Monte Verde

I have been away for a while, but I am back :)

This year, I have visited over 5 countries, but let's start with Brazil! During the World Cup, everybody was crazy about the match, but me and my friends decided to run away from this mess and hide ourselves in the mountains. We rent a house for about 5 days in Monte Verde, Minas Gerais. It is a very nice deal. We payed about R$50,00 (USD 20,00) per night per person, and there was 6 of us. The house could fit about 10 people, and it would be still comfortable :) There was no mobile signal or Internet, so it was good for everyone to unplug a bit. I was in trouble, tho. I had an image processing project to turn in, and those who program know how stack overflow helps tremendously when we get stuck. But I worked around that problem by downloading the whole documentation for OpenCV. Good news, I was able to get a lot of the features done, but I had to miss some of the nights out in the German bars around town. 

There were fire places in the house. So, we burned tons of wood to keep ourselves warm, and of course I couldn't resist to take picture of the fire. I almost burnt myself several times, but that's not a surprise. I am clumsy :P

      The city, Monte Verde, looks like a small European village. There are  plenty of European style restaurats and all of them sell good beers. Brazil is not big in brewing gourmet beers. Little by little, this market is growing in Brazil and you might be able to find a better range of beers.  In this city, there is also an ice ring! You really don't have to go to Europe to fell like in Europe, Brazilian are capable of faking it very well! hahahaha

     Monte Verde is a very small town. I describe this city as a single main street with about 1km width. Along this kilometer you will find several fancy restaurants, gift's shops, and coffee shops. Even though they are fancy you can still affort it. If you have ever been to Campos do Jordao ( which is a pretty expensive touristic city in the mountains in Sao Paulo state) I can say that Monte Verde is half of the price. 

 We climbed the mountains that divide the Minas Gerais State and Sao Paulo State. There was a lot of breathtaking flowers, and there was a lot of haze as well. On the top of the mountain there were some huge rocks. We climbed them too. Actually, I climbed just half of it. We were without any safety equipment, and then I got scared to fall... So, this combination of beauty, adventure, and mistery made me think I was in Alice's Wonderland.

I had a lot of fun. I was with good friends over there, and for sure I will remeber those days and miss every single second, and smile I shared with them :)