Christmas in Gramado
Having finished my last few days in Curitiba basically doing just cardio workouts and kicks on the bag, I've made my way to Gramado, a small town in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. For most of the year it is a quaint tourist town for Brazilians to visit. But in December and January, the town converts itself into the first and premiere Christmas town in Brazil. (Read more, in English, here.)
It is ridiculously charming. It's very Christmassy but in that small-town way, so that it's not over the top. The Natal Luz festival is very important to the city, obviously, and Santa Claus greets visitors right at the city limits. It is very hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 32 degrees Celsius and everyone is wearing shorts, but if it could ever happen, this would be the place to do it. Even though Gramado is a town of just 31,000, each year during the Christmas season they get 700,000 visitors, so almost everyone you encounter is from out of town (kind of like Las Vegas, heh), which only adds to the festiveness. Only 0.9% of the tourists are from outside of Brazil, so it's sort of an undiscovered gem and not something a lot of foreigners know about. Which is different for me because I've tended to be a bit of an on the beaten path type, historically.
I am staying with a lovely family here in Gramado who are treating me with tremendous hospitality. When I came I brought some imported chocolate just as a gift but now that I'm here and see what kind of people they are, I want to do something bigger for them for Christmas. One of those "make your Christmas" kind of deals that they will remember a while. I have no idea what, though, and I also don't want to do something that would seem obnoxiously first-world elitist (for exmaple I noticed they don't have a microwave, but I think a kitchen appliance falls under said category). Perhaps something will come to me while walking in the city centre today (there's certainly enough shopping), or perhaps you, loyal blog readers, can come up with something.
Merry Christmas (or denominationally-appropriate holiday), everyone!
It is ridiculously charming. It's very Christmassy but in that small-town way, so that it's not over the top. The Natal Luz festival is very important to the city, obviously, and Santa Claus greets visitors right at the city limits. It is very hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 32 degrees Celsius and everyone is wearing shorts, but if it could ever happen, this would be the place to do it. Even though Gramado is a town of just 31,000, each year during the Christmas season they get 700,000 visitors, so almost everyone you encounter is from out of town (kind of like Las Vegas, heh), which only adds to the festiveness. Only 0.9% of the tourists are from outside of Brazil, so it's sort of an undiscovered gem and not something a lot of foreigners know about. Which is different for me because I've tended to be a bit of an on the beaten path type, historically.
I am staying with a lovely family here in Gramado who are treating me with tremendous hospitality. When I came I brought some imported chocolate just as a gift but now that I'm here and see what kind of people they are, I want to do something bigger for them for Christmas. One of those "make your Christmas" kind of deals that they will remember a while. I have no idea what, though, and I also don't want to do something that would seem obnoxiously first-world elitist (for exmaple I noticed they don't have a microwave, but I think a kitchen appliance falls under said category). Perhaps something will come to me while walking in the city centre today (there's certainly enough shopping), or perhaps you, loyal blog readers, can come up with something.
Merry Christmas (or denominationally-appropriate holiday), everyone!