Monday Memories: Swimming in Chapada Diamantina

loving Brazil: a refreshing swim at the end of hike!

Really, is anything more delightful than a quick swim in cold water on the stickiest and sweatiest of summer days? I think not. Right now we're enjoying lukewarm sunshine and those first trickles of warmth but pretty soon August will be roasting us alive in our own skin and I for one cannot wait! I loved running through sprinklers during hot summers as a kid and I love jumping into cool lakes now that I'm (kind of) grown up. 

Mom and Zelda

This picture was taken on a family vacation to Brazil a few years ago. One of the highlights of our trip was the Chapada Diamantina National Park. Here, we were at the end of a long, hot, but breathtakingly beautiful hike that lead us to a lovely waterfall and this natural pool. Of course all four of us had to hop in!  It was sooooo refreshing and--once the water-tag started--so much fun!


Look up at the Sky!

Zanna

PS. Monday Memories of hiking in Costa Rica, a romantic weekend in Lausanne, Switzerland, and skiing in the alps with friends or just with Karl!

 

Monday Memories: Hiking in Brazil

This week I'm missing my family! After spending so much time together over winter break its strange to suddenly be separated. Since we all live scattered around the globe, vacations have always been the most important way we connect. Meeting up in some foreign place and discovering new sights and sounds together tightens our little family community like nothing else! My grandparents (who used to live in Mexico but are now in California) are the most adventurous travelers of us all and continue to travel across the Atlantic, visit new countries, and even attempt to learn new languages far into their eighties! They are such an inspiration, so today I've found a old photo from 2008, when all six of us met in Brazil where my mom had some work to do, and traveled around that amazing land. Awe-inspiring landscapes, a vibrant and unique culture, and an impressive diversity knit together in a melting-pot to rivals that of the US... it's no wonder we all fell in love with this country (and particularly with the Brazilians who are the coolest of the cool people you'll ever meet). We actually made the trek from far-away Europe twice, that's how much we loved it! 

Here, we're hiking in Chapada Diamentina National Park with our friendly guide (in blue). It took a six hour bus ride from Salvador de Bahia to arrive at Lencois, a picturesque colonial city from which all walks in the national park commence. We hiked every day, all day, including lots of clambering over stones as seen here, and my grandparents were amazing;  they scrambled over boulders and laughed the whole way. We had the time of our lives, and I still look back so fondly on those days in the Brazilian sun, stopping for picnic lunches and watching Grandma inch across the most unstable hanging bridge you've ever seen with a huge grin on her face. We're so lucky to have this time with family, it's the greatest luxury I can imagine! I hope I am blessed with good health and an indefatigable spirit in old age, so that I can give my grandchildren the same kind of memories they gave me.

Here, we stop in a rock formation near a waterfall for lunch. Zelda and Mom at the bottom appear to have dug in before the rest of us even arrive! Grandma's in her sunhat, me and Papa are last in line. Grand-papa is our resident photographer, so he's never in any pictures...

Look up at the Sky!

--Zanna