Greetings from the South...South America that is.

This is our hill.  Well, obviously not our hill, but we live at the top of it and struggle climbing up it each day so I feel like we're a little bit entitled to call it "our hill."

The roads in our area are pretty rugged at points so cars are used to some pretty hard driving conditions, but no one drives up this hill.  We've been living here a month and a half and I've only seen one person drive up it and that was mainly just because he wanted to try.  I've seen a few motorcycles go down the hill and maybe one car, but you're pretty safe assuming that you can walk in the middle of the street and no one will hit you. 

Annika and Alisha like to run or walk quickly up the hill in an effort to get a little more exercise, but I prefer to go slow and steady (wins the race...but actually, I still always lose).  We're all still breathing incredibly hard by the time we get home no matter how slow/fast we walk. 

There are a few neighbors who are almost always sitting outside their houses and they get to witness "the three Americans" trying to climb the hill with a front row view.  We always wheeze out a quick "bom dia" and continue our trek up the hill. 

Most of the Brazilians just laugh at us when they see how tired we are after climbing the hill and just tell us that they are accustomed to climbing it and so it's not as bad for them.  Maybe when we've been here a year we will finally be "accustomed" to climbing it.