We visit Maria’s cousin Marilia in Gramado, a beautiful town in the hills.
Here, Maria and Marilia admire the view from a lookout.
The lookout is covered in lembranças. Surprisingly, Wikipedia – which has information about almost everything under the sun – has no info about these common Brazil-wide souvenirs, but an informative page can be found here.
Gramado has an unusual thing about Christmas. Months before, the city is decorated like a sort of Southern North Pole. This, among other attractions, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors.
It’s very clean and safe. There are a lot of chocolate shops in this town. They are all good.
There is a generally alpine/Germanic look about the architecture.
Because it’s in the hills, the climate is cooler than the coast.
We are still in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, so there gaucho culture is on display everywhere. For instance, this ornate leather saddle.
And yes, plenty of meat is consumed. We go out to the restaurant MLBK (‘Malbec’ – get it?) and score free t-shirts from the owner, thanks to Marilia’s connections.
We return to Porto Alegre and from there drive with Zequinha to Candinho’s fazenda in Capivari.
This is Candinho’s house.
We enjoy sitting outside in the morning, drinking coffee, reading, and listening to the hundreds of birds around the house.
For some reason, I really like this gaucho-style stool. It looks very folkloric.
Not far away are the multiple silos of Candinho’s successful family seed business.
Besides the seed business, Cadinho farms many hectares of rice, soya, and corn.
They also raise beef cattle.
As is tradition, we are treated to another feast of meat. Candinho’s son João Vitor returns from a 12-hour shift in the fields – it’s planting season here – to prepare a wonderful churrasco.
…aided by his charming wife, Gabi.
Soon, it’s time to depart from Rio Grande do Sul and fly to Mato Grosso do Sul.
Sight or Insight of the Day
Today is October 31st – Hallowe’en. Appropriately enough, US presidential candidate Donald Trump is cosplaying as a garbageman.
If Mr. Trump doesn’t get elected, he’d better get used to wearing orange.
Of course, he has a hard time heaving his ungainly, elephantine bulk into the cab. The golden-tongued former president then shares some words of wisdom with the press about how disappointed he is that the opposition is using disparaging terms to refer to his followers.