Trip to Morretes

This weekend we went toward the coast to the town of Morretes with Mac's friend (we'll call him G) and his family.  They lent us one of their cars and Mac got to drive for the first time in about 2 months.  I'm glad it was him and not me - I'll just say that we were told that stop signs were "optional." 

We drove out of Curitiba and headed east, toward the coast.  We had to go over a mountain range.  At the top of one of the mountains (this is all vague, as I don't have a real good handle on what we were doing.  We have yet to get our hands on a real paper map of Brazil or Curitiba...) we stopped to take in the view.  G told us that, on a clear day we could see the highest peak in the range and all the way to the ocean.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a clear day.  Pretty cloudy, windy and cool, actually.  But the view was still neat.   I'm told that what we were in and looking at is Atlantic rain forest.  Not tropical (we're too far south), but still rain forest.  (We did stop again on the way back and could just see the ocean).

At this stop we also got a couple of cups of fresh sugar cane juice.  Oh my gosh, can you say "sweet"?  The man at the stand took two pieces of sugar cane and ran them through this gas powered smasher thing a few times, with an added lime wedge.  It was pure sugary deliciousness.

We got back in the car and kept driving.  The last part of the drive was on this old cobblestone road going down the mountain.  

Oh yeah!  We also made one more stop on our way over.  We went over a river where we got out and the girls and Mac climbed down to jump around on the rocks.  Where there are river rocks, you must jump around, you know.  At least with my crew.

 

Here's Lily pointing out a bromeliad.  She was very excited to see one in real life. In fact, she was pretty excited about just about everything.  Can you tell?  And, for anyone who knows Lily and her insistence that she wear dresses at nearly all times - she is wearing pants because it is an adventure, and for adventures, you wear pants.  One reason is because you have a pocket for your magnifying glass.

 

 

After this stop we headed to Morretes.  I was going to insert a wikipedia link here, but it's only 2 sentences long, so I skipped it.  What I read on another blog was that it was one of the original Portuguese settlement towns in Brazil.  I have nothing to back that up, and I can't find any of my travel guides right now.  Maybe I'll add to this later, if I can get any good info.  In any case, it's a small, old town.  Our main goal was to get a lunch of the local specialty, barreada.  It's a meat (beef?) stew, originally cooked in a cast iron (or clay?) pot buried in a fire pit in the ground.  You mix the stew with manioc flour until it reaches a paste-like consistency, then slice up some bananas over the top.  At least, that's how we ate it, with instruction from G and his family.  And we washed it down with fresh-squeezed pineapple and passion fruit juices. Yum!

After lunch we walked around town a bit.  Not a ton to see - street vendors, some live music (Pan flute with canned electronic accompaniment!), another river that the girls had to go down to look at.  This is what they look like when you tell them they must absolutely not smile for the picture.

 

Then back in the car for us.  We stopped again to check out the view.  And for G to buy some of the local bananas.  We, unfortunately had just bought bananas at the store, so we didn't get any.  We did buy some honey though.

That's Lily, asking G about 6000 questions about the forest.  She attaches herself to anyone she thinks has information to impart.

At this stop we also saw a colorful local bird.  I have no idea what it is, but it was pretty.  Any ideas?

I just want to add that the wind is blowing about 5000 miles (I guess I should be thinking in kilometers?) and hour right now.  And, our windows are not totally windproof, so it's loud.  And annoying.  Just thought I'd share some up-to-the minute info.