A bodega named "A Bodega"

In the  Serra de Mantiqueira mountains, on the road to Campos de Jordão, north west of São Paulo in Brazil, lies the little village of San Antonio de Pinhal.

It is a holiday village. Lots of hotels, pousadas, restaurants, and bars. Also lots and lots of artesanatos, the small craft shops that the Brazilians are very fond of. It is hard though to find one that sells other things than their neighbors.

Many Paulistas go here in the weekends not only for food and scenery, but also because at the height of 1143 meters it is much cooler than down in the valleys.

Friends were showing me the countryside in that region and around 2 in the afternoon it was time to visit the "A Bodega". The owners of this place produce and sell cashassa, a distilled strong drink made from sugar cane.  It is the main ingredient, besides the juice of small green limes and sugar of the famous national Brazilian drink; Caipirinha.

The light was shining trough the bottles with different fruits (for different tastes). The bottle that said "viagra" was a deep glossy red.

Nothing as tempting as nice shiny bottles in warm colours. It was alowed to taste the different cashassa's.

As the male section of our party went to sample the different varieties, I spend some time looking around. Taking pictures and walking in the garden. This was amazing. I haven't seen many places in Brazil that looked so clean and cared for.

Outside they have a nice green lawn. A lawn is something very special her. Besides selling plants there was (of course!!) an artesanato.

After some time the afternoon was already almost gone. The women had some "refrigerantes" (soft drinks) someone had to drive.....  Well, time to head to the restaurant. No problem for the cashassa that will be ripening in the barrels for a long time ....