Phew!

 Yes, we are still alive and still in Brazil.  I know that is not completely obvious from our radio silence, but we went right from school ending to another trip here in Brazil with only a day in between.   As has been the norm for most of these entries, I won’t spend too much time trying to describe what we were doing, but basically it was an eight day adventure by car, boat, 4x4 truck, quad, and dune buggy from the town of Sao Luis to the town of Fortaleza.  The seed of the idea came from wanting to visit a national park called Lencois Maranheses, which is an 80 km by 20 km area of sand dunes and natural lagoons along the ocean.  Again, just look at the pictures.  After our third day, Sara summed it up by saying, “Brazil might be the most beautiful country in the world.” Right now, there is no arguing that from us.

And yes, school is over, which was extra weird because I didn’t really know how that was going to feel.  The debate in our family has been what is worse, having an amazing time and leaving being hard, or things being just ok and being ready to go home.  As it turns out, we are really going to miss the people, the community and Brazil as a country.  I am usually only a cryer during “based on a true story” movies, but phew, it was an emotional end to the year.  We have met too many amazing folks to even try to name them here, but not too many that we weren’t able to tell them.  And it’s hard to tell kids and families that you won’t see them next year.  I did it once before when I left the classroom to be a mentor and it hasn’t gotten any easier.   Brazil has its share of problems just like the US, but right now, I have to give the edge to Brazil when it comes to basic decency and love for your fellow human being.  People value each other here, and respect is given until you show them it shouldn’t be.  Maybe I am misremembering the US, but I am genuinely worried about going home to a country where so much is about politics.  It has been such a nice change to get to know people as people first, and not as the sum of their politics.  People in Brazil have serious political differences, but I have never known people longer and more deeply while knowing less about their politics than I do here.  

So yes, it has been rough saying goodbye, for all of us.  Thankfully, we have made some genuinely good friends here that we really do think we will see again, but not soon enough to not already miss them deeply.   

We got back to Brasilia last night and spent all of today packing.  We have two more days to pack up everything and get out of our apartment before our final trip of this adventure.   We will be living out of suitcases at our friend’s home for a few days after our last trip and before we come home so that we can do some last minute business, get our Covid tests, and anything else we have forgotten.  So that’s it for now.  A fairly bland entry in our family journal for what has been a whirlwind time, but it’s all I have the energy for right now.  

Be safe, be happy, and be well, 

Adam, Sara, Lila and Hannah

These are the dunes.  There are over 30,000 of these rainwater lakes in the park, which are only here because the whole area sits on a shelf of harder rock.  This underground layer of rock allows these pools to form, and June is when there are the most of them because the rainy season has just ended.  Most will dry up by September, but right now from overhead it looks like there is as much water as sand.

Classic big sister photo bomb.  

Lila is checking out animal tracks.  There are armadillos, foxes, and even small wild cats which hunt at and drink from the pools.

And oh yeah, they are also really good for jumping!

And donkeys, lots of donkeys.  Donkeys at breakfast.  Donkeys on hikes.  Donkeys everywhere.  Supposedly they are wild donkeys, but these two clearly decided otherwise.

And no, this is not a flood, this is just lunch.  This was taken a few days down the coast from our national park stop where things are a little more developed and sitting in the shade in the water is just what you do.

Did I mention jumping?

Oddly, even though we were on the coast, most of our time was around freshwater lakes.  This is just one of the ferries we took to follow our path down the coastline.

There have been a lot of hard parts to the pandemic, but these two have been champions.  They even managed to enjoy being sisters, most of the time.  

And hammocks in the water are also a thing, which did not upset the girls at all.

Brazilians love to take pictures of themselves, everywhere.  There will be long lines just to take your picture in front of a windswept tree.  It is not our style, but sometimes your buggie driver won’t take no for an answer.