It turns out that my trip to Brazil has been a three week retreat in the countryside of Matutu, Minas Gerais, Brazil. I stayed in the house of Deva and her son Ravi. The first night that Diana and I landed there I commented that it was like an ashram and indeed it was. Flowers in vases, rose petals on tables, sitar music playing—together with a real family vibe with Ravi on his portable Nintiendo.

In an earlier post, I showed the waterfall. I didn't mention, however that it was about a 5 minute walk behind Deva's house. What a sanctuary! Below is a picture of a totally amazing tree from that area. The trunk starts on the right side of the river bank. It spans the water and touches down on a rock then rises into the sky as a full-on tree.

The big house, where I could connect to the internet was a hike almost up to the top of a mountain.

I think it was a blessing to not have the internet so easily accessable. It forced me to take a break from being on the computer so much. I still kept up with some client work on websites but I wasn't constantly plugged in. There was a kind of tranquility that transpired in Matutu.

All of the people were quite friendly even though there was very little English spoken. This also created a kind of retreat space as I couldn't be constantly in conversation. Musi and I stayed in different houses and even though we would go up to the big house together and to the river, we weren't always together.

And a pond below the big house with a unique water trough carved from a log