Toda Bom

Guest blog by Nick Coder

Walter Brown (aka Wally, World, Duck, Ducky, and most likely a few others) and I met Jon and Kristen for the final two weeks of their SA excursion. While Jon and Kristen were hoping to gain another perspective through which to view their life and their relationships, as well as each another, Wally and I were hoping to gain a few darker shades on our tan. I'm happy to report Mission Accomplished.

We started in Rio. Wally and I got in early Saturday July 15, with Jon and Kristen expected later that night. Without their guidance, Wally and I ended up eating dinner at the Irish Pub. We noticed a number of Indian and Mexican dishes on the menu. I thought it might be ironic to have Mexican food in the Irish pub in Brazil. So we had steak. Jon and Kristen met up with us and for the next few days, we took in all of the tourist sites in Rio (beaches, Christ the Reedemer, beaches, Sugarloaf, beaches, Maracana - the largest soccer stadium in the world, and beaches) and then headed to Paraty, a great beach town between Rio and Sao Paulo.

We started with a bike ride and hike, which led to this:

The following day, we hired a boat operator, who looked suspiciously like Vin Diesel, shown here:

We spent much of the boat tour on the top of the boat, which had a pillow-top deck shown here. Please note Wally in the background giving the Brazilian(/international?) sign for Life Ain't Bad. Also note Jon and Kristen working to put lunch together, while Wally and I do not:

Also seen on the pier at Paraty were Jimmy Buffett and Mark Gastineau. Apparently, Paraty is a big celebrity hideout.

From Paraty, we took a lovely 16 hour bus ride to Iguacu Falls. They are said to rival Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls. You can make your own judgement:

In addition to the Falls, there was a nice nature walk where wildlife was supposedly on display. We were greeted on the trail by this sign:

Clearly, the sign was referring to this:

From the Falls, we then took a 41 hour, 8 leg trip that ended up in Ilha Grande, an island off the coast of Rio. For those keeping score at home it went like this: Cab from Puerto Igassu, Argentina to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Bus from Foz to Curitiba; Train from Curitiba to Morretes (very scenic - we took probably 60 pics. Draw your own conclusions based on the fact that none of the pics made the blog); bus from Morretes back to Curitiba; bus from Curitiba to Sao Paulo; bus from Sao Paulo to Rio; bus from Rio to Mangaratiba; and finally ferry to Ilha Grande. After all of that, all we really wanted to do was this:

But after we arrived at the beach, it was all worth it......

All in all, an excellent trip.

We´re Engaged!!!!



4 months of travel in South America has taught Jon and I many important lessons. However, 4 months of spending every minute together, and being the only support system and sense of home for each other, has helped us come to the most important decision of all: we want to spend the rest of our lives together!

We are still riding high from our engagement on the beaches of Brazil. Jon proposed on a deserted stretch of beach in a small northern beach town called Praia de Pipa. We had gone up to the famed Northern beaches of Brazil for just a few days to soak in the sunlight. We were staying in a private thatched roof cabin in the sand, which had a hammock on the porch overlooking the ocean....not bad considering the state of our accomodations for the majority of our trip!! I had some idea that the engagement was coming (read on...) so jon had a tough job of surprising me. Our second day in Pipa, after spending the morning paddling kayaks with the dolphins, we decided to explore an immense and rocky stretch of deserted beach past all of the hotels, hostels, and restaurants. We were in our bathing suits and had been in and out of the water all morning, so when jon got down on his knee and proposed in the middle of our walk down the beach, I was VERY surprised to say the least. We celebrated with a bottle of Champaigne on our hammocked porch and then a delicious dinner of fresh fish in an oceanside restaurant.

Jon had begun to think about how to craft a proposal in Brazil a few months back, and had researched a small town in Brazil called Ouro Preto that is famous for its gemstone mines. After racking his brain to try to think about how to get there and buy a ring without me knowing, he gave up and decided he would have to include me in the process. So, together we made the 10 hour busride from Sao Paulo to the little colonial town of Ouro Preto. We spent two days looking at stones and talking to different jewelers about what we wanted our ring to look like. By the second day of our searching, we knew that we wanted an imperial topaz center stone (this is only mined in Ouro Preto) and two diamond side stones. We found an amazing jeweler to design and create the ring--she was very excited to be participating in our engagement and had her daughter drive the diamonds up from a nearby town. I did not get to see the finished product until the proposal, but the ring turned out beautifully, and it will always remind us of our world traveling adventures--the beaches of Australia, where we met, those of Brazil where we were engaged, and the many places in between where we have strengthened and deepened our love.

We are still feeling like every day is a celebration, but are looking forward to catching up in person and sharing our excitement upon our imminent return!!

Ouro Preto-- Macchu Picchu



This morning Jon and I are doing some catching up on internet etc. before leaving the colonial mining town of Ouro Preto (black gold in Portugese) for Belehorizonte. We enjoyed the slow pace and quaint cobblestoned streets of Ouro Preto, although we did not tour the gold and gem mines, which is the thing to do here. Our struggles with Portugese are still comical. We hadn't realized how effective we had become at communicating in Spanish until we arrived in Brazil, where we can't communicate at all!! We can't even seem to remember the word for Hello! Jon is really good at throwing out spanish in what he thinks sounds like a Portugese accent--it works about 10% of the time to communicate, but is hilarious 100% of the time, so it seems like a good strategy. The most important phrase we've learned: no fala Portugese--I don't speak Portugese!

Here are the rest of MP pics:


There she is at sunrise!! The destination of our journey!
The crew at sunrise overlooking the peach
Just one of the magnificent views we reached along the trail. We are higher than the clouds!!Dan with Llama--no explanation necessary.

The view behind is is the what we saw as we reached the highest point on the trail at 4300 meters. Not bad--we were pretty excited to reach the top on day 2 after hiking uphill for four or five hours!!
The crew at the top of the second peak on day two. After going up to 4300 meters, we went back down to 3600, then back up 600 meters!! Who designed this road?? According to our guide, Speedy, the original Inca trail did not go down into the valley and then back up--of course, they went straight across on a different road. It wasn't until tourists ruined the original trail that it had to be re-routed!! Serves us tourists right, I guess.