Part 3

Last year for Father's day I bought Bryce plane tickets to Brazil. He has great memories from his mission and has always wanted to return. After almost a year of excitement we departed for our adventure. Layovers=cheaper plane tickets so we had about 3 each way. Our fist stop was Orlando which was great with us cause this is where we went on our honeymoon 4 years ago. Sadly, most of the fun Disney characters were gone, but good ol' goofy was still hangin out.

Second stop was Rio. We would have loved to get out and see the Christ Statue, one of the world wonders, but unfortunately did not have enough time.

When we arrived at the airport in Porto Alegre we grabbed our rental car and our google map directions and headed off to find our hotel....... A stressful hour and a half later we had found our way back to the airport and paid a cab so we could follow him to our hotel. Porto Alegre is a crazy city, with crazy people walking all over the place including in front of busses and cars, crazy drivers that will pull up in front of you when you are at a stop sign waiting to turn and crazy one-way, unmarked roads.

I knew other countries were different, but my little never-been-out-of-the-country, naive mind didn't quite understand how different things would be.

Below are pictures of our first hotel:

The windows did not shut fully so we slept with earplugs.

Pretty bathroom vanities are not the norm.

When you get into your room you have to line up a magnet in your key into this little box for your electricity to work. We learned the hard way one night that if the magnet is facing forward all of your lights and air will go off after a few minutes leaving you in pitch black silence.

Most hotels only offer double beds, but I was happy we found one that stated it had an "extra large double bed". They were actually bigger than our queen at home and pretty comfortable to sleep on.

This was the view from our hotel window.

On the streets below there was shop after shop after shop and thousands of people walking around. It was madness.

A few blocks away was a market in what they call the center. Each major city has a center which is basically what we call downtown.

Inside were meat, produce, spices, pastries, all sorts of food out for people to buy. On the outer edges there were what we would probably call fast-food type restaurants and then upstairs were the nicer restaurants. We ate at one of each.

Here is our little baby that we parked at the hotel for 3 days and did not dare use. We knew if we left the hotel we would never get back there.

For the second part of our trip we went up to Florianopolis to spend some time on the beach.

Here is a view of Porto Alegre from the airport.

Our hotel was right on the beach so on Sunday we went out and enjoyed the rays. We only stayed out for 2 hours because we didn't want to get fried on the first day, but apparently the Brazilian sun in much hotter than the American one because we should have only stayed out there for 30 minutes. (I know there is only one sun and I know that Brazil is closer to the equator, but we didn't know it would make such a huge difference)

One thing I loved doing with my dad when we would go to the beaches in California was dig for those little crabs that live in the sand. Bryce didn't know about these and there were thousands of them so he had a great time digging for them and watching them. He is my little 5 year old at heart and always will be. I love that about him. He will help keep me young and not so serious.

We loved our chalet. It had a full kitchen with a cute little breakfast nook that we would read in. We still had to sleep with earplugs but we felt much more relaxed here.

They have these gorgeous hibiscus flowers everywhere in all different colors. Love them!

The two meals that Bryce and I actually enjoyed were when we walked to the store and bought our own meat for a churrasco. Bryce was really excited about doing this because he used to eat churrasco all of the time on his mission. I think we have now been to every different Brazilian restaurant there is in Utah because he loves it. Luckily I am a meat lover too and thought it was fun.

Yes those are chicken hearts. They are a favorite of Bryce's and as sick as it is, I actually don't mind them if they are freshly cooked. I had one at Rodizios but it had been sitting there for a while and had become rubbery. Ehk!

We ate lots of pineapple on this trip. Their pineapple looks white, but it tastes just as sweet.

Overall the trip was great, there is too much to write, but it is a trip we will never forget. The Brazilian people are absolutely beautiful and the most heartwarming people I have ever met. I can see why Bryce wanted to go back.