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Navigating Brazil Like a Brazilian, Part One: Próxima Viagem

The June issue of Próxima Viagem, Brazil's high-end travel magazine, lists 110 "mountain" pousadas in Brazil's southeastern states of São Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul.

Pousadas, for those unfamiliar with tourism in the Lusophone world, are guesthouses. Most tourists in Brazil associate pousadas with beaches and cities, not mountainous rural areas.

Próxima Viagem's pousadas are a varied bunch, including kitsch "romantic" hotels and that odd South American hotel subgenre of the Germanic lodge.

Our favorites among the 110 tend toward those in the "great views" category. Among the best are Quinta Dos Pinhais in Santo Antônio do Pinhal (São Paolo state), Champagny, also in Santo Antônio do Pinhal, Hotel Vista Linda in Itatiaia (in Rio de Janeiro state), and Passaredo, Arte E Repouso in Araras (in Rio de Janeiro state).

Also noteworthy are Estalagem La Hacienda, a farmland retreat in Gramado (in Rio Grande do Sul state) that looks as if it was plucked out of Alpine Europe and eco-retreat Refúgio Ecológico Pedra Afiada, in Praia Grande (in Santa Catarina state.)

[Image via Dani Lima/Flickr]