Last day at Iracambi

I usually hate last days. They are always a hurry up and wait scenario. Wake up, get packed, get everything done you need to, then wait around typically to travel home or to somewhere else. But this last day doesn't feel like a last day. Though I'm leaving Iracambi today, all of my fellow volunteers are coming with me for the first 2 legs of my trip, which makes it a fun and very special last day. We all decided to make a trip out of my leaving, so today all of us are taking the school bus into Rosario da Limeira and then another bus to Muriae, the closest biggest city to here. So this afternoon will be filled with shopping and eating things that aren't beans and rice and hanging out (likely playing cards). Then late tonight I'll hop on a night bus to Rio, wake up at the bus station, get on another bus to Buzios and head to my hotel where my husband will meet me a few hours later. So, seems like in terms of last days, this one won't be so bad.

The final hurrah

My last weekend at Iracambi started in a very interesting way. I was trying to sleep in (which for me is waking up at 7 but not getting out of bed and reading till about 8:30) and all of the sudden I heard something that sounded like a mix between a large cat purring and a motorcycle. As I opened the door to my room, it got louder and when I peered into the bathroom, I found a hummingbird had gotten in but couldn't find its way out. The sound of their wings is quite loud in a small room and it really gave me a bit of a scare. It was trying to get out the bathroom window, but Janet and I cleverly used some mosquito netting and first aid tape as a screen, so it couldn't find a way to escape. So I opened the front door to our cabin and knocked on the door, jingled the keys and eventually it turned my way and flew outside. A very "only at Iracambi" moment.

Later in the day we were introduced to the newest member of the Iracambi family, Thor, a 3 week old boxer. Robin and his daughter Juliette, who is visiting for a week, picked up little Thor on the way back to Iracambi from Rio. He'll join the rest of the motley animal crew - Toffee, the aged boxer who likes to chase people on motorcycles; Mischa, the kitten who purrs constantly and thinks everyone is a scratching post; Peter, Mischa's brother, who always starts fights but never wins them; and the 2 guinea hens who try to come inside the center and I love to chase out.

Saturday night we attended a beer festival in Belisario. We weren't sure what to expect, but figured it would be a fun time. It was amusingly named Octobeerlisario, so we knew there would be some German element to it. Mimi, who is German, found the whole thing really funny, from the enormous German flag hanging over the room, to the menus which were in Portuguese and German. For the price of entry we got 4 beers, which were really pretty tasty - made by a local producer, but typically you can only buy them in the big city, Muriae. We became instant celebrities at the event, with everyone wanting to talk to us, find out where we were from, and invite us to hang out with them - including the guy who ran the brewery, who invited us to come by for a tour. We had been under the impression that there was going to be a jazz band playing, but instead the band played mostly American and English classic rock, with a few Brazilian tunes peppered in. Very fun and random evening.