Pirenopolis Group Retreat

We took an early morning bus to Pirenópolis for the group retreat. The metro was so full that it took two cars going by to find space in a car. Out of the whole bus, the first hour was only 5 people… and a little old woman was next to me and coughing. It was a 3 hour journey to Pirenópolis, and we went to the chalet fazenda. It was 2 km off the asphalt road and cows blocking the dirt road. There were 4 mini buildings with 4 beds each, a pool, a lake and tree house. We went into town to eat at a kilo place and then walk to little shops. I started feeling awful and dehydrated. I helped orchestrate dinner, and we made too little. I presented my workshop on social media and technology usage for helping students.

We went to on a Farm tour that you go and you can pay for breakfast and also get to see the farmhouse that is very iconic of the region that we were in. The breakfast and the tour cost about 20 us dollars and just a tour was about 5 us dollars. I decided to just do the tour and bring my breakfast. It was very tempting looking at all the food as everyone ate and I had to just watch. This lasted for about an hour. I wish that it didn't cost 78 reais for it. We did get to walk around and we saw owls in the rafters of the ceiling and small chickens wandering around. We also went to where the cows were attached to a machine to walk in circles and to juice the sugarcane. We also went over towards an area where there were lots of pigs and piglets. The tour guide was calling, like a pig call, but evidently it was for a huge ox. The ox came over and I was one of the few people who got to feed it with an ear of corn. 

Then we went home to make a quick lunch of spaghetti. We all drove out together to see waterfall Bon Successo. It was 5 waterfalls within 1 trail and we needed to pay 30 reais to get in. They suggested that we start at the farthest waterfall and make our way back. By time we got there around 1:30 it was getting cooler and the sun was starting to set. The water was so cold and it was about 65°. We still went swimming and even went swimming under the waterfalls at two of the waterfalls. It was nice to relax and enjoy on some of the rocks on the side or just to float in the water. And we spent about 2 hours there before we all got really cold as the sun was setting. We drove back to the farm and one of the other teams made a really awesome taco dinner for us. We had lots of workshops and they went on for a lot longer every night then anyone expected.
we had a big pancake and egg breakfast. There were already eight people in the seven person car, meaning that someone definitely couldn't go to the waterfalls in the car. I volunteered to stay behind with some people and then go into town and explore for the morning. We ended up walking around a lot of shops and I was able to buy some of the souvenirs that I was hoping to find with him Brazil. I found some tile that can be hung that are painted, some earrings that were very sparkly and rocks, and a sign that said Lar Doce Lar (home sweet home). It was really nice because I got to hang with Jessica and jazmyn a bit more and hear about their placement team stories and successes. Some people went to a vegan restaurant, but Jessica and I went to this buffet that cost less than a lot of the other restaurants and we really got the chance to chat and talk since we went alone. We met up with more of the people in town and Maddie and I decided to break off while everyone went to a cafe. We went to look at some of the shop and then have an ice pop, which was really refreshing. The flavor was a fruit called Jaboticaba. 

As we were leaving town there was a whole parade full of horses and Cowboys, but not really sure what the event was. The town has really small roads though and all cobblestone so it made it hard to drive through to get gas and find chicken for dinner. When we got back we had a really interesting workshop on games, which helped me because there were some new ones that I had never thought of before. Then we had some dinner and one of the team does made a chicken curry, which was a lot better than all of us expected. We played a card game that was called Dutch blitz and it's very similar to one that I play with my family, called nertz, except that you play with that cards and you still play solitaire using everyone's deck. Patrick and I made some brigadeiro and even rolled them up with sprinkles. I went to bed around midnight.

In the morning, one team left early to catch a bus. We could only buy our tickets for Goianesia in person at the station the day of, but we were successful.