Bento Gonzalves Train

After spending a couple of days at the falls, we took a plane down to Porto Allegre, which is the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the southern most state in Brazil. After landing in Porto Allegre, we drove north up into the hills to Gramado. This area was settled mainly by Italians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the towns have lots of pretty European architecture. Its also a wine growing area, and the hills are covered with vineyards. The first day we were there, we drove over to Bento Gonzalves, where they have a train that takes you between a few towns and you can sample some of the wine from the area.

Everyone had told us that it would be cold in the South of Brazil. The falls were nice and warm though, getting into the 70s while we were there, so we thought it would be the same here. We were wrong. It was cold. Here we're waiting for the train and Raquel is trying to keep warm.

Fortunately it didn't take too long for the train to come.

As a part of the train ride, they had musicians come through playing music and dancing with everyone. We did a little dancing.