Family Pictures

We got all dressed up on Easter and took some pictures on the beach. Here are some of the best ones.

 

 

 

 

 

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Morro de São Paulo - Part 3

There were many fun things to experience on the island.

One of the things that I have always wanted to do was ride on the beach on a horse. Well, my dream came true on Morro. However, it is one of those things that just does not live up to the dream. It was very cool, but also painful. Scott and I both agreed that the trot was not a comfortable ride, but if you were brave enough to gallop that was more bearable. The cool thing was that we were allowed to ride as fast or slow as we wanted, and I did make my horse splash through the water. When our hour was up Scott was a puddle of sweat and very ready to get off. Guess we are not horse people.

Brazilians love to serve food in a style called rodezio. This is all you can eat, and the waiters come by your table with things for you to choose. We enjoyed a pizza rodezio one night. On a Brazilian pizza menu you willl easily find 60 different types of pizza. They serve it in small slices so you can try more kinds.

Here is our waiter serving us some pizza. I bet we tried 16 different kinds. Isaac ate almost every kind. Owen and I split each piece, so we could try more. It was cute...at first I asked him if he would split a piece with me, and by the end he was asking me if I would split that piece with him.

Grandma Karen and the boys enjoying some coconut juice on the beach. It is very refreshing.

One day we ate lunch at a little beach restaurant. We had the traditional moqueca. While they prepared it, the boys boogie boarded. The tide came in so high while we were eating that we had to walk back through the waves.

Isaac and Grandpa are having fun in the pool.

We went snorkeling in this natural pool that develops when the tide is out. The water recedes probably 1/4 mile when the tide goes out, and it leaves these natural pools full of colorful little fish, crabs and coral. It was the perfect spot for the boys to snorkel.

They loved snorkeling. This was Ethan's first time. He and I went out for a while together, and I told him that I would follow him wherever he wanted to go. He thought that was cool, and turned into my little snorkeling guide. He would wave me along, and point out every coral and show me fish. One time he said, " Follow me, I want to take you to a new place over here."

Here is Isaac snorkeling. It is so fun to do these thing with the boys. They are so adventurous.

 

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Morro de São Paulo - Part 2

My favorite day on our trip was when we went on a catamaran ride with Oliver (said with a French accent), the boyfriend of our pousada owner. He loves sailing and has a company that makes boats. He made the sailboat himself. Craig teased me the whole time that we were going on a homemade boat, but I had to correct him and say that we were going on a custom-made boat. We were his only guests that day, and it was an amazing ride. We took off at 9 am, and sailed for an hour or so. Then Oliver stopped the boat in the middle of the ocean and we jumped in for a swim. Wow! The water was so blue!

Here we are relaxing on the front of the catamaran.

Here I am sitting in my favorite spot.

After some snorkeling, we cruised to a tiny village, only reachable by boat, for lunch. We hopped in the dingy and headed for shore.

While waiting for our food, the boys enjoyed some boogie boarding, and Karen received a boogie boarding lesson from Isaac.

Craig and Scott had fun talking with our captain, Oliver. He has an interesting life story.

Owen loved to play in the sand.

Appetizers included a local favorite, oysters. Mmmmmm! Everyone loved them, especially the boys. They were deliciously seasoned and buttery.

Ethan is ready to dig into lunch. We shared 7 lobsters caught that morning by our chef.

On the way back the boys took some time to rest on the net with Dad.

Isaac standing in his favorite spot.

Scott and Isaac enjoying the sunset. It was an unbelievable day. I feel so blessed to have enjoyed such a neat experience with my family. We will never forget it.

 

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Morro de São Paulo - Part 1

On the third day of our trip we left Salvador for Morro de São Paulo. Our island paradise. We had to go though some challenges to reach paradise, it it was definitely worth it.

Here we are with all our luggage. I began to despise all of our luggage. I think this is a story worth telling. It all started because we were too nervous for a 2 hour boat cruise out to the island. We instead chose a 3 hour drive ( which ended up being 5 hours) and a 30 minute boat ride. Scott negotiated a ride on a decent looking boat. The captain took one look at all 7 of us with all of our 9 pieces of luggage and decided that his boat was full. Three boats later, we are all loaded up, or so we thought. We take off and all of a sudden the boat stops, timings off. We wait for a new boat. In the middle of a huge bay we transfer our 9 bags to the new boat, well make that 8 bags. One ended up missing. After some fervent counting, we determined that yes, a bag was still at the dock. We talked he captain and other passengers into returning to the dock. Luckily it was still there. Scott and I proceeded to make a huge scene arguing with people that wanted money for "looking after" our bags and the guy that we had paid R$50 for loading our bags. Then, our boat did not leave...after some time we were told that our current boat was too weak, and we would need to change. Finally, on boat number 3 we took off for the island. This went great for about 15 minutes. Then we hit a large piece of wood. After an inspection and some tinkering we were back on our way to the island, still in boat no. 3. Finally, we arrived on the island with only a 20 minute walk (with our 9 bags) and a 20 minute wagon ride to our pousada. Ahhh paradise at last!

This is the beach by our pousada during low tide. There were all kinds of little fish, crabs and coral that the kids had fun playing with. Karen made it fun for them by giving them little "challenges" like Amazing Race.

My little cuties enjoying the hammock outside of our chalet. I have become quite a fan of hammocks.

The boys and I on our walk to the boogie boarding beach.

The boys with Grandpa. How cute!

Scott and Isaac heading off to boogie board. Isaac talks about how nice a beach is in terms of the waves for boogie boarding.

Here is Karen treating Owen to ice cream with chocolate. I think they enjoyed dessert for 90% of our meals.

Ethan is catching a good wave in.

Isaac catching a good wave in.

Karen treating Owen to some Doritos.

Isaac and I jumping in the waves. It is one of my favorite activities.

 

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Salvador

We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to see so much of Brazil. We totally maximized our vacations here. Our last hurrah was an awesome one! We visited Salvador with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Craig.

Craig and Karen arrived at 9:00 am after an all night flight. They were in a great mood and excited to see the boys (and Scott and I). We were excited to see them, too! This is everybody at "our" breakfast table at the hotel. We stayed at a very nice hotel in Salvador.

We spent the first day swimming, relaxing and spending time together. It was wonderful family time, and the boys were in heaven being spoiled by Grandma. They were all smiles, and it really hit me how different Grandma and Grandpa love is than Mom and Dad love, and that the boys had really missed it. Grandma Karen definitely made up for lost time.

The second day we had a tour of Salvador. This was our first stop. The statues are of the African gods from the Candomble religion. Salvador was a major port for the importation of slaves, and much of its history relates to this. The slaves were forced to convert to Catholicism, and so they related each one of their gods to a saint. The statue in white represents Jesus. The blending of Catholicism and Candomble is very interesting. In the background you can see their new soccer stadium all ready for the World Cup.

Second stop, Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. This is the most famous church in Salvador. It was beautiful. They sell little ribbons, and you are supposed to tie them on with three knots and make 3 wishes. Then you are not supposed to take them off, they have to fall off after your wishes come true. No one's ribbon has fallen off yet.

Lots of people tie their ribbons to the fence in order to avoid wearing them for years. It was very pretty with the colorful ribbons flying in the wind.

Here is a picture from our lunch spot. The beaches were beautiful. We had a fun lunch of traditional moqueca, seafood stew made with palm oil. We had many opportunities to experience this delicious dish.

Here we are in Pelurinho, the historic city center. It was so beautiful and interesting with its colorful buildings, narrow, winding streets, and rich history.

This is the church of gold. The walls on the inside are completely covered in gold.

Here is another shot of Pelurinho.

Michael Jackson shot a music video in Pelurinho called, They don't Really Care About Us. The blue building with his picture is where he started the video, then they danced where we were standing.

I just love Ethan's picture smile. Behind him some boys are getting ready to do some Capoeira dancing. It is a really cool dancing that looks like fighting. They do flips and kicks, but do not really hurt each other. The slaves used to practice it to keep in shape, and practice fighting without getting in trouble.

It was Palm Sunday when we were in Salvador, so we ended our tour at a mass. It was super traditional, hot and we did not understand much, but I always enjoy going to mass in other cities to see what it is like.

 

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