Embu das Artes

Embu das Artes is a colorful Brazilian city where you can find rugs, jewelry, paintings, folkart and colonial-style furniture. The town was settled by a group of Jesuits back in 1554. It only takes about a half an hour to get there from my place. While shopping, I met several groups of Americans. All of them happened to be from different religious organizations or missionaries, and were here in Brazil on 2-4 year missions.

Praia do Engenho

Praia do Engenho is a beach north of Sao Paulo. A group of us hired one of the school bus drivers to take us there in a small mini bus. Shortly after leaving school the bus broke down, which delayed us for about 3 hours. What should have been a 3-4 hour trip took us about 8. We were also delayed becuase it was a very foggy and slighlty frightening trip through some mountainous areas. The road that lead us to the beach hotel was made of yellow-orange clay and because it had rained so much there were these huge potholes that made for a very bumpy ride. This picture of the path to the beach was just a short distance from where we stayed.