Here in Brasil, the month of July is ‘férias’ –holiday/vacation time. The kids are out of school and many people spend time traveling. In our desire to be more Brasilian, we decided to do the same. (Actually it was our desire to not spend 30 consecutive days together in the apartment with LOTS of extra free time for the kids :)) During our cross-cultural training last fall, we were encouraged to build some rest and refreshment time into our lives, on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis, ensuring that we don’t forget the very first mission field God called us to, our family. So we decided to ‘aproveitar-se’ (take advantage of) this time and see a bit more of southern Brasil while we’re here. Our trips in the past have all taken us to the Amazon and this is a huge country with regions vastly different in climate, crop production, sotaque (accent), etc… We have experienced some of the difference already during our time here in the city, and last week had the chance to see some other incredibly beautiful parts of Brasil. Me, the adventurous one Matt, the adventurous one, suggested we drive 12 hours (one way) to see Iguazu Falls, or das Cataratas do Iguaçu, with 3 times the flow capacity of Niagara Falls. It was AMAZING, well worth the drive–even our kids said so!–and I got to enjoy many, many hours of corn fields and beautiful rolling hills between here and there. We even had the chance to visit our second South American country, Paraguay. Three countries converge at the Falls, the third being Argentina. While it is now rather expensive for an American to enter Argentina, it is free to walk over the bridge to Paraguay( a long bridge, high above a big river, and I don’t like bridges but hey–there was another country on the other side). The kids have asked to blog about the trip so more information is forthcoming, but for now Matt made a short video with some of our pictures: (just click below)
(A cool side note: the plaque shown at the end of the video is one that I saw on the side of the walking trail toward the falls only about 5 minutes after we’d started down it. None of the kids nor Matt noticed it because it blended in with what was around it, but I was so surprised to see it, and especially that it was in English, so I snapped a picture. That night when the kids went to bed Matt read to them from the same chapter. I thought he must have the seen the sign and then decided to read it to them…but he said no, he hadn’t seen any signs along the trail. Just one of those neat coincidences….that isn’t really a coincidence.