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O Frade e a Freira- The Monk and the Nun

Hello Amy, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ team and beloved readers,


Amy, Louie seems to be a real chef helping you in the kitchen. He is so cute! Please, send a kiss to him. Does he play with those coockies shaped like people before eating them? I've loved your post about the Buddhist monastery, what a beautiful place! It has given me inpiration to write about the mountains from here.

We have a lot of natural beauties here. I could write a month only about them but I’ll give you some details of the beauties only from Espírito Santo.



There is a hill in Ibiraçu city, called “Morro da Vargem” where the first Zen- Buddhist monastery of Latin America was built in 1974. It was founded by the monk Daiju and the Japanese Ryohan Schüngu .The Zen Morro da Vargem monastery in japanese is Hakuun Zan Zenkoji that means something like"The White Cloud Hill / Zen Light Temple).

There is the "Aghá" hill in Piúma which name might be from Arabic origins “Agá” or from Tupinikin language “Aghá”= “The hill for seeing God”.

“Pedra do Camelo” e a “Pedra da Agulha” in Pancas city.
“Pedra do Elefante” in Nova Venécia, a city which name initially was “Serra dos Aymorés” due to the Aymorés indians that had lived there and later, it has been changed to "Nova Venécia", which name had been given by the Italian settlers who had intended to have a new Veneza. There is a lion “O Leão de São Marcos” similar to one in Vicenza- Italy.

In Santa Tereza city we have the beautiful “Canaan Valley” and there is a museum there that is a tribute to the scientist and naturalist Augusto Ruschi, famous for his studies with the hummingbirds and orchids.




The “Sumidouro” in Muqui city and the “Pedra da Caveira” in Atilio Vivaqua city.

A set of rocks called "Foca", "Filhote", "Língua de Boi", "Pontão Maior" and "Pontão Rachado", that we call the “Five Pontões” in Laranja da Terra city.

The "Paulo César Vinha Park" which name is a tribute to a biologist and naturalist cruelly killed due to his work, a beautiful work!. Indeed is an amazing place for track, especially the “Caraís Lake” which water is warm an red like Cola Coke, that soft drink. Moreover, the water is wonderful for hair due to the substance ("lanolina") released from the plants surrounding the lake.









“The reservation of Comboios” in Linhares, famous for the Tamar Project which main aim is to protect turtles.

The “Caparaó Park” between Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais states, with the “Pico da Bandeira” or Bandeira hill extremely beautiful, a place young people from here go at least once in life.

The “Pedra Azul” in Domingos Martins. On the top there are 9 lakes and the landskape is wonderful.

The dunes in Itaúnas city. The “Da Prata Waterfall” and “Véu da Noiva Waterfall” in Forno Grande.

“Pedra da Ema” in Castelo city-ES

The “Matilde Waterfall” in Alfredo Chaves.

The swamps in Anchieta city.

The “Smoke Waterfall” or Cachoeira da Fumaça in Alegre where my sister lives.



The “Mochuara”, another Indigenous name that means “Pedra imã”or Lodestone. Some say the name comes from French “mouchoir” (due to resemblance to the handkerchief) given by French people when they had been here.

Many of these natural beauties and hills have legends linked to them.
I’ll will tell you only one which is the most famous in my state.

The legend of the Monk and the Nun:



The monk and the nun ( O Frade a Freira) are two connected hills formed in granite in Cachoeiro city. There is a legend of a monk and a nun that had fallen in love. There are other versions for the legend and also, some controversies.

There is a version that says the nun actually wasn’t a nun but an indian because there was no nun by the time. However there is a controversy about this because everybody knows the indians had been naked all the time and hadn't had a veil.

There is a Portuguese version that says the monk was a dissimulated religious who had seduced the poor and innocent nun. :-l And he had convinced the nun to run away with him. The religious at the convent had missed the couple and they had gone to find out where they had hidden and they had been found in sin. So they had been taken to a place and their punishment had been to be transformed in granite so that they had to watch in shame their own sin for good.

Well...the Brazilian version and also the most famous here is more romantic. It’s the one we hear since childhood. The legend says that the monk and the nun had lived in two convents very close and they had fallen in love badly. As their love was an impossible love for two religious, one day they had decided to run away together and eternalize their love in a granite form so that they could live together forever.

Which version do you prefer?


Good bye Amy and friends.
See you tomorrow
Adriana

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