Brazil 2.0 Week 3

We have been in Salvador, Brazil for 3 weeks now and are over halfway through our trip. It has been an incredible adventure, and time is flying by too quickly! Jonathon is working hard teaching his sequencing class and helping his students assemble genomes, but the rest of us are enjoying a nice vacation. Here are my top 5 favorite things so far!

5. The Food: pão de queijo, coxinhas, romeu e julieta tapiocas, real Brazilian churrasco, and the best acai. The list goes on and on. Yum!

Jonathon perfected his stroganoff

Churros at the beach

Moqueca

Tapioca Crusted Shrimp

Emilio invited us over for a real Brazilian churrasco. Delish!

4. Exploring the town: Our friend, Luzimar, took us to Igresia de Bonfim, a beautiful old Catholic cathedral. It is known for the colorful ribbons that everyone ties on the gates. Tradition has it that If you tie 3 knots, you will be granted 3 wishes. After we finished at the cathedral, we stopped for delicious ice cream at the famous Sorveteria da Ribeira. (See previous post for more)

3. The Beach: I don't know if I will ever get tired of it. The salty ocean breeze, beautiful scenery, and warm water does my soul good. It is only steps from our rental, and it was definitely worth the extra cost to get a place close to the beach. The boys and I go over to collect shells or play in the water whenever we want.

2. A Brazilian football game (aka soccer): Our good friend, Emilio, helped us get tickets and took us to watch Bahia play Atletico-MG in a match at Fonte Nova Arena. It was everything I imagined... crazy fans, tons of flopping players, and a low-scoring suspenseful match. Bahia won in stoppage time making the whole crowd go wild. It was such a fun experience, and for once, I'm glad I don't speak much Portuguese because I could just enjoy it without knowing any of the curse words. (See previous post for more)

1. Whale watching from our apartment! We chose an Airbnb that looked out over the ocean because we thought the view would be beautiful. Little did we know we would also see humpback whales. I am obsessed and find myself looking out the window all day long! Emilio and Fernanda were nice enough to let us borrow binoculars so we could see them even better. We have seen dozens, and I love it!

Hyrum got to celebrate another birthday in Brazil! I can't believe he is already 12. He didn't get a friend party, so we wanted to make sure it was special for him. We gave him a $100 shopping spree at the mall. He got to choose whatever he wanted. He chose a rodizio pizza dinner, a new book, a colored pencil set, and lots of treats that he could take home and share with his friends. He also got his favorite meal of mac and cheese, coxinhas, and pão de queijo with a brigadeiro cake that I made. I think he enjoyed his special day. He's a pretty cool kid, and it was fun to celebrate him!