And back to Brazil...

Caipirinhas were calling so I headed back over the border with Jim this time to Brazil. The rain sadly was there waiting for me again (why is Brazil so wet?) leaving us only one option… to eat.

Couchsurfing with friends Juliana and Daniel they suggested we head up to visit one of the old European settlements on the mountainside. Our plans were almost scuppered by floods making one road impassable covered in water and people outside the flooded beer factory collecting the vagabond floating cans.
However taking a tip from a watermelon dealer (as we stopped for some energy-fuelled sugar cane drink) Daniel navigated us there through another route where we arrived at the picture perfect town.
Created by German and Italian immigrants who evidently wished they were Swiss, Canela looked like it belonged on a box of chocolates rather than Brazil.
Oddly enough, it was still Christmas in Canela (despite the heat of mid-January) so we wandered around the Christmas stalls watching people ice-skate and listening to Christmas stories told by albinos dressed as Santa’s helpers.
As the rain poured again we headed to a restaurant for the real reason that we came… a Café Colonial. Cake, cheese, meat, jam, wine, all you can eat – need I say more?
Five pounds heavier we descended back down to Porto Alegre where we enjoyed the rest of our weekend of gluttony with charruscaria (BBQ), frozen acai, my beloved farofa and, of course, many caipirinhas. I love Brazil.