Beach Paradise

It looked like the trend of waking up early had become more of a regular event. I don't necessarily know if I see that as a good thing, but it was a nice change from waking up at 1:00, as nice as that was. We woke up around 8:30 and somehow planned to get to Yago and Andre's house around 9. Bruce had come to spend the night because he though it would be easier for Maria not to have to drive him to Yago's because Maria and the girls weren't planning on leaving until later in the afternoon. We woke up and Bruce and I took showers, and I double checked my bag to make sure that I hadn't forgotten anything. I didn't see anything crucial that was still sitting in the closet, so I zipped it up and put it next to the front door. We made it to Yago's and talked to his parents for a while and then we headed out towards the Beach.

We were headed to a beach that was a little ways Southwest of Caragua. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, so I listened to my iPod and talked to Michael and Yago. About 20 minutes before we were there, we stopped at a rest stop and looked at a nice waterfall. We took some pictures and then continued heading to the beach house. 

When we got there, it was very nice. There was a nice covered patio where we could hang out, in addition to a beautiful living room and kitchen area. Upstairs was my bedroom, where me, Bruce, Blake, and Michael slept, and the other bedroom for the Brazilians. We all settled in and changed our clothes and headed for the Beach. The beach we went to was about 5 minutes away, and it was beautiful. The waves were fantastic! We went though some that were probably almost 8 feet tall! We enjoyed the water for a couple hours, and I had the chance to enjoy some coconut water, straight from the coconut! We headed home and had some dinner, hung out for the night, and went to sleep. We tried to watch Lord of the Rings, but we all fell asleep and finally everybody but Michael went to bed before the movie was over.

I was the first one to wake up other than Marta and Aldo (Yago and Andre's parents). I walked downstairs to a delicious breakfast spread put out for us. I later learned that this was the way Yago and Andre had been eating every day! There was bread, rolls, cream cheese, butter, jelly, juices of all kinds, cereal, Brigadeiro cake, passion fruit cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, everything! We all woke up at different times to enjoy this delicious breakfast. We decided that today we were going to meet the girls so we called the up and we decided that we were going to meet them at the private beach that was part of the place the Kathe lives. We all met there and enjoyed some more waves, all just as good! We stayed there for a few hours and then we all met back at the kind-of clubhouse area for some snacks. We had french fries and I enjoyed some fresh passion fruit juice and strawberry juice with condensed milk. It was all very yummy! We went back to Kathe's house where we immediately jumped into the pool in her backyard. We swam and played games for a while and then had some dinner. Yet again, it was all very delicious. We stayed and hung out for a few more hours and then headed home. One interesting thing that happened while we were there was that a truck drove down the street and behind it a huge fog would appear. There was a rig on the back of the truck that let out huge amounts of insect repellant-like stuff into the air that created a huge fog. It stayed for about 15 minutes.

We headed home and attempted to watch Lord of the Rings 2, and actually did well. We all stayed awake for the whole movie, and it was very good. We all went to bed and got some nice sleep for the next day. We woke up around 10, and enjoyed more breakfast, just the same again! I can't believe that that is how some people eat every day, it is incredible! We headed off back to the beach, the same one we had gone to the first day. We tried to call the girls, but nobody answered their phone so we just had to go alone. We stayed for a couple hours, surfing the waves and enjoying coconut water, and then we headed home. We planed on going to the mall later that night so we all had to get cleaned up before we could go. There was supposedly internet access, but when we got there it was closed for the night. We still had some dinner and then walked over to the cultural center where we looked at some art and the like. We all went home and then watched some TV and late-night movies.

We had to wake up a little earlier than usual because we were planning on leaving in the morning. We all woke up around 8:30 and packed our bags and enjoyed even more breakfast. We packed the cars and headed back. We were supposed to get back at noon so the Americans could plan the national night, but there was some traffic so we didn't get back until about 1:00. Now we are all back and getting ready to meet up again so we can get ready! More to come...