Brazil

One of Matt's best friends moved to Brazil, and was supposed to be there with his family for 2 years. He had planned on visiting them during their stay. Their assignment ended after only 6 months, so he basically had a few weeks to plan to go, get his visa and shots and go visit him. Matt had not been back to Brazil since his mission, and was excited to be able to go back and visit. I would have loved to go with him as well, but since our friends wife had already relocated, and it was just Lance and Matt, and the lack of babysitters that we have,  just Matt went. They travelled around the country quite a bit while they were there. He flew into Sao Paulo, and cleaned up, and ate lunch at Lance's house. They stayed at the airport hotel, so they could be on a flight early the next morning that took them to Manaus. That is the city closest to the Amazon. They stayed overnight there, and the next morning, took a 3 hour shuttle ride to a "resort" in the Amazon. They were able to do excurisions, like see pink dolphins, go piranha fishing, jungle tours, etc. They were there for a couple days, and afterwards returned to Manaus. They were able to see the just finished, but not yet dedicated Manaus temple, and then catch a flight to Rio. Rio is were Matt served his mission. He said this was his favorite part of the trip. It is a beautiful city. They went to Sugarloaf, and various other site seeing ventures. They also went hang gliding. He has video of it, and it looks exhilarating and scary at the same time. They spent a few days there, and then came home. I'm so glad he was able to go, to see Brazil and catch up with his friend, and see all the fun sights.