Cambara do Sul to Porto Alegre Day 1

Happy Valentine's Day!

We began our day waking up after a semi restful night in the car. We were up promptly around 7 so that we could put away our sleeping things, get dressed, and eat some breakfast before our taxi arrived at 7:45. After the car struggled on the road here from Praia Grande, we decided it was best to hire someone to take us to the park to see Itaimabizinho Canyon.

We bumped along the road, much quicker, and arrived around 8:30. It was cooler this morning than yesterday, and very foggy. We started the first trail with the hope that the fog would go away as the sun burned it off. We walked the 3km trail slowly. The first part of the trail was not near Itaimabizinho Canyon. We were walking with trees on either side of us. We could hear all the waterfalls, but couldn't see them because of the trees and the fog.

After about a kilometer and a half, we got to the first viewpoint. Sadly we saw nothing, but we could hear the waterfall that was nearby. We continued along the path hopeful that the fog might start to lift as the day went on, but each viewpoint we peered over, we were met with disappointment and a lot of clouds. At the end of the trail, we lingered and took some pictures to mark the fact that we'd come, but there was still nothing to see beyond the fog. We walked back a bit deflated, but we still had one more trail left to try.

We started the vertice trail which is much shorter than the elbow trail we did earlier. At the first viewpoint we could see a tiny bit of a waterfall through the fog. Our hope was renewed! Unfortunately, this hope was quickly dashed on the rocks because every subsequent viewpoint was cloudy. I was feeling frustrated and bored by this point, but we continued on to finish the trail. On the walk back, I didn't stop at the viewpoints, but Allan did still clinging to the hope that he might see something. Back at the start, we made our way to the deserted parking lot, got in our taxi, and bumped back along up the road.

Back in Cambara we got dropped off at the tourist center. It was closed for lunch so we took the opportunity to eat some lunch in the car and go to Casa do Mel. Cambara is well known for its stingless bees from the Araucaria Forest. These bees are only found here and make white honey. They had some white honey to try and it was very nice. Much more floral than normal honey. We got a small jar and a honey beer before heading back to the tourist center one last time to fill up our water, use the bathroom, and say goodbye to our helpful Brazilian tourist worker. She was a breath of fresh air when we've been having trouble with rude Brazilians. After our farewells, we got in the car and headed out to Porto Alegre.

The drive to Porto Alegre was uneventful. When we arrived, the city was pretty chaotic, so I was glad Allan was driving. We parked outside our hotel while I went in, checked in, and got the address for the parking garage nearby. We drove and parked the car and walked back to the hotel to get settled. After a couple days without a shower, it was nice to get washed and feel fresh again. Because it was Valentine's Day, we wanted to have a nicer meal than our typical fast food or cheap local eat. Sadly, many places here are crazy expensive, so it was hard to find somewhere reasonable. We settled on an Italian place that had a lot of pasta options and wasn't too far from the hotel. Porto Alegre doesn't seem the safest place to be walking around at night so we didn't want to go too far.

We walked to the Italian place, but there was a line to get in and we were told it'd be about 30 minutes wait. We decided to leave and go to the Subway down the street. Nicer meal plan foiled, we had our sandwiches and then walked into the center to see the theater and cathedral lit up at night. They are both nice buildings and the cathedral was huge. I'm looking forward to seeing the inside tomorrow.

Because it was Valentine's Day and we didn't get our nice meal, we decided to treat ourselves to an açai. We walked into another part of town where it was much busier. People were spilling out of small bars and restaurants with beers in hand. There was loud music and a lot of chatting noise. At the açai place, it was fill your cup and weigh it to pay. Normally we avoid these because they can get expensive, but it was a treat. There were a bunch of different açai and sorbet flavors. Allan went for more traditional açai whereas I chose açai passion fruit mousse, an apple sorbet, and dragon fruit sorbet. Allan had mostly granola in his, but I added some fruit, candy, and chocolate. In the end, they weren't actually that expensive and they were delicious 😋.

We walked back to the hotel and got into comfy clothes. The room had a tv with Netflix, but with our cheap package it unfortunately wouldn't play anything. Instead we looked at some trip stuff, and headed to bed ready for another drive tomorrow to Pelotas.Leggi altro