seekingmygreaterperhaps

When I was leaving Woodbridge, I had many friends say they were so excited to visit me in Brazil because now they would have a local and a place to stay! I am finishing my second school year, and I am very lucky to have hosted 3 visits, the most recent one being my best friend Chelsea!

(I have heard from my international teacher friends that usually people come visit your first post and then they stop visiting altogether because they just get used to you being abroad. It’s all on you to visit them when you are back in the States to maintain the friendship. So I guess I have that to look forward to. I will take it as a great sign that I have already have 2 friends visit me and my Dad and stepmom. Not to brag, but I do think I’m a pretty great host.)

Chelsea works in the same public school system I used to work at in Virginia, and after a couple conversations, she was like, well I need to come visit while you are still there because if I keep putting it off, I won’t go and then you’ll be moving somewhere else. So she took two days off work and managed a whirlwind 4 day visit to Brasilia. All my friends were asking if she was going anywhere else, and when she just said Brasilia they all looked at me like I was a terrible host. I am so blessed because Chelsea said the purpose of the trip is to spend time with me and see my life here, and anything else cool that she got to see was a bonus. There is always next time 😉

I created a Bingo Board for her to cross off essential Brasilia landmarks, as well as important Brazilian foods she must try while we was here. Of course, there was a prize when she completed it, and we did a grand push to make sure we got it done! We had to substitute a few things because of time and availability, but overall, Chelsea had a jam packed visit with me!

I think I have a pretty good checklist now for visitors and have a good pace and itinerary to make sure everyone gets to experience the highlights of Brasilia. Of course, living here is different, but I do like to show off my city.

Above is my favorite spot in Brasilia, and my first stop for all visitors- the Dom Bosco Cathedral. We didn’t plan on matching the blue stained glass windows, but it turned out like that. Afterwards we ate at Casa Almeria, my favorite brunch spot.

I rented a car for the weekend so we could more easily boogie around. We went around to the monuments on the Eixao Monumental and of course went inside the Cathedral, got to see the National Museum, the Congress, and the other buildings down there. How I explain this is that it is kind of like the National Mall in DC, except with less statues of people.

Afterwards we headed to the “hippie market” at the TV tower. We got to see the Eu ❤ Brasilia sign and also got to shop for some souvenirs. Why is it that I always find cool stuff here and buy things for me? Whatever, my new ceramic bird and fruit necklace is awesome.

That night I hosted a happy hour with my friends here to be able to meet Chelsea. It was fun for her to be able to put faces to the names she hears about in my stories. We ate at Caminito near my apartment, which is the popular happy hour spot after work as well.

Sunday brought us to the national park where we swam for a little bit at Agua Mineral. We dried off by watching the clouds. I love swimming, but I learned that Chelsea tolerates swimming, which is fine- we ended up people watching a little bit before we mosied up to the Choro do Eixao. I love the Eixao on Sundays, and we went to Asa Norte to listen to the live music and eat some street food. I think I’ve talked about this before, but the Eixao is the main highway through the center of Brasila, and it is closed every Sunday from 6a-6p and it is flooded with people exercising. Vendors crop up in specific areas and parties pop up too.

Monday I took the day off of work (wahoo!) and we made our way to Salto Corumba, which is a large waterfall between Brasilia and Pirenopolis. This very nice compound features 3 waterfalls, as well as a lot of adventure activities. I’ve been there once before, and I will say, going on a Monday is dope because it was essentially empty. This was Chelsea’s first visit to a waterfall, and I also nudged her out of her comfort zone with a couple activities.

The water was absolutely freezing, but when in Brazil, one must swim in a waterfall if given the chance.

I was shocked at the amount of water at the big waterfall. We couldn’t swim, and I was like… wait what? But I guess the whole seasons thing does actually have an impact. It made me even more happy that we swam in the freezing cold first one.

We had lunch at the facility, and it was a great grilled chicken spread, and gave Chelsea a quintessential Brazilian lunch spread, so a win win.

We went ziplining (featuring 3 ziplines) and tubing! The ziplining was awesome even though I don’t actually like ziplines because harnesses and me aren’t friends. This zipline went over the river on the first one, then we went over the waterfall on the second one (nice and slow), and the third one we ended in the water. I was translating instructions the whole time and on the second zipline over the waterfall I had to ask for many repetitions. Our guides started us off, but then while we were over the waterfall had to unwrap/unknot the rope to go the rest of the way. Even with the visuals, I was like… surely they aren’t asking us to do this, that’s crazy! In fact, they were asking us to do just that. We were attached to the line, but it was the effect of suspending us for time to take in the scenery, and both of us were like…. yeah I’m good to just go over, but we finagled the rope business seamlessly. You can’t tell the look of terror on Chelsea’s face in the zipline at all.

We ended our afternoon doing a tubing experience down some rapids (called boiacross) in the river. It’s not quite white water rafting because you are just in a tube, but it is really fun. I had a really good laugh because I am much much taller than Chelsea, and her limbs couldn’t really paddle in the river at all. She was at the complete mercy of the guides, but was a champ about it.

For dinner, we went to Steak Bull- the rodizio churrascaria- where they walk around with endless meat on sticks.

The last day of Chelsea’s visit, she got to come tour my school and have lunch with me. After school we walked up to the famous blue Brasilia tiles (also known as the outside of the little church) and we chatted and took in the sights. For dinner we stopped for churassquinhos at the guy by my apartment building before Chelsea had to pack for the airport.

If you’re curious what was on the bingo board

• Caldo de Cana
• Cathedral
• TV Tower
• Pet Kya
• Coxinha
• Pamonha
• Hippie Market
• Empada
• Churros
• Pastel
• Brigadeiro
• See the National Museum
• Cachoeira (waterfall)
• Igrejinha
• Coco
• Moscow Mule
• Churrasquinho
• Chicken Man
• See wildlife (we saw toucans AND macaws flying on our drive back from Salto Corumba!)
• Visit EAB
• Acai
• Guarana
• Eixao
• Dom Bosco Cathedral
• Caipirinha

It was truly a delight to have Chelsea here and talk with her in person! Come back any time!