Up at 5:30. After a hurried breakfast, we were off to the airport at 7;00 for our GOL flight to Brasilia at 8:42 a.m. Walkiria and Leo were there to see us off. Then Felipe Maia appeared to see us off. He had just arrived in Belo late last night. It was great to meet with him even if it was only for a brief time. I was quite grateful to Fe as she helped speed us through the ticket counter to get our boarding passes and our luggage checked in. I am really going to miss her!
After many hugs and kisses and goodbyes, we left "Paradise" and embarked on the next leg of our journey. It was a one hour flight to Brasilia and we mad our way to the luggage area and retrieved our 2 bags. By now my bag was starting to display its lethal serrated steel band that had been part of the lifting handle. We made our way to the arrivals area. There was no one there. But then I remembered. It was Anna who was meeting us and she was running true to her form at KEC in Winnipeg. We sat down and patiently waited, scanning the other arrivals who were coming in with us and from other flights. It was interesting to note that there were no doors to exit to the outside. The whole area was open to the elements. I guess you can do that when you live in the tropics.
Soon a breathless and apologetic Anna came running in. We loaded our luggage into her mom's car and we were off. Anna's mom, Lucia, was a skillful driver and she moved easily through the traffic on the wide-laned streets of Brasilia's capital. My initial impression of Brasilia - clean, very roomy, many trees and shrubs, many parks, quite an orderly laid out city and very beautiful.
When we got to their apartment, we were treated to wonderful "lunch" prepared by their cook, Josie. It was rice, salmon, a salad, juices and a heavenly dessert. We met Anna's brother, Joao, who was a cultural anthropologist, passionate, and quite a handsome man according to Patti! We then "crashed" from 2:00 to 7:00 in our room, which had been given up to us by Anna while she took over her brother's room.
We then met Arlindo, Anna's father, a neurosurgeon by profession and a quiet, thoughtful man by nature. I guess this is where Anna got her quiet, thoughtful nature! We all drove to South Lake in 2 cars, parked, and then went on a leisurely walk along a wide path on the lake's shoreline. There was a wonderful bar with a patio where we sat and enjoyed a few drinks and appetizers in the form of delicious deep-fried manioc and shredded meat and liver.
Lucia left us to drive to the airport to see Joao off. He was flying to Sao Paulo where he would defend his thesis for his master's degree. Anna, Arlindo, Patti, and I then did some sight seeing by night and ended up at the site where Arlindo and Lucia were going to be building their new home. It sounded like it was going to be a wonderful place. It was in a beautiful area with a great view of the lake and of the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, a Brasilia landmark.
After coming home and trying some new-to-us Brazilian fruits, it was off to bed at 10:30 for us and for Arlindo, as he had to do some surgery the next day, and we were just tired from the pace of our Brazilian adventure.
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