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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Day 85 - The finger of God

The names of towns here crack me up: Petropolis, Teresopolis. Add the Italian intonation that is very common to the Rio Portuguese, and you will understand what I mean.

Our original plan for today was mountain trekking, so I woke up at 4.37AM all excited for the trip. But unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the rainy conditions on the hills. Strange, since it has really been a beautiful day - sunny and not too hot or too cold. Oh well, sometimes things don't work out the way we plan.

So we went to the little town of Teresopolis instead. The drive was out of this world! The serpentine road cuts through a gorgeous forest in the mountains, and this goes on for miles and miles on end. I could spend the whole day in the car like this. Which is pretty much exactly what we did. With a lunch stop, naturally.

Today, I also learnt that Brazil is a big orchid exporter in the world. Personally I have never been a huge orchid fan, but I think I'm about to change my mind after visiting this small but absolutely spectacular pavilion. Ah, the fragrance! The color palette! The tenderness of shapes! The beauty of this flower is truly irresistable...

Another magnificent view of the day was the Finger of God (Dedo de Deus) mountain, resting in the clouds of weighless almost transparent fog. It would be nice to attach some intriguingly mystical legend to the picture below, but unfortunately I have just spent half an hour researching this, but got absolutely nothing. Too bad. But - thank God - the view doesn't get any less spectacular because of that...

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