April Fools' Day

Here, a bit more about my visit with my sister (I'm about 3 weeks behind on posts!)....

For as long as we had known that Jen was coming to see us, we also knew she really wanted to visit a beach here.  Brazil is famous for having some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, though most of the nicest ones are in the northern part of the country.  As I’ve written before, we have several beaches nearby (the closest being less than 90 KM away from the city), so we had decided to take a day-trip to visit one of them.  The kids happened to be out of school for a teacher development day, and it was also my birthday; since Matt had been gone for a week, he had planned to take the day off so we could all go to the beach together.  Unfortunately, there was too much work for him to do, and he told me he wouldn’t able to take the day off as planned.  Jen and I discussed our options, which basically came down to brave the drive on our own or stay in the city, and decided to “go for it”, opting to go to Guaruja, which may not be the nicest or quietest beach, but it was the closest at only 1 ½ hours away.  Throughout the week, she had been my driving sidekick, serving as GPS watcher and navigator, and we figured we could manage to get there without too much trouble.  We called and found a hotel that would rent us a room for the day, which allowed us to have a safe place to park the car, a place to shower and change, as well as provided us with beach towels and chairs, and an umbrella. 

We left early on Friday morning, hoping for an easier experience than what Matt and I had on our first trip to the beach.  It was a beautiful day, with forecasted sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s.  After enduring the morning rush hour traffic in Sao Paulo, we made it onto the open highway (at least until we reached a stretch of one huge tunnel after another) and took in the sights of Brazil’s beautiful mountainous countryside.  We arrived at Enseada Beach in Guaruja before 9:30am without any problem, save the very pitted dirt and mud road that led to the main boulevard on the beach – I wasn’t sure if my new car would come out unscathed!  The hotel allowed us to check in early and had our chairs and towels ready for us.  Wasting no time, the four of us walked the short distance to the beach and found ourselves with soft sand beneath our feet, picturesque islands jutting out of the water, and almost no one around us.  The weather was perfect, the water was warm, and we practically had the beach to ourselves.  

Vendors selling everything from hats to ice cream to fried cheese can be found making their way up and down the shoreline of Brazilian beaches.  A couple of vendors had passed by several times, offering to give us henna tattoos, promising that they would last up to 15 days.  We turned them down a few times, but since it was my birthday, and also April Fools’ Day, we eventually decided it would be fun to pull a joke on Matt.  For a mere R$5 I settled on a Japanese symbol for “Love” for my left shoulder – of course, it could have meant anything, and I wouldn’t have known.  Jen snapped some pictures and posted one on Facebook; I think there were actually a few people who believed it, but those who know me well figured out pretty quickly that it was an April Fools’ joke.  Having told Matt about my new tattoo over the phone (I cannot lie in person – I have no poker face whatsoever!) I even had him fooled for a while – and I got the feeling he wasn’t too happy about his wife having a tattoo!  I had so much fun spending time with Jen and the boys by the ocean - we lounged and relaxed, played, swam, ate, and agreed that it had been a great decision to go; it would have been nice to have Matt with us, but we definitely made the best of our day.

Not wanting to get home after dark, we left Guaruja at 4:00 pm, with hopes of avoiding the worst of rush hour traffic.  Unfortunately, getting home did not prove as easy as our drive earlier that day.  Not far outside of the beach town, we encountered a line of traffic that spanned multiple lanes for several miles, at one point taking one hour to go 10 KM.  As beautiful as the day had been, the clouds moved in and we also had to deal with major fog and rain along the way.  Once back in Sao Paulo, I followed the GPS instructions, which took me off of the highway about 8 KM too soon, but were leading me in the right direction – however, I felt completely lost and a bit panicked as I didn’t recognize anything around me.  By this time, we had been in the car for two hours, it was already dark, and the boys were getting tired.  Another hour passed before we finally made it home, and all of the relaxation I had felt earlier in the day had been wiped away by the stress of driving.  

I was exhausted, but the night was young and I had a birthday to celebrate.  Matt was anxious to see my tattoo, and breathed a sigh of relief once he saw that it was fake – I really couldn’t believe that he truly thought I had gotten a real one.  I was also met with a surprise in my front entryway – my friend, Katherine, had decorated it with a “Happy Birthday” sign, balloons, a dozen pink roses, and a little apple tart complete with a candle.  The Friday night happy hour and gathering of expats in our complex was also underway; Jen had been wanting to join our group for a drink – she had even schemed with my friend to try to get a cake and surprise me (however, after my repeated warnings that we may not make it in time, she finally told me of her plan – I thanked her and told her to skip the cake).  So, with renewed energy, we headed down to the restaurant and had a great evening – too great, as I enjoyed 2 ½ caipirinhas (very strong ones, I later realized) and was a bit beyond tipsy.  My sister and I stayed up talking, laughing so hard we were crying, and posting crazy messages on Facebook.  By midnight, the long drive home from the beach was a distant memory; it had been a perfect birthday!