Fazenda De Chocolate - Itu

We love living in Valinhos. We love it even more as we find great places to visit that are only one or two hours away. 

This trip took us to the town of Itu, a tourist town of about 170,000 people. Containing two rivers that flow through it, Itu was named to mean Big Waterfall. 

We started  our visit by visiting the Fazenda De Chocolate. The entrance is free! The large farm, sitting on a very windy road that follows one of the rivers, is a great place to take children. They have many animals, games and activities, walking paths, demonstrations, crafts and of course CHOCOLATE!!

When you enter the farm, the first thing that you see are animals. 

As we continued our walk we saw a restaurant, playground, chocolate making facility, stores, and a waterfall.

Swinging and watching the animals. 

We came upon this building. It is one of the original buildings. A man was 'hiding' out in there and the tour called out to him. He spoke of the rich history of the farm. 

 Some Christmas decoration fun!

 

Learning about chocolate.

We found this 'little' guy crawling around. Zane's hand for scale!

Trying out some of the chocolate. 

 As we left, we had to stop and take a few pictures of the river!

Part of our drive. So beautiful!

We decided to go into the town of Itu and do some more exploring. We learned they had a geological park and a fishing park. We decided to go to the geological park because the fishing park is very expensive to get into. However, we have seen some photos of fish caught at that lake and we will definitely be returning to check it out!

The entrance to all the towns around here have these beautiful portals. Each one is so different and so unique!

Cute boys ready to see what is next!

The Geological Park (Varvito Park) in Itu is a beautiful place! Full of naturally occurring sedimentary rocks that have been explored by scientists and students in Brasil, Varvito is the name used by geologists to name a single type of sedimentary rock, formed by the repetitive succession layers, each deposited during the interval of one year. It was overwhelming, even for the boys, to see such wonder. 

You start your journey at the highest elevation in the park. The top consists of paths, playgrounds, shelters and beautiful trees and flowers. 

As you continue around the path, slowly descending, you come to an area which looks like a mirage. Looking down, we thought the bottom was water. As we walked closer, we realized it was just different colored rocks. 

A seating area had been built to sit and enjoy the beauty of the natural discovery. 

As we continued around, we found playground nestled into another rocky area. 

 As we made the climb back up, we came to this tree. We decided to pose the boys. Obviously, we do this a lot as Google instantly created and shared this collage with us.  Look how much they have changed!

 We decided it was time for some food. We drove through the town and passed this GIANT Wal-Mart! Interesting as we haven't seen a stand alone store. 

We ate at a fun little restaurant that had a fish tank to entertain the boys. 

As we were leaving to head home, we found this cute Christmas display that the boys begged to take a picture with.  

The day resulted with new experiences, beautiful scenery, fun, new learning and two very tired boys.