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24th - 29th July (Thurs-Mon): Surviving the perils of the road proved to hold no obstacle that a Fiat go-kart couldn't swerve around. The beautiful Serra dos Orgaos welcomed us back as did LuBao's father with another dinner - all you can eat soups for me. About this time I noticed that my appetite just wasn't up to scratch - so many things to eat and no hunger! What a quandry. The brothers LuBao and Lubinho were amazingly hospitable Teresopolan tour guides, showing me all the sights. We even had a hit of tenis at the country club next to the training ground for the national football team, named CBF - good to see your initials 15 metres high on the hill-side. Saturday was the big day for the 12km and 1200m hike up Pedro do Sino, and it was Saturday morning in the bathroom that the nature of my appetite issue decided to make itself explosively obvious. All I can say after two episodes pre-hike is that Loperamide is a treat. They could sell it for $50 and I'd still recommend it. My Birkenstock sandals are looking very much worse than even Nicki & Ollies are I'm sure.. While on the issue of footware, Ms Tran can be assured that I'm not compromising walking through mud to have boots good for going out - they're a practical black colour. The moss which hangs like stalactites from the trees combined with the mist at times to give a planet Yoda type environment. The mountain was as spectacular as before, except this time there were 56 tents at the top - the end of the uni holidays here. They also have a responsible sign! Time to break down litter: 30 years for tins, 1 million for glass and indefinate for plastic bottles... now why donīt they put a refund on them - those guys from Copacobana would climb the mountain just for the bottles. My warm and shaken beer tasted good at the top when washed down with the scenery - no meditation this time. When LuBinha and I set up his brand new tent, I discovered that there was plenty of room to stretch out when my head and shoulders lay outside the tent-flap. Lubinha was also challenged, but stoically nothing was said until the day after. Feeling something on my face as I entered the tent, I brushed off the annoyance and went to sleep. I was awoken in the middle of the night by Lubinha asking for my light... to discover a spider as big at the palm of my hand above us. I've never seen anyone exit quite as fast as he did then. To be sure of no further visitors, I slept with my legs bent for the rest of the night, door closed. We awoke in time to climb the peak for sunrise at 6:20 - spectacular. As the sun warmed the clouds, they could be seen lifting to cover some of the smaller peaks such as the finger of god.
As before, the hike was not without incident, one of the girls discarding her tennis shoes after the trip up and walking down in socks, the other twisting her ankle.. interestingly enough, it seems that friendship here may be some-what superficial as no-one offered to carry or to share footware with the girls. Curious. After a record all-you-can eat session, a nap and viewage of the trip's amateur video, we were more than happy to hit the sack, only to be up at sparrow's for the bus ride to Juiz de Fora. Apparently there's a connecting bus to Ouro Preto from here... there isn't. Lucky I found an ok place to sleep and explore the city. |
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