Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - Ilheus, Bahia

We arrived in Ilheus a few days before Christmas and we were planning on spending Christmas Eve at home.  We were feeling a little home sick because we didn't have any decorations and we weren't going to be with family and friends.  But, at church on Sunday we met some really nice members of the local ward (Ala Nelson Costa, Itabuna Bahia Stake) that invited us to their house to spend Christmas Eve.  We arrived at the Carvalho's house at 8pm on Christmas Eve and after 6 hours of fun and food we left for home at 2am.  Their home, the decorations, and presentation of the food were all so beautiful!  They welcomed us as part of their family and made us feel very comfortable.  We ate soooo much delicious food, had a white elephant gift exchange, and played games.  They even bought gifts for all the kids which helped ease the pain of being away from our typical american Christmas.  We will always remember our Christmas Eve in Brazil and forever remember the Carvalho family.

Christmas day we woke up at 11am and recovered from the party the night before.  There wasn't any rush to wake up early because there was no Christmas tree and no presents waiting to be opened.  It was a beautiful day and we played on the beach and swam in the pool.  The kids received their gift of a box of Garoto chocolates and were surprisingly happy with them.  Annette made a great turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy which made it feel a little like home.  It was a great Christmas even though it was different than any other we have had.

Bashford Family, Christmas Eve 2013 Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

Gift exchange.

Beautiful Home of the Carvalho Family.

The food and decor were amazing.

The mulheres (women) of the party.

The homens (men) of the party.

More amazing food.

Turkey dinner on Christmas day.

Arriving in Ilhéus, Bahia

Friday Dec. 20th we arrived at the Valença bus station at 7:30 hoping to get 9:00 departure bus tickets to Ilhéus.  We were shocked to find out that all the bus tickets on both bus lines were sold out for the day.  After exploring our options we decided to buy tickets to Itacaré and hope to get a bus from there to Ilhéus.  It was a pain, but after two bus transfers we made it to Ilhéus by around 5:00 pm.  We took two taxi's to our house and arrived to a lake of rain water as a driveway; it had been raining here for 5-6 days.  The taxi drivers waded through and we finally made it in.  The house is great, but small.  Derek and Taryn sleep in the family room and everyone else has a bedroom.  Brad and Annette were thrilled to have their bedroom air conditioned, and it worked!  The house sits on a large ocean front lot and has a pool.  We are very excited to finish our Brazil trip here.  Saturday was spent in a taxi going down town to find an internet modem, grocery shopping, and a quick stop at the airport.  Originally we had planned to take a bus from Ilheus to Salvador to catch our plane back to the US, but after our bus fiasco on Friday we decided to buy airline tickets to Salvador instead and avoid the 9 hour bus ride all together.  It was still raining all day on Saturday; we watched the lake grow bigger and bigger and wondered how we would get through the water to catch the bus for church Sunday morning.

Our house after all the rain

Sunday morning: getting to the bus stop is our only way into town.  We took off our shoes,
rolled up our pants and went for it.  After this experience we decided to rent a car for the three weeks we are here.

Almost there. Once at the top we waited, in the rain, for 40 minutes until a bus finally came by.  The only thing that kept us from giving up was the thought of having to walk back through the water.  Two families from church gave us a ride home.

Carson trying to get situated.  The boys put their socks on once they got on the bus because there was no place to sit down.  By the looks we were getting by people passing by, seven americans in church clothes on the side of the road in pouring rain must not be a common occurrence.

Once we got off the bus we had a five minute walk to the church.  We were only 30 minutes late.  

                             

Final days in Garapua, Bahia, Brazil

Garapua will have a special place in all of our hearts forever.  There is nothing like it and really no words to describe this simple village that seems to be stuck in time.  We gained many friendships and learned life lessons from a people that at first glance may seem uncivilized.  They accepted this loud, funny sounding family from America with open arms.  When asked when we were coming back it was difficult to answer honestly. Even though we will probably not see our friends in Garapua again, we will remember them for the rest of our lives.

Good bye Garapua

One of the fishing boats parked at low tide

Carson all saddled up, he rode up and down the beach

Derek with Giovanni and Giovanni's cousin

Local transportation

Local fishermen pulling in their net

Julien taking Taryn for a ride on the beach

Derek hanging out with Pipoca, we loved his ice cold Guarana and Coke Zero.  The first few weeks we were in Garapua Derek said he loved to hang out with Pipoca because he would give him a Guarana whenever he asked for one.  Needless to say, our tab at the Kiosk was quite large.

A friendly family tournament of modified tennis/ping pong???  Brad won.

Taryn's friends

More village transportation

Hannah's favorite find.

The credit card steps on the back of Pipoca's kiosk.  To use your credit card you have to climb the stairs and finalize your transaction on the roof; it is the only spot where an internet signal comes through.  No one thinks twice about it; so funny.

Carson and Gabriel

Our luggage stacked on the boat to Valenca, Derek asleep on the bench.  Once in Valenca we will catch a bus to Ilheus.

Teaching English in Garapua

Annette taught an English class the last 4 weeks we were in Garapua.  The class started on the patio but quickly outgrew the space.  The class was moved to the Garapua Community Center to accommodate more students.  This was very rewarding as it gave our family a chance to serve the community.  Once classes began, anywhere Annette walked in the village we heard, "Halo Cheachou" They have a tough time pronouncing English T's and R's.  The class was held every night except Sundays.  Hannah also participated by running the students through a daily warm-up where she went through the alphabet, numbers, days of the week and months of the year.  Some favorite students are Julien, Hodrigo, Gabriel, Danilo, Thyla, Vanessa,  Hyonye, and Caroline.  The last day of class the kids waited patiently until class ended then grabbed Annette and hid her around the corner.  When she came around there was a beautiful cake baked by a mom in the community and also several liters of soda.  The students had planned a great surprise/thank you party for Annette.  We had great pictures of class in the community center but sadly our camera was stolen on the bus back from Itacare, so we lost those pictures.

First day of class; we later added a blackboard and moved to the community center.

Last day of class Surprise/Thank you party.  Teaching English in a swimsuit while eating cake and drinking Guaraná with these amazing kids is the LIFE!  

Zip Line across Ribeira Beach - Itacare, Bahia

2-part zip line: one across the ocean and the other back down the mountain.

R$30 zip line= UDS$ 12, pretty cheap let's hope the price doesn't reflect the quality.  Let's hope we don't end up in the ocean any earlier than we want to today.

Maile excited to get going

Strapping into our harnesses 

Hiking to the drop off point

We made it!  We drop off this cliff and sail over the ocean!

Hannah approaching the first landing, the ocean is below and to the left.

                                                         Taryn on the first landing

                              View of the ocean below from the first landing

                         Crazy kids; second take off point, zip line back down the mountain

                                                     Derek approaching the second landing

Carson approaching the second landing

 Brad loving the ride

Maile at second landing

Taryn loved the zip line and wanted to do it again, now lets go swimming!

Ending the day with some serious battles of Tap Tap Revenge

Surfing in Itacare, Bahia, Brazil

The owner of the pousada we are staying at also has a surf school in Itacare.  He has surfed all over the world but was born and raised in Bahia, the largest state in Brazil.  We had two different guys help us out named Junior and Adriano.  I think we entertained them more than they entertained us.  One of the days we walked through town carrying 5 longboards.  As if the white gringo family with all the kids weren't a spectacle already...now we are carrying surfboards with us to draw more attention.  Another day we (7 in our family, 2 surf guides, and the driver) piled into a car with room for 6.  We have gotten used to being uncomfortably close to strangers and always being sweaty is kind of the norm here so this wasn't a big deal.  And another day all 10 of us piled into a boat made for no more than 4 people and drove across the bay to reach a hard to access beach.  Getting to the and from the surf spots was just as entertaining as the surfing.  And our guides/instructors were total tree hugging, pot smoking, nature worshiping surf rats which made for interesting conversation with a family of conservative Mormons from American suburbia.  The surfing conditions weren't the best but we had a great time and saw some incredibly beautiful beaches.

Carson getting ready to shred on his Brazilian potato chip.

Hannah, Maile, and Carson lined up after a successful surf session with the beautiful Praia da Ribeira in the background.

Maile, Brad and Hannah at Praia da Ribeira.

Grabbing the boards for lesson #2, everyone got pounded and beat up today.

Taryn and Derek's job was to wax the boards

Ready to go.  Junior, our white faced, crazy instructor in the back with Adrien.

One of the first waves of the day for Maile.  Carson wanted to catch a wave and not ride whitewater; sorry, not today.

Hannah popped up from the beginning

Beautiful Ribeira beach

Lesson #3: walking out to the boat that took us across the river from Coroinha beach.  We headed to Pontal beach (Long beach) Today was much more successful; the kids didn't take such a beating and had so much fun.

loaded up on the boat 

Pontal Beach (Long Beach)

Hannah

Maile and Carson

Maile

Derek

Taryn

                                              Ending our day with a game of "Loser"