August 21,

Travel day…

I awoke around 0730, again. This seems to be my time to wake up. Anyway, we got around and started our packing. It’s an easier packing as everything just goes into the car. We had our Javas and breakfast of the last of the Muesli with an apple, a mango, and some yogurt. No ‘visitor’ today as well. When we are ready for it, it won’t show up. Anyhow, we loaded up our car and were checked out by 1000, texting our host.

We stopped at the grocery store to get ice. Our place’s small freezer compartment was all iced up, so we needed some to keep our refrigerator stuff cold. It was around a 3.5 hour drive to our new destination in Brazil, Sao Joao del Rei. We left Ouro Preta via MG-129, heading on a southwesterly route. The road was in pretty bad shape, but it is still The Royal Road, “Estrada Real,” which follows the old mining routes and links old colonial towns. The vistas of the area opened up to grander, sweeping and steep hilly terrain. Some mining was visible with some being forested areas. There were lots of mining dump trucks and just hauling trucks in general traversing this road. The other way is a toll road way.

Jeff took a dirt road side trip onto a trail called Estrada Real – Caminho Novo (new path). It was a loop road, and definitely not the new path. 😆 There were cool markers designating this road. The dirt here is red in color and persists to cling to everything. But it was a fun little venture and the route was almost as smooth as the road. We turned around after a few minutes though, because the venture would have looped back onto the road, making us repeat a stretch of the road. Back on the road we came to the town of Ouro Branco and changed to a roadway, MG-443 to cut west to 383 highway. I call them highways, but they have a limit of 60 or 80 kmph (37 to 50 mph). There were a bunch of speed cameras (thankfully Google maps gives us a heads up on their location) and there were speed bumps mostly closer to towns, but still, it caught us off guard. The scenery became more farmland with fields and some livestock, but still hilly.

Around 1330, we arrived in a town called Lagoa Dourada and stopped here for lunch. My knee was ready for a change of position as well. We saw and chose Taberna da Zuis. In Brazilian fashion, it was a buffet – with paying by weighing your plate. It had quite an assortment of food on wood burning coals. We both went lightly and each had a sodapop. It cost us only 68 BRL, or $13.09. We left, traveling through the town past a shop that was carving fantastic pieces of furniture, out of massive, large wood planks/trunks – gorgeous tables and chairs. Anyway, we drove on and pushed into our destination, Sao Joao del Rei, by 1410. It was a good little stretch of driving, seeing lots of scenery and countryside as well as small towns in Brazil.

We found our new place for three more nights, and parked our Onix in the designated parking space. Jeff unloaded, as I navigated the two flights of stairs up to our place. It is a smallish studio but very adequate for our short duration here. We settled in. Jeff walked to a nearby grocery store for stuff for our stay here, as I laid down and stretched out my knee. The secretary of the Ortho Dr sent us the MRI results in a pdf. That was good. Supper was salami, cheese, bread and wine. Then I blogged as Jeff read. I have enjoyed seeing this part of Brazil…I’m glad we are doing it.