On the Road Again......

Hello! We've been a bit behind on our blogging! We are having a wonderful time in Brazil. Since our last entry, we've flown East into Bahia and are making our way back to Salvador as we stop to visit many cities along our way. Here is a recap of our adventure thus far..... Wednesday, the 11th of April we anticipated we would be spending the night in the city of Barreiras. Little did we know that the flight we were supposed to be on, had left the afternoon before. It is quite the production getting all 5 of us and our luggage to any one place. Joaquim, Sonia and the crew in Lauro de Freitas made sure we arrived with all of our luggage (it took 3 vehicles)to the airport "on-time". We were much surprised that our flight was the day before. Thankfully, the Rotarians took charge and got us booked on a flight the next day. Sonia and Joaquim were gracious enough to let us stay one more night with them in Ipitanga. Thursday the 12th we went to the beach to have lunch (we seem to always be eating)before returning to the airport. This time, we made the flight to Barreiras. At the airport we were greated by our host families. They took us home so we could change and then head out to a Rotary meeting at of the Rotarian's home. Many English speakers in this city. We were lucky to have Michael, a Floridian exchange student living there, to help us translate. The Rotarians were very nice in making sure we were always with someone who could translate for us while in Barreiras. Friday the 13th we were taken to the Reading Room (like a Head Start). The Rotarians supply the books so that the children ages 1-5 have exposure to books and reading. Zanella said it best, "give the kids a window to open a future door". Barreiras has about 140,000 people and only one bookstore and one small library. From there we went to aiba, which is an association of agricultire (www.aibaorg.br). This area of Bahia is quite advanced in farming and farming technology. We had a wonderful lunch by the river at a place called Aqua Viva. From therenit was off to the city of Luis Eduardo Magalhaes. This city is only 12 years old (yes, you read that correctly) and consists mostly of agribusiness. About 45,000 people live there. We stopped at a 12,500 acre farm to see crops of coffee, cotton, oranges and tangerines. We were lucky enough to be able to see some of the coffee plants being harvested. After the club meeting, we headed back to Barreiras (about a 2 hour drive). We wish we could have stayed longer in Luis Eduardo. ***side note about our car rides in Brazil- many speed bumps, if the sign says 60 or 80km/HR it is okay to go 120km/HR and we are never quite sure of how long it will take us to get anywhere as everyone we ask has a bit of a different answer. Nonetheless, we are grateful to our new friends that make sure we always have transportation*** Saturday the 14th, Sunday the 15th and the morning of Monday the 16th: Guanambi The trip from Barreiras to Guanambi took about 6 hours by car. I think our friends in Barreiras were smart not to tell us the length of the trip until we were well on our way! The crew from Barreiras took us half way and we met up with the Rotarians from Guanambi. At this halfway stop we were delighted to be able to walk into a church built into the caves. People have been coming there for 350 years to worship and say prayers. Inside was absolutely Beautiful and filled with photos or wooden replicas of body parts for people that have come to say prayers for healing.