Two Beers and a Pretzel

Just outside of Canela there is an alpine slide, arboretum, another crescent shaped canyon and a very neat looking waterfall.  My uncle and I visited the alpine slide first, but they wouldn’t let me take a video.  It turned out to be a pretty short ride and my still photos of the track were not impressive enough to post.

Next, the Parque Das Sequoias.  They had some 50 year old Giant California Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and Chinese Dawn Redwoods (metasequoia glyptostroboides) among many other trees.

A Giant Sequoia (Sequoia gigantea) was listed in their literature, but I didn’t see one.  After seeing them in California 2 years ago, I was wondering how they could live in this relatively mild climate at a much lower altitude.  Apparently, they can’t…  The park had one for about 50 years that just recently died.  If you haven’t seen a Giant Sequoia in person, you owe it to your self to go to Sequoia National Park and see the General Sherman Tree.  It’s the largest (by mass) single living thing on Earth.  Here’s my pic from 2 years ago.

Yes, those are fully grown people near the base (it’s 275 ft tall), and the trunk of the tree would take up 4 lanes of traffic on a typical US freeway.  So hearing they had Sequoia’s here in Brazil, I was expecting something like that.  Oh well, they had some nice trails and over 120 tree species from all over the world.  They actually had the young redwoods, which are in the Sequoia genus and already towered over the other trees, but that was still kind of dissappointing – like going to see a humpback whale and they say “Oh, sorry, it died.  But here are some nice dolphins to look at.”

From there we drove to the Crescent Canyon park for some hiking and finally on to the iconic waterfall.  It’s about 400 meters tall and flows over a large cave-like opening.  We rode a chairlift up to a high vantage point, but the best views were from the path below the lift.

After all that exhausting riding on an alpine slide, walking thru a tree park, and sitting on a chairlift, we decided to get some food.  Actually we hiked up and down about 300 steps in the crescent canyon, so we really were tired and hungry.  Fortunately, we met a local the previous day who recommended the “best Apple Strudel in town”.

This was my kind of place.  A number of my friends would appreciate that the rafters were lined with cans of every beer imaginable…

The owner and head chef, Norbert, chatted with us and recommended the smoked pork chop, schnitzel and sausage with some sides from his home region of Germany around Ramstein, including a homemade spicy mustard and some decent saurkraut.  In what has become a recurring theme, he fell in love with a Brazilian girl and moved here.

Of course, the finale at a place named the “Strudelhaus” was his Vienna-style Apple Strudel with heavy sweet cream and vanilla ice cream on the side…

Yummy!!!

We then left for Porto Alegre via New Petropolis.  Continuing the German theme, New Petropolis has a park at its’ center that preserves the original buildings of the early German immigrants.

On Sundays (which it was), a polka band plays for beer as a surprising number of people show up to socialize, listen to polka, eat German food, drink beer, and dance.

Needing to wash down the Apple Strudel, we opted for the beer, splitting a potato pancake and listening to the music..

Considering that my “Lonely Plant – South America on a Shoestring” book dedicated barely one page to Canela and the National Park, and did not really mention Gramado or Bento, I had a great 3 days in this beautiful region.  It may not fit their criterea for ‘shoestring’ travel, but it just goes to show that it’s always worth it to use a guidebook as a simple guide, not as a travel bible, and make friends with the locals (even if he is already your uncle).