Two Temple Trips

Brazil is a beautiful country.

We live here.  We want to see as much as possible.

Which isn't that much because it's a really big country.

 We decided to do our best.

Our free time is limited but we're taking all we can.

It may appear to the reader, that we are "tourists".
But, as we visit different places, we usually have
our name tags and some pass-a-long cards.
Many people are friendly and curious about us and our church.
There are a lot of holidays here, 
which helps get the Elders Hall out of their offices  :)

There are a few mission-related business trips

but most of our travels are for pleasure.

Sr. missionaries have their perks.

Amidst our daily work, it's so nice to have something different,

relaxing and lovely to look forward to.

We've been to Rio twice now. 

We visited Brasilia.

We went to Santos and Campos do Jodão at Christmas-time.

Craig went to Natal.

All of these travels are on previous blog posts.

In March, while our São Paulo temple was closed,

we took a Saturday trip to Campinas.

We just wanted to take the 90 minute drive and attend the temple there.

After the very full session, we had lunch in their well-stocked cafeteria.

 It had rained a little bit which made the flowers glisten in the sun.

"muito bonito"!

Sr. friends, Leland and Lianne Thomson 

from Mesa, AZ went with us. 

I had this dream of visiting all the temples in Brazil.
Some of the senior couples go all over Brazil to do
"trainings" etc. and have attended each temple.
We are usually on our own to arrange and pay for travel.  
The temples are somewhat spread,
as they should be, throughout Brazil.

We will be fortunate to probably get to
5 out of 6, operating (red dots) temples, before leaving Brazil.
Porto Alegre is the one we will have to miss.
We have plans to travel to Recife and Manaus in the next few months.
Fortaleza is in construction,  Rio is stuck in the "planning" phase :(

In June, on a holiday, we decided to
travel south to Curitiba.

We bought tickets for the Wednesday, overnight bus ride!

We arrived around 7:00 am and walked with our bags
about 2 blocks down the street to our
Victoria Villa Hotel

They let us check in early if we paid for breakfast there so, OK!

The buffet was excellent ~

These are a few random shots from walking around downtown.

These are the unique and rare Parana Pine trees.
They have been "endangered", protected from logging,
and freely given to landowners in Curitiba,
to plant and nurture.

We love the Brazilian pavement!

peaceful city park

This is one of the funky city bus stops.  
You enter at one end, get in line and wait.
Then, at the other end, go through a turnstile to get onto the bus.
No São Paulo style "crowding" allowed~

After settling into the hotel we took a city bus to the Curitiba Temple
to do a session there.  This was the holiday
and it was crowded but thankfully,
we arrived early enough and got in without a problem.

After the Temple we took the bus back
to town and had dinner at the HUGE
Shopping Estacão across from our hotel.

Thankfully there were not 30,000 people there that day~

This is a fun little water tunnel at the mall you can walk through.


On Friday morning we caught a train.

Diane and Paul Wheeler, pictured on right, came with us to Curitiba.
They're a fun couple from Logan, UT.

The "Serra Verde Express"  took us through the Atlantic Rainforest to a town
called Morretes where we had a wonderful lunch.

It was a picturesque, relaxing 3 hour ride.

This is the station where we boarded the train,

Some amazing views along the way.

After lunch we took a bus back to Curitiba,
to take a different road, see other things
and get back faster.

We made one stop at some small town
to stretch and take some photos.

The next day, Saturday we took an all day,
hop off & on, double deck, open air bus, city tour.

Our first and favorite stop was the famous
"Jardim Botânical de Curitiba".

All travel ads for Curitiba feature this huge, 
beautiful, and well attended greenhouse.

Paul and Diane inside the greenhouse~

views from the inside 

The weather in Curitiba can be cold this time of year (autumn)
because of the southern location and high altitude.
But we were blessed with PERFECT conditions
the entire three days.

We really needed another day to see
more of the highlights of this wonderful city.

These are some other pictures of things we saw that day.

Barigui River

This is "city hall" in Curitiba.

We see these "girls" everywhere.
They are made of some kind heavy ceramic and
sit in windows of shops to greet and invite all who pass by :)

Curitiba is a pretty big city being Brazil's 8th largest.

The Ópera de Arame or Wire Opera House
is another popular tourist attraction.
In the middle of Parque Barigui it is built with steel tubes.



After our Saturday tour we had to hurry back to the bus station
for an evening 6 hour bus return trip to São Paulo.
We were 5 of the very few people on the bus,
arriving about 11:00 pm with the driver agreeing to
drop us directly at our apartment!

Thank you Curitiba, for a delightful sojourn!