Here in Brazil #5: My Parents' House

Before I go back to the US and it's too late, I wanted you to be able to vizualize where I am, so here I offer a couple of pictures (I wanted to upload more, like a series of houses so you have a better idea of how Brazilian houses look like, but this would take forever on this internet connection... sorry).

This is my parents' house:

And before you start wondering, wow, this is such a big house, they're rich, or something, let me explain... My parents saved their whole lives to be able to build this house. They moved in when it was not even finished yet, so they could save on rent to finish it. I think they lived on it for only a year before they both retired. It is pretty big, and it has a third floor "lookout" (where my dad's "office" is located) because my dad wanted to be able to have the best view possible.

This is the view:

The sunsets here are incredible, if you want to see some, I have them posted elsewhere, and you can ask me for the link (again, I could post a picture if it didn't take so long :( The trees are orange trees, this is an area of the Sao Paulo state countryside famous for that. The tiny town you can see in the background is called Engenheiro Coelho (that's where they live). Even in a mostly rural area like this, a condominium with houses that look beautiful like my parents' (even though most of the residents are just middle class people who used all their life-savings to build a house) is a target for theft, so they had to go and build this wall, which is almost 10 feet tall, (3,40m) - sad, isn't it?

The boys enjoy being here, my dad put up a swing in a tree in front of the house, and they have plenty of space to roam. Too bad they're still very young, so it keeps the three of us occupied all day long just to know where they are and what they're doing. Oh, yes, and it's extremely hot here, with temperatures in the 90sF (35C), so I wish my parents also had a pool - but see, they truly aren't rich, or we'd have one :)