Pedro's CS guests, Guido and Arwen, are embarking the trip - by train! An adventure in itself given the few train lines in Brazil. "Atenção!!!" screams the guide in he wagon " No lado direito - cachoeira!" or " Em 7 minutes, no lado esquerdo, rio Ipiranga, primeira vez!"... "Mais 7 minutes e rio Ipiranga secunda vez! Atenção!!! Camera foto, pronto, no esquerdo!" CRAZY! LOUCO! And the people tumbling from one side to another in this old train, so that I almost thought the whole wagon would tilt over, down in the marvellous canion... Beautiful place for such a dramatic end, but fortunately the old rails and wagons kept on the way bringing us through this fantastic landscape and down to the warm and charming Morretes.
1: Arwen and Guido on the train - 2: passing tunnels...
1: cultural heritage on the way - 2: river Ipiranga
1: canion - 2: clouds hanging over the Serra
1: view towards the coast - 2: cachoeira
The plan was to have lunch, have a quick walk in the city and then aim for a little hike before getting a bus home. Only thing is that the concurring guides mislead us by telling us that a whole day and night over (of course in their pousada!) was necessary to get the full experience and go for a hike in one afternoon was pratically impossible if you didn't know the place and the forest. It says though that the trails are well marked - especially if you just go for a two hours walk or so...
Arrinving at Morretes
1: everything with banana and manioc - 2: colourful facades
Impressions from the streets and yards
Shops...
...and river side
Anyway, we enjoyed the city and its surroundings instead. Walking through the historic center and the market stands, the idylic river side, tasting bala de banana and local cachaças! Definately cachaça de banana was my favourite... And then after a big lunch in a little restaurant and a nice nap on the waterside, we headed for a walk, picking a road that seemed to lead to the mountains. It didn't. But the nature, the vegetation, the views we had on the way - and the fun!- were more than fascinating and our curiosity enough to make this boring asphalted road (probably the thought of a local) into our discovery road. Palm trees and banana flowers. Bamboos of giant size, singing somehow as they were rubbing and pushing against each other. A river, beautiful, blue, reflecting the sky and mountains. A hairy worm and huge blue butterflies.
1: banana flower (eatable apparently) - 2: immense bamboos
1: hairy fellow - 2: Arwen at the river
Impressions of late afternoon in the city
Back again, a quick coffee - brazilian coffee...nice! - and there we go to the other side.
Even the coffee is pretty...We had four photo cameras over our cups!
The road here is of earth, leading down to the cemetery and further to the surrounding neighbourhoods. More humble and simple in looks, the houses vary from regular ones to shaggy ones (but with big screen computer inside the living room! Contrasting you could say...), coloured ones, some surrounded by dogs, some by chickens - when I say surrounded, I mean it litteraly! -, children playing joyfully, swinging on a rope attached to a tree, or teenagers playing fancy on motorbikes. A horse. A mule. An old abandonned factory. People selling flowers for the cemetery visiters.
1: cemetery - 2: house lost on the hill
Houses around Morretes
Chicken and kids...
1: bird in the cemetery - 2: José's backyard and VW van
Last discovery in Morretes before catching our bus is the local baker, José Augusta da Cruz. As Arwen was taking a picture of the yard with the old VW van, he pops out and invites her in - curious or a bit worried, she waves at Guido and I to come. The baker invites us in to see one of the few remaining stone ovens on the country: two in Morretes, four in Curitiba and that should be it, besides a few in São Paulo maybe. He shows us the oven, explains the functionning, his ideas of improving its efficiency with a sustainable system of his invention - which by te way he would like to patent. His engineer of son has agreed and checked it and he is rassembling the budget for doing this abroad so that it can serve other countries (apparently even China doesn't have such a system as his, according to his saying), and avoid the corrupted veto of some local politicians. He describes the bread, the baking, the technics to take it in and out, he offers us to taste it and pours ou butter and knife! What a lucky coincidence to meet him, what an interesting meeting!
1: Arwen, Guido and José - 2: warm bread from the oven
Finally we thank our new friend José and hurry down the street with bread in our pockets and hands. It is late and getting dark. The bus leaves in 20 minutes. A last look to the mountains - all streets of the city have this amazing perspective with the curve and shadows of the mount as back scenery. Blues, greens, shadows of all colours as the sun, clouds and hours pass. Beautiful! Truely!
Typical Morretes street perspective
That was a wonderful day, a beautiful city and a nice visit with some new very sympathic friends! Good that they are staying a bit in the city, so that we can enjoy each other's company a bit more. Yeah, Arwen and Guido will stick around for some weeks, the time to learn Portuguese before carrying on the trip to an organic farm where they'll be helping out for 6-7 months. Great!
Oh and by the way, just to brag about it... If you noticed, Arwen and Guido will be learning Portuguese, which means that they don't speak it quite yet. Yes, indeed, I was the translator of the day: tickets, crazy guide information, asking for price or way, translating the story of the baker...everything in Portuguese. It was me - yay, how is that - impressed...?!
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