Our house is in a small town called Olivenca about 10 miles south of Ilheus. The house borders a beautiful beach with clean white sand and warm 80 degree ocean water. The property has 20 or so coconut trees that are loaded with coconuts and we have taken advantage of that. We bought a couple machetes for Carson to cut them open for us to drink. There is a large patio where we spend most of our time eating, playing games, or just talking. That's something we've learned to do in Brazil...talk to each other! because there is no TV and bad internet at our house and we actually like it and do it for several hours every evening. We also spend a good amount of time swinging on the hammocks, swimming in the pool, or just staring at the beach and the ocean waves. There is a covered parking area for our awesome Fiat rental car, 2 laundry sinks, a detached guest suite, and a BBQ. There are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in the main house and the upstairs bedroom has an AC unit so we have all taken turns sleeping in the cool, dry air. Whoever sleeps in that room usually sleeps better and longer because they don't wake up a sweaty mess at 6am.
An example of a game that we played one night was a soda taste test. Guarana is a very popular soda in Brazil and we love it! There are several brands (Antarctica, Kuat, Schin) that we have tried so one night we decided to do our own taste test between the two most popular, Antarctica and Kuat. The kids almost unanimously chose Antarctica and I think that is also the choice of most locals.
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| Sunset view of the beach behind our house. It's pretty dreamy. |
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| We spend a lot of time sitting at these tables on our patio and swinging in the hammocks. |
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| Grilling some meat at our backyard BBQ. |
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| Just enough parking for our fun Fiat. |
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| It's a small pool but the kids are in it all day. It is a nice break from the sand and salt water. |
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| Derek and his Brazilian buddy Derek (both named Derek and both 7 yrs old) swinging on one of the backyard hammocks. |
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| Carson cutting open one of the hundreds of coconuts on the property. |
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| Brad and Taryn doing the Antarctica/Kuat guarana taste test. |
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| Maile and Derek in the pool. |
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| Maile and Derek sleeping in because they got the room with the AC. |
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| Party in the pool with some friends from the local church. |
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| Derek, Carson, Guilherme, and Derek eating lunch on the patio. |
This is so cool. Thank you so much for posting all of this! I would drive through olivencia all the time to get to another city a bit more south called una. How long is your family staying in ilheus/brazil?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I haven't looked at our blog in a few months. We were there for 3 months total and returned in January 2014. It was an amazing experience. We loved Olivenca and Ilheus. The entire southern Bahia coast is beautiful. You were lucky to serve there.
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