The End is Near...

I can't believe it, but the time has just flown by and now it's my last night in Brazil. Looking back over the past couple of months, I've had an awesome experience. I got to see a lot of new and exciting places, and I got the chance to learn from the best here at Azul. I've been working in the marketing department doing what is called "guerilla marketing" (which is the sort of thing you've been seeing pictures of when I traveled with Azul promoting at events around the country). I've also been involved with Azul's social media content. I'll even plug it here - check out my handiwork and become Azul's fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/AzulLinhasAereas ... even if you can't understand Portuguese, at least check out the photo albums. There's some pretty cool stuff! Yesterday, Azul celebrated its one year anniversary. David Neeleman and co. have done an amazing job, and are setting all kinds of aviation world records. In only a year, they've flown over 2 millions customers and are growing at an incredible rate. It's been awesome to be able to witness it firsthand and to learn from such incredible success. And it's been pretty dang fun, too! Over the last two weeks, we've been doing tons of promotions and giveaways. For the 15 days leading up to Azul's birthday, we were giving away a free ticket on every flight, and all kinds of cool promotions. Then yesterday, there were all kinds of parties on the planes, at the airports, and of course at HQ. Check out the video for some impromptu Azul musical talent...nothin' like a little churrasco and traditional Brazilian music. And for my last day, I went out to dinner one last time with some mission buddies. I finally saw another former comp of mine, Wellington (Elder Silva). He lives here in São Paulo, but on the other side of this huge city, so we haven't been able to meet up until now. We arrived in the MTC in the same group, and we were companions at one point, so he's a really good friend. It's been over 3 years, but as we sat and reminisced about the mission it felt like yesterday. It was great to finally see him again! And of course, we celebrated by going to a churrascaria. And on one final note...SKYPE! Skype is a total life-saver for anyone living or traveling abroad. If you don't have it, get it! You'll thank me later. So thank you, Mr. Skype Inventor Person, I love you. You have made my life in Brazil much easier. Skyping with the goofy fam.... Skyping with the lovely and talented Brittany.... In the immortal words of Kanye West - "I'm comin' home again." PAZ FORA Update 2021: These days I'm traveling with kids via minivan and you can read all about it on The Minivan Bucket List

Floripa!

For my last weekend in Brazil, I decided to spend it in a place I've been hearing about for years - Florianópolis. (Or Floripa for short)...It's a city on an island in the south in the state of Santa Catarina. And what I've been hearing for years is that it is the one of the nicest and richest cities in Brazil, that it has the best beaches, and that is has the hottest women! Well it definitely lived up to the hype, and quickly turned in to my new favorite Brazilian destination. I traveled down with Mark and Marlon, my boss and another guy from Azul, and my former mission companion, Marcus. We stayed at one of Mark's friend's house outside the city and right by the beach. check it out ---->

We arrived Friday night and met up with Mark and his friends, who took us out on the town. After a VERY long night...we were sorely disappointed to wake up to some rain. We went to the beach anyway though. The house we were at was as close as you could get to the beach. We had to hike the rest of the way through some wetlands and then some sand dunes. Even with the rain, the beach was gorgeous. From our vantage point we could see mountains covered with tropical forests, wetlands, sand danes, white sandy beaches, the ocean, and then some more islands off in the distance. It really was paradise!



Later that night, we met up with Paulo, another friend from the mission. We went out and walked around downtown Floripa, checked out the sights, the Christmas decorations, and ate some pizza. We talked for hours remembering mission stories...good times! Then on Sunday, luckily the weather cleared so I could at least come home with something of a tan. We went to the same beach again, except this time walked down to the more-populated end for a little change. And we took a different way home as well, where we discovered a huge, gorgeous fresh water lake in the middle of the island. Apparently that was the place to be. It was lined with cool little shops and restaurants, and on the lake you could kayak, paddle boat, sail, kite surf or whatever...once again, pure paradise! The island life definitely is a tough one.


Downtown Floripa:

And since sometimes pictures aren't enough....

Recife/Porto de Galinhas

Last weekend I was able to fly up to Recife where I served my mission again. This time I was able to plan ahead a little bit better since it wasn't so last minute. I finally got a hold of this family I had baptized on my mission but that had since moved away, and was able to meet up with them at the temple. I'll save the story for now, but needless to say to see it come full circle and see them happy and active years later at the temple was an awesome experience! Carlos and his family taught me a lot of life lessons without even knowing it, and this time wasn't any different. I was hungry, so we went across the street to McDonald's. I don't even like McDonald's, but anyone who travels a lot knows how nice it is sometimes when you're sick of strange foreign food...but they had NEVER eaten at McDonald's before. So of course, I had to buy them a combo. But who would've though that we take something like a fast food restaurant for granted...so next time you eat a Big Mac just remember there are millions around the world who can't even afford that $1 menu!
On that same note, while I was waiting for them, I noticed there were about 10 huge buses in the temple parking lot. The next closest temple is all the way in São Paulo (a 3 hour flight). Think of it this way --it's as if the Salt Lake temple served the entire Western US. So no doubt these people had traveled for hours and hours if not days just to get to the temple. We take the temple for granted so much, I don't even know how many we have just in Salt Lake anymore...But if you're bored with the spiritual x-missionary stuff, don't worry I had some fun too! Prepare to be jealous...

PORTO DE GALINHAS!

I also had time to make it to Porto de Galinhas (do a google image search, you won't regret it!), which was voted best beach in Brazil 9 years in a row. And it indeed lived up to its hype. Beautiful crystal clear water, nice white sand, coral reefs, warm (almost hot!) water...it was paradise. I finally put my snorkel gear I packed with me from the US to good use. Porto de Galinhas is famous for its "natural pools".

You can see the fish from the surface because the water is so clear. And when you jump in to swim, the fish start to swim around you, as if you were a natural part of their environment. I bought a disposable water-proof camera, and was able to get some awesome pictures. Can't wait for those to get developed, and you can bet I'll be posting them just to make everyone jealous! Although, the next digital camera I buy will be a waterproof one, since I can't even remember when the last time was I had to get film developed. Anyway, it was an awesome weekend! Enjoy the pictures!

Welcome to the Jungle

One of the things I couldn't leave Brazil without doing was taking a trip up to the Amazon. So I flew up to Manaus for the weekend, where I stayed at the Hotel Tropical Manaus, thanks to the Azul "crew member" discount. The hotel was awesome, and had everything you could ask for including its own zoo. My favorite part was the riverside pool, which was absolutely breathtaking and actually looked like an extension of the river. It was paradise. I was also surprised to learn that during the summer when the water is low, a big white sandy beach appears along the river banks. So that combined with the fact that the Amazon is so big you can barely see the other side, I felt like I was on the coast - in the middle of the jungle! I definitely did not expect a relaxing weekend at the beach...how many people do you know can say that they swam in the Amazon?

I also decided to take a boat trip up to see "The Meeting of the Waters", which is where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões meet and where the Amazon technically starts. The two rivers don't mix, just like oil and water, and continue on for miles like that. It was a pretty neat phenomenon to see up close. It was also very cool to sail by downtown Manaus. A lot people think of the Amazon as just primitive Indians and remote jungle lodges, a la Anaconda or Disneyland Jungle Cruise...but Manaus is a huge port city with over a million people.

For the next part of my cruise, they took us to a little Indian community where we ate lunch, and shopped for cheap hand-made trinkets, and took a short hike through the jungle. I was a little disappointed at the lack of wildlife, and was surprised that the jungle wasn't really how I pictured it. Too many Indiana Jones movies, I suppose. I was still impressed by the size and diversity of the plants and trees we saw, and felt a little bit like Owen Wilson in Armageddon, when he says upon arrival in space "and this is only the beginning part of space! This isn't even outer space yet!" Well, I think that's enough movie references for one blog post. Anyway, maybe someday I'll get to come back and go explore a little deeper... see some crocodiles and fish for piranhas...but for now it's back to work.

Videos: 1- River Cruise, 2- Jungle Hike, 3- picture slideshow

THANKSgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is obviously the time of year when everyone likes to say what they're grateful for, and I'd like to continue the tradition. I have a great family, awesome friends, a bautiful girlfriend...I have this once in a lifetime opportunity to do what I'm doing...but today what I am especially grateful for is PIZZA HUT. Yes, Pizza Hut. One just opened around the corner from me 2 days ago, and so today to "celebrate" I decided to treat myself to some good ol' American style food. It's no homemade turkey, but I'll take my Thanksgiving Pizza.


the nicest Pizza Hut I've ever seen
my Thanksgiving meal! mmmm
cookies and cream brownie. again, mmmm

Then on the way home there was a torrential downpour, and I got soaked to the bone walking back to the apartment...totally worth it. Happy Thanksgiving!


Now I'm watching the Dallas Cowboys game online, and just can't help but think to myself that Brazilian soccer fans have no clue what they're missing. No big hits, half time shows, no marching bands, and worst of all no cheerleaders! Football>futebol. Sorry, Brazil.....

That reminds of one family dinner a few years ago where we all went around in a circle saying what we were thankful for...and in all seriousness I said "I'm thankful for the Cowboy's Cheerleaders." I don't think that's what grandma had in mind.

ranting about rent

I think like most Americans, I assumed that living in Brazil would be at least somewhat cheap. Sadly I was dead wrong! Living in Sao Paulo is probably equivalent to living in LA or New York - especially since the dollar sucks right now and inflation here has driven prices up in the last couple of years. For my first month in Brazil, I was living by myself in a furnished apartment. It was super expensive, but from what I saw on the website I was willing to pay, and didn't really have any other choice. They claimed it had a gym, a pool, maid service, laundry service, cable TV...and from the pictures it looked pretty nice. Here's a list of reasons why I was paying WAY too much money to live there. (this isn't meant to be a list of complaints, but a hopefully funny retrospect)
-my TV was so old I had to turn a knob to turn it on and I couldn't control the volume from the remote
-the gym consisted of a few treadmills and bikes from the 1980s
-the pool was cold and small. No one ever uses it. Not a good sign.
-gross, old, lumpy pillows
-the phone lines were always so staticky you could barely hear
-I had to buy myself a new phone because I couldn't even dial out on their crappy phones
-for as much as I was paying I assumed I would at least have a microwave! Nope.

I'm sure there's more...anyway, my boss and a couple guys from work were also living there, but recently got a new place together. Fortunately, they had a spare room and let me move in for my last month. I got the "maid's room"! haha. Unfortunately, the new place isn't furnished. And that apparently also means "your new apartment doesn't have electricity." When we called the power company, they didn't come the first time. We called again and they said they would come between 8:30 am and 7:00pm on Tuesday OR Wednesday! And you thought American cable companies were annoying. So for the first few days we camped out with air mattresses, an extension cord from the hall, and lots of candles. I was just glad to be out of that extremely over-priced apartment and saving some money! Check out my new, unfurnished digs:



our extra-spacious living room



my improvised closet



my luxurious bedroom

weekend misadventure...

Well this weekend was supposed to be another fun-filled weekend of travels and new adventures...but I have suddenly become super spacey apparently. I took the hour and a half bus ride all the way to the Campinas airport, got to the check-in counter, and realized that I forgot my passport! I couldn't help but laugh at myself for my own idiocy. I did get some in-airport entertainment though as I was waiting for the bus back "home". It started to rain so hard that the airport ceiling started to leak...but leak is such a weak word. It was more like "rain inside" than "leak." Check out the video ----