Brasil - paradise found

Where to begin? Well, you all know our thoughts on Brasil - it really is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The music, the food, the beaches, the people, the style, the surfing... It a place that never ceases to wow us.

On this trip we discovered a new side to the experience: travelling with a child. Many of our friends had asked if we were taking Kirin with us on "honeymoon" (it seems such a funny term when you have been together for nine years, more in line with cans trailing off the back of a car leaving the church than the type of holiday we are used to) but we couldn't have imagined leaving him for two weeks. Why would anyone think that was a good idea?

But more important, travelling with Kirin is really nice. First, Brasil is the most child-friendly country you will ever encounter. Absolutely everyone seems to love kids and the whole society assumes that children are welcome everywhere and encouraged to have fun.

So, when we walked down the street Kirin was constantly getting smiles, kisses and cuddles. The word they would use is fofinho which is a sort of catch-all phrase suggesting that someone is too cute for words. It's true, the boy is gourgeous and finally getting to an entire country that recognised this was great for a pair of (proud) parents!

Beyond that, nowhere is off limits to kids. When we went to restaurants, the waitresses/waiters were also happy to play with him while we ate. When we went into shops, they found it hilarious when he would take all the shoes off the shelves. On the bus, no one seemed to mind that he was making a lot of noise or not sticking to his assigned seat. It's a sharp contrast to the UK, where you only go to certain restaurants because they are child-friendly and where some hotels still don't accept guests if they have children (our good friends Rich and Rachel had a nightmare finding somewhere to say when they came over for our wedding because they have a young child, Valentina).

It was also really interesting watching Kirin learn about a new place and new things: discovering the wonder of the tide (see the film in the previous post); enjoying the warm water of a tropical ocean; tasting mangoes, papayas, pineapples, passion fruit, and drinking straight from a coconut; wandering around a sandy beach; wearing sandals; swaying on a hammock; sitting in a canoe. He's at the age now where you can literally see him thinking things through, considering his decisions and weighing options. It's fascinating and wonderful.

Of course, the country itself still awes us. In Rio, we stayed with a lovely woman named Inia who treated us as though we were part of her family. And she and Kirin seemed to love each other (she even baby sat for us one evening, so Johanna and I could go out and check out one of our favourite restaurants).

In Paraty Mirim, a bay with little except for about ten houses, a wondrous bay and an idyllic beach. Our friend David Baker had a friend from Rio who lent us her weekend house there and we spent four nights in quiet paradise.

I could go on for ever but we are heading to Sarajevo to see Neena and Paul in about three hours and Johanna has suggested that I should maybe help with the packing and cleaning of the flat. Once again, she's right.

I leave you with this final thought: GO TO BRASIL. The only thing that would make it better would be to have all of our friends and family there with us. Perhaps we should organise a Brasilian wedding ceremony...

Follow your nose

For the first time since our return from honeymoon, we have had a few minutes to think straight. Work has been insanely busy for me and, as the family's chief blogger, this has meant updating has not been very regular.

It has been more than a month since our wedding and this is the first photograph to make it onto the blog. We had had this great idea of how to involve Kirin: he and Suran, his cousin, would be our ring bearers and walk down the aisle with the bands in front of Johanna and her party. Kirin, however, had other ideas. As soon as he saw his mama outside of the hall, he insisted that she carry him - she (happily) obliged and he joined us at the front for the duration of the ceremony.

This picutre is just after the civil ceremony, when Johanna and I had sat down to sign the registry.