Over Rover

 

It has been 67 nights since we left Floripa to visit Brazil, and just like that, it is over. On our 53rd day we met our friends in Sao Paulo and traveled to Ilhabela, Paratay, Ilha Grande, Arraial do Cabo and ended up on Copacabana Beach in Rio. Our friend headed back to the US and we drove the rental back to Sao Paulo where we picked up our trusty Ford. Today we drove the Ford to within 5 hours of  Floripa and tomorrow we will be "home." It's been a little hard, a little frustrating and a lot amazing. We learned a lot, we saw a lot, there was a lot we didn't do and if I had it to do over again, I would do it over and over again.  

The road to Resende

 

We are spending the night in a hotel a few hours outside of Sao Paulo. The drive was challenging. Right outta the gate, we took a google shortcut onto a steep and windy cobblestone road that started out rough and narrow and got rougher and narrower. We avoided a collision on a switchback, passed a horse scavenging through a pile of trash and then encountered a full-sized bus on a road built for one. We navigated to a widespot in the road, got over as far as possible and pulled the side view mirror in. The bus pulled to the other side and crept by with less than an inch between all that metal and our rental car. It ended well and we made it to Juiz de Fora to pick up the Ford. I sweated through a work meeting in a parking lot, we grabbed a blue-collar lunch ($7 for both of us) and got back on the road. The second half of the day featured violent thunderstorms. One of the three storms hit us right in the kisser, with rain so hard we could hardly hear the thunder. We wound up the hills trying to decipher broken limbs and leaves from the mud-filled potholes. We wound down the hills through foamy run-off and puddles standing water. Once we made it to our hotel room in Resende, we stayed put, which explains why we are eating leftovers with toothpicks tonight.

Single track at last

 

We have been to a few national parks in Brazil and they are typically very unlike the parks we are used to. Today we went to the "Organ Mountains" national park and it was kind of familiar. There were backpackers weighing their packs at the visitor's center, Carol and I got a permit for one of the "high" trails, and there were plenty of people near the trailhead but almost nobody after an hour or two of walking. And we walked. We walked 4400 feet to the top of Açu Mountain from which we could see Rio and three national parks.  We are a bit wrecked from the day. 11.5 miles in about 7 hours with more vert than we have seen in a long long time. But it was lovely. The weather was agreeable, the flowers were pretty, and the views were long. Definitely one of the most "us" kind of days we have had since starting this road trip. 

Petropolis

 

After another 9 hour drive we are now in an air b&b near the city of Petropolis, in the mountains west of Rio. For whatever reason, I thought we were going to be up a dirt road, waking up to bird songs. Instead we are up a cobblestone road, with a soundscape that includes barking dogs, revving motos, rumbling trucks and spirit-filled Christians. Petropolis was built by one of the last emperors of Brazil and Rio's ruling class used to escape the summer heat in the area. Nowadays it is packed with tourists. We can tell we are close to Rio because of the carioca accents and the number of people speaking English. Today we checked out the historic center, visited the toy museum and had a feijoada lunch. Tomorrow we are hoping for a long hike in one of the nearby national parks. 

Vitória

 

After seven nights, the most of any place on our trip, we are leaving Vitória in the morning. We were hoping to find some little known nugget of goodness along the way and Vitória fit the bill. It's a big city but kind of chill and very pretty. It's set amidst rivers and bays and oceans and hills and is generally well cared for, with clean buildings and cute neighborhoods and streets that are safe enough to walk after dark. Even the traffic is reasonable. The beach options kind of sealed the deal. We visited six and barely scratched the surface. The folks seem nice but an Uber driver told us the Capaxaba (as the people are called) get a bad rap amongst Brazilians for not being was warm as, say, the Mineiros. We didn't notice and we aren't all that comfortable with all the niceties anyhow. Vitória's got all the good things, it's not too expensive, and we like it. 

Carnival

Vitória, the capital of Espirito Santo, is the fourth capital city of our tour and was kind of a random choice. We became interested in visiting because our guide book mysteriously skipped the state altogether, making it attractive. We did a little research and found that Vitória, like Florianopolis, is technically an island, and rated by some organization as the second most livable city in brazil (behind Florianopolis). It has warm water and lots of beaches, so why not visit? 

We ended up here for Carnival, which wasn't intentional or as specific as it sounds. We were in Belo Horizonte for the Carnival warm up, and in Ouro Preto for pre-Carnival, and Vitória did their Carnival a week early, so technically we are here for post-Carnival. We went out because I wanted to but we misunderstood the directions at found ourselves at the end of one of the parties, walking through the streets with the revellers to the next party. Getting to that party was all we had in the tank, so we walked back through what remained after the revellers revelled and before the cleaners cleaned. In Carol's words, "gross."

On the road again

 

We woke up in Ouro Preto and are going to bed in Vitoria. We drove just over 9 hours in between, covering less than 300 miles. It was all on a major highway, with no real traffic issues or dramas. The roads are just slower here, with two lanes and enormous potholes. Fellow traveler form long parades behind slow-moving trucks as they wind up the hills in first gear. After accepting the pace of the day, we had fun being in the parades, parade-waving at fellow travelers in the west bound lane.  Lunch was noteworthy at a hole-in-the-wall buffet with meat slow-cooked on a wood stove and fresh pineapple juice. It was one of the best meals we had in Minas Gerais (if we were in Minas Gerais) and at about $10 total, definitely the cheapest.  After lunch, the scenery started to change. It got less farm-y and more timber-y. Then we passed the inviting "Blue Rock" and about an hour later we dropped down, down, down out of the mountains and ended up at the sea. Not a bad day for a moving day.

Exploradoring

We have been itching to explore the mountains near Ouro Preto and today we got a chance. We opted for 10 miles on mostly dirt roads, which we have had more luck with than pure single track. We couldn't shut up about the rocks along the way. We toured an old gold mine yesterday and our guide explained that the sparkle in the rocks is mostly exposed graphite and that the impressive pieces of quartz are essentially valueless. Knowing these things didn't make the rocks sparkle any less or stop us from bringing home chunks of quartz in our pockets. Our guide also demonstrated a wide array of pigmented minerals by smearing different clays from the mine on the back of his hand. 

Somehow having had the pigment demonstration made the colors even more surreal. We are going to be leaving Minas Gerais, the state of general mining, in two short days. It's been a trip. We are currently on the border between two Brazilian biomes, the Atlantic Forest, which is mostly all we have ever known of Brazil, and the Cerrado, which we are becoming fascinated by. Hopefully it is a long life and we get a chance to poke around all of the biomes of Brazil.

Ouro Preto

 

Ouro Preto is the seventh city we have stayed in since we came to Minas Gerais. It is our last stop and it seems like it will be the best. The city sits in some pretty good mountains with some pretty good rocks. Back in the day they found a lot of gold in the rocks, which is how it became rich and famous. The skyline view from our house is making us crazy

and we want get up into the hills but today we had a time constraint so we walked to the historic downtown instead. It was impressive. First we were impressed with the steep cobblestone streets and the colorful rockwork in the steps and sidewalks. When we managed to look up from the art under our feet we couldn't help but be impressed with everything else we saw. It is a beautiful city and we are stoked that we get to spend a few days enjoying it.

Tiradentes

 

                                           

The town of Tiradentes is famous for its well preserved colonial architecture, which we agree is nice. It's not super famous for its hiking, which we think is nicer. Our 8.5 mile hike today was lovely. We descended through layers of rock with all the colors of the sunset. We walked on clear broken quartz that was inches deep. We saw gardens of succulents in the holes of twisted up boulders that reminded us of rocks in the west desert. There were views and flowers and after six miles there was a mostly dried up waterfall where we soaked in the water and in the sun.  The trail wasn't without its challenges, we endured mosquitos, heat, uncertainty and rumors of coral snakes. Still, with only one full day to spend in Tiradentes, I'm glad we spent it hiking.  We may or may not spend a little time in the morning appreciating the colonial architecture before we leave. 

Road weary

 

When we got into the apartment in Juiz de Fora, it felt like home. It was big enough, and not too weird. We moved right in. Then this morning, after just three nights, we moved right back out again. We are getting tired of all the moving. Besides the packing, unpacking and endless trips to the car, there is just a lot of complication. Getting to a new place may offer bad roads, tight parking or unintuitive check ins. Today, we got to the cute little town of Tiradentes and couldn't find our spot. We figured it out but it's was a hassle, and hot, and we both had to pee. Once we get inside our new home, we never know where anything is or what we have to work with. The nicest place didn't have a knife or cutting board, the worst place didn't have a top sheet for the bed. We often have but can't count on things like toasters and bowls and by the time we can reliably find the toilet paper in the middle of the night, we are on our way again. We are having fun traveling around, but still, we are going to dial it back a notch and try to chill a little longer in each place. 

Juiz de Fora

 

Juiz de Fora is a city with about 500,000 people but it feels much bigger. It has all the big city stuff: tall buildings crowded together, busy sidewalks, taxis, street food, vendors, and just about every kind of shop you can imagine. Interestingly, we haven't been able to find california avocados, triple aaa batteries or Carol's face lotion, but sometimes it's hard to find the trees in the forest. We are here for two main reasons, to drop off the car and to work a couple of days. The work has gone well as our apartment is comfy and well situated for it. The car drop happens in the morning, Carol has already arranged a place for the Ford and reserved a rental, both within walking distance, so we aren't expecting any surprises (she said naively). It has been fun to hang out in a city with very little tourism, filled with regular Brazilians living their lives in a busy city in southeastern Minas Gerais. We aren't getting too misty eyed about leaving though, because we will be back to fetch the car in just three short weeks. 

Farewell to Ford

até 

We left Varginha for Juiz de Fora feeling so-so about the car. When we stopped at a gas station to switch drivers, I thought I could smell coolant. There were other tell-tale signs of a leak and when I messed with the hoses one of them bubbled some fluid out. There was a tire place at the gas station so I asked the mechanic to take a look. He disconnected the hose, cut an inch off with his pocket knife, reconnected it and told us to watch for signs of overheating. We continued on our way and made it without incident. But it was a hot day, hovering between 95 and 100 degrees, and we were stressed about the possibility of being stranded. We are tired of the stress, tired of talking with friendly mechanics who drop everything to help us and tired of dealing with this car. So we are leaving it behind. Carol made arrangements at a parking lot conveniently located between our building and the car rental shop and "For-de"  is going to stay in Juiz de Fora for the next three weeks. Good bye, Ford Focus, até mais!

Varginha

 

We drove back to Varginha, turned in the rental and picked up the Ford. The shaking is fixed but I swear to god I smelled coolant burning after driving it 10 miles. It's probably paranoia since the coolant doesn't look low and I couldn't replicate the smell, but either way and I hope it gets us where we are going tomorrow. For tonight, we are in Varginha, Minas Gerais. The area is somewhat famous for having an close-encounters type thing in 1996 and aliens are still fairly prominent in the city's art and marketing. We are staying in a $20 per night apartment in what they call the new city. It doesn't seem very new and it's very hot but it does feel safe and we were able to find a local bar for caipirinhas and french fries about 10 minutes away. Tomorrow we are driving almost directly north for about five hours to the city of Juiz de Fora. We are hanging out on the internet tonight, making reservations and mapping out what will happen next. Looks like we are going to spend Carnival in Espirito Santo.

Inhotim

 

About an hour southwest of Belo Horizonte near the town of Brumadinho is an incredible space called Inhotim. We spent our day there today and it blew our minds. It is described as an open-air museum in a botanical garden - and it is - but it's like a dozen botanical gardens and dozens of museums with unique art that captivates the mind and all of the senses plus a cage-free aviary. We weren't able to see all of the exhibits, or walk through all of the galeries, or enjoy all of the sculptures, or even swim in all of the pools but we did what we could in 8 hours. We walked on glass, and through manicured jungles and laid in dark rooms experiencing the art around us, we marveled, tripping without drugs, and saw toucans and smelled flowers and rested on pieces of impossible wood. It was simply fantastic. We don't think there is another place like it in the world and are wondering if it would be ridiculous to return to the area for no other reason than to visit inhotim one more time. 

Belo Horizonte

 

We tried so hard to get to this city of Belo Horizonte that I thought we might be let down when we actually arrived. We haven't been. It's a big city, and nice, well placed among mountains that remind us of the mountains near utah - only smaller covered with mata atlantica forest. 

We are staying in a touristy part of the City called Savassi where there are plenty of bars, restaurants, plazas and museums, all of which we have been doing our best to check out. Belo Horizonte is doing a warm-up for carnival this weekend, so we walked over to our neighborhood bloco to check it out. A bloco is basically people dancing and playing samba music on top of a semi-truck that moves slowly along, with a parade of drummers following behind.  The streets around the blocos fill with glittery and costumed Brazilians also singing and dancing and having fun. Today was very much like a mini-carnival and you could feel the excitement for the real thing starting to build. It kind of sucks that we don't get to stay here longer to see a little more. We had to give up one of our days in Belo Horizonte because of the Ford and we are feeling a little ripped off. We do plan to come back near here in about a week or so who knows, maybe Belo Horizonte hasn't seen the last of us yet. 

Plan B

The city of Varginha was not on our playlist, but it's where we found ourselves. Our day started out at 6 am for a 7:30 departure from Paraisópolis. The brakes worked and all was well for about an hour and a half when Carol told me, very seriously, that the car was shaking when she pushed the gas and she didn't feel like it was safe to drive. We stopped at the first gas station and I went in and asked if there was a mechanic. There wasn't, but one of the guys pumping gas came out, looked under the hood, listened to the engine and diagnosed the car as needing a gas additive that they didn't have. We vibrated down the road to the next gas station with a mechanic. The guy came out, looked under the hood, listened to the engine and diagnosed us as having unbalanced tires. He said we could find a wheel and tire place in the next town. We found the place. The guy there took the car for a spin and came back to tell us that the most likely culprit was a part that connects the front semi axle to the transmission and we needed to drive to the next big city (30 miles away) to get it replaced. So we made our way to Varginha where we found out that the part did need to be replaced, the car wasn't safe to drive, and it would take about four days to get the part. We left the Ford in their capable hands, rented another car, which Carol was promptly pulled over in for making a U-turn, and eventually made our way to Belo Horizonte where we will spend the weekend. On Monday, we will make the five hour drive back to Varginha to pick up the Ford and figure out what's next.

Paraisópolis

 

The car wasn't ready last night and there was a lot of uncertainty so we booked a place near the car. Turns out we could have probably made it to Belo Horizonte for the night, but we were already seated at the home of Carol's beloved Maria Bonita juice drink when we got the news, so we ended up bedded down in Paraisópolis. I hope this town is what a regular mid sized city in Minas Gerais is like. It's nice. There is a busy town square where folks hang out and people seem to be kind to one another. The space we rented is certainly the most bizarrely laid out space we have been in yet. There are three bedrooms, with two, three and one single beds respectively. There are also two bathrooms. The crazy space is the four other rooms. These rooms include an informal dining/wash room with a rock-work floor, an extra large kitchen with nearly nothing in it, a formal dining room with seating for eight (plus a fridge and a full length mirror). and a sitting-living room with a beautiful wood floor, new pleather furniture and a teeny tiny TV. My favorite area is the little balcony with a view six rooms and a hallway away from the main door. It's fun. We literally "Marco-Polo" in the house to find each other. 

Gone-calves

Goncalves didn't work out quite like we thought. We were welcomed by an absolutely delicious fuba cake and used a lot of restraint not to polish it off the first night. Sadly, we woke the first morning to discover that a bird, or something, came in the open window and polished it off for us. The Goncalves adventure has been kind of like that. Our waterfall day ended with failed brakes. My work meeting was held in a sweaty parking lot. And the cute little restaurant where we wanted to eat was closed. There were silver linings. We had a lot of "us-time." And the car fiasco ended in a fun way with us riding in the car, on a tow truck, down rutted roads to the nearest town with a mechanic. This experience could not be had in the US. So it's kind of not great but also very interesting. I think we are glad to be gone from Goncalves tomorrow. Not because of the quaint town, or the charming countryside, or the comfy house- but because things just haven't worked out here. We are headed for Belo Horizonte tomorrow and after that we have exactly no plans for what will happen next...

Click to see the ride on the guincho!

Stranded

 Long story short, something is wrong with our brakes, possibly related to gobs of grease on the driver's side strut. With plenty of food, a big comfortable house and a covered front porch featuring hers and hers hammocks, we could be stranded in worse situations. Carol spent 5 hours on the phone and we believe a tow truck is arriving at 7:30 am to haul the car to a nearby town. We are hoping to have it back and in working order in time to drive to a transmission doctor in Belo Horizonte on Wednesday. Until then, we are content to hang around the house, listen to the birds and contemplate the words of our friend Martha who said, "a road trip yes, but people, not if your car's not good."