Brasil 2008 with Licia's family

After leaving Curitiba on Jan. 31, we travelled with Forrest and Licia to Bahia, Brasil to spend time with members of her family. Her Mom had 17 children so her family is large. We flew to Salvador via San Paulo and stayed one night with Licia's sister Tati, husband Dinho, daughter Camila and son Caio. They have a beautiful home in Salvador. We rented a Fiat that used natural gas, gasoline and alcohol as fuels. Part of Licia's family meet each Carnival season at their beach house in Palame. Although the river was just across the street from the beach house, we were told not to swim there to avoid getting worms.

People would bathe, swim, wash clothes and dishes and ride horses in the river. Her family really enjoys swimming in the inlet where that river meets the ocean. Across the street from the beach house were these colorful houses. Gail and I really enjoyed our time in the ocean boogie boarding. The rocks where we were here were not bad but most of the beach had dangerous rocks. Although Gail was sick with diarrhea many days, whenever she was well as you can see, she really enjoyed the beach. Licia's sisters Tati (with husband Dinho) and Dilma are shown at the inlet with us. We spent Carnival in Palame so we only saw a few scary dressed people. We saw this interesting mode of transporting goods there. In the center of this small town is this enclosed soccer court. This is the main restaurant in town. I had to get this picture of Licia's sweet Christian mom reading her well used Bible. We rode (in the back of a packed pickup truck) to Licia's brother, Dario's, farm for a day of jumping off the stick bridge and swimming in the very clear river.

After returning to Salvador for a day, we rode 2 hours to Licia's mom's home and where most of her children were raised in Alagoinhas, where we stayed about 4 days.

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This is Licia's brother, Paulo and his 2 girls that Licia and Forrest were trying to adopt last year. Their living conditions were not good. We ate Sunday dinner at Licia's sister, Leleia's home. Gail was really not feeling good here.

We returned to Salvador on Sun afternoon and remained there until our Fri. flight home. Salvador is a very beautiful city for it's beaches, lakes and small streets in the upper city. The harbor is strikingly beautiful for a 450 year old city.

Valentine's Day produced another challenge for me to get flowers for Gail, but as you can see...I came through once again. Gail had been sick for 3 or more days in Salvador so missed much of the sightseeing in the old city, but did enjoy our last day at the beach. She especially enjoyed sitting in the shade of the restaurant and ordering coconut water with her Pepsi. Not a bad view of the Atlantic Ocean.
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This guy had just caught this fish and asked me to put his picture on the internet, so here he is.

We had a good-bye dinner with Tati's family at one of their favorite restaurants. We had a great 2 weeks after English school in Brasil with Licia's family.