Bom dia Brazil!

What should you do when there's a month gap between one job ending and another beginning?  Spend 2 weeks in Brazil, of course!  Especially when you know someone living in Brazil who will let you crash on their couch for free.

Gauchos

I spent most of my trip in Rio Grande do Sul (pronounced "hee-oh grahn-jay" locally), Brazil's southern-most state (because that's where the couch was) - with a visit to the Iguacu Falls thrown in.  Winter was coming to an end, not exactly peak tourist season.  Their winter is nothing compared to a Midwestern winter, however, so I thought the weather was lovely.  Rio Grande is the land of gauchos (South American cowboys), but at the same time the main city, Porto Alegre, has about 1.5 million people.

Porto Alegre at dusk

Brazilian food, especially in the south, can be very meat-focused.  Luckily, Brazilians (at least the ones I encountered) are very friendly and helpful, and most are aware of what a veg*n is.  One of my favorite meals was thrown together just for me at a cafe - brown rice, steamed veggies, and feijao (Brazilian black beans) with a sprinkling of farofa (ground cassava) on top.  You do have to be careful about the beans, because it can be quite common for them to be cooked in chicken stock and/or bacon.

I spent much of my visit seeing the country side.  There were lots (some might even say heaps) of state and national parks nearby, some of which I was able to get to.

Parque Estadual de Itapua (Itapua State Park)

Parque Estadual do Caracol (Caracol State Park)

 Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul

Foz do Iguacu (Iguacu Falls), Brazil/Argentina

Brazil is a beautiful country, and I look forward to going back and seeing more of it!