As soon as we got off, Grant started remembering all these places he used to go when he was serving here. I loved it when he would walk into a store and say "I have stood in this very spot". So cool!
There is a beautiful cathedral in the middle of town. We sag there for a while, then relaxed a little on the grass outside of the building. We ate some chocolate Cuca bread, a yummy German treat that I MUST find a recipe for.
By then we were getting pretty exhausted. I don't know how far we had walked that day, but the 3 blisters on my feet told me it was far. I shouldn't have worn the black shoes. But they were so cute and pain is beauty :)
Luciano helped us get in contact with Marcos, a member of the Canela ward that Grant knew when he was here. They offered to let us stay the night so we didn't have to make the bus ride home that night. What a sweet family!
If Novo Hamburgo is like San Francisco, then Canela is like Bastrop Texas! There are Brazilian pine trees, dirt roads, and Gauchos , or Brazilian cowboys. We woke up to a rooster crowing. I seriously felt like I was visiting mom and dad :)
Marcos and his wife, Sayonara, were SO nice! They have five kids: Indiana (16), Larissa(11), Natalie (9), Lorenzo (5), and Spencer (3). The girls are learning some English at school, so we had fun trying to communicate with each other. Grant taught the boys how to "chop off their arm" by putting it in their shirt and they played that game all night!
For dinner, Marcos ordered pizza from Toco da Bruxa, a famous pizzeria in town that translates to "touch of the witch". I told him I didn't want any variety of pizza that I could get on America :)
We had the "Portuguese" pizza (green olives, egg, calebresa, green peppers), stroganoff pizza, pizza with potato sticks, and pesto pizza. The crust tasted like pretzel bread, and was stuffed with cheese whiz. They don't use tomato sauce on pizza here, but they do eat it with ketchup and sometimes mayonnaise. It was a lot of fun.
The next day, we went to the Parque de Caracol, a beautiful waterfall in Canela. For this hike, you have to take 600+ step hike down a staircase on the side of a mountain. A little crazy, but totally worth it.
the view from the top of the hike
the staircase
at the bottom
after we hiked back up
There was a smaller hike that took you to a view of another small falls
There were more hydrangeas here, and I couldn't help but get some pics
Beautiful day with the one I love :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment