30/01/2020 – Travel to Paraibuna, Brasil

We got up and had breakfast in the hostel before packing our things and checking out. There seems to be an honesty policy with drinks in the hostels in Brasil, which creates quite a nice atmosphere although after a couple of Caiprinhas it is hard to remember anything! Josh and James got in an Uber to the bus station. I sent them with bus times, bus companies and all the instructions I could to make their journey easier, but still had my doubts as to how successful they would be! I told them to send a message if they didn’t make it on the planned bus. Dom and I waited a little bit longer at the hostel and got an Uber to Peter and Consuelo’s apartment in Hygieneopilis. We topped up our waters and went to the toilet, and Dominique had a little look around the beautiful apartment. Then Peter, Consuelo, Dominique and I went down to the car, loaded up and left on our way to the farm in Paraibuna, about 1.5 hours away by car. We chatted the whole way. We passed through the tropic of Capricorn and so were officially in the tropics, exciting! I texted the boys to let them know we may be a little late collecting them, but got no reply and so wandered if their phones would still be on airplane mode (they were!) We dropped Consuelo and Dominique at the farm, dumped all the bags in the house with the help of the caretaker and the maid (I apologise but their Brasilian names are hard to remember!) Then I ran through the heavy rain back to the car so that Peter and I could go to the bus station to pick up the boys. We thought we would be late but when we got there there was no sign of the boys. It was only a small station so Peter asked the bus company about the boys bus, and she said it had already been and gone. I managed to quickly log in to the stations wifi, and received a message from James saying they were on a later bus. With 40 minutes to wait we wandered around the small town to the market and Peter pointed out his own Cachasa for sale at one of the stalls! We went back to the bus station and Peter spoilt me to coffee, water and a handful of warm snacks. Although unplanned it was really nice to spend some time together catching up. By the time I was done the boys bus was due in. We were there to greet the boys off the bus, they said they had slept the whole way! We drove to the farm where Dominique had been reading. I recognised more of the farm than I had of the Sao Paulo apartment. It was truly beautiful and we were so quickly made to feel at home. We were shown into our rooms and around the house. Josh got ushered through the garden by Peter, Dominique and James made a sandwich, whilst I changed and unpacked. James Dominique and I decided to go for an explore and found Josh and Peter with a beer in the buildings that used to house the cows, now Peters bar and Cachasa house. Before long we were sat around some beautiful marble bar tables under the roof of a cattle shed with Brasilian beer and a shot of Cachasa. It seemed that Peter enjoyed having us, and our interest as he explained the process of making his own Cachasa (the spirit in the Caiprinha cocktail.) We went back up to the farm and showered one at a time before it was cocktail time. Peter made us all caiprinhas, a mixture of crushed lime and sugar with cachasa. He went through more than a whole bottle for just 5 drinks, absolutely lethal! I made us some bowls of olives cheese and salami and we sat in the sitting room together sipping our cocktails. They went down very well, but were very strong and our heads were spinning! Before long Consuelo said it was dinner time so we sat around the dining table. We ate a Consuelo homemade rice and meat dish, similar to that of a risotto. Incredible really considering Consuelo is 88 years old! It was beautiful food, and we chatted our way through dinner, which was accompanied by a few bottles of red. The generosity of both Peter and Consuelo has been incredible and is on par of that of mum and dads, which in my opinion is hard to beat. They seemed to enjoy having us, and we were never short of food or drink throughout our time with them! It is hard to know how to thank people of such generosity, so we have sent a card and have vowed to ourselves to remember and treasure the memories forever, and hope to be able to repay the favour to someone in the future! We cleared up and went back to the sitting room. Josh, James and Peter sipped cachasa and rum whilst Dominique wandered around merry on life and I continued on water! Eventually Dominique crashed, I snuck off to bed, then Josh then James and then eventually Peter.