Christmas down south. Way down south.

We've been playing up the "Christmas in the southern hemisphere" with the girls for a while.  "Christmas in the SUMMER?!?!?!  Can you believe it?"  Unfortunately, the weather isn't exactly cooperating.  It's been rainy and gray and chilly outside almost every day since we got back from Florianopolis.  It's not as cold as I hear it's been back in Georgia, and not nearly as cold as Milwaukee, but it's been as chilly as it's been for many of our Georgia Christmases. 

Some people, when they hear we're in Brazil, probably picture us in this nice tropical weather, getting sun tans and frolicking.  Or something.  The reality is, this is what it's looked like for the past 2 weeks.

We have had a few nice sunny - even hot- days in the past week or so, so we've gone out on the town to do some shopping and to look at the decorations.

The tree below is made entirely out of plastic 2 liter soda bottles.

 This one is made out of live potted plants.

We went through the shopping mall the other day, where we did see evidence of the whole opposite season thing.  A display of poinsettias and bunnies.  Not a combination you see a lot in the states, and a reminder that it's the end of spring down here.

And ducks, too.

On the way back from the mall, the girls were excited to look out at all the lights on the buildings.  They haven't seen many because, as Mac observed, you have a lot less time to look at Christmas lights down here, since it doesn't get dark until almost 9.  

Here's a pic of Papai Noel (Santa) as he seems to be shown a lot around here - climbing a ladder.  I'm trying to think back, but I don't think I've seen any reindeer or sleighs around at all. 

The other day Lily asked me if Santa used capybara dusted with pixie dust to pull his sleigh in Brazil, since there aren't any reindeer in the Southern hemisphere.  I told her that I honestly didn't know.

We've been getting ready for Christmas in our apartment as well.  We've got a tree.  Here's what it looked like after the girls decorated it with their animals.  Everyone needs puppies and dinosaurs on their Christmas tree, don't ya think?  Oh, and monkeys.  Definitely monkeys.

The stockings were hung by the...um, bar...with care.

And we have our own snow.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

The smallest adventurer

Looking through pictures to put together the last couple of posts, I noticed a theme, of sorts.

It must be tough to be the smallest one in the group.  You have to take so many more steps when you have the shortest legs, and nobody wants to stop to let you take a nap.  She's been such a trooper and I hope she remembers at least some of these adventures.

Vila Velha State Park

We had our rental car for another day after we got back from Santa Catarina, so we started looking for places to go that were within a couple hours drive from Curitiba.  We settled on Vila Velha State Park,  about 1.5 hours away.  The park houses some interesting erosional features, both "furnas", vertical-walled caves (sinkholes?), and a "arenitas", giant sandstone features rising up from the ground.

 Our first look at the arenitas.

 The first furna.

 The girls examining one of many list of rules on the trail around Golden Pond.  They are probably trying to figure out how to get around them.  Case in point - a conversation I had with Lily.

Lily: It doesn't say "no climbing trees" so does that mean we can climb the trees?
Me:  It says to stay on the trail, so if you can't go off the trail, you probably can't climb a tree.
Lily:  What if the tree is hanging over the trail.  Can I climb it then?

 She doesn't look like trouble, does she?

The camel.

 The coke bottle.

 The Moo.

 The bow of the ship.

 

 Getting a different perspective.

 Adventure girls.  Can you see their "Adventure badges"? Cicada skins hooked on to their shirts.

And we didn't get rained on at all at the park.  That started later... again.

Another trip

Our last trip out of Curitiba before we head home.  We drove down to Santa Catarina Island/Florianopolis, several hours south of Curitiba.  The first day there was pretty crummy - we ended up walking along the beach in our fleece jackets and carrying umbrellas.  Luckily for us, the rainy and cool weather that was forecast to last for almost our entire trip didn't materialize and we ended up with gorgeous, warm, sunny days after day 1. 

The second day there, we drove to the south end of the island and took a boat over the the island of Campeche.  Our guidebook calls Campeche "Brazil's Easter Island", because of the petroglyphs found on the rocks there. In true Brazilian fashion, though, I would call this a bit of an exaggeration, based on what we heard.  We didn't get to actually see the petrogylphs, due to a miscommunication with the guide that was there, but the friend traveling with us did and said they weren't exactly amazing.  What we did get to do, however, was spend the afternoon on a nearly deserted beach (we were on the only boat that went over that day, and it had about 11 people on it including the 5 of us) under a beautiful blue sky and swim in amazingly clear ocean water. 

 Maggie wrote her name in the sand

 The little dots at the bottom of the picture above are my famliy.

It did rain on us a bit on the boat ride home, but it wasn't bad.  And it meant we got to see this while enjoying some cold beverages back on shore.

We didn't have a clear plan for day 3.  We set out in the morning and went to one of the 42 beaches on the island.  The wind and the waves were pretty high - too high for the kiddo's to be comfortable - so we had a picnic lunch and drove on.  We ended up at a beach that is bordered by high sand dunes where you can rent equipment to sandboard and sand sled.  I didn't take my camera because I didn't want it destroyed by sand, but I wish I had some pictures.  The landscape was amazing and the sand sledding was a ton of fun.  After an hour we were tired, covered in sand, sunburned and sweaty.  So we jumped back in the ocean to cool/wash off and headed home.  Here's the only picture I took of the dunes, as we were driving away.  It doesn't look nearly as cool as it was.  You'll have to trust me.

For our last full day on the island, Mac decided that almost empty beaches weren't good enough.  So we set out for Lagoa do Leste.  It's a state park on the south end of the island that is only accessible by hike - either a steep ~one hour hike over the moutain or ~ three hour hike around the mountain from the other direction.  We chose the one hour version, which ended up being about 1.5 hours with the kids factored in.  The hike was not easy, but it was quite beautiful and the scenery was worth it.

 The beach at the start of the hike.

 Heading in.  Maggie got help on the steep, rocky parts.

 Lily loved, loved, loved the hike.  On the way up anyway.   And this is her adventure skirt.

 Looking back at the starting point.

 Cookie break at the top of the mountain.

 The first glimpse of our destination.  It was still a long way off...

 A long, rocky way off.

 Getting closer.

 Ahhh...made it.   We played in the surf a little.  Again, it was pretty rough and the water was chilly so the girls didn't want to stay in long.  We had another picnic lunch, then we spent a couple of hours splashing around in a freshwater stream that crossed the beach and went into the ocean. 

Then it was time to head back over.

Maggie gets more help. 

When we got back from the hike, we went directly to our favorite place on the island.  Napoli.  What is Napoli?  Ice cream buffet!!!  50 flavors of ice cream, toppings, etc, buffet style.  And we went every day we were there.  That's right EVERY DAY.  Now that's a vacation.