The Best of Both Worlds

Hello dear friends,

Now you’ll hear from Adriana in Brazil.

I’d like to tell you how was my weekend
But firstly…Please, be honest…When I say that I live in the countryside, what do you guess? Only cows, ducks and chickens? I reckon it’s not easy to imagine the unknown state where I live.

Well, I’ll show you a picture of the countryside with the sea in the background.

As you can see, in the blink of an eye you can go everywhere here: the town, the beach, mountains, etc.



I’ve been living in Vila Velha city most part of my life and all my routine is linked to it. My friends, colleagues, most of my relatives live there and I myself work there. Actually, after moving, I live now exactly between Vila Velha and Guarapari. When I come back home getting the highway, I enter Guarapari to get the sinuous road until I reach my place. In other words, this road starts in Guarapari and when I arrive here, I’m in Vila Velha again. Could you bear that?



From Monday to Friday I’m a city girl and during the weekends I like exploring the countryside. What means exploring also the beaches and lakes.

Sunday, I went to this place. I’ve already showed it in one of my blogs in September 2007. It is a reserve called Paulo César Vinha Park. The name comes from the naturalist killed defending this wonderful place from greedy people.




After the very long track, we reach the beach and after the not so short walk along the sand, we arrive in the paradise between the sea and the lake. Sometimes the sea and the lake mix their waters and it’s lovely to see. The warm waters of the lake look like coffee what has nothing to do with pollution. On the contrary, they are extremely clean. The colour comes from the plant called Lanolina (in Portuguese) that grows in abundance around the lake and is worthy for hair . The bath in the lake is absolutely refreshing for mind and body.

The Paulo César Vinha reserve is an ecosystem with enormous biodiversity. We can learn a lot about it at the scientific museum.



Last year there was a (supposedly)criminal fire that caused destruction to about 100.000 m² of the Park. Some friends from facebook like Naheed, Ana Paula, Carmen, Cris, Tony, James, Hyoshil and others know how devastated I was by the time. Many plants and animals died. I can’t forget the shocking image of the trees burning.

In this part of Vila Velha (or Guarapari) there are lots of places to explore. The government recently has announced they will invest enormous amount of money here, especially in tourism. They are planning to build an airport ( I can’t believe I’ll live near an airport…airplanes hate me!), resorts , industries ad so on. Doesn’t it sound scary?

Well…I’ve just shared with you my refuge from the outside world. When someone hurts me, when I have a problem, when I miss something or someone, when I need to recharge my batteries, this is the formidable place that heals any suffering.









Do you have a special place of your dreams? A place where you feel you are part of it? A place that secretely reminds you your childhood or any pleasant thing? So tell me.

I’m looking forward to meeting you all again.
Take care
Adriana

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