Brazil...this is going to be long

Over the past year, Ben and I have spent about a month in the beautiful country of Brazil. Lucky for us, my brother and his family live in the town of Sousas, which is about an hour and a half away from the city of Sao Paulo. The place is beautiful!!! We just got back from spending two weeks there, and we loved it. Well, most of it.
In no particular order, some things I do not love about Brazil.
- 11 hour plane ride, approximately 21 hours in transit door to door one way. We left our house at 10:30am, and arrived to my brother's house the next morning at 8:30am. Coming back to the states was even worse.
- crazy Brazilian mosquitos at the beach. they are called buffatas or something like that (Russell or Jaque, please correct me!)
- not understanding anything the people are saying and looking at my brother or sister-in-law, or even my five year old nephew, for explanation of what in the heck is going on.
- the plumbing systems in Brazil are not equipped to handle toilet paper, which means you throw your used toilet paper away in a little trash can beside the toilet. Yes, they empty the trash cans on a daily basis.
- Bogata, Colombia airport. This place is horrible. Going to Brazil we had a two hour layover there, and that is definitely all of the time I ever wanted to spend in this place. As we were waiting to board the plane, one of the airline employees came up to Ben and told him that the police needed to search his bag. This is a bag that my brother packed for us to bring him which contained baby wipes and toys for the kids. After opening the bag, the police office went straight for the wipes...I guess he thought it was cocaine or something...not really sure. Ben then tried to explain to him that it was for "bambinos....wipe their butt" as he demonstrated by pretending to wipe his butt. At first, I was pretty scared, but after I saw that I just laughed! The officer still cut into the bag and sniffed it to make sure it really was for babies. Pretty funny.
Then, on the way back to the States we had a six hour layover...wanted to shoot myself! We got off the plane, went through an electronic screening with our bags, then our bags were searched by officers and we were patted down to make sure we didn't have any guns. We went to our gate even though our plane didn't leave for another six hours, but we were kicked out and told to wait in the hallway...miserable. And then we had to go through another screening before we could go back into the gate when it was time to board our plane. And all of this screening and checking was standard protocol...crazy!
Now, in no particular order, things that I LOVE about Brazil:
- Russell and his family. Seriously, my brother is awesome, and his family is equally awesome! It amazes me to see these little people running around speaking two different languages. They are so smart and so fun and absolutely gorgeous children! Not to say, they are perfect because whining is one of their specialties, but I just love them so much!
- Landscape: Yes, Brazil has beautiful beaches, but it also has gorgeous mountains and rolling hills for miles and miles. The view from my brother's backyard is beautiful! Everything is so lush and green and the hills are amazing!
- Fruit: really, really, really fresh juices at every meal! Passion fruit, orange, pineapple, acerola, all kinds. So, so yummy! Not only are the juices so good, but the fruit is sooo cheap. Seriously, I saw pineapples for like $.50 a piece!!! And they were super fresh pineapples, not pineapples that you have to sit on your counter for a couple of days for them to ripen.
- Acai na tigela on the beach! Yum, this stuff is sooooooo delicious! I could eat it all day, but it's better on the beach. Then again, everything is better when you are on the beach!
- Secluded beaches: We went to Ubatuba on the northern shore of the state of Sao Paulo...so beautiful! While there, we took a boat to a secluded beach that is only accesible by boat or hiking for like 3 hours. Most of the secluded beaches have these little food shacks that serve the best fish! We even got to meat the fisherman who caught the fish we ate. He told us it was the best fish on the island. His name was Domingo, and he was this cute little man. It was seriously so tasty!
- Sunsets on the water: thankfully, we were still on the boat at sunset! The mountains that run into the water, the sun, all of it...breathtaking!
- Maids: my brother has three maids! Yes, 3! One full-time maid and two part-time maids. It was so nice knowing that when we got home from picking Isabella up from school, Anna Claudia would have a delicious, hot meal waiting for us on the table. So yummy! If only I had an Anna Claudia. She is their full-time maid who was there around 7:30 each morning and left around 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. She did all of their laundry, cooked their meals (even though Jaque is a better cook), watched the kids for Jaque, cleaned, etc. They also have a lady who comes on Thursday who does the deep cleaning...bathrooms, mopping, cleaning the back deck, etc. And then they have another lady who comes on Friday afternoons and watches the kids Friday night so they can have a date night. She then spends the night and cooks breakfast and lunch for then. She was super sweet!
There is more stuff that I love, but this is getting super long! I have lots of pictures, but my personal computer is jacked up and getting fixed. Yes, I am writing this while at work. I'll add some of the pictures when I get it back. It was such a fun trip. If you ever get the chance to go to Brazil, GO! It's awesome! Oh yea, you can check out my brother's blog to see his pictures and commentary on the trip in English and Portuguese. http://brazil-long.blogspot.com/