MORE FLEXIBILITY...

I don't know about you, been when I picture Brazil I picture blue skies and gorgeous, white sand beaches. Our house is inland in the Boa Esperanza neighborhood of Santa Luzia, Brazil. We live in a small, humble home on a beat up street that has surely not seen maintenance-EVER. Behind us in the hills of Boa Esperanza are the flavelas or poor houses. The outlying hills are tropical looking, but we do not live in a luxurious, part of Brazil. Buzios is the first place we have traveled to since moving to Brazil four months ago. Of course we had a picture in our minds of what the week was going to be like and it included lots of sun and beach time! After all, you would think we would have that Brazilian tan going at this point. We do have some color, but it seems to be confined to our faces and arms, as we don't exactly get to do much sunbathing in Santa Luzia!

We arrived in Buzios to clouds and the threat of rain. By the afternoon it was indeed raining. It was light enough that we were able to walk around town and explore the shops and restaurants without much problem. By the next day, however, the rain was coming down in buckets. We were walking around town with shorts and t-shirts getting soaking wet. We were still having a good time, but the cold was starting to get annoying, and swimming in the ocean was not quite as alluring as we thought it was going to be.

By the third day, we decided that it might be a good idea to buy some umbrellas since our clothes were all soaking wet and we had no way to dry them. We also thought it would be smart to buy some sweatshirts in town to keep us warm. They would also come in handy for that cold ride home in the bus....finding sweatshirts was next to impossible.

We spent several hours looking for sweatshirts in the hundreds of boutiques on main street. You would be amazed at how hard it was to find cheap sweatshirts in Buzios, but then again, this is a touristy town and the boutiques are not catering to the average person! We ate dinner at an Italian Restaurant shivering under the eaves. Noah spent the entire meal curled up in a ball on a bench trying to keep warm. He was crying uncontrollably and when I asked him what was wrong he said he wanted it to be sunny so he could play in the ocean. The owner of the restaurant kindly offered to let Noah sit in front of the oven where he was cooking lasagna. Noah cheered up just enough to continue our quest for sweatshirts. It was nightfall before we found reasonably priced sweatshirts for the whole family (except for daddy who decided to tough it out)! We then walked back to the hotel and collapsed for the night.

We woke up the next day (yesterday) to blue skies and lifted moods. We spent part of the day at the beach and then our friends, Gislaine and Claydson arrived in town to spend the weekend with us. We are planning to take a water taxi to one of the local beaches today if the weather improves. It was raining this morning but looks like it might clear up. I guess it doesn't matter too much to me except that I would like get some good photos of Buzios in all of its tropical splender and that includes the sun! I do have a few photos to share with you. This truly is a paradise, rain or shine!