Goodbye Fortaleza!

Two weeks ago today I got home from what will probably be my last trip to Brazil for quite awhile.  I have really grown to love Brazil these past few years.  It's a really beautiful place with lots of wonderful people.  But, since my parents are coming home in less than four months, I won't have a reason to go back for awhile.  I'll want to spend my time, money, and frequent flyer miles exploring some of the other places on my ever increasing list of places to go and things to see/do.  


I'll miss going to Brazil every six months or so.  I'll miss the warmth, the beach, the agua de coco, seeing old sweaty guys with shirts tucked up over their bellies, the hammock on the balcony, and the great people I've met there.  


Anyway, before I left Fortaleza I got to spend some time hanging out with Ana and Marcos (the Brazilians who visited Idaho this December) and their friend Felipe.  

Here Ana and I are with a knockoff Brazilian Pluto at Beira Mar.  Normally I would automatically excluded anyone with thighs the size of my arms from my circle of friends.  But, I really like Ana.  She's fun and funny and nice, and I count her as a friend...despite the fact that she has toothpicks for legs.  

Here are Ana, Felipe, Marcos, and I at Beira Mar.  

After our walk on Beira Mar we got in a little ping pong time at the common room in my parents' apartment building.  

Marcos creamed Felipe 10 to zero.  

Then my mom humbled Marcos by beating him (he needed it).  

But then Marcos beat my dad and the pride cycle started all over again.  I think my dad was in denial that he'd lost in this picture.  

My dad tried to redeem himself at ping pong but was never able to.  So he moved on to pool where he, oddly enough, was the champion.  I had no idea that my dad even knew how to play pool.


I beat my mom a couple of times at ping pong.  I think that shocked her.  She's always considered herself to be the Forrest Gump of the family, but she took the losses well.  


On February 25th, my BTBF (Best Travel Buddy Forever), Kate, came to Fortaleza.  She showed up with our friend Lailton, who Kate, Corinne, and I met last year on our way to Iguassu Falls.  


She randomly ran into Lailton at the airport in Sao Paulo.  He was flying home to Fortaleza and got Kate on his same flight.  He's a flight attendant (a straight one, he'd like me to add) who is studying to be a pilot.  Lailton is really funny.  Sometimes because he means to be and other times because English is his second language.  

Seriously, you can't go wrong in speaking a foreign language.  That's what I'm always telling my mom.  Because if you mess stuff up then you'll come across as funny.  And if you don't mess it up then you'll come across as smart. So either way it's a win win.  Unless you're really bad and then you'll just come across as dumb, but you have to take some chances in life.  


Anyway, Lailton was only in Fortaleza for one day, but Kate, Lailton, and I were able to go to Beira Mar and get ice cream at 50 Sabores (50 Flavors) while he was in town.  


When there's an ice cream store with 50+ flavors they've got to get pretty creative.  Kate and I got quite a kick out of some of their flavors and translations.  Their sign said that you could try as many flavors as you wanted before choosing the flavor you wanted in your cone...so, we took them up on their offer, and tried a lot...an embarrassing lot.  I think we at least tried five flavors each.  

We were good girls and didn't taste the beer flavored ice cream but we did have to sample the Crispy Cheese ice cream.  It wasn't too bad, although I don't think I could have eaten more than a tiny taste.  I'm sure one of us tried Curdled Milk as well as Cream of Corn, but I don't really remember so they must not have been that bad.  And, the Shocking flavored ice cream, did not shock you, but was actually rather delicious. 

I was going to order some Obama Chocobrownie flavored ice cream, but something just felt kind of racist about it.  Also I decided that eating Obama Chocobrownie might show support for Obama, so I resisted, even though I do love me some chocolate and brownies.  

One of the flavors they have is "Anything."  So you just say "anything" and let the ice cream scooper guys choose your flavor.  I would never dare do that, especially with all the interesting/scary flavors they offer.  


Anyway, on the Saturday that Kate was in Fortaleza we went with Ana and Felipe out to the little sitio (like a country home) that Ana's family owns.  It's about an hour outside of Fortaleza and the drive there was absolutely beautiful.  It has rained a lot so far this year in Fortaleza and everything was so green and lush.  I would have taken pictures of the scenery on the way there, but were driving behind Ana and that girl has a lead foot (which is surprising for someone with stick insect legs).  There's no way we could have stopped to take a picture and caught back up with her.  Oh well, it was gorgeous scenery, even if I don't have any picture proof.  

Just chillin by the pool at the sitio.  

Ditto.

Taiba beach is just a few miles from their little sitio so we went there to check it out and we all thought it was pretty beautiful. 


Anyway, that's it for Fortaleza.  Super early in the morning on February 28th I said goodbye to Fortaleza and to my parents and Kate and I flew to Rio.  


It was so nice to think that I'd see my parents just four months after saying goodbye.  Four months is nothing.  Four months will fly by.  


I had much better commentary on these pictures, but like a dummy I accidentally erased half of it and then 2.2 seconds later it saved so I couldn't get it back.  So sad.  So when I re-did it I was lazy and lame.  Sorry.  Oh well, half of you are leeches anyway.  What do I care?  


Peace people.