Sao Paulo

 We stayed right off the Paulista Avenue, which was a major Christmas attraction in Brazil.  Almost every building was decorated with elaborate Christmas decorations.  It was a beautiful city with lots of grafiti.

We introduced my family to our Head-Basket game and we had a blast on a rainy night in our hotel rooms.  We even got mom & dad to play. Emily & I were the champions of the night. 

 There was surprisingly a lot of pizza in Brazil.  We had some really great fruit pizza and then Emily got some really gross pizza with a nasty Catipury cheese that none of us wanted to help her eat. 

 We went to church right next to the LDS temple.  My dad was there for the ground breaking 35 years ago and was so excited to see it finished.  The temple president was there and he actually let us go inside and look around, it was a huge highlight of the trip.  We decided to pose South American style, no smiles. 

 The real adventure was getting there and back.  My dad really wanted to take a bus since that's how he got everywhere while he lived there.  Brazilians do not yield to pedestrians we learned while walking to the bus stop.  It's one thing to get one foreigner that doesn't speak the language on a bus, but try 8.  It was jam packed in there already, so out of fear of just getting left there we decided to go in the back doors, where there was no line.  Dave got the door closed on him several time while he valiently stood there trying to make sure we all got on.  Little did we know we were getting in on the exit door. Everyone was yelling something at us, it took a while for me to translate from Portuguese to Spanish to English and then realized, we'd better go back out and get in the front door.  We got off a few exits too early, but we all made it back! 

We had a blast out walking the streets and trying to fit in like locals, we really stand out.  We some some amazing light and Christmas displays though, getting us excited for Christmas.

It was another adventure flying from one city in Brazil to another with everything in Portuguese.  We really had to pay close attention to make sure that we were in the right place at the right time.  We got yelled at quite a few times for reasons that are still unknown to us.  We made our flight without any problems though, and loved every minute of Sao Paulo.

Manaus

We had so many adventures on the Amazon!  (and hundreds of pictures but I'll only post a few)

We flew into the Manaus airport, right during this crazy tropical rainstorm.  We took a short shuttle to a dock, the fun part is that the only way to get to our hotel was by boat.  We ran down the dock and got on the boat, completely soaked.  It was so neat riding through the Amazon!  We finally docked at the Ariau Amazon Towers, our amazing treehouse hotel.

Since there were no restaurants around all our meals were eaten in here, all you can eat :) This is a better view of our treehouse hotel, in rainy season the river rises all the way up to the bridges.



We spent most of our time there on this little boat with our guide, cruising the Amazon. Because of different temperatures & densities, merging rivers don't mix, (black and brown rivers).

We went on a hike throught he jungle and learned all about the different plants, wildlife and how to survive.  Some ate little worms that came out of coconuts (you had to pinch off their mouth or it could eat your insides)!  Tom almost killed a couple of us, he thought the vines would be a little stronger, but they all came tumbling down and somehow didn't land on us. 

That afternoon we went out pirahna fishing.  It was so cool!  We all got bamboo rods and plenty of cow hearts to put on the hooks.  They were sneaky little guys and if we weren't quick they'd eat the meat right off before we knew it.   

 To finish off the awesome day we went out crocodile hunting that night.  We shone a big floodlight while going up & down the river until we saw one.  Then our crazy guide moved in, jumped right out of the boat into the river and jumped on this little guy.  We couldn't believe it!  We all got to hold him.  Those who wore sandals got tons of mosquito bites, i'm talking 20-30 just on their feet.

We all slept great after such an adventure-filled day.  The next morning we headed off on our boat to visit a local family.  We got to see their daily life and how they are completely self-sufficient, living off the land.  Everything they need and use is right there.  The guys got to climb trees to get some Acai berries, Tom was the only one that made it to the top. 

 We then went straight over to a local village that was going to be featured later that week in Brazil's version of Extreme Makover Home Edition.  Leaving, our engine wouldn't start so we were stranded for an hour or so, in the middle of the day.  there was a small fishing boat there, so we all had to find our own little piece of shade.  Finally the guys got it running!

We were all a little dehydrated and overheated after that, so we just relaxed the whole afternoon. This was cute treetop pool.  We were all a little sunburnt too, so Dave spent the afternoon in a nearby hammock.

 We loved playing with the monkeys, despite the signs everywhere telling us not to feed them.  We spent the evening learning to make ornaments from tree palms and hanging out with the nurse.  These are Emily's feet :(

We could see the Manaus temple when we rode into town from the boat.  We also drove by it and it's beautiful.  We were so sad to leave Manaus, but we know we have many more great adventures to come :)

Recife

  We stayed at Porto de Galinhas (Port of the Chickens) which is the closest tip of Sounth America to Africa (only a 4 hour flight).  Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, but it continued illegally and secretly here in the port and slaves were hidden on the bottom of boats full of chickens.  The town was filled with so many cute chicken statues as signs for ice cream shops, bathrooms, etc.  Oh, and all the souvenirs in every shop had some kind of chicken on them.  It was a cute little town.

 The beach was beautiful but really crowded.  Lots of restaurants and snorkeling.  We found our own little seafood restaurant right on the beach.  This was a joke they played on Emily, not her real dish. 

We added to our St Lucia beach picture

 One of the highlights was playing 3 flies up on the beach.  We had a blast: my family is pretty fun to play games with.  Luckily nobody got hurt although my mom did take a few spills.

 It was such a fun day and we played out on the beach until the sun went down.  It was Christmas Eve so we did our gift exchangeand sang Christmas songs.  Mom & Tia were in cahoots and made Dave & I matching cowboy PJ pants.  I got Tom night-vision goggles and he's been going crazy oer them!  We went around and had to guess who we thought had who, it was fun hearing everyone's guesses.  It was a wonderful Christmas!                                                                    

Rio de Janiero

The last leg of the trip...

On our way to our hotel on the beautiful world famous Copa Cobana Beach. The top floor was a beautiful pool area looking out over the whole beach.

We finally got our girls night and I got my pedicure from Emily (:    This is in front of the famous SugarLoaf mountain, at a beautiful bay outside our restaurant.

We went to Rio's most famous Churruscaria (Brazilian BBQ) and it was absolutely amazing!! Not only was there every kind of scrumptious meat, but all-you-can-eat BBQ ribs.  I was in heaven! Then we saw the world's largest floating Christmas tree.

Visiting the Christ statue that was built in the middle of Rio on one of the highest mountain tops.We took some little trains up there and had a lunch overlooking the whole city.  What a beautiful view!  We were all really tired from all the traveling and little sleep.  Church was tough for everybody, being in another language and also with no AC.  Ha ha!



The Frank Sinatra of Brazil, Roberto Carlos, played right on the beach Christmas night.  This was just the set up.  It was crazy, millions of people crowded the streets and beach right outside our hotel.  We always had fun adventures taking 2 taxis everywhere.



Finally, we had to say goodbye to my family after a surprisingly short 11 hour flight.  It was such a fun trip for us all and we had a blast.  I had to hug Bryan (in the back) for the last time in two years, he's leaving for his church mission in Denver, CO this month.  What a trip!