Fazenda Bela Vista and lingering..

Sunday, May 7th, 2006
We got up early to hit the road again. We would see the Farm we planned on buying. I have been on a real-estate hunt for about a year now. Looking for property in Brazil and in California. Raimundo had tried to help me find something, as he and his wife always have gone out of his their way to help me out. I also had a meeting with José Edmar, the land-developer/dog breeder about getting land in the area he has a eco-development project called "Sanctuary", but although it seems to be going in full effect, that really never got off ground for me. I continued do pursue real-estate brokers by phone and on the internet. In Maringá I had found another broker, which was also the Secretary of Tourism of the region, that had many listings.
Alex had been having difficulty sleeping, it was a struggle to get him up that morning. Plus the terrible mood. I wanted to get to the farm early because we were supposed to arrive in Raimundo's house later on that afternoon for dinner. I was planning on at least 8 hours on the road. Breakfast at the Vereda Park Hotel was nice. We packed a little lunch and off we went.
We had gotten a map and instructions from the owner of the farm before I even left to Brazil that would meet us. We were glad to leave São João del Rey.
Our itinerary: São João del Rey BR265 to Lavras, then take the Fernão Dias BR381 to km 652 towards Santana do Jacaré (Saint Ann of the alligator). One of the largest agricultural federal Universities is in Lavras.
The directions got a little complicated after that and we got a little lost. There's a phone and internet at the farm, so it wasn't that bad..It took us about 2 hours to get there.
We are in the process of negotiating. For that reason I'm not posting pictures until all is settled. I am a little superstitious with things of this nature.
They made us lunch there, he gave us a whole bunch of yucca roots and we all left for Belo Horizonte. (The owner of the farm is a businessman and lives there).
We stopped at a famous road stop to buy traditional sweets and veggies to take to our hosts. The owner of the farm was gracious enough to drive us almost to Raimundo's door step.
Although we arrived pretty late and missed dinner, it was great to be reunited with my friends in BH! They finally got to meet Alex. The dogs went berserk when they saw Alex 8 dogs barking in unison. There were also some cute male puppies, one of which a descendent of Gameleira Vagalume dos Tabayara who died very recently.
They had prepared a nice room for us, which they call Ligia's room. Naiara prepared all kinds of cakes and sweets for us! We talked, ate and exchanged some gifts. I had brought him a home-made Cachaça from the region where the Farm is in. He offered up all this liquor to Alex, who's not really a fan, but put-'em down anyway.
Alex and I were tired and soon we were ready to go to sleep. Their home-made mosquito prevention device did not work through the night! It was on our list for the following morning to get a repellent.
I got up early to do one of my favorite things, help out with the care of the kennel and practice some obedience training with the little ones. Raimundo's dogs are great to train! They pick up everything so quickly. Later we would meet José Edmar to go to the market to get supplies for the barbeque.
Everything takes for ever to happen because people linger in Brazil. Every move has to be decided by commitee and everybody sticks together! Oh boy - so much lingering.. By the time we got to the market, it was almost closed. There was a lot of lingering there too!
It's fair to point out that Raimundo and Naiara have a lot on their plate. And he has been through a lot recently. He cares for an ailing mother, and he recently lost two of his foundation dogs. Its amazing he still had time to care for us. He insisted too. José Edmar had offered for us to stay at his hotel. I mentioned we might accept to Raimundo and he said - "Are you trying to pick a fight with me?"
We got back and Raimundo started the barbeque right away but José Edmar couldn't stay. We had a great time having a barbeque at dusk. Next morning it would be early rise to José Edmar's farm. Click here for pictures and slide-show.