"The Coast" -a Novel written by Meghan Onega.

To speak frankly, after our bout with dengue we were ready to pack it up and head home.  This happens.

However, Benjamin came up with a much better plan which he thought would lift our spirits.  He said, “Let’s head to the coast!”  So we did.. and it did :)

This has been our favorite leg of the trip so as a warning, this post will be long (but fun)!

The details of how we got a car will be discussed later as it involves a new living arrangement and all these details merit their own post.  But there we were in our borrowed blue Chevy, Lonely Planet travel book in hand - somewhat reminiscent of B&M cerca 2007 driving through southern Brazil stopping where we pleased- this time cruising the Northeast coast.  Here is our first sighting of the water!

To give you a reference point of where we were, here’s a map showing the state we live in.  I’m pointing to our first stop:

Our first stop was in a little town who’s found its place on the map because of an unimpressive lighthouse at it’s center.  You can’t say much for the beach either except that it’s very pretty to look at and deserted for miles.  The problem is, that it’s waters are too rough and rocky to swim in.  We feel though that we sort of got the best of both at our pousada (inn) …

That’s right, you got to lounge in pool area with a view of the ocean..so relaxing.  Here’s a few more pics of our place:

   

Wait, I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking we got gypped because there was no slide?  You’re wondering why we would stay at an inn that didn’t offer something that at least slightly resembled a water park?  Well don’t worry… 

                     

Ok, so on to our beach walk..

We debated whether to stay in Corruipe another day as we were still tired and the goal was to “relax/recover” but we couldn’t help ourselves.  We knew there had to be friendlier beaches and cooler towns.  We were up early the next day and hit the road.  Here’s some things we saw along the way.  *Vineyard friends, note the almost-Gayhead-cliffs we saw in a little town!

Finally we ended up in a great beach town called Praia do Frances..

We selected the Inn we wanted, plopped our bags down and showered up.  Stomachs growling, we quickly headed out again in search of a good restaurant.  But something happens.  En route to the restaurant we see a sister out evening witnessing.  Ben screeches to a halt and calls her over while I scream, “No don’t, I’m hungry!! Ugh Ben...you always….”  And there she was, all smiles at his window.  We explained who we are, where we’re from, why we’re in Brazil and so on.  Well she excitedly tells us that an elder in her hall is from Canada and speaks English and lives right nearby.  Next thing we know, she’s in the car with us directing us to his home.  Turns out he and his wife were there and invited us to have dinner with them.  Meet Alan and Katie:

A&K wrote a letter to Brazil 13 years ago asking where the need was greater.  The reason they chose Brazil was because Katie is a Brazilian citizen.  She is German by decent, but all tying in with WW2, she was born in Brazil and moved to Canada when she was two years old.  Through marriage Alan was also granted legal residence along with whatever children they may have.  They received word that the need at that time was in southern Brazil, so that’s where they headed.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention………… with their SIX small children.

The family lived there for five years and all became (and currently are) fluent in Portuguese.  This adds to their first two languages, English and French.

After five years, back in Canada Alan’s mother got sick and the family returned for three years.  In this time five of their children decided to stay in Canada and one returned with them, this time to Northeastern Brazil, currently where the need was great.

They are truly incredible for what they’ve done with their life and so so happy.  They both teach English here and there and make/sell sausage to local restaurants.  This supports their pioneering – which has stopped only temporarily because of spending all their time at their congregation build.  Here, you can’t count RBC time if you’re a pioneer!  Sad.  Anyway we sat out on their porch talking and laughing and munching on homemade sausage, saurkrat, pizza and brownies.  It was so nice to talk with others in English for the first time in over a month.  We look forward to sometime soon meeting their daughter Chelsea who lives in the capital, Maceio.

As we were leaving they suggested that as part of our beach day the next day, we go to a restaurant called Beleza Tropical because a brother in their hall runs it.  So that’s just what we did.  Meet Francisco:

Francisco and his wife Silvia (who we meet later) are awesome.  They are 27 and 24 and have been married two years.  It’s her parents who own the restaurant and she, her brother and Fransisco run it.  Turns out Fransisco spent six months in the U.S. on some kind of work program so he too spoke quite a bit of English and loves American football, asked us if we like Cracker Barrel..haha.. it was great.  We met Silvia that night and the four of us had drinks.  We also met them back at their restaurant the next day for lunch.  They’ve invited us to stay with them anytime we come back to Frances.  We are flirting with the idea of spending our whole last month there but we’ll see what happens.

This trip was truly a blessing and just what we needed.  A week later Allen & Katie and Francisco & Silvia headed to Maceio to watch the Superbowl at Chelsea’s apartment.  They texted us the score and highlights of every quarter.  Sorry Pats fans :(  Can’t wait to see them all again.

A happy and refreshed Ben and Meg