Yesterday started with a quick trip to Petropolis, the city in Brazil where the royal family settled when Brazil was colonized by Portugal. It is aproximately 1 1/5 hours by car from Rio. This first shot is of the royal palace. Although the royal family has no governmental authority in the country any longer, decedents of the royal family still live at the estate in a home behind the palace. The palace and gardens are very beautiful. The royal family also is not as wealthy as a person might guess a royal family to be, as when Brazil was first colonized even though the monarchy was here, they still sent all the riches and gold back to Portugal. Very interesting history here in Brazil.
We also drove past a former hotel/casino where many famous Hollywood actors have stayed throughout history, including Fred Astaire! The German influence on the architecture of the city was interesting to see as well. The hotel/casino looks like a Swiss Chalet or something one would see in Vienna.

While in Petropolis, we also stopped at Casa de Santos Dumont, the man of aviation in the country. Below is a picture of Sierra--"looking off in the distance" while standing on the stairs leading to the house. (It's the way she wanted the picture to be taken). The most interesting part of the structure of the house was the stairs, which were cut so that you had to step on the right side of the first step and proceed up, or down, in that pattern. Santos Dumont personally designed these stairs because he was a firm believer in the superstition that one has good luck if they always begin with their right foot forward! The next picture is of birds of paradise growing in the gardens at the royal palace. They are a beautiful flower. One of many beautiful plants found in the tropical climate of Brazil.

On the way to Petropolis from Rio you travel a winding road up and through the mountains, leaving Petropolis you follow a different road to go down. The royal family chose Petropolis to escape the heat of Rio. About half way up, traffic suddenly got really bad. We spent many minutes at a complete standstill and then we would creep forward a few meters and stop again. Then, we realized that we were seeing many people walking from ahead with crates of beer! 12 bottles to a crate. I watched one man take a bottle out of the crate being carried by another, seemingly stranger, and they were cordial to each other. There got to be so many crates of beer being carried that our driver rolled down his window and asked a passerby, "has there been an accident up ahead with a beer truck?" Sure enough!!! A semi carrying beer had taken a corner too sharp, his load of crates of bottles of beer must not have been secure and several hundred crates fell off! In the process, a few thousand bottles broke on the side of the road, but several dozen crates survived the fall and became open market for anyone passing by! It was quite funny. Had I thought of it at the time, I would have taken a picture of the broken bottles on the side of the road because it is indescribable. We were offered beer by pedestrians, but we declined as we were in a vehicle. One can never guess what they will see when they adventure out in this country.

I am going to close and publish this post and later I will add some more photos as Sierra was a model in the upper school, SENIOR's Fashion Show at EARJ last night!!! I will share those shots in a few.
Much love and beijos to all...