Yoohoo!! I was in such a high spirit!! We were going to spend our weekend at a cool nice resort at Araras, some hideout near Petropolis which high in the mountain!! What else could be better than that for a weekend??

Our programmer cum coordinator Ed had made a wonderful arrangement.
A mouth-watering lunch at one of the trout farm at Itaipava, a district off Petropolis.

We drove for 1 hr plus to Petropolis. And we spent 20 mins looking for the mysterious trout farm.

We had to walked down a little bit from the gate to the restaurant. It was like a secret garden full with flowers and bushes.. There was a few trout ponds with hundreds of trout fish, and a cool nuicely-decorated wooden restaurant situated in the middle of the farm. The owner, Luciana and her husband are very friendly and easy-going. They have a big country-house situated not far away, higher than the restaurant. And the crews stay in a horse-stable look-alike staff-cabin.

The owner invited us to her house after we ordered our second bottle of white wine. It was a cosy wooden buiding, with a fire-place. Everything was so rustic and woody. It was such a perfect paint of a perfect family, a couple with two pretty little gals and one old, frenly golden retriever. I wonder its the wine or the air that made me feel like to stay here forever...

Went for a walk after the lunch. The cool air was nothing but breeze now with the wine in our stomach. Ed accidentally walked into a residential area which was sooo huge that we mistook it as a Posada. We heard dogs barking and charging towards us, and soon four pure black huge labrador and sharpei appeared at the edge of my vision!! Our faces turned green and the next minute i noticed, the guys ored had a stick in their hands. Lucky of us, a lady in black, apparently the lady mistress of this huge country-house came to our rescue. It was quite a scene. Four big BLACK dogs + one lady in pure Black. ( black shirt, balck jeans + black shawls covering her hair) . She introduced herself as Tata, and generously invited us to her house. Well.. i was soo excited and we all agreed to go in for tea.

Its a long way from the entrance to her big house, surrounded by a huge garden taht i cant see the end of it. i thot this will only happened in movies or novels. The for black dogs were scary but they soon befriends with me. One of them, 'Darkie' is blind, but he is a sweet kind fellow, and apparently the leader among the rest.

Tata handed us a flower each and led us to a pond. She asked us to throw the flower into the pond and hold hands while praying together. It is some kind of Indian Goddess, which i found out later from her.

She then led us to where the house was. We saw a big BMW and a Pajero parked in her garage. She then ushered us into her beautiful house. The master of the house, Rudiner was sitting by the fireplace, enjoying his worldcup game. I spotted the huge snooker table in her living room. Cool!!

Apparently, our hostess is a multireligious meditaor lover. She pointed to us the 3D smiling Buddha Wall sculture in her living room. It was amazing!! The Buddha with the smiling face was looing and smiling at you wherever you go. A hunt from Indonesia, Tata proudly declared. Then she couldnt wait to show us her bedroom. She was playing some relaxing chant, and the room was full of sculpture, pictures, icons and lotsa religious stuff of different beliefs and religions. What an eye-opener. I spent most of the time playing with the big dogs in her huge garden.

Then Tata and Rudiner led us to another wooden building. It was smaller than the main one and it appeared to be a two-storey guest house. Our kind host invited us to stay overnite. We politely declined as we had made a reservation at the Araras Posada. Rudiner then showed us an opening to a dungeon, and it was in fact a wine cellar without wine.

Then we were led to another part of the house where Rudiner kept all his trophies. So, he was a famous biker in Rio year ago. Tata liked me soo much and she decided to give me one of Rudiner's poster =)

By the time we left Tata's house, it was already dark. I cant even see my five fingers with my hand spread rite in front of me. Tata and her dogs sent us to the door and we bid each other goodbye. Ed curiously asked what did she do for living?? and our mysterious hostess, whispered in her mysteriously way: ' BRUXA'. A witch??!!

We were all shocked and quickly marched back to where we park our car. Ed, Jim n Steve started teasing and scaring us by saying how Tata liked two of us, gals esp me. She had given Pauline and I a handmade candle and some flower with natural scents. I am still holding teh candle in my hand and to be frank, i felt a bit scared too. However, i would prefer to think that she was just another sweet kind soul that we encountered in Brasil. So wat if she is a 'bruxa', she was a kind 'bruxa' to us. =)

I cant help but to wonder. How mad i were today by going through all these weird experience. In fact, there is a lot of madness in Brazil. The way they drive which greatly show-off their creativity of making three lanes into four or five lanes on the highway. The mad, made-up names that people have which ends up the whole kampung of 'Pedro aka Peter', 'Paulo aka Paul'. The mad way they stop to talk and joke however busy they are even they are in the middle of the road: driving or walking. The mad way that they actually like it if you turn up for an invitation with more people in tow. The mad way they all shout at once when they talk, and the mad way they respect everyone´s opinion, and the mad way that your hosts look after you so that you really feel at home. The sort of mad things, in fact, that appeal to sane Asians like me. Hv i mentioned one of the maddest things is that the moon is always the wrong way round. It still travels from left to right across the sky, but a waxing moon looks like a sun in disguise ans i always had this little problem indentifying the sun and the moon. How mad is that? Hehee.. and now i was smiling at my foolishness under the big round moon.

We reached the Araras Posada late. It was too dark to enjoy the view so we headed straight to our resort. To our delight, it was such a cosy nice place!! And how great, a big fireplace in the living room!!

We skipped the shower, cause the nite was too cold and there wasnt hot water supply. After a simple dinner in the posh restaurant at a table in front of the fireplace, we rounded off the nite with a billiard game.

Labels: Brazil, Lets Tuck In, Sheepish Breakaway