Último dia no Brasil

Sorry everyone, I know it's been a while since I last posted a blog.  I meant to post one yesterday, but my laptop was being stupid, so I wasn't able to.  Here is one now though.
ATTENTION:  There is alcohol found in some of these photos, if this will offend you, I ask that you put your cursor on the little X in the red box, normally found in the right, top corner of your screen and left click your mouse.  Thanks:)

 

Let's see, what has all happened since my last post...

I went out to a bar with Camila and Lucia on Thursday night.  I've never really been to a bar in the US, so I couldn't compare.  It seemed more like a restaurant with alcohol more than what I imagined a bar as.  There is a difference in Brazil between a bar and a night club, I believe.  A night club has people dancing and things.

These pictures were taken at Lucia's house.  They are hard to see, because I took them on my phone. 

However, this is a banana tree, with bananas growing on it!!

  I believe that this is a lime tree?  Might be an orange tree.

 This is an avocado tree.  I had never seen the kind of avocadoes that are the most common here.  They are green and probably the size of a mango.  I bought some of the black ones, and Camila told me that here it is not common at all for people to eat the black ones.  The ones that are on this tree are sweeter than the avocadoes that we find in Texas.  People here eat them with sugar.

This is the cake that Lucia and her mother made.  It was so delicious, but so sweet.


After spending the day at Lucia's house, we went to the beach for the weekend.  The beach was about an hour and a half/two hours away by car.
It is so beautiful on the beach.  We went to 3 different beaches.  The first we didn't swim at, because they said it was dirty.  The second the water was clam and warm.  The third there were waves and the water was cooler.  The water here is clearish.  I guess it is more of a clear greenish color than actually clear.

This picture is at the first beach we stopped at.  It was actually only 5 blocks from the apartment we stayed at, so we just walked there.  The tables, from what I understood are owned by a restaurant there on the beach, or little booths, and the waiters and waitresses (usually young kids) will walk around and take orders, and bring the food.  Then when you leave, you go up to the restaurant and give them your table number and pay for everything you ordered.

 This is me on the first beach.  We just enjoyed walking in the shallow water.

 This is Lucia and her boyfriend.  Somehow I did not get a picture of Camila and her boyfriend...I suppose I will have to remember for next time.

 Most of you have probably seen this on facebook.  I actually got the idea from a picture online.  https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJlcgMafWAIsqCnH4NFATv93n11qc9dM0ktaleWOYB1K6bTb0x8Q
Though mine is not as pretty as the link, I'm still pretty psyched that I made it to Brazil.

 This is us three girls.  Lucia is on the left, then me, then Camila.

 Us again at the  beach.

 This was taken at the third beach that we went to.  There were plenty of waves.  Down the beach a ways there were people surfing.  We practiced swimming under the waves when they came.  I had never done that before, but it's like there is no wave.  It was quite fun, but quite tiring.

This was a medium wave, some of the waves were very tall, and then some of them were just tiny.



 This is the last dinner that we had at the beach.  The shrimp here is quite different than in the United States, and Norway.  They didn't shell it.  So you eat it all.  It was good, but kind of different.

 This was the main meal.  Actually it was two separate meals.

 Here is the first.  Fish with shrimp and sauce, rice, and potatoes.  This was my favorite.

This was the second.  Rice, a different kind of fish with shrimp and sauce, and French fries.  This one was good, but it was not as good at the first.

 

 

On Monday, I flew out of Sao Paulo and headed to Foz de Igaucu.  I stayed there for three days, and came back to Sao Paulo this morning.  Foz de Igaucu is near the Igaucu Falls.  I was able to visit them on the Brazilian side, but not on the side of Argentina. 

I stayed at the Hotel del Rey.  I would recommend it to anyone who travels down there.  It was very nice.

 The bed.

 The rest of the room.

 And they had breakfast from 3a.m. to 10a.m.

I would get up around 5a.m. to eat breakfast, and then again around 9:45a.m. to eat lunch.  That way I got two meals for free.

 

On the first day I went down to Paraguay.   

Sadly this is the only picture that I have of Paraguay.  Before I left, Lucia told me under no circumstance to take my camera out while I was there.  I took this off of the back of a motorcycle.  Haha, funny right?  Back of a motorcycle.  Funny story there.

I had taken a bus to Paraguay, because the bus stop was only about a block, or maybe a block and a half away from my hotel.  The city that I went to in Paraguay is very famous for the shopping street.  I believe that I read there are over 3,000 shops there selling over 200,000 products.  I did go shopping a little bit, but many of the shops were repetitive, so I would just pass them quickly.  Anyway, I had taken a bus there, and just had finally gotten off when it stopped at a random part of the road.  So I went back to where I thought it had dropped me off and waited.  I don't know how long I waited, but there was a man sitting in front of a taxi there.  He started speaking to me in Spanish, so I just told him I needed to go back to Brazil.  He said that for R$10 or $5 he could take me on his taxi.  So I gave him the money, and he walked me over to his motorcycle.  One thing about the motorcyclists here is that they drive like crazy people.  I honestly thought it was going to be my day to die.  I was carrying my purse in one hand, and my bag of new items in the other, so I hopped, or attempted to hop on the back, and then I had no idea how to hold on.  So I held on to the driver.  Oh, I wish I could have gotten a picture, but I wasn't able to.  I will have the memory though.  I survived.  Lol.

 

 The second day I went out to Igaucu Falls.  I left my hotel around 8:30 a.m. and didn't arrive back until around 4:00 p.m.  It was a long hot day, but everything was so beautiful.

Here is a map of the park.  There were two other trail options, but they cost a little extra to go down.  There is also an option to take a helicopter over the falls, but I was feeling like I had already spent a little too much money already so had to pass.  There you can also skydive, rappel, or canoe.  I wasn't able to do any of those, but I figure if I ever come back, maybe Aaron will come with me and we can do all three.  :)

 This was me at the first drop off to see the falls.  There is a walk way that you can take that walks along most of the falls on the Brazilian side.  It took me about 3 hours to walk it, with me randomly stopping to take pictures.

 I loved the way the water created the little rainbow, so I do apologize, many of the pictures are the same.

 This was a picture that was about as close as you could get to one of the waterfalls.  Where I was, I was actually getting sprayed with water.  I found it amazing that under the waterfall grass and plants are growing.  I didn't get a picture because I was scared to get my camera wet.

 

 These little creatures are EVERYWHERE.  They are so precious.  I am not quite sure what they are, but they were so cute.  I wanted to pick one up, but figured that might not be a bright idea.

 Here is a farther away picture of a part of the falls.  Everything there is so green.  Most everywhere that I have been here in Brazil is actually quite green.  It was a dark green here though.

 After going to the falls, I walked about half a mile down the road to the Bird Park.

 

 I don't know if it is possible to read this, but I loved this.  I have an obsession with trees though.

This is a bird.  Obviously.

This bird was literally this close.  At the bird park, there is the option to walk in with some of the birds.  Some of the people there were petting them.  There was a lady who was talking to her boyfriend, and one of the birds hopped down and started trying to eat her ankle.  She screamed, and her boyfriend just laughed and laughed.  After that, I was a little more careful around the birds.

 

That is all for now I suppose.  I leave tomorrow morning for Peru.  Eeek, wish me luck :)

Hope all is well back home.