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Canudos

This past week on Thanksgiving Day, I hit the big 6-0 mark.  I wasn't quite sure how Byron and I could best celebrate the holiday and my birthday far from all our family.  Living overseas can be the pits for traditional American celebrations.  A friend who came through recently from the USA had brought me a cranberry sauce.  Other items for a festive meal would be hard to find and the whole planning process for just the two of us seemed rather dreary.  

So, I asked my guy if he was game for an overnight adventure.  When I mentioned "motorcycle" and a place he'd always wanted to visit, he said, "Yes!"

I did the planning and found a cute place to stay and made sure the route was mostly paved.




The place is called Canudos, and was the site of a famous battle between a group of poor religious zealots and the first government formed after the removal of the royal family of Brazil in the late 1800's.



We arrived just before noon on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and checked out some tourist stops before eating lunch and locating our bed and breakfast.  That afternoon we found an açaí store and enjoyed a walk around the town and a stop at a small memorial museum dedicated to the memory of Antonio Counseleiro, the leader of the group that was massacred in a series of confrontations with the Brazilian army of the day. 

Thursday morning, we toured the battlefield with a paid guide.  I was a little disappointed that our guide also had a rather large group of high school students scheduled at the same time.  Our idea was to take the tour early in the morning to avoid the extreme heat of the region.  We were slowed down considerably, but did get to ride on their bus around the park.  Most of the students were not incredibly interested in the explanations of the guide at each stop.





And it was hot!  Byron and I had both read the large book by Euclides da Cunha about the confrontations while in language school.  Seeing the actual location and hearing more about the people involved was a learning experience.   After the tour, we donned our motorcycle gear, chomped down some energy bars, drank water and hit the highway for home.



It was a different kind of Thanksgiving.  Temperatures we in the low 100's, but we made it home alive and well.  I'm glad we went and perhaps we can go once more to see some of the sites we missed on this quick visit.

Happy Thanksgiving from Brazil!


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