Life is a Highway: Urubici Brazil

April, 2014

This weekend my friends and I decided to road trip to Urubici. Known for its vast canyons and green mountains, Urubici is an extremely small town three hours away from Floripa; it is not far but is like stepping into another world. The trip started out a little rocky as we almost missed the last bus but as we scrambled on before the doors closed we took this as a sign of good luck for the weekend...we were right.

It's sad but not many people know about Urubici, it is a hidden gem within the expansive Brazil. We experienced this first hand when we got off the bus into a completely empty town. Surprise! Urubici is totally in the middle of nowhere, who knew? We stumbled off the bus and were like..WHERE ARE WE?? We could not find our hostel in the dead of night and were wandering the streets for an hour (turns out the town is so small we passed the place like 4 times without even realizing). Finally, we found our man Sergio and settled into his lovely cottage. It was so late and we were so tired that we barely even looked at our surroundings and passed out in our little bunk beds. Who knew we were casually in the middle of stunning mountain range? Not us.

The next day my new favorite person, Iran, came to pick us up and take us on a tour around the canyons. This is when we realized that we weren't really in the middle of god knows where (I mean technically we were) but it really depends on your mind set. We were surrounded by so much natural beauty, detached from the world and our lives back in Floripa. Being in this completely peaceful environment was exactly what I needed to take a step back and appreciate the little things. When there is so much beauty around you it is hard to feel at a loss of anything, I was like "who needs a shower when I have this fabulous waterfall I can frolik in? who needs a bed when I can lay upon this soft green moss? Who needs friends when I can hang out with these stray cattle?" Jokes, I would never give up my memory foamed bed, but I do have a soft spot for nature.

Back to the trip..our tour guide Iran was one of the most welcoming, tranquil and humble people I have met in a long time. He is someone who really appreciates life, loves nature and wants you to be able to experience the wonderful things that he has seen. I really admire his carefree way of life and the way that he finds beauty in everything around him. Iran drove us all around the mountain range to multiple view points. At one point we were winding up a mountain for about an hour, literally driving into the fog of a cloud. It was white everywhere, with only a tiny strip of street in front of us (basically a death trap) but obviously Iran was as tranquil as ever, being blindsided on a mountain is apparently no bigz for this boss.

We get to the top of this cloudy mountain, all anticipating the sight that Iran almost killed us in order to show... and all we can see is white clouds all around us (we were like well maybe we didn't actually make it, and now were just in heaven?) Nope. We made it to the top and with wind blowing everywhere, we were just about to leave because it was too cloudy when suddently the fog cleared to reveal an incredible green canyon. We went from seeing nothing to seeing everything all at once and what lay right behind the fog was stunning.

Iran really hooked us up, at times he would even stop the car to pick us wild fruit off of trees! He also took us to a stunning winery on the top of a mountain where we put our pinkies up and tasted a bunch of local wines, going from life in the wild to being a classy lady all in one day. At the end of the two days Iran told us that his friend was driving back to Floripa and would be happy to give us a ride back home. At this point we were all so tired and happy to be getting a free ride that we weren't even paying attention as Iran continued to drive us up this steep hill, further into the middle of nowhere. I was beginning to wonder who this alleged "friend" was...( I can't believe I started to doubt my homie Iran) but as we finally reached the location we were in awe of the beautiful cabin and incredible views of his friends home. The man had built his own house from scratch, perched right on the mountain with an expansive deck that overlooked the green mountain range.

Blasting Lauryn Hill from his speakers, we were welcomed into this strangers house where he fed us and sat us down on his rocking chairs overlooking the stunning view. I mean, of course this man had hand carved rocking chairs..who doesn't carve their own rocking rockingchairs? It was really the perfect end to our trip and wouldn't have been the same without the amazing people and hospitality that we received along the way.