Discovering Brazil with my family

At first, I must say one of powerful feelings during time abroad is to present my current home country to my wholly and truly loved family from Estonia. I felt this strong feeling last year while I lived in Ecuador and I had this mix of feelings this year as well. For me it is a mix of everything: excitement, responsibility, adventure, reconnecting with my parents and brother, ect,ect.

To be short, here are some highlights or just random comments from those 2 weeks my family was in Brazil:

• A WARM WELCOME: I managed to 1) sleep in and 2) confuse terminals in an airport, but after some calls, I found my family waiting me in International flights terminal (ehhe, should they have be in a different place?). Honestly, it has never ever happened before!
  Both, coming to Brazil and returning to Estonia my family managed not to get its luggage with their flight. I managed to dress up my whole family for a day: Dad and Erki wore AIESEC T-shirts and I was lucky that my clothes fitted to my Mum.
• Exploring Sao Paulo and its tourist sites: I never had chance to visit Butantan Snakes farm or Monastery of Sao Bento (both are really nice, in fact), but I made it possible with my family. We also wondered around my home neighborhood in Vila Mariana, Avenida Paulista and Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood. The latter one was for sure the most loved site in Sao Paulo to my family. Especially Erki was happy dining in my favorite sushi restaurant
• Visiting Foz de Iguacu: reaching Foz de Igaucu National Park and seeing those marvelous waterfalls takes you around 16 hours by buss from SP. But it is soo worth it!!!!!!!!!! Seeing how powerful and mighty the nature can be in its full beauty. We explored the waterfalls for 2 days: one day visiting Brazilian side and another day crossing the border over Argentina and having a closer look to waterfalls from there. You must go and decide by yourself, which side is better!
• Discovering Parana state: one of the most developed and economic centre of Brazil nowadays, was just a place of several immigrant colonies and coffee plantations a few hundreds´ years back. You can still feel the remains of colonial times there. The lovely and small towns boast with colonial buildings: mostly churches and governmental buildings. It was lovely to see another face of Brazil: small towns with its friendly people and slow rhythm of life. Enjoy the Atlantic Ocean and see surfers going into water to catch waves. Many thanks to Lizi, my friend from AIESEC who made us a tour in Curtiba, the capital of Parana!
• CARNIVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!! It was a wish of my visitors to see the Carneval in its best! So, we spent it in Rio! Danced through streets of Copacabana and Ipanema, following the tracks of famous Carnival bands and joing crowds of all type of people who were all enjoying the Carnival: starting with numerous drag queens, dressed up gay couples, many tourists and of course, families, young and old Brazilians. One of the highlights of a trip was for sure seeing parade! Really, it´s something indescribable!!!!! You must go to Rio and see it all by yourself.
  A note: if you think it is just a pleasure to be in a parade, forget about this: its so tiring that the next day you just d not have energy to do anything! Just for a record: the show starts at 9 pm and ends at 6 am!!!
• Seeing another face of Rio: although I had been in Rio twice before the Carnival, I and my family got to know totally different face of it! Its center and old town, several neighborhoods of the city. Apart from the world know symbols of Rio: the Christ and Pao de Azucar, there are so many amazing and beautiful colonial buildings; nice parks; just random houses with great history; nice and lovely Botanical Gardens.
  
  Thank you very much of your visit, my dear family! It was so nice to see you and travel with you again!!! See you in within some month’s time back in Europe!

I have no idea what is wrong with my blog, but I cannot upload pics any more....