News

Ampleforth – Douai – Downside

October 20 (Friday) to 22 (Sunday), 2017

Pousada Fazenda Serra de Chora

Itanhandu – MG

Manoel Costa

258km - SÃO / 245km - RIO

This was the venue of our 2013 and 2015 gatherings. The Pousada is a working 200 hectare farm with a plantation of olive trees, a herd of 200 sheep as well as producing its own vegetables. The bottom end or base of the Pousada lies at an altitude of 700m, rising all the way up to I,000m.

Serra que Chora is the translation for the Tupi-Guarani Indian word for Mantiqueira, name of the mountain range region where the Pousada is located. According to legend as related by our host, Manoel Costa, the name came about because the Moon was jealous of the Sun who had fallen in love with a beautiful Indian woman. The Moon, in despair, kept the Indian captive in the mountain so that the Sun could not see her. Due to this isolation, the Indian never stopped weeping, weeping to such an extent that she created the sources of the numerous rivers that flow out of this mountain range, one of Brazil´s major river basins.

Nothing special about the accommodations or social areas. Just the charm of simplicity and the warm and rustic atmosphere of the social areas and countryside view

Sadly, Manoel Costa was not the impeccable and gregarious host and entertainer of our 2013 and 2015 gatherings. This time round he was very low profile, somewhat aloof. In an informal chat on Saturday night after dinner he admitted that his absence was intentional as part of his grooming and breaking in process of two new managers, Carlos Eduardo and Luiz. I must say they tried hard but were definitely fishes out of water. Although we all missed the VIP treatment of the past it did not dampen our petit comité get together.

The Group

Back row – l to r: Philip Coate (OG), Alan Morgan (OG), Simon Clayton (OA), Nicholas Reade (OG), Jeremy Ribeiro dos Santos (OD); front row l to r: Susan Ribeiro dos Santos, Xymena Morgan, Georgiana Morgan, Luiz Ros and Peter Doyle (OG)

Ampleforth

Simon Clayton (D72)

Douai

Jeremy Ribeiro dos Santos (F66)/Susan

Downside

Philip Coate (S58)

Peter Doyle (B56)

Alan Morgan (S59)/Xymena

Nicholas Reade (R/U63)

Guests

Georgiana Morgan/Luiz Ros

Absent Members

Unfortunately, quite a few of our habitués were absent this year and we also missed the presence of two wives: Márcia (S. Clayton) and Marlene (P. Coate). Hopefully all will be with us again next year:

Michael Magrath (OW-StB73) – business trip

John Mills (OG-R55)/Monica – recovering from surgery;

Nicholas Ribeiro dos Santos (OD-F70) – in Europe

Cecil Ruttimann (OG-Ra75)/Sueli – in Europe

John Sapieha (OG-B56) - away

Igor Zibordi (OG-S98)/Luisa – hosting guests at home

 

The Highlights

Friday

Canaries and pigeons having fun

Friday arrivals were Peter Doyle (OG), who arrived for lunch, Jeremy Ribeiro dos Santos (OD), his wife Susan, Philip Coate (OG) (who took a ride with Jeremy), my wife Xymena, daughter Georgiana and my son-in-law, Luiz Ros. Simon Clayton (OA) arrived later onboard his Harley Davidson, which Jeremy and I thought must be a fake HD as we did not here the traditional HD purr when he arrived, but Simon swears that his HD is genuine. .

We immediately settled down for welcoming happy hour of beers, a very good local Weiss craft beer and caipirinhas (cachaça with lemon juice) accompanied by tidbits which included swabbing delicious olive oil produced by the property with an amazing low acidity count of 0.1% with bread. After a short rest we all gathered for dinner at 8pm.

Saturday

As usual, Jeremy, our official guide, had already mapped out places to be explored on both days. The more dirt road condition the merrier for him and his 2001 double cabin Land Rover Defender.

Jeremy´s 2001 Land Rover Defender at Sítio do Bicho sem Vergonha a sheep and goat farm at Alagoa, a district of Itamonte-MG, half way up the Serra do Papagaio.

After breakfast , about 9:30, with the exception of Peter Doyle and Simon Clayton who preferred to stay behind and relax, we hopped into our cars and with Jeremy Ribeiro dos Santos leading the way in his Defender we set out in search of Sítio (croft farm) do Bicho sem Vergonha, a sheep and goat farm, at Alagoa, a distant district of Itamonte of neighbouring Itanhandu, half way up the Serra do Papagaio. After 80 minutes and braving a tough and long stretch of dirt road we finally arrived. We were disappointed with what we saw. The site grossly overrated the síto. But we were there for a much more noble purpose – stocking up with the sitio´s extensive selection of lamb cuts at very inviting prices.

Having stocked up we made our way back dropping by a mushroom farm just off Itamonte where most of us bought trays of small white Paris and large brownish Porto Bello mushrooms at bargain prices.

On arrival at about 13:30 we found that Nicholas Reade (OG) had already arrived mid morning from Rio on his way to São Paulo and we joined him, Peter and Simon for rounds of caipirinhas, beers and local Weiss craft beers followed with a churrasco (barbecue) lunch.

We all convened again about 8pm for our Happy Hour when we served Moscatel, to the chagrin of Jeremy, to celebrate the birthdays of Alan (76) and Peter (79) back to back on the 13th and 14TH, before sitting down for our gala dinner.

Peter Doyle and Alan Morgan the back to back birthday parties with bubbles at Happy Hour before gala dinner.

Happy Hour: Nicholas Reade (back), Peter Doyle, Simon Clayton and Jeremy Nicholas dos Santos

Gala dinner: Nicholas Reade, Philip Coate, Simon Clayton, Xymena Morgan, Susan Ribeiro dos Santos, Jeremy Ribeiro dos Santos, Peter Doyle (only shirt visible), Georgiana Morgan (hidden) and Luiz Ros (Georgiana´s husband).

Sunday

Although we all vouched that we would stay for lunch reality on Sunday morning was quite different as we all were facing a four to six hours drive back home facing Sunday afternoon heavy traffic.

 

Peter Doyle was the first to depart about 10:30 am followed soon afterwards by Simon Clayton on his apparently non fake silent Harley Davidson.

The rest of us departed about noon. The first pit stop was Ecila just outside of Itanhandu where we picked up wonderful doce de leite (cooked condensed milk) and delicious fresh double cream and other dairy products, again at bargain prices.

Our next stop was Pérola da Serra in the backwoods of Itanhandu after bracing some 15km of dirt road to Jeremy´s delight, one of the few buffalo farms in Minas Gerais.

Buffalos at rest at Pérola da Serra farm in the backwoods of Itanhandu-MG

Here the group stocked up on a wide range of buffalo meat cuts and cheese, again at inviting prices.

NEXT YEAR

Old Benedictine School Community Brazil Gathering

October 19 (Friday) to 21 (Sunday)

Venue: A venue where we can maintain our policy of having the place to ourselves. Again we will concentrate our research on the Bocaina and Mantiqueira Mountain Range areas as well as the Conservatório/Vassouras/Valência/Barra do Piraí quadrangle. Needless to say any other suggestions are welcome.

An extra effort will be made to bring into the fold absentee members from Downside, including those from Ampleforth, Belmont, Douai and Worth resident in Brazil and South America.

Alan Morgan (OG-S59)

Coordinator