Brazil – 1
Dear Family and Friends,
Well we are back on the road again. The destination this time is
Brazil. We landed in Sao Paulo resembling two well packed sardines.
(United Airlines “gives” you about 8.5 inches of clearance
between you and the next sardine.) However, you really appreciate the
decompression after many hours in the cheap seats on a plane.
Sao Paulo is a big concrete jungle with horrendous traffic jams
painted with Graffiti on most of the flat spaces. We were surprised at
the lack of English spoken in the big city but were able to fumble our
way around. We took an airport shuttle bus to a plaza near our hotel.
As soon as we got off the bus a young lady passenger gave us (in
English) a pretty firm warning about the dangers of the city. It
really didn’t look that bad but we elected to take a taxie to our
hotel which was only a few blocks away. We got checked in and then
wandered the streets for a place to eat. With no English spoken, we
will probably never know what we had for supper the first night. (Unfortunately this has happened before.) After supper we found a grocery store for drinking water and lunch
materials. The next morning we went to the bus terminal and took a bus
to Sao Jose del Ru. The ride was about 8 hours long with a pretty
landscape of green covered mountains. Although it threatened to rain
all day, it waited until we were almost ready to get off the bus. Rain
happens. In the bus station we met a young Brazilian college student
who wanted to practice her English on a couple of old travelers who
needed help. Rachael Pedrosa is a delightful young lady who we hope to
see in America some day. The hotel was a former mansion with 20 foot
ceilings and located near a major road. The accommodations were nice
except for the locals who partied until 0600 the next morning and lots
of road noise. (Remember the days when we partied all night?) The next
morning we took a steam train ride to Tiradentes. It is a charming
small Portuguese colonial town with cobblestone streets. We spent the
day there taking in the culture. An interesting observation was the
high number of old VW bugs and buses that were being used by the
locals. They were in all states of repair and in wide use all over the
town.
After changing rooms the second night’s sleep was much better.
The view however was a painting of a church on the wall of the next
building about a foot away. The rain came down so hard during the night that it came in under the window shutter. When it rains it pours.
The next morning we were on a bus again headed for Ouro Preto. On
the way we over nighted in Belo Horizonte. Six to eight hours in a bus
is enough when it is not air conditioned. The ride from Belo Horizonte
to Ouro Preto was only a couple of hours. Most of that time was going
up and down on a narrow winding road. Ouro Preto is an old gold mining
city where more than 35 tons of gold has been removed. (Where did it
go?) Except for the missing gold, the town is much like it was in the
eighteenth century. New buildings do not exist. The streets are narrow
and paved with rough cobblestones. Everything is up or down and very
steep. The hotels are former mansions with new amenities. It was
Monday when we arrived so the churches and museums were closed. We
visited the local tourist information center and after a long hot walk
found an ATM that worked in the fourth bank. No panic but concern
that we were going to get enough money to leave town. Armed with some
cash we headed for the bus station to buy tickets for a night bus the
following day to Goiania. With the tickets in hand we visited the
Masterpiece church done by Alejandro and his companion. The soapstone
carvings and paintings were beautiful. We also checked out the museum
of his life and other works. On the way to Goiania we stopped in
Congnhas to see the twelve prophet statues done by Alejandro as well. They
were very life like. He was a very busy guy.
All too soon we were on the night bus. The “seat” time on
the bus was 16 hours. The bus was air conditioned to the point that we got
cold a couple of times. (Note: Blankets or coats for the next long AC
bus ride.) During the night we encountered a bad rain storm. It
didn’t look good for awhile since many vehicles could not move because of the water. We arrived in Goiania at about 7:00 AM and were met by our friend Chuck Rydie.
While there we got to meet and had a nice supper out with his fiancee
Isadora. Yesterday we visited the local highlights of the city. The
city has some beautiful parks and lots of new construction. There is
no evidence of an economic downturn here. We bought more bus tickets
today and our next stop will be Uberaba tomorrow.
Enjoy,
Rob & Connie
Spoffords Travel 