Day 2
We woke this morning, came down and enjoyed our first breakfast. Eggs, bacon, amazing mango, breads, meat, cheese and coffee. The children quickly dove into the pool and played. They love the pool. We descided to check out the local beach, Iticotiara. The beach is beautiful, clean, no seaweed, and BIG waves. Lots of surfing and playing. You see cultural diffrence here BIG TIME. In the states, unless you are perfect you cover up....Here, it doesn't matter, young, old (I mean really old) big, small: You show your skin. I observed one young lady adjust her swim bottom..... remove the wedgie? No, yank that suit right up there even farther. Kayla got lots of looks in her long sleeved scuba shirt, hat and sunglasses as most little girls run around nude. Yup, gringo and proud of it! We played then came back in the afternoon to get back in the pool. Kayla has descided Uncle Rich is better than any floaty in the pool, she looks at him, smiles and says "what ya doing uncle rich, goin' in the pool?" and Zack and Bryce "surfed" on the boogie boards. After we ate another meal perpared at home by bets - grilled chicken, brocolli rice casserole and curried cauliflower soup (which was delicious), we got the kids into bed and started playing Harts..... Somehow, despite claiming never to have played, or not recalled having played, Alex seems to have taken the lead and has started recalling all sorts of strategy! Hmmmm sneaky sneaky..... We will see who wins the marathon.

To answer questions:

It is hot, but very pleasant with a breeze by the ocean. Nothing is "really" air-condidtioned. Our rooms are for sleeping, but not the rest of the house. It seems the heat slows everything and everyone down. There is no sense of urgancy or giddie up. The Brazillian way.

The house is very neat and the kids negotiate fine. We are getting used to it, though the glaring sunrise right in the bedroom windows is my least favorite part because once the kids see the sun they want up! We have monkey's! They are very curious and come right in thehouse to sneak snacks..... not unlike toddlers. The kids love it! But one Monkey managed toget his teeth in a mango. It is really beautiful, like they carved the house right into the hill- literally! Actually the road up is SO STEEP, it makes our driveway at home look like nothing.

I am going to try and post pictures today...... Bets says it's easy. We shall see.

Keep commenting, questions welcome.

H,A,Z,K