Trip to the South

We're so glad to have our camera cable back so we can finally post the pictures of our trip to south Brazil and of Christmas. We've had some requests to post lots of these pictures, so below are quite a few!

December Christmas dinner at Asas

Jeyson with some of his Asas friends at the dinner -Jeyson, Paulo, Andres, and Heber

A few days after the dinner, we headed on our trip. The first stop was Jeyson's parents' house since it was right on the way. We spent the night at their house and helped out a little around the farm. Early the next morning, we headed out on the first leg of our trip - to Curitiba which is 17 hours away.

We broke the trip up into two days, and stayed at a hostel in Jundiai, SP along the way. We had never stayed in a hostel before, and it turned out to be a nice place.

Here was a view from our window....not exactly 5 stars, but a nice cultural experience.

Back on the road again, we passed by São Paulo. The city itself is modern and very built up, but as we drove by the outskirts of the city it was shocking to see slums that seemed to continue on forever.

Many people come to Sao Paulo from all over Brazil with hopes of finding a good job and starting over. Unfortunately, most have difficulty and wind up living in the the slums.

The above sight was so moving - a lot full of brand new cars, neighboring a slum filled with people who are just trying to survive.

A few hours later, we finally arrived! South Brazil has a very strong European influence as so many immigrants have come from Germany, Italy, and other European countries in the last 100 years. The city is so different than where we live, it really felt like another country!

We loved the wood houses that looked like country cottages! It was so nice to also see homes without tall security walls like here in Anapolis....

and nice, paved sidewalks! Just walking down the street it was interesting to see how many people were from German backgrounds. Many still spoke German and many many people had blond hair. Jeyson fit in here in Brazil for once!

When Jeyson was about 5 years old, his family spent a year living in Curitiba. Although he was so young at the time, I was amazed at how much Jeyson could remember when he returned now as an adult. Jeyson found his old house (above) and the houses and churches of several relatives who live in the city. He even found his German preschool! In addition to the trip being a great way for me to see the south and meet many of Jeyson's relatives, it was also a fun "walk down memory lane" for Jeyson.

One of the interesting cultural experiences I had on this trip was seeing a Brazilian cemetery. I had never seen one before, and I found it to be such an interesting contrast to American style cemeteries.

No grass or similar looking tombstones. Each grave was a beautiful, above ground unique memorial to the loved one.

Here you can see a bench for visitors to visit the site.

In Curitiba, we stayed with Jeyson's uncle and aunt and spent a lot of time visiting with many of Jeyson's relatives who live in Curitiba.

Jeyson's father has 9 siblings and Jeyson's mother has 8 siblings, so there are endless relatives and many live in Curitiba. Above is a picture of Jeyson's dad's family growing up.

Since Curitiba is so close to the Atlantic Ocean, one of my hopes was to go to the beach in South America. We went with several of Jeyson's cousins and had a great time. Compared to the New Jersey shore, the water was so warm, though they all said it was cold since they are used to even warmer ocean water :)

A little fish market by the beach where you can buy that day's catch

Of course every Brazilian family get-together must involve grilling meat

and on Jeyson's mom's side, it also often includes playing this family invented board game. The object is the use a big disk to hit smaller disks into the corners of a board. The board is covered in cornmeal to make the pieces slide better. It is actually a lot of fun, and Jeyson is busy making one in his free time here at home. We'll have to see if we can convince any of our friends to give it a try.

Jeyson's uncle is very involved at his church and works with a ministry to bring the Bible to life for children in a way that encourages their creative thinking. He designs and makes 3D pieces to tell a story from the Bible. The idea is to encourage parents spending quality time with their children as they learn from God's word, rather than just put on a cartoon Christian DVD.

Here is the parable of the Sower and Soil

He also works with their church to use as many natural resources as possible so the environment will be cleaner and church costs will be lower. Above is a solar panel that heats up the church's water. The heater is made out of plastic hosing that flows through empty soda bottles.

There was also this reminder creatively shown above - Enjoy watching God's nature!

The church also has a large garden and grows food for the church's and community's needs. I had never seen a broccoli plant before....this is one kind of broccoli available here.

We also spent an afternoon walking around downtown Curitiba. Here was an outdoor Christmas market in the city.

And the main city avenue, made just for walkers.

And a shopping mall made from the city's old railroad station.

After 3 days in Curitiba, it was time to go to our next stop - Marechal Candido Rondon, a city a few hours away from Argentina and Paraguay. After an 8 hour trip, we arrived in Rondon and had a great time there getting to know even more relatives and even more of the South.

Jeyson's uncle, Milton, is the head of assembly at a factory that makes soft serve ice cream machines.

We had a fun time getting a tour and being "forced" to try both the shakes and soft ice cream the machines make. Above are Jeyson's aunt and uncle.

Who knew that the ice cream machine factory also has a collection of classic cars? We also had a tour there.

The next day, we headed to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina to spend two days with our friends Andres and Camila. Andres is from Argentina so it was so fun to have someone with us know knows the food and culture.

If you remember from previous posts, Brazilians and Argentinians love drinking a special tea called Mate. In Argentia it is such a part of the culture that there are "vending machines" of hot water for the tea. You just put in coins and put your thermos by the spout to fill it up with a liter of hot water.

In Argentia we went to a place called "The Three Frontiers". Here you can see where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. (See above and below)

Above are Guarani Indians who are native to the area

Our first day in Argentina, we visited a park that promotes the environment and Argentinean culture.

This giant "Arapuca" or reconstruction of an indian animal trap was made with massivel logs that where aprehended from illegal loggers.

Inside a shop at the park

The traditional poncho

And Argentinian hats

The nativity scene

Shooting arrows

Me and Camila relaxing in chairs made from tree trunks and roots

Then, the next day was the event we had been looking forward to most on this trip - visiting Foz do Iguacu. Foz is a huge national waterfall park, and we spent almost the whole day hiking around since there are so many waterfalls to see. It is impossible to capture how truly beautiful it was, but here are some pictures to give you an idea.

Here we are at the top of one of the most famous waterfalls in the park "The Devil's Throat" which is higher than Niagra falls. Even after a few minutes of looking, we were completely soaked by the tons and tons of water spraying back up from the fall.

It is incredible to see how close you can get to such an enormous waterfall

Walking to another area of the park, we were able to see one of the most magnificent things we have ever seen. There truly are no words to describe what it was like to look at this scene there are dozens of separated falls.

Walking farther, this is a scene looking down over yet another fall.

Wow, what an amazing wall of water!

Walking around the park, we came across people from all different countries, and all different kinds of creatures too! As you can see, they are very used to being around people!

The next day we went to Paraguay. Paraguay has some special rules that make importing things from overseas extremely cheap. As a result, many many Brazilians cross over to Paraguay to buy cheap items for personal use or to sell back in Brazil. Because there is such a huge demand, the entire city that you enter when coming into Paraguay is a HUGE outdoor market. What is for sale? EVERYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE! Electric razors, DVDs, drills, socks, Wii, perfumes, Pringles, tents, and SO much more. Everywhere you look, there are stores, booths , people walking around selling things, cars selling things...it was crazy! There was hardly room to walk or time to think between people coming up trying to sell you something Especially before Christmas the city was chaotic! We didn't go wanting to buy anything, but was a worthwhile experience, though completely overwhelming. Since the city was so crazy, we didn't feel like it was a good idea to take out our camera to take pictures, so sadly you'll just have to imagine the scene :)

On our way back to Anapolis we spent another night in Rondon and enjoyed one last treat on the trip....the Brazilian/German speciality of fruitcake, pepperoni slices, and tea.

After that, we drove the rest of the way home and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas eve at home together and spent Christmas with Jeyson's parents. Here is a picture of our Christmas eve breakfast. It was such a wonderful trip, but it is SO wonderful to be back home!