the daily to find me new foods to try, and visits to the zoobotanico and “shopping”, and a drive to Guaratuba to visit Osmar’s fisherman family on the beach.

Seriously, this. Every. Day. The nicest, sweetest, most dear people. I love them. Also it took awhile for my stomach to get used to ham and cheese for breakfast. I stuck mostly to bread and fruit.

Romislane saw me walking around barefoot and wouldn't have any of that- sweet woman gave me her slippers for the week! And their dog/4th child Hannah showed off her tricks.

This cute Gabi was my best friend and salvador with limited English ability, and helped explain to me all the Portuguese phrases. And I helped her with her English. She was a sweetheart and always willing and wanting to learn more!

Parking at the "shopping" (what they call malls). We had a huge and delicious lunch, all paid for by the Borges, and couldn't finish nearly half of it. But oh, that chocolate mousse!

Gets me every time. It was amazing.

I'm in love with the landscape of Brazil. And in awe of street performers everywhere. There's a red light? That's their cue. Green light, they run out of the road, get a drink, and reset.

Our tour of the Prince's House at the end of this walkway.

And did I mention I love their graffiti...? Because oh man. I. love. it.

View off the House of the Prince's balcony.

After our walk around town, we got in the car and I was excited to go rest and finish digesting my giant lunch. Imagine my surprise when we show up at a different house. We entered and walked through people sitting at tables on the patio, smoking and drinking, and a bar in the house with gentlemen sitting and chatting up the man behind the counter, who nodded at us. We kept walking, all the way to the back and sat ourselves at this table. And ordered shrimp.

a l w a y s  so much  f o o o o o o d. And 9 times out of 10 it was delicious. Bad news.

Also lots of soccer watching. So much soccer. It was nice to be able to sit down and relax, and every time we sat down Osmar would inevitably drift off. Love that sweet man.

The view from their room/our window

The beach at Guaratuba, and Osmar's nephew and her fiance. I couldn't get over the views. Seriously so dreamy.

Brazilian Michael Buble

Dream beach house

So much sitting around and shooting the breeze. I love this life.

Everywhere is decorations and celebration for Brazil. It was the greatest.

At Osmar's parents, we were welcomed by 3 dogs and 7 people, and more food. And if you don't take at least some of the food that is always offered, you're offensive. And there is  a l w a y s  food. And in this town, lots of fish. Bless that they didn't speak English- I was able to ask Jordan with a smile if I needed to eat/how much I needed to eat, and he would tell me, "No you're okay" or "Have a few bites" hahaha.

We got back to Joinville and went to the stake dance of the evening, which in Brazil is a family/ward event. Apparently it is also the thing to wear plaid. There was so much plaid. I was surprised that they have DJ lighting in every church..! Always a ready for a good time. And they had a projector that they were displaying the end of the game on. Romislane was having a blast- I wish the video would load. She sang and danced her heart out. Love her.

We were surrounded by fresh fruit and shrimp caught that day..!

Sleeping selfies... :)

Cheese on a stick and "tapioca". And I made them chocolate chip cookies, which they liked. Did I mention there was always food?

Oh yeah. Then this happened. Hannah? The 4th child? Bit my face off. This is my I'm trying not to cry so you can take a picture, but I already lost it a little bit cause I was so surprised/angry.

Luckily, it's healed pretty well.

Found these treasures on a walk around the block.

We went to church and enjoyed another huge delicious meal of shrimp stroganoff, and visited with friends.  We planned to leave Joinville Monday, go to the temple, then head to Videira. We found out the temple is closed on Mondays, just like in the states, so we spent one more day in Joinville with our loves and left Tuesday via Osmar escort (heart eyes) further North for Curitiba. What was supposed to be a 2 hour drive to the temple took 4 hours because we kept getting lost. I will tell you I am done taking GPS and cell communication for granted! We changed in the parking lot, did Iniatory because we missed the session time and had another 6 hour drive so no time to wait, trying to understand what the sweet sisters were saying to me about getting changed and then okay you’re done, your husband wants to see you in the sealing room, yada yada. We finished and took off for Videira as the sun was setting.

Romislane had washed our clothes that morning so we lined them out in our car to hopefully dry on our drive. By the time we got through with the temple, a few items were still wet, so naturally I hung them out the window to dry. 

We got to a gas station (combined souvenir/grocery/restaurant/conveninence store) somewhere in the middle of nowhere where we filled up, got some food, and watched Brazil play somebody.  Then we tried to get ahold of the Muhlbrandts to let them know we were behind schedule and took off on the 6 hour drive with our audio book and gorgeous scenery while the sun set.

We ran into a torrential downpour, earthshaking lightning, and potholed roads, so it took even longer. When we finally got to Videira, we called Luciana and Gabi and they said how to get to their apartment and that they’d be waiting on the street. We arrived to dinner and after a shower I climbed into bed, exhausted.

So much driving. So much food. So much good people.