Weekend as a Caipira

*Caipira= Redneck/country bumpkin!

I’m not going to do this blog post in ‘we did this then we did this’ format as it's getting a bit repetitive and to be honest we didn't "do" that much apart from lounging around the pool!

We spent last weekend at my friend's parents' house in Araraquara, deep in the interior of São Paulo state.  A little bit of background...São Paulo city is the capital of Sao Paulo state. It is the size of France and if it were a country, it would be the 19th richest in the world, ahead of every country in South America with the obvious exception of Brazil itself. It has a population of 41.25 million, two thirds that of the UK, an idea of just how huge Brazil is!!

São Paulo flag

Araraquara is situated in the centre of São Paulo state, 277km from the capital. It has a population of 220,000 which makes it a "small" city by Brazilian standards! It is also known as the Orange city because the majority of the country's orange farms are located nearby giving the city a distinct orange-y smell!

These are my top 3 highlights from the weekend; not surprisingly all food and drink related!

1. Visiting a typical Brazilian village called Bueno de Andrada and sampling its famous coxinhas douradas,apparently the best in Brazil!

The queue for the famous coxinhas...

Coxinha love...

2. Drinks at the local cachaçaria. 

Possibly my favourite caipirinha to date! Instead of cachaça I had it with saquê, Japanese rice wine that is very popular in Brazil and is also a very good option for Brits not used to the extremely strong cachaça!

Kiwi Caipisaquê

3. Visit to a fazenda 

We visited the Salto Grande Fazenda for a traditional interior Sunday lunch and it definitely didn't disappoint, with every possible Brazilian dish on offer from Feijão Tropeiro to the delicious homemade Romeu and Julieta cheesecake.

Definitely in need of some post-lunch exercise we went on walk through the forest, alarmingly passing a menacing looking iguana until we reached the Salto Grande cachoeira. 

After relaxing for a while, we started to feel slightly less stuffed and walked back to the fazenda to have a last look around before we headed back to Sao Paulo...

Sunset on the journey home...

This week's highlights included more runs in Ibirapuera Park, cocktails at a speakeasy bar,subastor‎, and a Brazilian film première!

At the premiere of the Brazilian film, 'Crô'!

This weekend is a feriado(bank holiday)which means one thing in Brazil.... Beach time!!