Author: marionvermazen

This morning when we came out to our car we had a flat tire!

A very nice man in the lobby offered to help change it for us. I think he was just a guest of the hotel.

Luckily we made it to Foz do Iguazu where we will turn in the car with no further problem.

Along the way we stopped to look at an enormous dam and hydroelectric plant on the Iguazu River.

At the Wish Foz da Iguazu resort where we are staying for the next two nights we met up with our good friends Bonnie and Brian who we will be traveling with for most of the rest of the trip. It was so good to see them!

For dinner we went into the center of Foz and had a fantastic steak dinner.

We stayed at the Hotel San Pietro in Pato Branco last night. Breakfast was included in our room rate. The breakfast was wonderful, one of the best we have had so far.

The distance we had to cover today was fairly short, only 49 miles, so we decided to do some exploring along the way. Duke saw a waterfall called Salto Grande not too far from our route so we decided to try to find it. We drove several dirt roads and stopped every time we saw something interesting. There was a lot of wheat being harvested and corn and soybeans coming up.

Finally we found the falls but there was no way to get very close and we had to settle with stopping by the side of the road and catching glimpses of the falls through the trees.

After a fun time exploring the back roads we arrived at Hotel Lago Dourado in Dois Vizinhos where we are tonight. After a bit of a rest we walked around the lake below the hotel.

We ate dinner in the hotel.

We had a lovely breakfast delivered to our room this morning.

Before leaving we checked out the woodcarving work shop and bought a Christmas ornament.

As we have driven through southern Brazil we have seen lots of signs of the various nationalities of people who immigrated to Brazil. We have seen restaurants, memorials, architecture and stores as evidence of immigrants from Germany, Japan, Ukraine, Italy and others. But Treze Tílias is the first town we have seen that has really embraced their heritage and the fact that Austrian immigrants settled here. It reminds me of Leavenworth, Washington or Solvang, California. They even have an annual Tyrol festival. We explored a bit before leaving town.

Google took us on a gravel road for a few miles as we were leaving town. But it was a good gravel road! The countryside was gorgeous.

Tonight we are in the town of Pato Branco. Nobody at the hotel spoke English or Spanish but we have a nice room overlooking the main square.

For dinner we walked a few blocks down the Main Street to a place called Novo Thaberna. We got there about 7:30. About 8:00 it really got busy.

We have had a wide variety of weather in our first week of the trip. In São Paulo is was very hot and very humid. Last night and this morning in Urubici it felt cold. We sat by a fire and read last night. Then we snuggled under a big comforter to sleep.

We have had grey skies, mist, and torrential downpours as well as beautiful blue skies with lots of sun.

Yesterday at the grocery store we bought a big mango and a big papaya and some pastries. We had them for breakfast this morning.

In order to get from our car to our chalet and back again we had to go over a very bouncy suspension bridge. We survived and started down the road this morning about 9:15.

Today as we drove further west we left the mountains behind and drove through rolling hills with fields of wheat and lots of grain storage facilities.

The town of Treze Tílias where we are tonight had a lot of Austrian immigrants. Here is our room tonight at Hospedaria Pattis.

For dinner we walked to a restaurant about half a mile from where we are staying, Chef Haus Restaurante e Pizzaria. On the way we saw lots of evidence that this town has an Austrian heritage. We even saw dirdls and lederhosen in a shop window. For dinner we had pizza.

We really liked Pausada Ilha Faceira where we stayed last night. It wasn’t raining when we got up this morning so we could enjoy this nice view towards the beach from our balcony.

After a great breakfast we hit the road and headed inland. For most of the day we weren’t on the main road so we saw a lot fewer trucks and much less traffic. This was the view from the high point on the road.

Tonight we are staying in a wonderful cabana out in the country overlooking a river.

We went shopping for dinner before we left Florianópolis.