Just Another Day (or three) in Paradise

From 11/19/13

We have a three day weekend.  We planned to go rent a place by the beach.  But it turned out to be not such a great place, so we changed and went to the mountains with a place with a great name . . .  Extrema, Brazil.  

It is only 90 minutes from our house, so we could all handle it.  We left after work on Thursday and arrived at night,  it is always a little nerve racking to drive on dirt roads through the night not knowing if we are going to the right place.  Luckily we found some small signs for our Pousada.  It was a relief to know we were on the right (dirt)track.

Our first impression at night was that the pool looked inviting.  It was a little weird for me to bring our own bedding and towels, but we have our own little house and it was super clean even if it is a little dated.  I am starting to get used to every place we stay being from the 1970s. 

This morning we had some early risers.  Getting up at 6:30 while on vacation should be against the law.  

Jamison and I finally got up for good around 7:30.  I went for a run around the grounds.  I was so impressed with all the plants.  

The kids had a great time exploring especially climbing on some huge rocks.  

Jamison and I were lucky enough to see another Blue Morpho butterfly.  We ended up chasing it all over for ten minutes trying to get a picture.  

We enjoyed a fishing pond, turtles, ducks.  We didn't like the turkeys and chickens. 

We also went swimming in a cold swimming pool.  I didn't want to mess with sunscreen so I borrowed a swim shirt from Jamison, and I looked positively Amish, 

especially compared to the usual Brazil styles. We all had fun.  Grace was the last one out still practicing her dives.  

We just hung out and had a great time doing it.  Playing foosball, painting nails, reading books.  Then that all ended when the mean old parents made the kids clean up!  

We headed to the main town of Extrema.  We did some "extreme" browsing at an outlet store while a couple of kids napped. The kids weren't too excited about the cultural festival in the center of town, so we made our way to a waterfall.  

I explored with Grace and Oliver while Jamison took the younger three for a snack.  The waterfall group saw some kids sliding down the rock and commented how crazy it looked.  A lot of them even bumped into rock that was jutting out a bit.  We were super careful as we climbed up.  

We met back for our snack. French fries, Açai, and calbresa (which is funny since Jamison wanted to order a salad and we got a plate of sausage and onions.  So here's a little language lesson, Calbresa - sausage, Caprese - salad.)

When we were done, Oliver was anxious to show the other kids the waterfall, so the group went ahead of me to check it out.  

Apparently Oliver didn't have time to give a full safety debriefing as they ran on ahead of Jamison.   

Abby didn't notice the slippery wet part of the rock and lost a flip flop down the waterfall and then slid down herself.  The exact path I commented on before that I thought would be super crazy to go down.  About a thirty foot slide down rock to a pool at the bottom.  Abby slid down that on her belly while she was panicking and trying to grab hold of something with her hands.  It must have been awful to be sliding and not being able to see where you were going!  

Abby's ride down the waterfall to the left of the rocks in the middle. 

She was pretty upset that her new nail polish that we did today was scratched off.  I was pretty grateful that she didn't break an arm or a leg!  

Truly we are grateful that she came away from that experience with a scratch on her hand and some chipped nails.  It could have been much worse.  We are grateful for the guardian angels looking out for her today!