Serra Verde – La Dolce Vita

I’m back folks and reinvigorated after a great day out yesterday ready to supply you with some fresh and hopefully interesting content. The pièce de résistance is at the end of the post superbly put together by Vivian in just a few hours.

As Vivian alluded to in her previous post, the temperature is much cooler here which suits us perfectly. That said, we received an unexpected surprise in the form of 32 degrees which we haven’t seen for over 10 days. It came out of nowhere as only the night before we were rain-watching from our apartment window.

So today’s adventure was one of the two sole reasons I thought-up for venturing further south into Brazil. Not that we had a plethora of options available to us in this Covid-ridden existence we are all enduring. And I’m delighted to say it went splendidly.  

But first, there was another celebratory day earlier this week. Did you know that Brazil is one of perhaps just two countries to not celebrate Valentine’s Day in February? Along with China. For Brazil, this day occurs in June. Now I know what you’re thinking. He blagged it and ‘postponed’ Valentine’s as we’re not in the UK and we’re needing to save pennies but no my lovelies, oh no. Instead I splashed out and found somewhere offering high views of this largely flat and unremarkable city, 40 floors high to be precise!

This was the first time we had dressed up in months. I honestly don’t think I’ve worn jeans or witnessed Vivian with make-up since 2020 – nearly two months ago! Look how lovely she looks in that dress.

Oh, and the food was as good as it looked as were the cocktails that followed.

Now, onto the real main course of this post. Time to introduce you to The Serra Verde Express.  A leisurely and luxurious four hour train ride into the Atlantic rain forest.

To enhance our experience, The Chancellor had previously pre-approved my suggestion to upgrade from cattle-class (blue waggon above) to the luxury alternative. This didn’t come easily though. I had to show her pictures of the inside of the waggon and had to explain the other perks it had on offer. Credit to her, she always gets her monies worth, as do I. Cue the Jewish and German jokes. Thankfully within ten minutes of departure she gave me the all important ‘Yeah you did it well’ look and nod. To see more of the cabin, you’ll find a video at the bottom of the post.

In addition to a light breakfast all drinks on board were made inclusive within the price we paid so we indulged in countless soft drinks, tea and coffee but also something sweet and sparkly for the introductory welcome. We were yet to consume any food whatsoever and as we’re both not really drinkers and considering it wasn’t yet 9am, well, it didn’t take too long for a previously slightly up-tight Vivian to become loose in a short space of time.

What’s the expression?

Going, going, gone lol.

Trying-to-look-sober

The journey itself whizzed by thanks to the drinks, effortless scenery, the one-to-one time but also because we made a friend. Not a fellow passenger but instead one of the two guides from within our waggon. Silvia, our passionate host, entertained Vivian and I through-out when not attending her on-board duties. As the only English person in the waggon, she took particular delight in Vivian and I’s foreign connection as she had married an Englishman decades prior.

At a later point in the journey she suggested we discreetly follow her and she’ll take us to the head of the waggon where she’ll open the side door and allow us to breath in the fresh mountainous air. And she delivered, much to our appreciation.

Having arrived at Morretes we had four hours to wander, explore and eat before catching a shorter, cheaper and less glamorous mode of transport back. The humble bus, of course. The little city of Morretes was more charming than we first realised so passing the time wasn’t difficult but avoiding the sun directly, was. Tourism plays a big part here which I suppose isn’t unsurprising considering it is the end point for the Serra Verde train.

We stopped for a pre-lunch refreshment in a café to escape the sun, nothing out of the ordinary there. We sat, were handed a drinks menu, took a few moments and then placed an order. Still, nothing new. I used the sanitizer provided on the table to cleanse one’s hands prior to indulging so still nothing new. Except this time it caused a biblically sized eruption of laughter for Vivian. 

Apparently this wasn’t hand sanitizer but a liquid sweetener for your drink.

As my tea-mug back home stating the ‘Neighbourhood Cat Man’ suggests, I’m fond of cats largely due to my upbringing. In actual fact, I’ve had limited exposure to the joy of dogs but I can still very much appreciate what there is to love and adore and I do understand why they are the nations favourite.  I didn’t have to be a dog-owner to see the sadness in the face of the following stray dog so I couldn’t help but re-enact an innate motto that Mother will have indoctrinated into me at a young age that has clearly stuck; give what you can at any cost to aid any helpless animals. 

So I intentionally sought out an an all-you-can-eat buffet and once we had finished eating, I set about filling various receptacles with different meats. With small bags filled we now had to go and find the lost canine that sat underneath me an hour prior.

Within 15 minutes of leaving the restaurant, I saw what I thought was the dog but as I approached I saw two of them, both similar looking and of the same breed. On closer inspection those unmistakable sad eyes were from the female and she was led down resting being licked affectionately by a male. Now only 5 or 6 meters away I rustle my food bag and this gets her attention. She sits upright poised, ready to consider either staying put or moving towards me. She rises and at this point the male sees an opening, if you’ll excuse the pun. He decides it’s time to begin some from-behind hip-thrusting manoeuvres. The male, also no doubt a stray and hungry, proceeds to continue his moves like Jagger ways whilst all she wants to do is get to me but is being relentlessly harassed by the horny male. It was only at the very last moment when the dogs were a couple of meters away did the male concede and prioritize food over rumpy-pumpy.

If the final part of my plan comes together on Monday we’ll have visited the second and final attraction I had hoped we would. As ever, logistical challenges exist getting there and even if we do, where next!? We continue to discuss this at length and we’re seeing that the beginning of the month does appear to be a next significant milestone for some South American countries and the possibility of reopening borders. Odds are still slim but whatever happens, we’ll need a contingency effort so that plan starts now.

Please now enjoy a three minute video put together by my talented lady. Play with the sound if you can and advisable on WiFi.