Miami to Curitiba

 

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April 13  Monday

We arrived in Miami this morning about 7:30 a.m.  We never get much sleep on the airplanes, so we took our time walking around a bit, found a Florida trinket for our travel Christmas tree, and ate breakfast at the Italian Kitchen.  We found the gate number for the next leg of the trip and met David and Ann at the American Airline gate.  They had come in a little earlier on a flight from Salt Lake City.  Our last trip to Brazil on American Airlines was quite eventful; we weren't sure if we would ever fly with them again.  They redeemed themselves on our trip home for the funeral; we hope our luck holds. 



Design in tile at the Miami airport

The flight was delayed a bit for electrical systems checks and eventually took off at 10:30 a.m. for Curitiba, scheduled to arrive at 7:45 p.m.  These long flights are not much fun anymore.  We had lunch and a light dinner on the flight; watched a good movie (but I can't remember what it was.)  I started another bobbin lace bookmark.  One of the flight attendants from Puerto Rico saw me working on it and stopped to talk to me.  She had taken a class in college in Puerto Rico that was offered to help keep the art alive in the country.  She would stop by occasionally to see my progress - very friendly.

As soon as we gathered our luggage after the flight, we went through customs - a much better experience than last time.  We loaded everything in an oversized taxi again for the trip to the Hotel Nacional Inn.  We stayed there before on our trip with the missionary reunion tour. 


Hotel Nacional Inn room

View from room

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David called Sister Lais Marques - a sister missionary who had served in the Canela/Gramado area while he and Ann were on their mission.  She had since married Gustavo Zioli, and they are living in Curitiba not far from the hotel.  They arrived bringing wonderful pasteis and a big bottle of Guarana.  We had a nice visit with them, catching up on everything.