Saying Goodbey

Here is dad giving the church a word of encouragement. I translated it! The church really enjoyed having us there. The service was great and the preaching too! I tried to translate to MOM and DAD. Jeremy helped out too. After the service we went out to Dinner, at 9 pm to a Rodigio de Pizza... see my next post for the pictures and descriptions of the different pizzas we ate.

Me and Dad Anderson

Many members stayed home because of the devastating floods

Grandpa Vicente Giordani

Grandpa Vicente with mo and dad below. Grandpa's house standing at the kitchen window as always....he lives on a busy road and stands at the window watching the passerbyers

Grandpa Vicente loves to hand out by the front window of his house. This is the kitchen/dinning area window. It looks out onto the street... The street is made of cobblestone. 

Blumenau, Santa Catarina

After Curitiba and Morretes, we rented a car and drove down to Blumenau, Santa Catarina. Santa Catarina state is where Priscila's parents grew up and mother's side of the family all live today. Blumenau is the capital of Santa Catarina. The drive to Blumenau was beautiful, we had to go over the mountains and down again. Mom and dad began to feel more at home when we entered Santa Catarina, more land, more mountains, more farms...very beautiful. We drove for about 3 hours....Here is a picture of us in the car..













When we arrived, Priscila's aunts and uncles went to pick us up by the highway, since we did not know how to get to Grandpa Vicentes house. We spent quite a few hours just meeting part of the family and talking - P's grandpa, spoke a lot about how he started his family...and P loved to hear his stories... Here are some pictures of our first day in Blumenau at P's uncle's house, Pedro (Peter) where we stayed... The lady in pink is Aunt (tia) Celia...she looks the most like P's Grandmother who passed away more than 25 years ago, along with Tio Vilmar and Tio Pedro holding the grilling fork from Linen's and Things...hehehe

Morretes, Parana State

Our last day with mom and dad in Curitiba, we decided to take a train ride through the Atlantic Forest and spend time relaxing and just enjoying nature. Here are a few pictures of our trip to Morretes - the train ride lasted 3 hours each way...When we arrived we did some tourist shopping and ate the famous Parana food, borreado (beef stew with flour) - here are a few pictures of our time in Morretes.





















We went right on that bridge and through 13 tunnels. It was an amazing experience and well worth it. So worth it, that when mom and dad left Brazil, Jeremy insisted we go back to Morretes and do some hiking, which we did and we want to do it again. It was an amazing time...






At Morretes, we ate the famous Parana dish, Borreado (beef stew with flour) that is cooked underground in a clay pot for hours...with fried shimp, banana, oranges, rice and and natural juice...can't remember if there was more . It took us a few hours to get through out lunch. We all had to adjust eating our bigger meals in the afternoon, as apposed to evening. So most days consisted of a large breakfast, a large lunch and a snack for dinner, cheese and crackers or bread.

Priscila left Brazil when she was only 9 years old. She went back a few times and each visit has its limits on who can be visited. This time, we visited family members on her father's side, her cousin Marcos. Here is a picture of Marcos two sons (Priscila's first time meeting them) with Mikely, Priscila's other cousin who drove us around for the day.

Here is Marcos, who continued the family business that Priscila's dad and younger brother started when P was a little girl. Twenty years ago, P's dad and brother just worked from home, replacing broken windows for the neighbors, now the business has grown a tons, and Goulart Vidros (Goulart Glass), works mostly with commercial buildings. What a blessing...

Marcos could not remember who Priscila was for a long time. Who can blame him, she was only 9 when she left and he was in his teens. Slowly by the time we left, he faintly remembered which of the girls Priscila was - the chubby one...

The mother city

We arrived in Curitiba mid day on the 7th. Again, we figured we take public transportation since Priscila could easily converse with locals. We took the "Rapidinho" ("little" quick bus) - the bus works like the subway system in the US. Passengers pay one price and get to ride in as many rapinhos as they need to get to their destination, as long as they remain in the "tube" stations when dropped off and picked up.


We stayed in downtown Curitiba and it was great. Curitiba is the capital of Parana. Visited the historic center, "November 15 Street" which is a plaza with tons of shops, visited different squares and in all walked everywhere we went (hours and hours of walking each day) - Here is a picture at 15th street with mom and dad.

Curitiba -

This is the downtown sidewalk. We saw tons of different designs. My favorite was a design of the pine trees -



Here is an old church at the historic center - hey, there is Priscila. Notice the stone street where someone is crossing. For years the street were made of stone, but recently, the city has been paving over it because of the increase in car traffic, making it safer for the cars to ride on it. Jeremy was very upset that the city is developing...

Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro

We drove to Rio de Janeiro city to catch our early morning flight to Curitiba the next day. On our way we got a picture of a small favela "slum". Supposedly, this is a nicer favela because there are some houses make of bricks...


We spent one night at Copacabana beach, and it was amazing, even if it was rainy and very cloudy. We visited the famous Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf), a huge rock at the edge of the city! We took public transportation to the Sugar Loaf (R$1.90 = US$.80) We went up the Sugar Loaf and saw...clouds...

Below is a picture of a temporary walkway to the second gondola on the sugar loaf.
We did not get a chance to visit the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer Statue), but we did get a glimpse of it the next morning on our way to the airport. We also visited a health store in Rio where we purchased banana candy...yumm, it was so good.

Bikini Street and Fair

In Cabo Frio we experience not only the beautiful beach but also got to walk downtown at the "Bikini Street" literally...tons of tiny stores, selling bikinis of all shapes and designs nothing we had ever experienced. After purchasing a few things, we went to the "ferinha" where street vendors gather downtown to sell their goods. Pri got a coconut earring and ate "pastel" (fried dough with filling like cheese, ground beef, hearts of palm, ham, banana, etc, (any combination you want). We tried a smoothie called "Beijo na boca" (kiss on the lips) which consisted of condensed milk, frozen strawberries, rum or vodka and milk...very good. Alcohol is sold just about anywhere, they even sell it to you while you are stuck in traffic or just waiting for the light signal to turn green. It is also consumed anywhere, even while driving.


Cabo Frio also gave us great times with our family and Priscila's niece and nephews who called mom and dad Anderson, Tio Peter and Tia Sharon. On February 6, we went to Copacabana.

At the Beach!

At Cabo Frio beach we had tons of ACAI berry with granola and honey. Right behind me is Priscila's nephew, James, drinking his afternoon milk...
Our first day at the beach, Jer received a big "Welcome to Brazil" from the sea critter jelly fish... we learned that the jelly fish will not sting the palm of the hand. The beach was clear of jelly fish on the second day. We were the whitest people on the beach....

On a rainy and darker day, Jeremy took some time to go body surfing since the waves were pretty big. Here is mom and dad watching their oldest trying something new. The best part for me (pri) was watching Jeremy come out of the water and say "Can I have 5 more minutes?" to his parents.... I felt like I was watching Jer's life as a little kid right in front of me. Mom and Dad just watched, talked and enjoyed their son taking on a new skill.... As soon as the sun set, the beach was cleared and everyone went to their homes for safety reasons. No walking on the beach by yourself at night!

Home away from home!

This is Dora, Dhaiane's mother-in-law. She and her husband Widson (aka Honey) cooked us typical Brazilian meals, such as tutu, farofa and churrasco. She even made us grilled cheese in the morning the old fashion way (pictured left). Our breakfast consisted of pao de sal (aka da'agua) with choices of ham, mortadella, mozzarella, butter, jam, requeijao and yogurt. Sweetened coffee with hot milk, tea or cold chocolate milk. Dora even baked dad Anderson a carrot cake from scratch because he mentioned to her that he liked it.


On the right we are having lunch with mom and dad, Jeremy, Dhaiane (Priscila's older sister with basebal cap), Andre, her husband and daughter, Julie and mother-in-law Dora. Our day consisted of a big breakfast at around 10 am, a huge lunch which is more like a dinner at around 2 pm and a light coffee and bread snack late evening before bed. Notice the tiled wall in the kitchen. Typical brazilian house has tiled kitchen and bathroom from top to bottom and marble or granite floors (which is a lot cheeper than in the states).

Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro

December 31, 2008 - We purchased our tickets to Brazil 10 months in advance. Twenty-four hours before we were to leave our flight from Boston is cancelled due to a snow storm. We managed to leave on the right date from Manchester, NH instead. We rode 3 hours in the middle of a snow storm to Manchester, then waited 3 hours for our plane to arrive, which brought us to Washington Dulles just two minutes after the our scheduled plane, carrying mom and dad Anderson had shut its door, and so, we found ourselves waiving goodbye to the pilots and to mom and dad... our trip was delayed by 1 day... We spend New Years riding a shuttle to a hotel with Ronald, our driver.... Here we are in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro. You can see why we were so anxious to arrive. We spent 7 days in Cabo Frio at Priscila's sister's beach house. We relaxed a ton, and sleept a ton.