Londrina, again

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Our trip back to Londrina started with a flight from Santiago Airport. After a check in that was like being in the auditions for Takeshi's Castle, we borded and arrived in Sao Paulo ready to catch a bus at 10.45pm to Londrina. After another nightmare trip, including thin seats and NO sleep we arrived at 6am to be met by Carla and Aline.

After a well earned sleep we awoke to a full house. After introductions to aunt's, uncles, cousins, grandparents and anyone else that appeared, we had a bbq and waited for the new year to come. Once this had passed and we had watched the many fireworks in the city we headed out to a club. Despite not singing Auld Lang Syne we were in good spirits and the night out was very enjoyable. Apparently it is tradition in Brazil to wear a certain colour of underwear depending on what you want from the next year. For instance, yellow means money, blue means hapiness and white means peace. No idea who figures all these out, but you'll have to take our word for it!

New years day was a lazy day spent recovering from the previous night. We watched films and played poker, which i am happy to report Craig won. When we weren´t doing these we were making fun of Jake, who was not looking forward to the following days significant event.

Jake´s 24th birthday was spent at a local country club where Carla's family are members. This had facilities for making food, playing pool and sunbathing. After games of waterpolo, pool and general horse play we headed to the kitchen, where an embarressed Mr Knight was presented with his cake. Happy birthday in English and Portuguese ensued and we returned home to do what we did the previous day, only this time Jake won the poker tournament!

The final two days were spent as we had spent most of the time there, relaxing and eating. We fitted in a trip to the shopping centre close by to buy some clothes we both needed and visited the local park and even got treated to a trip to a flower shop (don't ask). Jake had a crack at driving on the wrong side of the road for 30 minutes in and around Londrina with Carla as his instructor! No fatalities to report! All in all we had another great time at l'maison Costellini...and would like to thank the girls and their families for their hospitality...which we hope we can return one day!

We just caught a bus back to Sao Paulo on the 4th at 11pm, although a lack of petrol in Aline's car almost prevented us from getting to the bus station. After a flight back to Santiago we spent the next day and a half waiting, and preparing ourselves for the 14 hour flight to New Zealand.

We are both sad to leave South America, where we have seen and done many, many things and met lots of new people. We are, however, looking forward to being able to speak English for the next 3 months and therefore have a clue as to what the hell is going on when we book excusions, hostels or just want to catch a bus somewhere.

We have added a few photos but didn't really get the camera out that much...so apologies!

Love JC

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Comments

[Carla]

Hey boys!! Today I spent my boring work day reading your blog! Very fun and interesting all your posts and very beautiful all those places you have been... It was really good have you here again... thanks for comming one more time! All of us are missing you!! Hope you have fun and enjoy New Zealand! Take care! xxx

[Aline]

I just wanna say, in my defense, that my car had "petrol"...something else was wrong (I still dont know what!) We miss you guuuuuuuuuys! I really hope we can see eachother again someday... And Craig, I have to say you look amazing in that picture with Big Patrick! hahahhaa xx

[Jeff]

So far so good
Hello all, Well as we are now in 2008 i hope you will look back to 2007 an realise what an amazing 3 months you have all had in south America. It sounded like you have met some really nice people and seen some fabulous places. You will remember all this for the rest of your lives. Take care and enjoy....Love to you all Jeff and Wendy xx xx xx