We returned to Brasil on 5 December and our ‘home from home’ with Dona Ermida in Santos. We’re in Brasil for the 3 months we’re allowed to stay without a visa and will be travelling around visiting friends and new places.
Within days we were off to Ilhabela with Pricila. She has been renting the house on the island through Air B&B and invited us to join her for a booking free weekend.
A rather cloudy Praia Corral, Ilha Bella
The house is just as awesome as we remembered it, and this time we discovered some ‘new’ wildlife, well, new to me. The island is infamous for its insects, many with huge teeth which seem to treat insect repellent as more of garnish when applied to Gringo …..
Christmas lights in Villa.
More entertainingly they have Cigarra. huge thumb sized crickets which sing at dawn and dusk. They sound like feedback on a microphone too close to a speaker and their party piece is to quite literally sing their guts out, they actually burst. I am not sure of the evolutionary advantage in this but it hasn’t stopped them yet. Add to that what we were told was a frog in the forest which sounded like it was hammering on a hollow log with a massive hammer, with metronome regularity. Quite a chorus!
Praça Coronel Julio de Moura Negrão 
Villa’s Christmas Tree 
Nossa Senhora d’Ajuda church in Villa
After another lovely weekend here we left Ilhabela after Pri had shown her Air B&B guests around the house. The drive back to São Paulo was about 5 hours and Pri invited us to stay the night in her new apartment in Aqua Branca.
Saying our goodbyes to Pri on the 15th we went off to Cotia to visit with Roberto and Rose for a few days before returning to Santos on the 19th to prepare for Chistmas!
Christmas Day 
Christmas sunset over Santos
Christmas and New Year were relatively quiet at Dona Ermida’s with visits from friends and family. There is a restaurant close by which will cook takeaway meals for both celebrations and it does a roaring trade – labouring away over a hot stove is not the best way to spend the day with temperatures in the low 30’s!
‘How to Avoid Lightening’ and ‘How to Forget’ 
My Christmas presents were a book entitled “How to avoid a Lightening Strike” and a nice bottle of wine to help me forget why I should need to know, from our wonderful friends Zilda and Julian.
Beatles tribute band 
The major change for me this year was to avoid the local tradition of paddling in the sea and jumping 7 waves for luck. I did this last year and figured I could do without that sort of luck in 2020!
So with 2019 over we are looking forward to 2020. Two more months here in Brasil, then back to Greece for the summer before coming back to Brasil and doing this all over again!
Wishing everyone a Happy 2020!