Halloween in Brazil

This American holiday, called "Halloween" in Portuguese, is celebrated here, though with much less fanfare, i.e., no copious amounts of delicious little candy bars next to the Christmas lights in Target, no trick-or-treating, no packs of sexy nurses or school girls bar-hopping, no razor blades in apples, etc. 

Kids at Eri's school changed into their costumes at the end of the day for an outdoor dance party while the teachers handed out suckers. The boys were super heros or something bloody, the girls were witches (except our little ladybug Eri) and Geoff wore a mask that stole the show.

Our First Visitors: The Hughes

Our first house guests: Scott, Molly and baby boy in utero! 

Their arrival was highly anticipated and their departure was sad. They were in the process of moving from Santiago, Chile, where we visited them in August (see post appropriately titled "Chile") back to Kansas City, where our lifelong friendship began, when they stopped in Florianopolis for a week to see us. We loved showing them around and showing them off to our friends here. More pix to follow.

Eri burst through the security area at the Florianopolis airport and ran
to Scolly emerging from bagage claim. 

It was cute how she flung herself into Molly's arms,
but we were really happy she didn't get shot by the policia.

The beaches here look pretty much like the ones in Kansas City.

Showing off. Molly had work to do, much to Eri's dismay,
so she upped her distraction game.

Lunch at the beach.

"Voo livre" (paragliding) was awesome. Here I am on final descent while
the instructor is encouraging me to open my eyes
so I don't miss how fast we're approaching the ground. Yep, I know.

Eri running to give me a hug after I landed alive.

Portuguese to English translation:
"Run straight off this cliff and hope for the best."

Scott's super smooth landing.

On the river.

Looks like a native.

Victor, Eri and Scott. Spinning is universally fun for
children and universally tiring for adults.

Two hemispheres of friendship.