Saturday, April 14, 2018
It's 5:45 am and we are awake finishing
last minute packing for our transport to the local Sao Paulo airport.
Bleary eyed we hopped into Anna's car and for once (since it is
early and a Saturday), the traffic moved. Anna told us how much she
enjoyed hosting us and we thanked her profusely for her hospitality
and we hugged goodbye. We made it through security and met our group
in the terminal for the short one-hour flight to Belo Horizonte
Airport. Belo Horizonte is the capital city of the southeastern
Minas Gerais state. Nova Lima is a suburb of it, the first planned
city and has new modern architecture with pretty mountain views. The
area produces iron ore and once was known for gold mining.
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| Our Friendship Force Group poses in the park |
Surprise!
The Nova Lima Group greeted us as we exited the luggage area with a
huge welcome sign and plenty of hugs. (Brazilians are very very
friendly and like to hug and kiss you on the cheek). We boarded a
bus for a one hour transport to the site of the Welcome Party and
lunch, at one of their members lovely, almost new house. They
toasted us with official Brazilian drinks called caipirinha,
made with lemons & lime and sugarcane liquor with passion fruit
and pineapple fruit. Then, it was time for feijoada,
a mixture of black beans, rice, sausage and beef. Its considered the
“national dish” and is delicious. It's origin is from the slaves
that first came to Brazil who used the left over beef to create a
good meal. But wait, there's more gastronomic delights! How about
the custard flan, coconut cakes with tapioca fillings, guava spread
between the delicious cheeses of the area? Wow, the calories! Worth
every bite!
Eventually, we were taken to our home
for the next week by our personable, English-speaking hosts, Aloisio
and his wife Simone, with their 20-yr old daughter, Marina. The have
a gorgeous Spanish-colonial architecture home that they've recently
renovated. We have a comfortable room (and bed) with our own
bathroom. Richard is absolutely delighted because they have 2
friendly Golden Retrievers. (Richard LOVES goldens, he has always
wanted one, and is having a ball playing with them). After a lovely
light dinner, we fell into bed and slept soundly until the next
morning.
Sunday, April 15, 2018
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| Rob & Sue with Joanne & Richard at scenic vista |
Up at 7:45 am for a wonderful Brazilian
breakfast with our hosts! We were transported to city center for a
tour of the city and visited a beautiful vista where there was a
monument to Pope Paul VI's visit. We also beautiful tile work at the
church of St Francis of Assisi – such unusual architecture!
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| St Francis of Assisi Church - neat architecture! |
Aloisio took us to eat out a a lovely
cafe – it seems that there are many buffet restaurants here that
charge by the weight of the dish. After that, we went to the
birthday party of their nephew. We noticed that family is of utmost
importance in Brazil. There is a birthday celebration for every
member of the family that is attended by aunts, uncles, grandmothers,
cousins, etc. All in all a great day!
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| Entrance to Simone & Aloisio's beautiful Nova Lima home |
Monday - Wednesday, April 16-18, 2018
The last three days have flown by with
lots of activities and family interaction. I had a great time going
to the Central Market with Simone and checking out the unusual
fruits, veggies and assortment of Brazilian items for sale. On
Tuesday we visited city museums and the group enjoyed a lovely lunch
at the home of club members, Dorinha and Fernando Milton. Fernando
is a retired orthopedic physician who is a talented artist and
sculptor. Today we headed for Ouro Preto, a colonial city founded in
the gold rush. We visited gorgeous churches and checked out the gem
shops in the area.
Thursday – Friday, April 19-20, 2018
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| With our hosts, Simone and Alonsio |
Richard came down with a sinus cold
with lots of stuff dripping down his throat. So, today he stayed
with our hosts and rested. They fixed him up with lots of good
Brazilian remedies. I went with our group for a tour of their soccer
stadium. Football (soccer in Brazil) is BIG down here and we were
fully educated. Of interest, was displays of their players uniforms
and footprints of Pele, who was from this region. Friday, was a
wonderful Farewell Party with an authentic Brazilian BBQ.
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| The 2 yr old Golden Retreiver, Fleur - very fun & micheveious! |
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| Mike, the older one, who is very sweet |
The food
here has been awesome. Its hard to keep your weight under control
when they are feeding you their cheese breads and awesome desserts.
They are experts at making flan – we've had traditional flan,
coffee flan, coconut flan, etc. We did a little “goodbye”
ceremony for them. We spelled out Florida, USA and each one of us
learned the Portuguese for what we said,
e.g., “U” in USA is for the unity of our states. On Saturday, we sadly hugged our hosts,
Simone and Aloisio Melo, and parted with tears in our eyes. Hopefully, they'll come visit us someday!
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| Joanne & Richard in front of the falls |
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| A butterfly called "88" - can you see it? |
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