Click Your Heels and Say . . . (Day 9 in Brasil)

We are home from Brasil -- only two days late. The delay gave us day 9 in Brasil.

Cris left early Sunday morning for church as she sings in the choir (just like last Sunday). After a quick stop at the padaria, Nancy and Mike shared a taxi with Fred, dropping him off at church (where he'll have breakfast with Cris before the second service), and then heading to the Botanical Gardens of Sao Paulo. What a beautiful place! Very, very tropical with palm trees, orchids, birds of paradise, and other wonderful plants. There are lots of photos.

The plan was that when we were done, we were supposed to say to someone, "Voce pode chamar um taxi por favor?" (Can you call me a taxi?) [To which I responded to Fred, "you're a taxi". Unfortunately, there was no taxi stand as there had been at the park, no one knew anyplace to call, and the only taxis that went by were full and going in the wrong direction. Luckily Fred had given us one of cell phones. We called and explained the problem, he called a taxi company, and, about 20 minutes later, the taxi showed up, taking us to the Chinese restaurant where everyone was waiting. (As Fred explained, this was a good Chinese restaurant, the owners were actually Chinese.) We were a little surprised to see that there were three other people besides Cris and Fred. Nancy realized the other lady looked very much like Cris and deduced it was her twin sister Priscilla (along with husband Sergio and thirteen year old son Dmitri). The food was good, we had fun, especially as everyone spoke English.

When we came out it had started raining. It was still raining when we got to the apartment. It was raining hard at the soccer/football game we turned on (Sao Paulo versus someone). In fact it was raining so hard the start of the game was delayed because everything at the field (including the lower parts of the stands) were flooded. They showed a lady being airlifted out by helicopter as she'd gone into labor. They also showed some of the roadways in Sao Paulo that were flooded, particularly the highway with the river that runs through the median, the highway that goes to the airport. Now we were worried that we might not make it to the airport.

We left the apartment a little before 6 pm. At one point the roadway did slow down and Fred took an alternate route (one that is usually fairly busy, but we think many of the cars were caught somewhere by the flooding). He was then able to cut over to the highway which wasn't flooded and was moving freely. We were at the airport in about 1/2 hour. Thanks to Mike's silver elite status, we were able to bypass the long check-in line. Finally, our luggage was checked and we had boarding passes. Mike, Cris, and Fred had Ovalmatine McFlurries (yes, they contain ovaltine). And then it was time, again, to say good-bye. We made it through security and found our gate. Nancy bought a last can of guarana and some mini cheese bread.

And  then we actually boarded the plane, which actually took off. Dinner was served, lights were turned out, and we slept. A little over an hour before we landed lights came on, breakfast was served (this time the fruit cup came from Brasil so it was honeydew melon and papaya!), and custom forms were handed out. The plane landed at Newark (Liberty) Airport and we were back in NJ at around 6:13 am. Amazingly, just about an hour later, 7:15 am, the car service was pulling up in front of our house. Mike raced inside (the driver helped get the suitcases up to the front door) and Nancy paid the driver. By 7:45 Mike was at school (it helps that we only live three blocks away).

As Dorothy said . . . "there's no place like home". (There will be one more blog, no photos, just some thoughts about being in Brasil.)

Day 9 Photos