Fim de semana com minha familia brasileira!

Train to Morretes (photo by Dino)

Um dia perfeito, isso foi! O melhor e mais engracada viagem! Descer de trem para Morretes, piquenique no longo do rio, banho no rio em Ponto da Cima, e filme a noite com pipoca e cerveja!


We had agreed from quite early after I moved into the new house, that we should organise a trip all together to Morretes - actually it rose in our minds shortly after my first trip to Morretes with Arwen and Guido, and after the excited face and laughs I brought back from that day. The whole family, being Dino, Flavia, Leandro, Isabelle, Janaina and Ana, and myself started thus to plan our wonderful day. Train trip for sure - I don't quite remember if it was just to experience the craziness of the turist guides screaming "Atenção cachoeira na direita em 2 minutos!" or if it was because some of us never did the train trip. Maybe even Isabelle never took the train. Whatever, train it was. Finding the date then: I had to be home and Leandro not working. And we managed!

My thrilled humor about the idea of making a pick-nick rapidly overtook others and within a short time, that was settled as well. Flavia and I, running around the house exchanging dish ideas, reviewing magazines about food - a pick-nick it would be and a damn good one! A vegan one, because Flavia, Ana and Dino were on this healthy diet thinggy. The menu thus was: home-made bread rolls (by myself), soja hamburgers (by Flá - amaaaaazing ones!), cream cheese without cheese or as we like to call it "queijo sem queijo" (by Flá - a delight), eggplant purée (by myself - but Dino learned the recipe!), hummus (by Flá), couve being Chinese cabbage (well Flá brought it because we were basically swimming in cabbage - so we had to grab every occasion to eat it) mustard honey sauce (by Flá - the one and only), and then I don't quite remember what we had more. Well I made a almong cream dessert with mango purée, very tasty but with the heat just turned out to be almond soup with mango soup - still very tasty!

The train trip (photos by Dino)

Because Dino and Flá work at the bank we got fancy seats for a cheap price - the fancy part was provided by the 'surprise box' aaaand...beer at will! We cooked late the day before, got up early to catch the train, all excited and happy, screaming to who would listen - or not - "Bom Dia Bom Retirooooooo!" in remembrance of our crazy nuts-neighbours. To the point that we were doubting how much the little darling Isabelle would want to be seen with us... (Her cute drawing and text she left us on the fridge door after that day revealed though some pride in taking part in this loucura, it seemed to me...)

In the train, we had the front seats in the wagon - close to the guide and the beer. The excitment and laughs are not describable - we just had a huge amount of fun! Chatting, laughing, hugging, taking pictures like crazy Jap'turists (getting worth later though...believe it or not). The guide was superbe - very interesting, but sadly I don't remember much now though. The views and landscape was as tremendous as the first time! The sun was though much brighter on this second trip, and the heat was rising slowly but surely as the day got older and the train descended the Serra. I could do this trip a tousand time I would still be as astonished by the landscape - so beautiful.

On the way down, Araucaria the tree of Paraná (photo by Dino)

Landscape of the Serra (photo by Dino)

Pittoresque house in Morretes

At Morretes we get our bus tickets for the return before going down to the river, the old town center and getting installed for our tremendous pick-nick. The heat that day was true to the Brazilian expectations. combined with the beers from the train some of us consumed, well let's say the atmosphere was tipsy dipsy happy! The whole group stopping up at once in front of the sandales'shop to get our feet out of the shoes, then loosing the boys a while, dropping Leandro in the middle of the street taking pictures of a king palmtree, so concentrated that he didn't notice he was stopping the traffic, us hugging the palm tree, Dino trying to speak English to me while I was begging him to speak in Portuguese (hoping that the beer might have hit his mother language less)... The girls then disappeared while I was tempting to gather the male troup and make them join us at the river side. Well, male troup - yes they were only two, but distracted and drifting as they were, it was quite a job.

Picture in front of the king palm tree (photo by Leandro)





Streets and market in Morretes (Photos by Leandro)

Wondering around Morretes

Finally we gather at the river side. Pulling out the pick-nick while the two boys drop into the fresh water... The only two swimmers there at that moment - they managed to intrigue the lazy turists around and within a few minuts we had a line queuing up to see the two male specimens. How much we laughed that day! A happy day, truely.

Family picture (photo by Leandro)

Riverside (photo by Leandro)

The spectacular sight that day in the Morretes river

Pick-nick and chill at the river side

At the end of the afternoon, we take a taxi to Pôrto de Cima, a little village just at the end of a trail road with a beautiful river. Leaving our bags, spreading out a huge piece of fabric and getting fresh beers out, we enjoyed there the last hours before the return to Curitiba: bathing in the fresh waters of the river, balancing on the stones to get in and out, swimming against the stream - almost fighting up the stream, such was the strength of the flow.

Girls out for a refreshing swim (Photo by Leandro)

Our beautiful Isabelle (Photo by Leandro)

Waiting for the bus to Curitiba (photo by Dino)

Finally we take the bus home. Enjoying the last views on the Serra, not much time was needed before the whole group fell into a heavy nap, while the bus drove on the motorway to Curitiba. From the rodoviaria, we catch a bus home and off goes the activities of each one: Dino had to play at night, as every Saterday night, Flá disappeared, Ana and Isabelle went back to their house while Janaina went to take care of some neighbour dogs. We really just had reached the house that rain poured down. What is then the most obvious activity on Saterday evening with such a weather: movie and pop-corn! That was for Leandro and I, the evening plan.

What a perfect day, this was!