38. Skydive Portugal, Beach Dayze & Lisbon

We make it to Skydive Portugal! Equally as special was more time getting to know Linda and Carlos, a beach day and more Lisbon exploring with Linda. That Portugal love grew each day and within just 4 days it felt like home. I thank Linda and Carlos with my whole heart for such hospitality and love.

Below are my favorite memories between photos:

~Skydive Portugal!! Immediately, the people there were incredibly welcoming and made us feel at home. Linda and Carlos came with us and we all enjoyed a Porugese restaurant before arriving. Even though I can't speak a word of Portuguese, the whole Skydive Portugal family made me feel so happy to be there. As always, getting in the air made the whole world feel calm.

~On our second jump at Skydive Portugal, one of the pros there came up and exclaimed, "Can I jump with you guys?!" We had an awesome free fly jump and he and Ivan swooped.

~When packing up our stuff, the Skydive Portugal staff starting chatting with us and said "Will you both please work for us here?!" We both have goals to accomplish this fall back in the states but it was such an honor for them to invite us. It is definitely in our dreams to work together in some form of skydiving and this made that dream seem so real.

~Sitting in the Skydive Portugal plane as we climbed to altitude, as usual, I found myself in the calmest moments of the day. In my head it was "OMG I DID IT!!! This is my last jump of this world trip over the past 8 months! I'm alive, I traveled the world, I DID IT!" But then again I had those thoughts before, thinking that was the last jump of the adventure, and then whole new chapters opened. So maybe it really wasn't the last ; )

~I'm not one to brag, but I really loved my Skydive Portugal landings. I worked so hard on accuracy all month at CSC and I feel it really paid off. Their landing area was TINY and only for D license skydivers- each time I landed it perfectly! Ivan always lands first so I was glad he could see my accuracy was better than his ; ) ; )

~THE BEACH! We spent a whole day at the beach. We packed a picnic and enjoyed the beautiful sun, ocean, napping and relaxing. Ivan spent at least an hour in the freezing water- me, I got in for .2 seconds but it counts! The sunset there was so beautiful and we all felt such peace. (pictured below)

~More exploring Portugal! The last afternoon we were there, Linda took us to see more monuments on the water. We enjoyed ice cream as we leisurely walked around. My favorite part was us donating money to get a lock, signed it and hung it on a love monument. It was awesome to think our names would be permanently there, in a place of love. More photo shoots was also fun ; )

~The last night we were there, Linda told us that the parents of Carlos were coming over to cook us dinner. We were in for SUCH a treat! When we arrived home, his mom had a beautiful, hand made towel for me. Here was a stranger, so loving, immediately giving presents. They cooked us THE most delicious dinner of at least 8 different gourmet seafood dishes- HEAVEN! The proportions were huge and the courses seemed endless. The dad kept pouring white wine- also great. After dinner he sang for us in Portuguese while we gifted them Aguagiente- a Colombian alcohol. It was an evening filled of such pure family love- we couldn't speak a work of Portuguese but that didn't matter at all- there was laughter all night.

~The morning we were leaving was sad for all of us. Linda has no family of hers in Portugal and Ivan and I usually don't have family around in our travels. That morning as we booked our flights back to the U.S. - for 2 days later- HA just a little late!- Linda prepared arepa mix (from Colombia) and cooked the mix in our names- so thoughtful and caring!

~As we were packing our bags to leave, Linda cooked us more gourmet food to eat in the car- a lifesaver since we had a long 6 hour drive ahead of us!

~Leaving Linda, we were all teary eyed. I truly felt in that moment - in addition to many other moments that weekend - that I was so lucky to have Ivan in my life- and in addition to just him, to have such a lovely sister- in law. It was so hard to see the two of them hug goodbye for a long time. Or so we thought.....a big surprise about that in the next post.