Parque Nacional da Serra Geral

After the cold, foggy day before, we were excited to wake up to sunny skies on Sunday. We gobbled down breakfast and drove out to Parque Nacional da Serra Geral. We started feeling slightly less giddy as we approached the canyons there and saw a wall of clouds!



The most famous canyon in this national park is Cânion da Fortaleza which is 8 km long and drops 900 meters. The fog came and went all morning, and we ended up spending the majority of our day there. We did lots of hiking and exploring and had a really fabulous time! The pictures mostly speak for themselves, so I won't have a lot to say here.

We met a group of people along the first trail, but after that we pretty much had the place to ourselves for most of the day.

This was one of the many moments I spent asking Eric to please not stand quite so close to the edge of the canyon. Granted, you can't see how far it drops, but that doesn't make a 900 m fall any more pleasant . . . or survivable. My hubby makes me nervous in these situations. I eventually told him if he wanted my support in his edge-clinging, he was going to have to increase his life insurance coverage. ;)

Taking a break from the BabyBjörn to fly a bit, and giggle uncontrollably.

Think she might have a future as a cheerleader? Look at that form!

One of several streams we hopped stone-to-stone across throughout the day.

We got so excited every time there was a gap in the fog and we could see more of the canyon!

To get this view, it was necessary to do some pretty major rock-hopping across the top of the waterfall. Eric felt like Gabs threw his balance off just enough that is might not be wise to attempt it with her strapped to him. I agreed and kindly took over the baby-wearing duties while he went to check it out and take some pictures for me. (You can just barely see Gabriela and me through the fog on top of the waterfall.)

Eric said he needed to document me carrying Gabs for once. I reminded him of the 9 months (and the 10 days past her due date) that I got to haul her around and then I threw in that part about how I have to walk around making milk for her all day everyday. He didn't have much more to say after that. HA! (And I promise the sun was out and bright for a minute - I actually did need my sunglasses at a few points during the day!)

The fog was really rolling in thick by the time we left that afternoon. We ran into a professor with a group of students there in the park, and he told us that it is unusual for the mornings to be foggy. I guess visibility usually decreases in the afternoons, but we just happened to be there during a weird time when the mornings were foggy too.

There wasn't much left to do around Cambará do Sul, so about 4:00 that afternoon we drove down to Canela/Gramado. It was a really pretty drive.

And the road was good.

And we could drive fast and make good time.

Until we came around a corner to discover this:

We continued along a nice long stretch of road that went back and forth between almost perfectly smooth to completely busted up and full of car-sized pot holes that caused us to slam on the brakes and try to find a patch of asphalt to drive on.

But it made us feel a lot less bad about Minas Gerais Roads!