Our brand new GPS complete with Brazil maps was not quite as useful as we had imagined. The tiny blue car that represented us, was driving through the middle of nowhere, but in a southwesterly direction. Which was not far from the truth, but we'd hoped for a bit more "global positioning" than this:
It was (as we are told) one of the most accessible waterfalls in Brazil, meaning it had a designated parking area, restaurant (with power), and paved walking paths all the way to the misty base of the fall. We spied toucans and monkeys swinging from trees on our walk out.
Sam and Paul went for a dip in the chilly waters at the base of the waterfall and Paul (despite my glares of caution) attempted to show off his impressive swimming skills by swimming directly into the current, which was no match for Mr. Hopkins as he crawled nearly to the base of the falls. We later watched a Brazilian man swim in place for about five minutes before giving up. Go Bluejays!
Pedrino and I watched comfortably camera in hand from the sidelines.
We walked up a bit further into the misty and undescribably green cliffs surrounding the falls and quickly pulled out my camera for a round of family photos before we all became water-logged.
Hanna's in the Mist. Peter loved every second of it, but Sam was not so keen on the waterfall shower.
After we dried out on our walk back we headed to a highly recommended local restaurant, Dom Fernando's, and ate an amazing home-cooked meal, complete with friend bananas, pepper scented rice, feijoida, and pao de quejio, followed by a tiny hot beverage that I could only describe as melted dulce de leche...in the world's most adorable and rustic tin cup.
The kids played on the ever present red, blue and yellow playground while we took turns watching them and eating our fill of lunch.
On the way out, the owner (also our server) noted that on weekends they offer free horseback rides for kids. So we indulged the groups 10 kids and let them take turns being led around a grassy pasture by a widely grinning and patient young Brazilian man. Sam would have nothing to do with the idea of mounting up one of these beasts (read: tiny brazilian horses) but we nearly had to tackle Peter as he made a bee-line directly through a cow-pie to saddle up. Seriously, how many one year olds can say they rode a horse? Ya. So we indulged him, too. Hey was squealing and making barking noises (this is currently his only animal sound) and then held on tightly while Paul walked with the horse in a tiny circle. He was, like a tiny cowboy in training, in heaven for the entire two minutes....as you can see.
The boys napped on the ride home and Paul and I enjoyed our new fave Brazilian radio station, "Club 105.5" playing all today's Brazilian hits, we held hands and marveled at the gigantic and seemingly endless sky filling with storm clouds.
(a link to a complete gallery from our trip forthcoming)
2 comments:
How beautiful. Sorry about the GPS! Did it at least have a cool Brazilian accent?
Wow, I am so impressed with you guys and especially the tiny cowboy. You guys are really getting into the Foreign Service groove. Jealous, envy, want to be there. Love U.
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