Highlights include but are certainly not limited to:
-Iguazu Falls-WOW! I've never seen or could imagine something so majestic. It was simply incredible. The endless rainbows, the mass amounts of water falling and the seemingly endless amounts of waterfalls in both Brazil and Argentina. Also got to see birds including a Tucan, Tons of Monkeys and Tons of Coati (Mix between ant-eater and Racoon).
-Pantanal-Worlds Largest Wetlands did NOT disappoint! Although Rustic and full of Mosquitos and other bugs, it was worth it- intimate, and the wildlife was jaw dropping. Aligators, Blue Macaws, Parrots, Parakeets, Tucans, tons of species of birds other birds, Capybara (huge water pig), frogs etc. EVERYWHERE! Another highlight here was Parana fishing while IN the water WITH Alligators. We caught tons of Pirana which was such a unique, cool experience and the cook made them up for dinner.
-Bonito-Blue lake Cave was beautiful and such a clear, blue appearing lake at the bottom of the cave, and SNORKELING through the River here was cold but the water was SO clear and we were able to see so far while floating downstream.
-Ilha Grande-Island that had a small town feel, people were really friendly, beaches were really beautiful including a really black sand beach and Darrin and I went on a full day excursion taking us around the island to different beaches and snorkeling which was really fun.
-San Paulo-I LOVED our hotel breakfast here because of the VIEW in the greenhouse type structure on top of a tall building. The city views were great here.
-Rio-The Christ Statue and Sugarloaf mountain (great view from our apartment of it too!) were really neat and offered incredible views of Rio.
Hard parts of the trip included:
-Lots of travel time including long drives (4 hours) in a compact car with 5 people and all our luggage, 10 flights, boat rides etc.
-Mosquitos in Pantanal were pretty insane. None of us have ever seen Mosquito concentration like that. We were eaten alive.
-Language barrier. We had Darrin most of the time but it was really hard to come by English speakers which was difficult.
-Beans, Rice and Meat for 2 meals a day pretty much every day got old but that's not too big of a deal :)
-A few people trying to rip us off but only in Rio. One of which experiences was pretty heated.
Friday 11.2.18 Mom and dad picked us up in our black Chevy rental car at the airport. We went to the MTC, saw the outside which was cool and got to talk to an instructor who we asked if we could get a tour but it wasn't ok today since his boss was gone due to it being a Brazilian holiday similar to Memorial Day. He gave us some recommendations for activities around Sao Paulo for the day though. First we went to Panteira where we saw cool architecture and confusing art, the first Sesc building, then onto the second Sesc building and went to the top of it for a view of their "times square" complete with drop tower for New year's. It's a Brazilian holiday November 2 similar to Memorial Day so many places were closed including an entire giant Street in the middle of the city where you could walk or ride up and down it with no cars. We walked the street, had lunch at Cafe Creme, and headed to our hotel called "Any Hotel" for a much needed nap and shower. We ventured out at night to grab some dinner which was on the risky side in that neighborhood but we should. I ordered an Americano burger which ended up being an egg and ham sandwich. Wasn't expecting that but it was pretty good! Watched some episodes of 24 and then off to bed.
Saturday 11.3.18 Got a good night's sleep even though the bed was really hard. Our flight for Iguazu left at 10 so we got up at 6:30, got ready, packed up and headed to our first Brazilian breakfast. It was truly incredible! It was in a greenhouse with lush greenery all around, amazing views of the city of Sao Paulo and a balcony up another level to see the views even better. Comparable with the Sesc building yesterday although we were on level 7 versus level 17 yesterday. The breakfast was delicious and so fresh. I just loved it all. Time to head to the airport for our flight to Foz Do Iguazu and when we finally found our reservation number etc it said our flight was at 9 rather than 10 which we thought because we were sure that we booked the same flight as my in laws and theirs said 10. All the sudden it was panic mode! We realized our flight left at 9 at 8:30 and we still had to drop the rental car off! My in laws dropped us off at the airport to see if we could make it somehow. Everything was confusing as to where to go to check in etc. We finally asked a lady who worked there who spoke a little English and she told us that our flight indeed didn't leave until 10 and that it started boarding at 9... But my in laws tickets said 10. Anyways, she got us at the front of the line to print our boarding passes for us... An angel and answer to my prayers. We knew things would be difficult for my in laws too so we waited for them after they dropped off the rental car, time was ticking, and they still had to check in their bags and there was a huge line for that. The same angel lady ended up helping them get to the front of the line and we rushed to security which luckily went quickly and smoothly and we literally made it to the bus that took us to our plane with about 5 SECONDS to spare!! Oh. My. Goodness!!! I'm so grateful we made it! The flight was about 1 hr 20 minutes and went well. When we got here to Foz Do Iguazu we got our rental car which is a manual silver Volkswagen. We drove straight to the Argentina side since it wasn't time to check into our hotel. What we didn't expect was almost a 2 hour wait in line to get across the border. Yikes! We finally got through and drove to Iguazu falls. It's a $30 entrance fee. Sadly we didn't arrive until 2:30 and it closed at 6 and we barely missed the train to get to where we wanted to go. So we had lunch while we waited for the next train (every 30 minutes) and saw a few Coati (coach-ee) which look like a mix between raccoons and anteaters. We got on the train and headed to the last stop. Then it started raining. Hard! Luckily 3 out of the 4 of us had ponchos. Poor Dad! It was a long walk in the pouring cold rain with no sunshine whatsoever. But as we came up to the falls it was so exciting and INCREDIBLE!! Mass amounts of water and endless falls. Birds flying through the clouds of mist produced by the falls. It was worth every drop of rain. We stayed soaking it in as long as we could tolerate and headed back with no end in sight for the rain. Finally when we made it back to the train the rain had lightened quite a bit. We were all so so cold and wet. We did see tons of coati, some different kids of birds including a TUCAN and 3 monkeys! When we got back to the car we blasted the heat, found a really nice gluten free restaurant for Mom called "Miss Laura Sem-gluten" where every single thing was gluten free! Heaven for Mom! It was seriously delicious too including their wide variety of desserts. We plan to go back before we leave the area. We checked into our hotel called "Viale" which is really nice! We showered and headed to bed.
Monday 11.5.18 today we went to the Brazil side of Foz Do Iguazu. First thing we did was a boat tour. It costed about $19/person for entrance and about $6 parking. The boat tour included the jungle Jeep ride, a mile and a half walk with guide and 30 minute boat ride for about $58/person. I'm so glad we did it-it totally added to the Iguazu experience. The Jeep ride was pleasant and just the right temperature. We didn't see much wildlife on the Jeep ride or walk-they said the animals don't go there because they're afraid of humans. It was still fun and pleasant though. Then we took a elevator/escalator thing down to the boat dock. We water proofed our stuff, put on our ponchos, lifejackets and boarded the boat. We were towards the back which I wished we'd waited to board the front of a different boat becuase that's by far the best view but it was still amazing. They took us to a great viewpoint of a lot of the falls and then under some falls a couple times and we got drenched!! It was a great experience. Then we took a bus to the walking trails that took us to many viewpoints, getting to go on a bridge right out to below some falls and above some falls with a lot of mist and rainbows and it was INCREDIBLE! Lastly we did an elevator that takes you up to the top of the falls you were just in the middle of. While we were waiting for the bus to go back we were eating some Brazilian pizza puff things when a coati snuck up under the bus bench, jumped up and snatched the bag from me scratching me and leaving some slobber on me!!! Little stinker! Then we went to Miss Laura's sem gluten for dinner again since we loved it so much the first time! Luckily we had plenty of time this time to fill the rental up with gas, return it and get to the IGU airport. Our flight left at 8:30, we had a layover in Curitiba and arrived in Campo Grande at 10:50 and there was an hour time change so it was 11:50 the time we were used to. The airline was Azul and they had the largest variety of snacks I've seen on an airline (gummy planes, orange cake, sun chip type, ruffles type, guava filled cookies and chocolate chip cookies) and we got one of everything! Gil from Pantanal Discovery picked us up at the airport with a sign on his phone scrolling our names and he was so excited to meet us. He was really nice and told us about himself that he was a soccer player and played in Michigan for years living with his Aunt and Uncle until he got injured and couldn't play anymore. Then he came back to Brazil and started this company. He also said he knows about the church, has our "Bible" and reads it because it's easier to understand than the Catholic Bible 😁 . He said he's had the missionaries over and knows where the church is etc! Darrin had a hard time recognizing the bus station or any street names Gil was reminding him of. He took us to Hotel International in Campo Grande to spend the night since it was so late. They were all really nice helping with luggage and getting us get settled in. It was an ok hotel lots of patches in the wall with boarded black windows and a fixed open shower window for ventilation but a tv, fridge and bathroom which was nice. We showered and crashed.
Tuesday 11.6.18 breakfast was decent at the hotel-the fruit was really good, the rest seemed kind of old and dried out. But the watermelon, mango, guava, pineapple, Papaya were delicious! Gil and his buddy picked us up at 8:40. It was time to figure out payment. I had already paid $200 deposit before we came and the total cost for the 4 of us for 5 days was about $2,000. We thought he'd take credit ecard but he needed at least half in cash. He took us to a bank to withdrawal and it was limiting us so it really took a long time to figure out how much we could withdrawal combining with some USD cash we had and my in laws had. Finally we got it figured out and were on our way. We drove with his buddy in a tiny car- all 5 of us- with our luggage and Gil took one piece of luggage that wouldn't fit in the car and said he'd meet us there in Pantanal which is a 4 hour drive smooshed in a little car. We got to stop at the big macaw statues that Darrin has pictures with from his mission and we took a picture. Then on our way we saw several real macaws in the wild which was amazing!! We stopped for lunch at an all you can eat buffet on the way which was good. Then on the rest of the way to Pantanal we saw several alligators (Caiman) of the side of the road and had to stop the car for cattle hearding-so many cows they were moving to higher ground. They were so close to our car on both sides. A few things we saw to the side of the road we stopped and rolled down the windows and hoards of mosquitos flew in. It was intense- we were all freaking out and trying to clap them dead and then we're wiping ourselves with bug wipes. Quite comical. We arrived to our destination and were told it was time for a 2 hour boat tour. Alex, our tour guide, said to wear swimming suits and bring ponchos for rain. The mosquitos were AWFUL awful. They had an area for us to put our luggage, we got ready and headed to the boat that was covered on the roof but open on the sides. It was INCREDIBLE the amount of wildlife we saw!
5 tucansTons of camans (alligator)
There are 640 spiecies of bird in Pantanal-we saw so many
Tons of howler monkeys
Flowers
Termite nests
Flock of parakeets flying
It rained off and on through the boat ride but it wasn't too bad since the top was covered and we had ponchos to protect us on the sides. Then we got our luggage, loaded it on a truck and drive an hour and a half on bumpy wet roads on benches on the back of a covered truck. It rained a lot of the way. We were really nervous about what our hotel would be like-Gil from the tour company didn't tell us much of anything itinerary wise. We stopped somewhere and we were so confused because it looked pretty ghetto and Alex said, "we're here" and began unloading our luggage. We went inside for dinner to a restaurant, then saw saw our room. It had 5 beds with two slid together and a bathroom and tiny tv. Alex talked to us about the next couple days and warned us of things like tarantulas, scorpions, jaguars, pumas, anacondas etc. He said to be careful, check your shoes, always keep your luggage closed etc. I was pretty freaked out. When we went back to our room, there were tiny black bugs all over the bathroom, even in our toilet and grasshopper looking things. I was scared about what the next two days would be like!
This pic was taken on Darrin's Mission >
Wednesday 11.7
Sleep was hot because the power turned off in the night and pretty scary because of all of Alex's warnings from yesterday. On the way to breakfast we saw two blue Macaws in the tree right outside our door!! So so cool! After breakfast we checked out around the farm. And saw tons of parrots and more Macaws! They have chicken, turkey, horses, cow and sheep at the farm. We did a Tractor ride through the farm which is 2,000 hectors. We went through lots of water and he told us that this is the start of their rainy season and in February all of what we were going through is covered deep in water and Farmer's will either pay to have their cattle taken to higher ground which is very expensive, or they will leave the cows and some will drown, jump fences etc. We found a tree in our tour with Blue macaws and red huge parrots. That was really cool! There were so many colorful birds and I found two blue Macaws feathers on the ground. I kept one and another girl kept the other. We saw a Black Caiman up close-Alex did a call to it and it started growling at us and then swam away. We went Pirana fishing in a pond and got all the way to Darrin's shoulders and my neck in our clothes to fish with parana in the water!! I couldn't believe we did that. So scary but fun and adventurous. We just put raw meat of a fishing hook with bamboo rods. We got lots of nibbles but didn't catch anything. It was still a cool experience but Alex promised we'd go at a different lake and for sure catch some. We came back, had lunch and then went on a walk, walking through swamps and seeing birds and more. Then we came to the lake to go Pirana fishing again. This time we only had to get in to our knees. Withing 3-4 seconds of having our raw meat on the water we were catching Pirana! Darrin caught about 7, Dad about 10, and me 5. Mom didn't come this time. I'm was SO COOL!! BUT midway through fishing two caymen (alligators) came up and we're watching us closely and kept going underwater so we didn't know where they were. It was so freaky-they were about 10 feet away and then came in closer to about 7 feet away from us! Alex kept telling us we'd be ok... Still super freaky but for some reason we still got in and fished with raw meat catching piranas for dinner with caymen right with us! Darrin even CAUGHT a Cayman on his line for a while until it got off-got it on video-so crazy! It was a once in a lifetime experience that was very exhilarating and fun. We came back, they cooked the Pirana for dinner and we ate. They battered then and fried. It actually tasted pretty good and I don't even like fish! The problem was that there wasn't much meat on each fish. Lots of work to get the meat. A little after dinner when it was dark we went on a night walk. The fireflies were so so cool and the stars filled sky. We also saw vampire bats, spiders, night water Lilies that only bloom at night, camans eyes with flashlights which GLOW so it's easy to see them-super cool, baby viper snake, bugs, and loads of frogs of many sizes. It was a beautiful day full of adventure, great weather, less mosquitos than yesterday and lots of fun and unique activities. 
Thursday, 11.8.18 they did a morning walk this morning at 5am that we decided to miss out on since it was the same walk we did yesterday walking through marshes but just a different time of day. I'm glad we chose the extra sleep instead. We woke up, had breakfast, and went horseback riding for an hour and a half. We didn't see a whole lot but the riding itself, the smell in the air and scenery was very enjoyable! The horses went through lots of water and once it got above our ankles. We took a nap and then it was time for lunch and packing up to go. Alex told us we'd be dropped off at a hotel and we'd need to wait for 2 hours for a mini bus to pick us up to take us to Bonito. The ride to that hotel was an hour we were hoping to see jaguars but didn't. Then the two hours to wait for the bus weren't fun. Outside there were a lot of mosquitos, a nice man allowed us in the hotel (pretty much abandoned) to wait so we did but it was so HOT! The bus came and it was more like a big van. It was so nice to have ac with no bugs! We made one short stop in Miranda and got to Bonito at 8:30pm. We alsogot stopped by the police which was kind of scary. They wanted to look through some of the bags and had a big gun ready. Luckily we passed the test. In total the trip to Bonito was about 4 hours. Alex is the name of the tour guide here too and he greeted us, showed us our room and gave us a map. We were all hungry so we walked to a restaurant here recommended 8 blocks away called Marco Velho. Huge portions and very good. We got back from dinner late at about 10:45.
Friday 11.9.18 woke up early to have breakfast at 6:15. Breakfast was ok favorite part was the juices and yogurt drink. Our driver picked us up at 6:40 and we got to Groto do Lago Azul (the blue lake cave) at 7:40. Saw a dead armadillo on the side of the road. The cave was incredible. We walked down many stairs and saw a very pretty green bird in the cave. The tour guide didn't speak English so Darrin got to translate. There are 150 species of bats living in the cave, stelagtights fall or break from the cieling often, the clear water filters from the rain through the cracks or the cave, and the blue color is actually a prism effect like a rainbow-the water redirects back to us as blue but in reality it's clear. Very cool. We had only had two other people with us so the tour was very intimate which was great and they only let one group in at a time. The other groups we saw were much much larger so I'm so happy it was a great experience and small group. After we were done we were off to an hour and a half drive for snorkeling. We arrived here at Rio De Prata at 10:30. Lunch wasn't until 11:30 and our snorkeling time wasn't until 2:30. So we had a lot of extra time to explore around, relax in the chairs and hammocks and enjoy this gorgeous place. Lunch was fantastic-we really liked the roast beef, candied pumpkin squash, rice pudding, and pumpkin brittle dolce de leche. We saw so many scarlet Macaws which was so amazing they even came quite close. We saw lots of parakeets and a parrot came up and took some of my lunch! We took a walk around the farm (much smaller than the Pantanal farm) and saw their cows, chickens, gardens, seedling growing, composting, etc and found out that most all we are for lunch was from the farm! Fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, and even dessert they're famous dulce de leche is made from their cows milk starting with 55 liters of milk and condensing down to 8! It was so good! When it was our turn to snorkel we got our wetsuits and snorkels, took a truck ride to a hike, walked in the jungle, learned about some of the trees and saw several brown capachino monkeys, he told us to try drinking from a natural spring which was pretty good, and then we got in the water. It was quite cold even with the wetsuit on! We were told not to kick our legs but just float and use our arms for guidance. And the guide nanchelantly told us we may see anaconda or caymen (alligators). We were scared but excited. It was very intimate with a small group once again! The WATER WAS SO CLEAR! You could see so far in the river! You could at any given point see down to the bottom (some areas deep and some shallow) and also side to side see everything! It was a whole new experience of snorkeling!! Lots and lots of fish of all sizes, we saw many natural springs in the river where the sand would bubble up and you could feel water blowing through and even a deep hole in the river where water was coming through as a spring, and we even saw a medium sized crab. It was really incredible. We would float down for a while until a kind of a check point, get out, our guide would talk to us, then we'd get back in we did this a few times. Then the river we were in, Nascente olhe d'agua, changed into a different River, The River Plata which was cloudy because of the rain two days ago and several degrees colder. You could hardly see anything so we got out after a while. When we got back they had hot herbal basil tea for us that was included and made at the farm which was amazing! We then headed back to our hotel in Bonito which was about an hour drive. Our driver stayed with us all day which was really nice. We went to buy water and some snacks, then back to the hotel "Bonito Experience" and heated up leftovers from the night before and headed to bed.
Saturday 11.10.18 our ride was there at 6am and we left on our close to 4 hour drive in a little squished car again. We did stop about 3 hours in for bathroom and some food which was nice. We got to the airport about 3 hours before our flight. Note to self-Latam are our least favorite airline. We had a layover in Sao Paulo before getting in to Rio. What a beautiful view of the Christ statue and Sugarloaf right outside the airport! We had some confusion with the rental car they had lost our reservation but we finally got it figured out and drove the 15 minutes to our apartment in Santa Teresa called "Sugarloft". It was quite an interesting drive with the small streets, cars parked along one side and they are two way streets which is pretty crazy. Graffiti is everywhere. Amelia from the apartments met us here and was really helpful telling us all about things to do around the area. She assured us we were safe here and our car was safe. The apartment is nice with an incredible view of Sugarloaf outside our bedroom and living room area. We even have our own terrace with a view. We walked 8 minutes to a restaurant Spiritos and didn't realize how expensive it was until we sat down. It was decent food but not amazing. Then we bought water at a little shop and got back to go to bed.
The Ward we went to here in Rio was so cool! There was another couple from Alpine Utah and we got to talk with the Senior missionaries who were from Kansas and a missionary from Texas! We talked with them a lot which was fun. And guess what? They had their primary program here today too which was SO special since I know the boys will be in their program today too and I'm so sad we're missingit. It was so neat to hear all the songs I'm familiar with just in a different language. They only had 10 kids and they did such a fantastic job!! We came back to the apartment to change and headed to eat since we hadn't eaten breakfast and now it was lunch time. We found a little place that was really cheap-about $4-5 for a whole big meal. Cheapest we've found. I hit a mental wall though of being done with beans, rice and meat for lunch and dinner every meal. I don't know how Darrin did it for two years. Then we headed to Sugarloaf mountain. Parking was crazy! We couldn't find a spot, accidentally drove out of the area, had to come back and then some guys helped us find a spot. They told us it'd cost $5 for their help and then once we parked they asked for $25!! He was really trying to haggle is which honestly it's the only time that's happened here at all. We ended at $7 and he actually apologized for switching the price 😁. We took the cable car up to the first mountain, walked around, relaxed a bit, and then too the cable car to the second mountain. Seriously incredible views of Rio!! From both! We did a lot of walking around seeing from all angles. We saw several marmoset tiny monkeys there too and jackfruit. After we were done we walked to the beach. There sand was the texture and color of sugarcane sugar. The ocean was quite cold and the sun was going down so we didn't get in to snorkel but Darrin got in half way and found some cool rocks and one shell. We walked back and they had a huge flea market type set up with tons of shops and food. Fun to see all of it but with it being Sunday we didn't shop. It was such a hip hoppin place! On our way home we stopped for dinner at "Mama Shelter Restaurant" which has a really cool atmosphere and the food was good. Then we headed back to the apartment for bed.
Tuesday 11.13.18
Got packed up, and headed to breakfast at Cultivar, the same place we went yesterday for cheese bread and acai bowls. Seriously, I'll be dreaming about them... So good!! We got gas, returned the rental car which was really confusing where to go, exchanged our USD$ for Reals and got lucky with a place with no fee and a good exchange rate, and then we booked an UBER to get to Conceiçào de Jacarei which is one of the three places to catch a boat to Ilha Grande. They have the most departures from there and the shortest boat ride. It's a 2 hour drive to get to there and the Uber was a little Chevy Cobalt with half the trunk taken by a propane tank so for two hours we got to ride super squished with luggage on laps. Stopping for gas was interesting. Our driver said for security we needed to get out of the car while it was filled with gas. When we got here we were pretty clueless as to where to get tickets for the boat ride etc. They have several companies that will take you over. We went with Villa Nova Tour which costed $25/person round trip. Each way is a 15 minute ride. It took them forever to load the boat though and we were at the front having to hold suitcases on our laps while they kept waiting for more and more people to load-it was beyond crowded with people and stuff. We finally made it though and found our hotel "Flor de Lis" quickly which was nice and we didn't have to bring our luggage on cobblestone roads too far. Our hotel was not bad! Cute, quaint and clean with breakfast included. We got settled in and went out for dinner. The first places we looked at were extremely expensive at about R$110/plate! We kept looking and found a place for around R$20 a plate? Score! Darrin got the sausage plate and I got the chicken stroganoff. It was good! Then we did a hike and walked around the town. The hike was great! About a 40 minute hike if you went straight through but we stopped a lot and explored. There were beautiful plants, some small waterfalls, the old ruins that used to be a farm house for sugarcane, then a quarantine for cholera, and then a top security prison-very cool, their tall water bridge and my favorite was the black sand beach which was the darkest sand I've ever seen and it was swirled with light sand and course sand-3 distinct types at one beach. While exploring we ended up booking an excursion for tomorrow that's from 9:30-5:30 taking you to different beaches by boat around Ilha Grande that costed R$160/person which is about $50/person. Mom and Dad decided not to go and they'd relax. We did a little shopping but didn't find anything worth buying besides a lady selling brigaderos for about $1/ea which are Brazilian truffles that Mom can have because they're basically sweetened condensed milk and sprinkles and they're really rich and delicious. Also there were some locals cutting up and eating a jackfruit and Darrin asked if it was any good because when he tried one on his mission it was gross. They told him there's two types of jackfruit-hard and soft-this was a hard one and Darrin had tried a soft one. They offered us a big chunk and showed us how to eat it which was really nice! It kind of tasted like an overripe banana but wasn't too bad. It was extremely sticky though all the parts you don't eat-looked like and felt like melted marshmallow! 
Wednesday 11.14.18
We ate breakfast at the hotel which was decent and headed to our tour which left at 9:30. There were 28 people on our tour and we took a large speedboat. The first ride was an hour long with giant waves that splashed us in the boat which was pretty cold but kinda fun. The first beach was pretty and we just got to explore the small waterfalls, natural lagoons, and the church and graveyard. Then we went onto a different beach 10 minutes from there which was pretty and we did a little hike on huge rocks with a sketchy ladder to get a great view. We went to find some lunch and shared a chicken plate with beans, rice and fries for R$30 right on the beach which was great. We did some shell exploring too-there wasn't much but we found a few. The next stop was snoring at what they say is the best snorkeling from the island. It was freezing cold! But I'm glad we went! We saw 3 turtles, starfish, tons of typical fish, really cool tube type coral, and a spotted eel that totally put on a show for us-we got a great video. The next stop was for the official lunch stop which was lame because some had already eaten and the rest of us just had to wait for others to eat or drink and we sat on the beach with ants crawling on us. After that we headed back. We misunderstood the guy who sold us the tour and thought we'd be snorkeling three times and we only did once. But, we head a great time despite the cold water and water splashing on us from the giant waves. $50 for a full day tour was great and we got to see a good portion on the island in a day which was cool! It's a really big island! Once we got back we showered and went out for dinner with Mom and Dad. We walked around a lot looking for somewhere else to try but due to prices and things containing wheat we ended up at the same place we had lunch yesterday. I got a hamburger and was really nervous about it but it turned out to be there BEST burger I may have ever had and Darrin got the beef stroganoff which was great too. This time we even got to sit on the beach while eating which was a nice ambiance. We got a few groceries, looked at getting some dessert but ended up passing because of price. Seriously, this place is awesome though! Such a small town feel with hikes, great beaches, nice people and you feel safe. Online it said no one takes credit card and that was so false! Pretty much everyone does. 
Thursday 11.15.18 we grabbed a few things for breakfast to go from our hotel, and headed to our boat boarding which was at 8am. They were pretty efficient this time and we got back to conceição de Jacareí at 8:22. We'd arranged with our Uber driver who brought is there to pick us up and we paid him directly. Mom and Dad's flight was about 12 hours earlier than ours so we went right to the GIG airport and Darrin and I had 9 hours to kill until check in... We spent a while figuring out if there was anything we could do nearby. Hard thing was we had our luggage. We tried to see if we could check it in but earliest is 4 hours before flying. After a while of researching we found the "Nova America Mall" that was a 15 minute drive away. We took Uber which costed R$26. It was pretty crappy to have our luggage but we killed a good 6 hours there, ate lunch, and shopped for souvenirs. We ended up finding shirts for Darrin, Parker, Spencer and me (eek I love my tucan shirt!) And then got a toy for Caden and Rachel and some Brazilian snacks for them. It was tiring but I'm really glad we went rather than sitting around for that long. Both too and from the mall we got a really close look at favelas and the people living there which was interesting. Endless favelas! When back at the airport we were able to check in after about 20 minutes and went through security etc. We got to our gate about 3 hours 20 minutes until take off. Our flight went well. Really impressed again with Delta international-the food and entertainment were great! Our flight was 9.5 hours, then we had a 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta, a 3 hour flight, then a 3.5 hour layover in Denver and then an hour flight to get to salt lake! Counting Ilha Grande travel time and killing time before our flight with luggage we've traveling about 33 hours straight.... Tired and now it's time to re-adjust to 5 hours earlier time.
SUCH an incredible trip! So thankful to my parents for making the trip possible and for Heavenly Father watching out for us and making it a smooth, wonderful trip. Here's some more nature shots from the trip if you're interested :)
