São José dos Ausentes (Saint Joseph of Absents) is a small town on the Rio Grande do Sul state very close to the boarder with Santa Catarina. It is found by jesuits and by Guarani indiens in 1727. São José dos Ausentes is one of the coldest towns in Brazil. Its name ('of absents') is due to the fact that the land - circa 1760 - was not claimed by anybody, according some sources. It is also said that the weather was - and still is - so bad that in some periods of the year nobody was found in town. The village is interesting but simple. However, a nice chain of mountains called 'Serra da Rocinha' is close to the town. These different aspects were sufficient reasons to bring us there in 2010 for spending few days and take some pictures. We stayed in a 'pousada' (small farm hotel) close to downtown, also present in pictures here. For photography, I used an analog Olympus OM 2n and the Nikon D90.