Bus tour of Curitiba

Arnaldo looking at the map as we begin our journey around the city on a cool double-decker bus.

As you can see I was totally excited to have some fun, while Tiago's wife Adriana was just being a dork in the background.

The Opera de Arame, or Wire Opera where concerts and such happen.

Having fun during the ride. We had to stay seated to not get hit by the low phone/electric wires or get hit by trees.

One of the impromptu pictures Gabi surprised her parents with.

The young international cute couple.

These two pictures are of an amazing museum made of concrete designed by the same guy who designed the new Capital of Brazil called Brasilia (with an arial view, the streets are in the design of an airplane). The museum almost seems like something in a sci-fi movie.

The Mendes family.

A cool botanical garden.

Inside the building with a cool banana tree flower. I like how the colors of this picture turned out ... and the photographer ... my wife!!

Almost all of us in front of the garden, someone had to take an awesome picture. Believe it or not, there were quite a bit of people there!!

Our final picture with the Mendes family at their home before the good-byes.

The Temple of Curitiba

While we were in Curitiba we had to go and visit the new temple there.

An awesome view from the temple missionaries' apartment with the lights on!

Me in front of the temple before we went in to do some work and check out all the beauty inside. For anyone who saw the slide show of temple pictures before the dedication of the Gila Valley temple, it showed many shots of this temple ... so naturally I was thinking to myself, "I've been there."

This city is unique for the trees it has. There are lots of different types of pine trees and personally I like this one the most. It's kind of like an umbrella with a straight trunk and the branches stretch out sideways with poofs of pine needles on the ends.

There was also a nativity set there even though it was January, just so we could see it when we went.

This is just an idea to realize how big these trees get. And to really prove I was there, HA!

Of course I wasn't going alone ... I had to have my beautiful wife there with me. And if you are wondering, yes I picked a tie that would match with her dress.

Gabi put these two pictures of her with each parent. You can tell what she gets from each of them. She has a kind and gentle look with her mom, but with her dad is totally a fun person. The cool thing is though, that she managed to curve her foot almost the same in both pictures!

The guys. Tiago in the middle is from there and helped with the construction of the temple and still works there to maintain the temple, so we got a little tour as a bonus.