Wine tasting trip, part 3

23 October 2011

Driving back through Bento Goncalves on the way to Vale dos Vinhedos (Valley of the Vineyards).

Here you can see the various parts of the city, from the outskirts...

to the suburbs...

to the downtown area.  The forest of high-rise buildings is quite a contrast with Santa Cruz where I live.

The hills were steep enough to remind me of San Francisco.

Also similar to California: a massive spa and hotel in wine country.

Lovely vineyards.

Next stop, the Miolo winery and vineyard.

The birds locally known as quero-queros were stalking around the grounds.  I found out later that some had chicks in tow, but sadly for me I missed seeing the babies.

I also saw this mama and baby rodent - they looked very much like guinea pigs in size and shape.

More views of the grounds.

This little shrine was just across the lake.

She is Nossa Senhora de Uva, or "Our Lady of the Grape".

I took a walk around the grounds, which were lovely, although a bit buggy due to the forested areas nearby.

These plants lined entire sections of the paths along the grounds, and there were buds everywhere.  In a week or two it will be spectacular with hundreds of these gorgeous lilies!

These palest yellow iris were surrounding the pond - wish I could have captured the color better.

Some folks watching the fishies.

The tour wending its way back to the tasting room.

From here we headed home - here is a photo of another hillside community.

We had a bit of a delay when we came across this accident which apparently had JUST happened.  The driver was walking around so he was all right.  Gasoline was pouring across the remaining bit of road and off into the ditch. The cars started going around the accident within a few minutes - the van in the photo had such a high center of gravity that it really looked like it was going to tip over or get stuck in the ditch, as the cars had to hang off into the ditch to get past.

Amazing that no one was hurt.