Warning: This is a really long post. Reading the entire post and looking at all the pictures may burn out your eyeballs. Why, Becca, are your travel posts so long?...you may ask. Well, first of all, I don't really write much in a journal anymore and if I don't write details of my travel experiences here I won't have any record of my travels. Second of all, let's be honest, I'll never finish scrapbooking even one trip...if I haven't by my age, I probably never will. And, thirdly, I write really long trip posts because I love traveling and I want others to share in my experiences...to feel like they were there too. So, there you have it. Here we go...
We said goodbye to my parents in Fortaleza and Kate and I flew to Rio de Janeiro and from there took a beautiful four hour bus ride down the Costa Verde (Green Coast) to Paraty.
Paraty is a little town settled by Portuguese colonizers in the 1600s. The Portuguese had good taste in choosing sites to settle. Paraty is so beautifully situated. It's located in a bay that is dotted with over 50 tropical islands. Rising up behind Paraty are mountains covered in lush tropical forest. So fantastically beautiful!
View of Paraty from the bay
Kate and I took a trip on a boat like this to visit some of the islands in the bay.
I can't believe I'm admitting this, but Kate and I are both closet Twilight series readers. I didn't say fans, I said readers. I don't know what Kate's excuse is, but I read the first two books way before the Twilight craze started and way before the books were wildly popular among teenage girls and middle-aged stay-at-home moms.
So, that's my excuse. I read the first two books before I knew that I should be embarrassed about reading the books, and I guess I read the last two books out of pure curiosity of how the story ended and desire to finish something I started, even if what I started is now embarrassing to me.
Anyway, you're probably thinking, "what in the heck does Becca being a closet Twilight reader have to do with her trip to Brazil?" Well, my fellow Twilight readers (whether out of the closet about it or not) will know that Bella and her vampire husband go on their honeymoon to a private island off of Rio de Janeiro (sounds ridiculous, and is)...aka the islands of the Bay of Isla Grande (the bay that Paraty is on). So we were right in vampire honeymoon land.
And, we spent the boat ride jokingly trying to decide which of the many islands we saw was the vampire honeymoon island. It was quite fun as Kate and I thoroughly enjoy mocking everything Twilight. And, according to the Internet, they've actually been filming a Twilight movie in the area recently. I haven't ever seen any of the Twilight movies, and probably will never (or I'd never admit it if I did), but it would be interesting to see if they filmed in any locations I recognize and if Kate and I were even close on our vampire honeymoon location guesses.
This could be the vampire honeymoon island...
or maybe this one...
Or this big one where we went swimming.
Really any of them would do for a vampire honeymoon.
After our island tour we explored Paraty a bit.
Paraty is a cool old town...with lots of super old buildings and cobblestone streets.
Here's a Paraty street all decked out for Carnaval.
I love all the white buildings.
The streets of Paraty flood with seawater once a month at the high moon when the tide is high. Kind of a cool way to clean the city streets, huh?
After exploring Paraty, I got a four minute massage. It was fantastic.
This is a view of the Green Coast. Can you see why I didn't want to leave the area? It is so beautiful there.
Kate and I didn't stay in Paraty. Instead we spent the nights we were there in nearby Trindade. It's 25 kilometers up a long and winding road from Paraty.
Trindade has amazingly beautiful beaches and is a little quieter than Paraty is.
The following is a picture of the natural swimming pool they have in Trindade. It is so cool Giant rocks create a pool right on the edge of the ocean.
Those pictures of Trindade are actually somebody else's pictures I found/stole from the Internet. Because Trindade didn't look like that when we were there. Unfortunately it looked like this...
It rained and rained while we were in Trindade. It was still so beautiful though. I guess that's how it gets so lush and green. And, without the rain, Kate and I wouldn't have enjoyed the hour+ long hike through the jungle and up a hill in the rain (in flip flops) trying to find the access point to the natural swimming pool. (No sarcasm intended there...it actually was a fun little adventure hiking through the jungle in the rain.)
We also would have missed that quarter mile hike to our hostel, up a hill on a dirt mud road pulling our suitcases and wishing we'd packed lighter but being glad our luggage was sturdy.
Without the rain we wouldn't have probably seen the crazy guy roaming the streets in nothing but his whitey tighties. It was super gross but so funny. I think he just thought, 'hey, it's pouring and my clothes are just going to get soaked so I might as well take them off! Besides, I live in a relaxed beach town where nobody will get their panties in a knot about me only wearing mine!' Actually, he seemed really crazy. I bet his thought process wasn't that logical and sane. It was probably more like, 'RAIN...clothes off! Ahhhhhhhh....I crazy!' Or something like that...
And if it hadn't been raining we wouldn't have seen people walking around using those giant umbrellas that you see over tables at restaurants or over your patio furniture as if they were just using a normal umbrella. We thought the first guy we saw using a giant umbrella was either drunk or crazy...and there were kind of a lot of drunk, crazy, hippie, Rastafarian types in Paraty/Trindade. But then we saw lots of people using giant shade umbrellas for rain and just figured it must be normal there. And we really wished we had a giant umbrella to use because we were just a couple of umbrella-less dummies who got completely soaked.
Anyway, after two beautiful days (one rainy and one sunny) in Paraty/Trindade, Kate and I took the four hour bus ride back to Rio and then we flew to Porto Alegre from there.
Porto Alegre is the farthest south of all the major Brazilian cities. Its way down there near Uruguay. We spent the night in Porto Alegre and the next day took a bus from Porto Alegre to Gramado and its neighboring town, Canela. (By the way, the bus station in Porto Alegre is so nice. I think it's the nicest South American bus station I've ever been to. Come to think of it, it's the nicest bus station I've ever been to since the only time I really ride buses is in South America.)
Gramado and Canela are two little touristy towns northeast of Porto Alegre. They are really popular with Brazilians as that area is one of the only areas (or maybe even the only area) in Brazil where it snows in the Winter. And the Winter is the busy crazy season when Brazilians go to Gramado and Canela to experience that "White Christmas" they've been dreaming about. Except their "White Christmas" comes in July in the Southern Hemisphere, not in December, but whatever. Anyway, fortunately for us, it was the end of the summer/beginning of Fall in Brazil when we were there. So the weather was perfect and the area was not crowded as it was still off-season.
I think the best way to describe Gramado and Canela is to say that they are a mix between...
Europe (European architecture and food)...
Brazil (language and cheesy entertainment)...
Nauvoo/Amishland (outdoor bakeries, old farm equipment, people in weird hats)...
Wall Drug (eclectic collection of weird decorations and those boards you can put your face through and have your picture taken).
and 1985 (really ugly stuffed bunnies seen all around town).
I didn't take the best pictures of the actual towns or of all the weird little stores withe super cheesy stuff for sell, but I did get a picture of each town's pretty little Catholic church...
This is Gramado's church of choice...
Both Gramado and Canela are very scenic. There are lakes, mountains, waterfalls, etc. We walked over to Black Lake...and, it was true to its name...black. It didn't reek like Ririe Reservoir though, so I'm not sure what makes the lake black. Something non-stinky.
People pretty much go to Gramado and Canela to enjoy the scenery, cool weather, and...to eat. Seriously, I've never seen a place so highly concentrated with restaurants.
There are mainly three restaurant types there...fondue, churrascaria(Brazilian barbecue like Rodizio Grill or Tucanos), and Cafe Colonial(basically an all-you-can-eat carbfest).
We opted for the fondue option.
It was an excellent choice. One of the meats they served was ostrich. I think it was my first time trying it...and it was actually pretty good. I love trying new things, especially if it isn't animal entrails of any type.
The next night we ate at Casa di Pietro, which, unless I'm wrong (and I'm sure someone will tell me if I am) means "Peter's House" in Italian. As in, Peter the apostle.
Peter's house was surprisingly very Catholic. I had no idea that Peter was a Catholic. Anyway, the place was decked out in Catholic decor. But it actually was pretty cool. A lot of the Catholic paraphernalia was, or seemed to be, antique. So, it was kind of like eating in a Catholic museum, but without the security guard yelling at you.
And the food at Peter's house was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Imagine Chuck-a-Rama, but way smaller, way classer, with way better food, and with a Catholic flair. Okay, actually it really wasn't like Chuck-a-Rama at all. It was just a classy little buffet. But there were a lot of old people there.
And all the food was great, but the absolute star of the evening was the filet mignon. It was the absolute best steak in any form that I have ever, or probably will ever, have in my entire earthly existence. If there is filet mignon in heaven, it will be like the filet mignon at Casa di Pietro. But, I guess if we're going to be friends with the lambs and the lions and the cows we might not get to eat filet mignon in the next life. Sad.
Anyway, it was so good that I have to admit that both Kate and I ate two of them each! Two whole steaks! I've never wanted to just pick up a piece of meat, tear into it with my canines, and feel like a primordial carnivore, like I wanted to do with the steak at Casa di Pietro. But, I resisted. After all, it was a classy little place.
The only pictures Kate and I took in Casa di Pietro were in the bathroom. I think after eating two steaks each, we were too embarrassed to take any pictures anywhere else. And, to be honest, the bathrooms were very interesting and were picture worthy anyway. Also, we were under-dressed as we'd just come straight from touring Canela (information to follow).
Anyway, if you are ever in Gramado, go to Casa di Pietro, and just eat steak. Skip the soups, salads, pastas and everything else. Just eat meat. You'll thank me later for the suggestion.
During our stay in Gramado/Canela, Kate and I acutally stayed in Gramado. Gramado is a little cleaner, a little more modern, more European, and more developed. But Canela has most of the scenery and things to do.
Unfortunately, everything is spread out and not too easily accessible without a car unless you want to spend a lot of money on a taxi to take you around. The only other option, short of hitchhiking, is taking a tour of the sights.
I'm pretty anti-tour. You either end up on a tour with a bunch of couples in their 70's or stuck in some sort of factory...silk, cashew, leather, jade, rug...just to name a few, being pressured into buying things after the short tour, or both. Tours are usually cheesy, more expensive than doing it on your own, time consuming as you have to wait on a whole group, and overall not my favorite way to travel.
But in the case of the sights of Gramado and Canela, Kate and I didn't have much of a choice since we didn't want to spend a bunch of money getting around and didn't think of hitchhiking until we'd already bought our tour ticket.
Anyway, the tour took us to an interesting variety of places. The first being this steam engine museum, whose centerpiece display was a replica steam train that didn't stop in time and drove right out the window of the train station sometime back in the days of steam trains. It would have been kind of cool if the wreck had happened in Brazil, but we found out that it happened in France. So we have no idea why they have the museum in Brazil. Weird. We didn't bother pay to go in.
The front of the steam train museum.
Anyway, the main point of the tour was to see Parque do Caracol. It's just a pretty little park with a big waterfall.
You can take a chair-lift thingy down to get a closer look at the waterfall. It was a beautiful little ride. The pathway is lined with tons of hydrangeas, which are one of my favorite flowers, among many.
The only bad thing about the chair lift was that on the way back up there was a big line of people waiting to get on. And, apparently your average Brazilian has never ridden on a chair lift, because people did not know how to get on or just missed getting on so several chairs went by unfilled or partially filled. And there was a huge line. And Kate and I were in a hurry because we wanted to go see another part of the park. To say the least we were bugged. Bugged at the Brazilians. But eventually we got on and all was well.
Here are some views of the park. It was beautiful, but it wasn't the best time of day for taking good pictures. Anyway, it was just nice to be in Brazil and not be in a big crowded city. I can see why the Brazilians like to get away to Gramado and Canela.
On the tour we stopped at this historical farmhouse just outside Parque do Caracol. Neither Kate nor I really ever found out what was so great about this house, but we took a picture together there and since we hardly have any pictures from the trip of the two of us I thought I'd post it.
And here are some of the ugly, scary, circa 1985 bunnies found all around the region. Yikes!
A close up of some of the many hydrangeas we saw.
Apparently the family driving this Fiat consists of a mom, a dad, three kids, a dog, and two stallions. Awesome.
Back to Parque do Caracol...I'm too lazy to move these pictures up by the other park pictures.
And here's Black Lake with the hydrangeas fully in bloom. So beautiful!
Anyway, we had a good time in Gramado/Canela. It was really nice to see a very different part of Brazil from other places I'd been.
We got stuck in Gramado/Canela for an extra day. I'll spare you of all the gory details, but I'll just say that due to: 1)not being able to buy Brazilian bus tickets online, 2)not being able to buy bus tickets originating from a different station from where you are, 3)the Carnaval celebrations, 4)the basic complexity/stupidity of many things regarding travel in most every country I've ever been to except for the United States and the countries of Western Europe...we were not able to get a ticket out of Gramado/Canela for an extra day.
Brazil has seriously got to make things a little easier for tourists before the World Cup and the Olympics come to Brazil in 2014 and 2016. And they've got to get Rio and their other big cities cleaned up and organized. Kate and I didn't notice any difference in Rio from last year when we were there to this year. We thought for sure we'd see World Cup/Olympic preparations. Maybe we weren't in the right areas, but we didn't see any clean up of graffiti, widening or repairing of roads, building of new stadiums, etc. taking place at all. Between the apparent lack of physical preparation as well as annoying little things like the fact that a non-Brazilian cannot buy a bus ticket online or over the phone, but has do buy it in person in the city from which they are traveling, etc., led Kate and I to joke the whole time about the disaster that might be in 2014 and then again in 2016. We did this in the form of making up t-shirts for the World Cup/Olympics, like:
"Brazil 2014...oh crap, that's here already?"
"Rio 2016...wait, we were supposed to build what?"
I can't remember what the other ones were. We had a whole bunch of t-shirt ideas...maybe Kate can remember some more and leave them in a comment. But in all seriousness, the Brazilians will probably pull off the World Cup and Olympics okay. The Chinese did it (the Olympics at least), and they're a bunch of Commies who don't diaper their babies.
Anyway, Gramado wasn't a bad place to get stuck...cheap hotel, fabulous food, beautiful scenery. But Kate and I were on a tight schedule and desperately needed some beach time to work on our tans before returning home.
But we finally were able to catch the night bus from Gramado to Florianopolis. Thanks to NyQuil I had a nice bus ride. We arrived in Florianopolis early the next morning and my dad's friend, President Queiroz, who is the mission president in Florianopolis (aka: Floripa) came and picked us up.
When President and Sister Queiroz found out we were coming to Floripa they invited us to stay with them. Since our time in Floripa was right during the middle of Brazil's Carnaval, making things a little more crazy and dangerous and hotel rooms three times as expensive as normal, it didn't take us long to decide to take them up on their offer.
President and Sister Queiroz are some of my parents' very closest friends that they've made while serving in Brazil. They are in my parents' same group so they went to the MTC together and have training meetings together a couple of times a year. President and Sister Queiroz are super fun, easy-going people and they are constantly pranking and playing jokes on my parents...so I knew that they were just my type of people.
The day we arrived in Floripa was Sunday so we got cleaned up and headed right to church.
Here Kate and I are with the Queirozes and some of their friends.
We had lunch at the mission home and then Kate and I spent the afternoon exploring Floripa by foot. It is a beautiful little city situated on an island. It was slighly overcast that day so my pictures don't really capture the beauty of the place, but it was really pretty.
Anyway, here are some pictures of Joaquina Beach...
I wore a dress over my swimming suit so that I could look at least semi-decent for one picture. And then I jumped in the water and got all ugly. So I didn't take any pictures later in the day.
I think the giant heads were for Carnaval. Maybe they're there all year, but they seemed kind of weird and Carnavalish to me.
We had a great day at the beach. The weather was great, the water was warm, we didn't get robbed...it was a fantastic day!
We got stuck in major Carnaval traffic on the way back, but we were able to make it back to the mission home in time to get cleaned up and ready for a FHE the Queirozes were having with some of their friends and converts. It was great getting to meet so many wonderful people in Floripa. I love getting to know locals...it makes a place so much more real and meaningful. And it was fun practicing my Portuguese with the Queirozes' friends. The Queirozes themselves are Brazilian, but have lived in the U.S. for 25+ years...so they're more American than Brazilian and speak English, so I didn't need to use my horrible Spanish/Portuguese/Sign Language combo in order to communicate with them, which was nice.
Anyway, they are great people and I was glad that I was able to get to know some more of my parents' friends. Floripa is most definitely somewhere I want to return to. Sister Queiroz told me that there are a bunch of beaches that have no access by road that you have to hike into. Sounds amazing. I can't wait to go back!
After a couple of wonderful days in Floripa, Kate and I took a five hour bus ride to Curitiba. I needed to use the bathroom while I was on the bus. But the bathroom sign looked like this...
which led me to believe that the bus bathrooms were intended only for either married couples on their wedding day, or for getting spruced up on the way to the prom. And, since I fit neither profile, I just held it. I didn't want cause any problems.
In Curitiba Kate and I had time for a quick stop at a Churrascaria, where we filled our stomachs one last time with delicious Brazilian beef, before heading to the airport. We flew from Curitiba to Sao Paulo, and then back to the US of A from there.
It was a great little trip to Southern Brazil. I've been wanting to visit more of Southern Brazil since traveling to Iguassu Falls and Rio in 2008 and 2010. And I knew that if I didn't do it now...when my parents are living in Brazil, and therefore I'd have more of a reason to visit, that it would be a long time before I'd go to Brazil for any other reason. So I am glad that Kate decided to come to Brazil and join me in visiting Southern Brazil. Because I can travel alone, but I don't prefer it...because if I would have done this trip alone there wouldn't have been anyone to know how awesome it was to stay at our hotel in Gramado during a deaf/mute convention, or how funny it was to be serenaded by drunk, homeless, Rastafarians on the bus from Paraty to Trindade. Good times...
