Aventura Lagoa

Picking up at the end of my last blog; we had just finished getting ready and were about to head out for the night. Before picking up a couple of Vanessa's friends she took Tracy and I to see the bridge lit up at night - it's a really common picture that they use on their post cards so it was nice to see in real life! After the bridge we went to see an old fortress that they have made into a small historical site. It was right on the shoreline with cannons at every angle to watch for boats coming in to dock. A weird fact about the building is that the whole thing was made from whale products - there's a beach named after the part that they would harvest from the whales there. Very cool!

Next we picked up a few car loads of Vanessa's friends and headed to the bar to celebrate! Her friend Leila (sp?) had just defended her masters and so it was definitely a night to go out. We just sat at the bar and talked but it was a lot of fun to get to know them. Tracy and I have already made plans with Anastacia to teach her english and in exchange she's going to teach us portuguese! And then Leila and Anastacia have made plans to take us for a weekend during Oktoberfest! I really hope that comes together because it sounds like a blast and these girls are so much fun!

This morning Tracy and I went on a solo adventure to a lake nearby. We hopped on the bus with a general idea of where to go. Once getting to the bus station we realized that there were about 3 different buses that had very similar names with where we wanted to go. Crossing our fingers and jumping onto one that sounded good we knew we would have an adventure no matter what! Even if we didn't make it to the lake we would find something to discover. Sure enough we get to the next station and didn't really know where we were. So we started walking! We found a lake and took some pictures. Walked around a portion of it and enjoyed the day thinking we had found a whole new area that we hadn't been told about yet. On our way back home however we looked at the name on the bus station and it was the right place all along! We accidentaly stumbled to exactly where we wanted to be :) OH and we also stumbled onto a brand new friend... a PENGUIN! I never thought that when I was in Brazil I would be watching a penguin swim around their lakes. Cutest thing ever.

After our adventure it was back home to make some dinner and watch a movie with the family (with subtitles for Tracy and I). Tomorrow I think we're going to get one of our cell phones all set up - Nevaldo has a cell that one of us can use we just need to get a sim card and set up a plan for it. The other cell phone that we have is also waiting for a sim card but Vanessa's friend is using it right now and he will be back in town in a couple weeks. Then we will both have a way of communicating with our newfound Brazilian Friends!

Well family/friends, it is getting late so it will be bedtime for me!

Boa noite!

Karen