Brazil

We made it! We've been planning this trip for four months and we're still a bit in shock that we're finally here. We are ready to explore, learn, and immerse ourselves in the culture as much as possible. 

The travel here was a bit brutal. A total of 40 hours were spent in airports, on airplanes, on a train, and in a taxi from the time we arrived at the SLC airport to the time our taxi driver dropped us off at our apartment in Rio. We attempted (some of us more successfully than others) to sleep in three airports and three flights while we navigated our way through five airports.

Taggart was the most successful at sleeping in the Ft. Lauderdale airport, where Quinnten was still dancing his heart out to the LOUD ambient music playing over the speakers at 3:00 a.m. Holland was in and out of sleep because it was so cold; she ended up with two pairs of pants, three sweatshirts, and jacket, and two pairs of socks on when she was finally able to get some shuteye. By 5:00 a.m. Taggart was still asleep when Tyler finally laid down and Holland and Quinnten used him as their pillow. At exactly 4:32 a.m. the airport was back to lights on bright and people coming and going through security. Me? I stayed awake to keep watch of our luggage...and my babies.

We had exactly one hour to disembark from our flight into Bogata, Columbia before we had to start boarding for our final flight to Rio. And...they made us exit through Customs and go back through Security Check. It was stressful as none of us spoke Spanish well enough to feel confident. But, we made it. With about 10 minutes to eat a quick burger at Guys! (which we fell in love with on our cruise last year.) Whew!

My luggage was double-checked in both SLC and Miami. And Taggart had to get the wand search in Bogata. 

Our taxi driver was so nice and I think he loved that Tyler spoke Portuguese. As we drove from the airport to our apartment the things that struck me the most were the favelas, the amount of trash everywhere surrounding the favelas, and the lack of adherence to traffic laws, if there really are traffic laws. It's as if no one knows that there are lines on the roads for a reason. Everyone just moves between lanes as they please, merging here and there and constantly jockeying for position on the roads. Horns are definitely used here! And... every one of the people on motorcycles (drivers and passengers) wore helmets. Every one!

Once at our apartment, we were too early to get in. It was only about 8:00 a.m. We weren't supposed to be able to get in until 1:00 p.m. So, Tyler messaged our Airbnb host and he said he would let us know as soon as it was ready. We headed to the beach and hung out and played and were finally in our apartment by 10:10 a.m.

Quinnten insisted on video-calling Grandma Lucy while the rest of us fell asleep for two hours. Obviously, Quinnten was the only one who got a good chunk of sleep on our final flight. We were so tired! When we woke up we went and explored our neighborhood, grabbed some food, and stopped at the market for some groceries. We then headed back to the beach for a bit!

The kids were in bed by 7:30 p.m and Tyler and I by 8:30 p.m. When Taggart came into our room a little before 9:00 a.m. I could not believe that we had all slept for so long. Clearly, we were sleep-deprived!