Gramado is a well-to-do tourist town in the hills north of Porto Alegre. We arrived just in time for “Natal Luz”, a festival of Christmas lights, plus shows and music and so on, that lasts from October until late January. The town has a certain German architectural flavor, and the Christmas decorations at first reminded me of a Weihnachtsmarkt, but after a few days I decided the sheer overabundance was more American than German.
The town does have a lot of fondu restaurants, a proportion of blue-eyed residents, and even the tourists are paler, on average, than we’d seen so far in Brasil. Plus, the town is proud of a freak snowstorm a few years ago. You can get your photo taken against a snowy backdrop. You can also try out indoor skiing or one of seemingly dozens of theme parks, half of them sponsored by a local chocolate company. On the one hand, there were plenty of things to do, but on the other, parking was terrible, prices were high, and the constant commercialism was wearing.
Still, with bracingly cool weather (including some sharp afternoon thunderstorms), excellent scenery including a spectacular waterfall, and a large zoo, the town is well worth a visit.
Surucua trogon 
Canela: Catedrao de San Pedro