Brazil Part 4

Here are the last of the pictures from Brazil...

Looking at the bungalows towards the inner part of the island. Our bungalow is on the right.

Mike and "family Peter". There were 2 Peters at this workshop, both from Arizona. So to differentiate between the 2, we named this one family Peter. Here family Peter is teaching Mike and Jake a blessing to the 4 directions.
Family Peter is holding a mother of pearl shell with burning sage in it.
Just before the final, nighttime ceremony. Mike and Jake with shaman Warinei.
We always had a fire going during the ceremonies.
Myself and Jake with Ralph and Peter, the workshop founders. This was their 7th year hosting the workshop, with multiple workshops during each year.
The next day Jake played soccer with Noah.
Too cute -- 2 shirtless little boys.
The final night we had a big dinner gala to celebrate our week. Mike and a sleeping Jake with Sara and Warinei.
Mike and Jake with family Peter.
The three of us, dressed up for the festivities.
Zoe, Jake, and Noah (family Peter's kids). That's a sticker on Jake's shirt.
Rodrigo and Mike. Rodrigo was one of the workshop staff members and his playfulness and sense of humor was so wonderful.
Ralph and Mike.
Zoe, Lucy, and Lee.
Peter, Lee, and Jake.
We had to leave the next day at 6am for our boat ride for the start of our journey home. We were so sad to leave!! We had a 2 hour boat ride, then a 2 hour bus ride to Ilheus. Then a 2 hour plane ride to Sao Paulo. Flew from Sao Paulo to Chicago which was 10.5 hours. Then our flight to Portland was 3.5 hours. That doesn't include all the layover time! It was a very long time traveling, and hard on all of us, and we were glad when we made it home.

Jake is holding some balloons that he grabbed from the party the night before.
Mike, leaving, with the beach and rising sun in the background.
Dominic and Lee waiting at the dock for the boat.
We saw a rainbow before getting on the boat. A promise of return?
Jake, the very experienced boat traveler.
Just us.
Mike taking a bit of a nap on the boat. After all, we did wake up at 5:15am!
Approaching the city where our bus was waiting.
I wish I knew the name of the city.
At the Ilheus airport, saying goodbye to David who was returning to England.
Again, the experienced traveler, waiting at the Sao Paulo airport.
On the train going between terminals at the Chicago airport. Of note -- Brazil is SUCH a child-friendly country!! Once we arrived at Sao Paulo in the beginning, we were NOT allowed to wait in any lines. Once airport staff saw that we had a child, we were immediately ushered to the head of whatever line we were in (customs, security, baggage, etc.). The flight attendents of our flights to and from Sao Paulo made sure we had good seats (3 seats in the bulkhead, even though Jake was a 'lap child'). It was the same way returning home. So nice!! However, once we got back to the USA, all bets were off. It was a rather rude awakening. We had an aisle seat and window seat for our flight from Chicago to Portland, and they put someone in the middle seat despite there being other middle seats available elsewhere on the plane!! Grrrr...


We had such a wonderful time. I won't go into details about the ceremonies, but I can say that they were incredibly healing and loving and amazing. The people who attended the workshop were all so wonderful, and from different parts of the world. We had quite a few from the USA and England, but also from Croatia, South Africa, and Brazil. It was the best honeymoon for us and we are so glad we went.