Spring in Brazil...last post

So our trip comes to an end, we fly out tomorrow and barring any international snafus should be back in Bozeman by Tuesday. Figured I'd put up some other pictures and continue with the last few vinettes I had regarding my trip down here...and the whole cheesy "so what have you learned sappy crap that I know you all love!"

Vinette 1: Monsoon Season in Brazil and an Obstinant VW Van.

So as I said in my last post we got stuck in the down pours of all down pours, I felt like we should've been building an ark rather than perusing the artisan shops at the beach! And after everything was said and done I saw no rainbow...just more rain! DOH! Below are pictures from that fateful day when dry and cool became but a fond memory replaced by hot as hell underwater! And of course our 'faithful' VW van got us through it all...of course the next day our 'faithful' VW van got its revenge for us making it swim from Guaraja back to Cubatao...just as Carol went to shut the door, it promptly fell off. It was it's way of spitting on us I've decided--'screw you, I'm not going anywhere!'--only it was saying it in Portuguese...because well, it's a Portuguese VW van! We all just kind of stared at it for awhile marvelling at the audacity of the VW van at dropping its door. And although Brazil does have crazy drivers--amazingly enough they do have a minimum standard on the roads here that includes doors need to be on the car/van. And given the seat next to the door had no seat belt and well...we had no door if we attempted to drive the van doorless, we'd probably get a bit of a fine. Just the previous day the VW van 'warned' us by running out of gas and we had to push it out of traffic...unfortunately I didn't get any pictures but it was quite amusing--the speed bumps in missionary work (pun totally intended), but we should've known then that the van was getting pissy with us all! It should be fixed by the time we have to leave for the airport tomorrow night--fingers crossed...or it's going to
get even more interesting figuring out how to get to our flight. Ah...we live for adventure around

here.

Vinette 2: Brazil's Ski LiftOne of the other interesting things that I never thought I would find in the tropical rainforest/Amazon...Brazil in general was a ski lift! San Vicente decided to put a ski lift down at the beach that took sightseers up to the top of a small mountain (molehill to Montana-ites) so that they could take in the view. (Pictures are below) We started at the beach and were taken up and over the freeway which is very unnerving when you are afraid of heights and if the chair lift happens to stop right over the freeway and your chair starts to sway...yeah...just a tad. So up and away we went and the view was incredible. On the way down we saw some monkeys in the forest but I had just put my camera away...stupid me. But they had ringed tails and were adorable and fully annoyed that we were gliding over them. If you didn't want to take the lift you could take a path through the rainforest and enjoy all the mosquitos and spiders that dwelled down there...despite my fear of heights taking the lift was much more exciting. The veiw from the top was really cool.

Vinette 3: The 1915 Cash Machine

So we went and purchased some gifts from a shop in town and she had the coolest cash machine and it actually functioned, I believe she said it was from 1915...so I thought that was cool and here's a picture!

I came to Brazil to figure some stuff out and I think I did and I've made some really good contacts that will be a great asset to me after I graduate. I might be able to get back to Brazil to focus on Dengue which would be awesome. I also have some possible connections in Kenya at the Tenwek hospital and the infectious diseases they study there. I think I was successful at re-focusing and I am so excited now to get back to my thesis, get it done, and move on. I have more deep thoughts (yes, I know amazing huh?) BUT, I will spare you all since this post is long and it's already 1am here! So I can regale you all with tales when I get back over coffee or something!

Alas, I was unable to procure postcards, you'd think they'd be easy to find, but I kept missign them or spacing them out, but I will see you all soon in the states!