Fondue in Gramado

We had a nice night sleeping next to the church and let the kids play outside have homeschool. There was a faucet in the park and a public toilet and gutter drain and I thought about doing all the things but Christine suggested to hold off since people would watch and might intervene. 

We headed off at noon and drove across the river and entered the state of Rio Grande do Sul. There were banana groves and rice fields and neat homes without a hint of poverty. There was a huge limestone shelf that waterfalls coursed down forming canyons. We drove up to 2900 ft and drove on the ruta romantica, a tourist road linking German quaint villages in the area.

Gramado was the main German looking town and was settled by German and Italian settlers and was famous for chocolate like Bariloche in Argentina and in fact they are sister cities.

It was a four hour drive and Dd spent most of it sleeping in the back once I started up the windy mountain road. We did dump our gray water and cassette at a big gas station and truck rest stop and had lunch there.

We camped at Camping Gramado which already had a few big RVs parked there. It was mostly permanent trailer units with covered enclosed patios and full indoor kitchens. It started drizzling when we arrived and we decided to go find some fondue restaurants. We had seen them in Bariloche and Christine wanted to go to one before we left Brazil but their opening hours were 7pm which would be late for us. Fortunately there was one in walking distance that opened at 630 and had an online special coupon making the meal cheaper. 

We were the first to be seated and it started off with a cheese fondue with broccoli, potatoes, fried polenta, carrot, bread, and goiabada or guava jelly. We had seen the jelly in stores in Chile and Argentina but didn't know how it was consumed. It is a like a piece of thick fruit roll-up. It was delicious.

The next course was the meat: cuts of chicken, sausage, pork, and beef. The last course was the best: various fruits and sweets and dips of chocolate, Ovaltine, white chocolate, and dulce de leche. We walked home all having to use the bathroom.