Hooray for a holiday every month! Last Monday Craig had the day off again, so we went with some friends from the ward to a small town called Paranapiacaba. Try to say that 10 times in a row! It is always fun to see a more traditional Brazilian town than Sao Paulo. The town looked really cool from a distance....
...and close up too. The town and people were nice, but we were grossed out with all of the stray dogs running around, begging for people's food. Apparently, the government doesn't allow the civilians to capture or harm the dogs. So they just run around, spreading disease I guess. Gross! The dogs in this picture are strays, just 3 of the many that we saw.
But the point of going to Paranapiacaba was not to look at the stray dogs, and also not to see a mime....
...but to go up into the mountains behind the city to go on a hike! It was a lot of fun! It wasn't quite the Amazon, but it was the most jungley place I have ever been to. I thought it was beautiful! I loved all of the plants that would just grow everywhere! Everything was so green...
and then randomly in the middle of all the green, you would see a bright red, pink, or yellow flower, different kinds than I have ever seen before.
We hiked to a waterfall. It was gorgeous! It was really nice to get out of the city, too!
