Pictures of Cachoeiro

Here are a couple of shots of the topography surrounding Cachoeiro, Brazil. [See an older post on the blog about Cachoeiro]

It is very mountainous. Lots of outcroppings. Very lush looking. We were there in June of this year. In the dead of winter. We should be so lucky. Temperatures ranged from about 55-74 degrees. Shorts weather. They all had on long pants and long shirts. It was not too hard to figure out who the Yank was.

The second picture shows a quarry road. Albeit, a flat one. They are not all this flat. This same type road will go snaking up the side of a mountain with solid rock on one side and the fear of God on the other!!!!! This is how some of these blocks get from 'up there' to 'down here'.

I just spoke with a guy who got back from Brazil last friday. Everyone was whining about how much rain they'd had. They were having fits getting blocks down from the mountains to the factories. This is not good, although not unusual. This is their rainy season. It is also right around Christmas, so a number of factories have a limited production schedule anyway.

The pictures look a lot like the mountain areas in Europe. But, in the summer [now], Cachoeiro can be wickedly hot. Well into the 100s with no relief.

One of the reasons Cachoeiro became the Mecca of stone in Brazil was due to the influx of people from Europe who had stoneworking backgrounds. Lots of Italians migrated into the area, due to the natural marble that existed in the region. This, of course, tied into the rise in the granite slab business.

Special thanks to one of our guys in Brazil for these pictures.