seekingmygreaterperhaps

Oi gente! Tudo bem?

Where the heck is the Aparados Da Serra? And why did I go there? Well, it’s in the south of Brazil, about a 3 hour car ride from Porto Alegre. This was my final trip on an airplane for a longer weekend school holiday of the time I had left while living in Brasilia. (Well that’s a mouthful!) I was on a mindful budget because of the anticipated moving expenses ahead of me, while also balancing the “yolo” mindset and also grieving that my time in Brazil was coming to an end (for now). It’s a lot of think about, so naturally, I asked ChatGPT. My prompt was something like, what are the top 10 places that are unique to Brazil that someone who has lived here for 3 years should see? It gave me a list, and I had seen 8 of the 10. (The one I am currently missing is Fernando de Noronha, a notably expensive spot that I’ll just have to return to.) The other one, is the Aparados Da Serra!

For this adventure, my friend Morgan joined me! She worked with me, and we had never traveled together, but it ended up being great, which was a gamble but it paid off. We are definitely bonded now, and Morgan is awesome. You’ll see her in my pictures.

I hired a company to plan the entire trip outside of the plane tickets, and that is honestly the way to go. To do anything in this region, you need to have a tour, so might as well just hire one company. I got the recommendation from a friend, and will recommend it to you- the wide internet who I know is looking to me for exactly this! I went with Agencia Canion Turismo (+55 54 8424-1027 is their WhatsApp). They only speak Portuguese, but it is a nature tour, so if you only speak a little you’ll be fine. I was happy enough to be able to translate for Morgan, but she held her own pretty amazingly for it only being her first year in Brazil. This tour company handled everything- airport pick up and transfer to Cambara do Sul, booking the hotel we stayed at, all tours and pick-ups, and return back to Porto Alegre. They were so sweet and even gave us both welcome gifts and departing gifts.

Now onto the trip itself!

We stayed in an adorable pousada, and we shared a little cabin. The sunsets from this pousada were incredible as well. The sky is super clear. In the south of Brazil, there is a huge German influence, which you can see in the architecture here. (Did you know? Blumenau- another city in this region- has the 2nd largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany?) Also… many of the Brazilians from this region look a lot like me- taller, light hair and eyes, and white skin. It was… weird. But- people assumed I was Brazilian, and that felt kind of cool.

Our first big touring day, we were supposed to see Canion da Fortaleza, which is one of the two reasons I planned this trip. This Google Image search shows why I was so amped.

Based on the picture above, you might see why I was super annoyed. The fog was so bad that we literally couldn’t see each other if we moved a few feet away. Which is also super scary when you’re standing on the edge of a cliff with minimal boundary warnings. Morgan was a good sport, but I was pretty openly frustrated. I was also getting worried that it would be like that the whole trip, because the nature and hiking were legit why we were there.

This tends to be my luck when traveling with weather… but I didn’t realize we would be able to see literally nothing. If you didn’t look at the Google image search- do it. I was so mad for this “instagram vs. reality” moment, but was trying (and failing) to play it cool.

The second half of the day was much better. We took a very bumpy off roading jeep ride on the “7 circuit” Or “S circut” – I can’t remember, but we got to see a bunch of different types of waterfalls. The jeep also drove through the river a few different times, which was the right amount of thrilling. It didn’t feel dangerous, and we got to start to see some of the beautiful landscape. I really started to dig those Araucária trees (the ones to the left of the bottom picture), which can be seen in abundance in the south of Brazil, especially this region. They produce the pinhão nut- which I learned is delicious.

My favorite restaurant in Cambara Do Sul was O Casarão – which was basically the place to eat the local fare. They had a buffet with all the amazing gaucho sides, and then we split the barbecue (it was all you could grill meat, but we got full)! We also got the grill some melty cheese, which was a delight. We ended up coming back here for another meal before we left- it was good and a crowd pleaser.

The next day, I think God knew I needed a weather win, we had SUN and perfectly clear skies! It was absolutely gorge-ous! Our tour that day led us to the Canion Itembezinho. These canyons are like the Grand Canyon of South America. They were incredible. These pictures don’t really do them any justice. The hike was super easy just along the top. I was so delighted- my camera roll from the morning alone was like a hundred pictures from every couple of steps. The view changes, you know.

We went to a different viewpoint, and that mini hike led us to a view of these two giant waterfalls!

The final night, I lived a bucket list item, and Morgan joined me in the “yolo” moment of going on a hot air balloon ride. It was a little more expensive than an average tour and I kept waffling between being responsible or enjoying this final trip in Brazil to it’s absolute maximum. I went with the latter, and I don’t regret it even one BRL worth.

I hadn’t expected to be overcome with such a sense of wonder at the beauty of the landscape. At the same time, I was so appreciative to have the realization that this is my life. I really am living all of these incredible experiences, and seeing new trees, and hiking the top of a giant canyon. The world from that angle and that balloon overwhelmed me with peace and gratitude.

Cambara do Sul and the Aparados Da Serra was an incredible final “big” trip in Brazil while I was working at the American School of Brasilia. I loved the landscape, the kindness of the people, and almost especially the TREES.

We had a 3 hour car drive back to Porto Alegre before we stayed overnight at a hotel for like a few hours before we had a super early morning flight the next day. From my best guess, I got food poisoning from a pastel at a bakery that we stopped at for a “dinner on the road” after our hot air balloon ride before our night time trek to Porto Alegre. I was sitting in the front seat, it was dark, the roads are winding, and our driver was very… familiar… with them. I’ll spare you the nasty details, but about 20 minutes from our hotel, I puked all over myself and the car. Our driver was so sweet about it, but I was feeling quite green. Thank God I was able to have a shower and a bed before our flight. The next morning I bought saltine crackers at the airport. I’ll spare you the details… but I had to use the little plane sick baggies in the back of the seat while I puked because I couldn’t get up in time because the flight attendants were serving drinks and I was trapped. When I eventually made it back to my apartment, I was really thankful I had the whole day to sleep it off and snuggle Kya. We had that annoyingly early flight because it was the only one that was direct to Brasilia, but boy did that work out for me.

Are you really even a traveler if you don’t have a “getting sick while traveling” story?

Thanks for tuning in. I have hundreds more pictures of this beautiful area, and I hope you enjoyed these ones!

Tchau for now!