Brazil Day 1
11-19-15
After a 10 hour flight to Brazil including 4 movies and 1.5 hours of restless sleep I arrived in São Paulo at 5:30 am. Got my bag (yay), got my passport stamped (Yay!) and then went to wait (meh, not my favorite thing- especially considering how tired I was, but that's ok).
My mother was flying in to São Paulo from SLC, but was about 5 hours behind me.
5 hours of waiting turned into 8. But my mom and Adriana finally arrived! Then there was a slight mix up with the bags and mom forgot one of her suitcases on the carrousel. So we went and figured out our car rental while we waited the 1/2 hour for them to retrieve it for her.
We got our car and hit the road.
It has been well over 10 years since I have driven a manual car. I figured it would be like riding a bike... right? I mentally went through the motions of how to drive a stick shift before I came to Brazil, but cars are hard to come by in NYC, so I wasn't able to practice before this trip. BUT I was able to pick it up again without too much trouble today! Thankfully I am a very fast learner.
Mom couldn't find her GPS that she had packed (or at least planned on packing). I had printed out Google maps and directions for us - but really felt pretty uneasy about driving around a completely new country with no GPS...
I mean I use my GPS in Orem Utah for goodness sakes!
So about an hour or so into our 4 hour drive we were lost. In the bigger cities I suspect that it won't be too hard to find people who know a little bit of english but out in the middle of the country Brazil... nope! So stopping to ask for directions was futile.
I prayed really hard and moms cell phone finally took mercy on us, and I was able to get her data turned on and google maps to work! (Thank you Andrea for setting that up!)
We weren't too far off the beaten track but it added a little time onto our trip.
The first few hours of our drive was nothing spectacular- yet still beautiful and unique. It would be interesting to get my mom to interject here on this as well because this is her first time getting a visa and flying internationally! So these are all very new experiences for her!
While this is also my first time in Brazil I have been to many different countries, and I have seen places to compare and contrast. There were many little towns and villages that we passed and beautiful farms. The sides of the hills were scraped open so you could see the red red clay dirt of the land. Many houses that we would pass were grouped together in small villages. Stacked on top of one another and covering hillsides with their worn cement walls and clay roof tops. Most of these houses are not the best living situations that I have seen, but also not the worst either. At the same time, I once again see how very privledged I am to have the life that I have and live where I do!
Later in our drive was where, for me, the truly spectacular views happened! We drove through the most beautiful mountainous jungle today - lush greenery and little waterfalls. We went down a road that had a lot of switchbacks. Winding and curving we could see the mountains and the ocean in the distance every once in a while through the thick rainforest. It was quite an incredible thing! I said to mom, "This drive JUST got worth it!
Originally I had hoped to arrive in Paraty (our first stop) at 6pm we didn't get here til 8:30 - but we made it nonetheless!
We drove down some small crazy cobblestone roads to get to a church where we were meeting our host Dario.
And when I say small cobblestone I mean the width of the street was small! The "cobblestones" on the other hand, were HUGE rocks! It was the bumpiest car ride I have ever been on! I was having flashbacks to the Indiana Jones ride at Disney land! Haha
Dario was waiting for us at the little church. We unloaded our car and jumped into a small boat.
The place where we are staying tonight is called the Happy Hammock Hostel. It is on a peninsula that is only accessible by boat! There are no cars and no roads. When I first started looking for places for us to stay in Brazil I saw this hostel The photos of this place looked incredible and the reviews were out the roof, so I said "we HAVE to stay there!"
It was already dark on the boat ride in tonight -so we have not had the chance to see this place in its full glory! But I will say that the weather is perfect here! I don't mind the mild humidity and there is a light breeze. The quarter moon is shining really brightly and there are stars that can be seen through the scattered clouds in the sky.
This 15 minute boat ride was a welcome end to our day!
The Happy Hammock is also an echo friendly house. They have the coolest solar powered lanterns that they use at night! The power only comes on for 2 hours per day.
We were shown our room and then had a delicious home made dinner! There are just 5 guests here tonight and 4 people who run the hostel - they said that they can hold up to 14 guests at a time but actually prefer when it is a smaller count because when it gets crowded it looses its personable touch.
I am currently swaying in a hammock, listening to the murmur of late night conversation in 4 different accents, the sound of the waves rolling in and out and crickets singing in the background tie together the orchestra of a perfect night in paradise!
When we arrived we were greeted with, "welcome to paradise" I do believe that they were telling the truth!
I haven't even seen 1/2 of it and I am I love! This is a place that I would love to come back to! Maybe someday I hope that I can share places like this that I love with a man that I love. Until that time comes I am happy to share these experiences with my mom! What a blessing that we get to take this trip together!
I may just sleep in the hammock tonight.
Mom says:
Dad would love the roads here on his motorcycle!
Brazil is a very beautiful country!
This is a very unique place! I have never seen anything like it!
(Photos coming soon!)
11-19-15
After a 10 hour flight to Brazil including 4 movies and 1.5 hours of restless sleep I arrived in São Paulo at 5:30 am. Got my bag (yay), got my passport stamped (Yay!) and then went to wait (meh, not my favorite thing- especially considering how tired I was, but that's ok).
My mother was flying in to São Paulo from SLC, but was about 5 hours behind me.
5 hours of waiting turned into 8. But my mom and Adriana finally arrived! Then there was a slight mix up with the bags and mom forgot one of her suitcases on the carrousel. So we went and figured out our car rental while we waited the 1/2 hour for them to retrieve it for her.
We got our car and hit the road.
It has been well over 10 years since I have driven a manual car. I figured it would be like riding a bike... right? I mentally went through the motions of how to drive a stick shift before I came to Brazil, but cars are hard to come by in NYC, so I wasn't able to practice before this trip. BUT I was able to pick it up again without too much trouble today! Thankfully I am a very fast learner.
Mom couldn't find her GPS that she had packed (or at least planned on packing). I had printed out Google maps and directions for us - but really felt pretty uneasy about driving around a completely new country with no GPS...
I mean I use my GPS in Orem Utah for goodness sakes!
So about an hour or so into our 4 hour drive we were lost. In the bigger cities I suspect that it won't be too hard to find people who know a little bit of english but out in the middle of the country Brazil... nope! So stopping to ask for directions was futile.
I prayed really hard and moms cell phone finally took mercy on us, and I was able to get her data turned on and google maps to work! (Thank you Andrea for setting that up!)
We weren't too far off the beaten track but it added a little time onto our trip.
The first few hours of our drive was nothing spectacular- yet still beautiful and unique. It would be interesting to get my mom to interject here on this as well because this is her first time getting a visa and flying internationally! So these are all very new experiences for her!
While this is also my first time in Brazil I have been to many different countries, and I have seen places to compare and contrast. There were many little towns and villages that we passed and beautiful farms. The sides of the hills were scraped open so you could see the red red clay dirt of the land. Many houses that we would pass were grouped together in small villages. Stacked on top of one another and covering hillsides with their worn cement walls and clay roof tops. Most of these houses are not the best living situations that I have seen, but also not the worst either. At the same time, I once again see how very privledged I am to have the life that I have and live where I do!
Later in our drive was where, for me, the truly spectacular views happened! We drove through the most beautiful mountainous jungle today - lush greenery and little waterfalls. We went down a road that had a lot of switchbacks. Winding and curving we could see the mountains and the ocean in the distance every once in a while through the thick rainforest. It was quite an incredible thing! I said to mom, "This drive JUST got worth it!
Originally I had hoped to arrive in Paraty (our first stop) at 6pm we didn't get here til 8:30 - but we made it nonetheless!
We drove down some small crazy cobblestone roads to get to a church where we were meeting our host Dario.
And when I say small cobblestone I mean the width of the street was small! The "cobblestones" on the other hand, were HUGE rocks! It was the bumpiest car ride I have ever been on! I was having flashbacks to the Indiana Jones ride at Disney land! Haha
Dario was waiting for us at the little church. We unloaded our car and jumped into a small boat.
The place where we are staying tonight is called the Happy Hammock Hostel. It is on a peninsula that is only accessible by boat! There are no cars and no roads. When I first started looking for places for us to stay in Brazil I saw this hostel The photos of this place looked incredible and the reviews were out the roof, so I said "we HAVE to stay there!"
It was already dark on the boat ride in tonight -so we have not had the chance to see this place in its full glory! But I will say that the weather is perfect here! I don't mind the mild humidity and there is a light breeze. The quarter moon is shining really brightly and there are stars that can be seen through the scattered clouds in the sky.
This 15 minute boat ride was a welcome end to our day!
The Happy Hammock is also an echo friendly house. They have the coolest solar powered lanterns that they use at night! The power only comes on for 2 hours per day.
We were shown our room and then had a delicious home made dinner! There are just 5 guests here tonight and 4 people who run the hostel - they said that they can hold up to 14 guests at a time but actually prefer when it is a smaller count because when it gets crowded it looses its personable touch.
I am currently swaying in a hammock, listening to the murmur of late night conversation in 4 different accents, the sound of the waves rolling in and out and crickets singing in the background tie together the orchestra of a perfect night in paradise!
When we arrived we were greeted with, "welcome to paradise" I do believe that they were telling the truth!
I haven't even seen 1/2 of it and I am I love! This is a place that I would love to come back to! Maybe someday I hope that I can share places like this that I love with a man that I love. Until that time comes I am happy to share these experiences with my mom! What a blessing that we get to take this trip together!
I may just sleep in the hammock tonight.
Mom says:
Dad would love the roads here on his motorcycle!
Brazil is a very beautiful country!
This is a very unique place! I have never seen anything like it!
(Photos coming soon!)
No comments:
Post a Comment