Day of Rest?

No concerts today! Instead, we got up even earlier than usual, leaving the hostel at 8 AM to take the bus to the famous German area of Brazil in the mountains, about a two-hour drive - it was a very quiet trip with most people catching up on the rest of their sleep. We stopped in Novo Petropolis, a small town where the German influence is obvious in the architecture and overall cleanliness and safety of the town. There was a labirinto verde, a hedge maze, which we tried - the foliage smelled amazing. There were painted flowers on the benches in the park nearby and even on the trash cans. The people in this area immigrated from Bavaria and Saxony in Germany.

After the short break, we drove on to Gremado, the Christmas capital of Brazil - our tour guide, Jose, told us about the Christmas festivities that happen there every year, which are apparently spectacular. The road we took is called the Hydrangea Road because in November, their summer, hydrangea bushes line the road the whole way - it must be amazing. Even though it's fall now, not many of their trees turn colours since most are evergreens, but we saw a variety of maple in red and yellow, and many dried-up brown stalks in the cornfields. Jose pointed out a pine tree called an araucaria which has male and female varieties with different branches, as well as nuts, some of which we cooked and ate this evening - they're shaped like almonds, and you have to bite the shell to get the nut out. They taste a little like potatoes.

We were met in Gremado by a small choral group from the city, mostly older people, who asked us to sing a few pieces for them on the street. In return, they sang us a Portuguese song from a film and then a blessing before we headed our separate ways. They gave us samples of chocolate - Gremado is also the chocolate capital of Brazil. We had a chance to do a little shopping and then drove to a colonial cafe, a restaurant typical to the area. There were plates and plates of food, as usual, sweet and savoury both - cakes, meats, pastries, bread, jam, and dessert, with sweet wines and grape juice in pitchers on the tables. They brought coffee with dessert, and then the best hot chocolate ever - thick, rich, a little bitter and a little creamy. Those of us who had it are probably spoiled for any other hot chocolate now. It's a good thing that airlines weigh the luggage and not the passengers!

After lunch, we piled onto the bus again to drive to see the waterfalls at Canela. We had less than an hour to spend, but that was enough time to take a gondola up and down the mountain, walk a little bit, see the carved animal menagerie they had, try to call monkeys unsuccessfully, and see the falls a little closer. On the way back through Gremado, we stopped to take photos at the Black Lake, so called because the plants around it came from seeds from the Black Forest in Germany.

Halfway back to Porto Alegre, we stopped at a group of leather outlets for those who wanted to shop and spent an hour or so there. Those who weren't wandering the shops sat on the low wall or the steps outside, enjoying the twilight and the view of the green mountains opposite against the darkening sky until the mosquitoes came out.

Jose, our tour guide today, took excellent care of us - he was obviously excited to point out and tell us about some of the beautiful things in his country, and he even sang us a few songs! When he said goodbye, he told us that he prayed for God to bless us "over all your lives".

By this time it was nearly nine, so we stopped at a grocery store to buy supper and spent half an hour exploring the different foods, many of which we recognise now, and trying to communicate in our terrible broken Portuguese, which was an adventure. Thankfully Fernando and Roxane were keeping an eye out for confused people and stayed on hand to translate when needed. Back at the hostel, we ate our dinners, some people taking advantage of the kitchen to prepare cooked food, relaxed and visited for a while, had our nightly devotion, and are now heading slowly up to bed.

It's been nice to have an evening off. People are singing in the kitchen while doing dishes, talking out on the street, Skyping and internet chatting with family. Fernando is giving "fruit lessons" in the front room - they've covered passionfruit and papaya. There's a lot of traffic at night, cars driving by the hostel all the time, noise drifting up from the street. It's hot so most of the shutters and doors are open - these are normal nighttime sounds. We're usually tired enough to sleep through them. It's been a very busy day off, but we've thoroughly enjoyed the chance to see new things and rest our voices for the next concert.