Cachoeira

We started today as we left off yesterday - wet. Our trip to Cachoeira was a 2 hour drive and it rained most of the way. The plan to visit a market in Santa Amaro on the way was dropped and we did this in Cachoeira instead. We tried lots of new fruits and some cheeses which was really interesting and cleaning our hands with oil after eating jackfruit was messy. However, the heavens opened again and we got drenched. The tarpaulins over the stalls were almost collapsing under the weight of the water and the many holes in them meant steady streams were pouring over us.

The weather was bad but wasn't wholly to blame for the trip turning into a waste of time. We looked at a couple of buildings but it was all very uninspiring and I couldn't muster much enthusiasm. We had lunch in a former convent where we tried our first, delicious, moqueca. We then went to visit a cigar factory and a small liquor producer neither of which were of much interest. It reminded me of some holiday trips many years ago where you visit a factory where they hope to part you from your cash. I'm probably being a bit unfair here as there really was no pressure to buy anything. When we got back to the hotel our receptionist Rodriguez was really interested in our day which made it worse when we realised we'd not seen or heard about a few of the things he mentioned.

This photo is of the train station which is unusual because although Brazil has an extensive rail network there are very few passenger trains and the lines are almost exclusively used for freight. We had been about to drive past it for the second time when I asked if we could stop the car so I could at least take a photo.