Returning Home

After all of the fun in Brazil, it was time to head home.

Julia wasn't happy to stop travelling.

But she didn't let that stop her from enjoying the unpacking process.

Cold in Brazil???

Like I mentioned in a previous post, it was cold . . .

This is the morning we left to go back down to the airport. It was about 37 degrees at 10:30.

Can you see Neil's breath? (Not to mention the sweet beard he has going on.)

We had to drop into this store to get warm.

Tour through the Wine Country

One of the days, we took some time to drive up and down the valley of the wineries. It was very pretty, and we got to admire the scenery, have a nice lunch and some good conversations with the winery staffs, and taste some nice wines.

I got a model to stand next to our rental car so that I could take a picture of the car. This building is the cheese and sausage place. We got some nice cheese and sausage, unfortunately the customs guys took our sausage away when we got to Houston.

This is one of the more original and picturesque wineries.

They let you go up on top of the castle to look around the vineyards.

Architecture of Southern Brazil

So like I said in a previous post, the architecture in this part of Brazil is very European. Here are some of the examples of the towns we visited.

I thought the basket was pretty cool, and the church in the background is pretty impressive.

Not all of the buildings are serious. Some of them are really just cartoon style Q-Tips.

Gramado Area

At the end of the trip, we spent several days sightseeing around Gramado. Just like the falls, its an area of great natural beauty. This is an overlook over a horseshoe gorge.

They also have a really cool water falls.

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.

The Borders

After seeing the Argentinian park, the taxi took us over the to the place where the two rivers meet, forming the border between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

They have these obelisks painted in the country colors on each side of the river. This is the Argentinian one.

The land on the left is Paraguay, the right is Brazil. The river to the right is coming from the falls.