Canela Travel Guide

''Take me down to Cinnamon City where the mountain's green and the girls are pretty!'' sang one drunken slob in the car on the way to the Brasilian mountains. Canela - Portuguese for cinnamon - is one of the main mountainous cities in the Rio Grande do Sul, next to Gramado, for it's tourist attractions - beautiful scenery and germanic architecture. Even before we reached these mountain cities, crawling up the wooded incline Eagles were soaring overhead. At any one time I counted 8 Eagles in flight from my car window.     To get to Canela you have to pass through Gramado - from the above picture you can see the whole germanic/bavarian countryside feel to the whole place...nearly every building has a 19th century Bavarian feel to it...with a few ramshackled brasilian huts in between. My newly adopted family(!) have a cottage in Canela. Unfortunately didn't get any pictures on this trip, but the place and the surrounding neighbourhood is breathtaking.       Driving in to the main town of Canela, the Rock Cathedral is seen from everywhere - it's gothic, old age protestant feel shrouding the town. Canela is also home of the Parque do Caracol and the Caracol Waterfall - you can see these images in my pictures section. The waterfall itself is meritorious. 131 meters high...the steps leading down to it consist of 967...the mountainous view overlooking the river and waterfull is wonderful...but the climb back up the steps is a fucking bitch! ;) Only took 40 minutes and half stone in sweat :-0

Another side to Brasil...and another beautiful side to boot.

Em canela viste o Parque do Caracol, possui como atração principal a Cascata do Caracol.

At the fondue restaurant, make sure you leave room for dessert, the best part of the meal - fondue fruit chunks dipped in hot chocolate.  Mmmmmm, chocolate...