Pirénopolis
Finally I managed to buy a car. It is not something I really ever envisaged buying, but it seems to be ok, with the odd little thing to fix. It is a 93 chevrolet monza, which sounds impressive, but in fact it's basically just a vauxhall cavalier. I would have loved to buy a beetle, but it seems that beetles that work are in fact more expensive than I'd thought. The car we have is naff, which is probably a good thing as we're fairly inconspicuous in it. It has air conditioning, which is a comfort I didn't expect, but turns out to be quite pleasant. You can see it, parked at the disreputable place where I bought it here. I looked at, and broke, several million cars before buying this one, and I have to admit that it was mainly out of extreme boredom and exasperation that I eventually went for this car. Had I reached the same level of boredom earlier on, I may well have opted for something entirely different.
The upshot of this memorable and important event is that we were able to go to Pirénopolis - a truly beautiful old colonial town about 100 miles outside Brasilia. The drive there was an experience in itself, and I arrived in need of some refreshment, which we quickly found in a very cool little place. As usual we tried to ask for one meal to share, but they assured us it wouldn't be enough, so we bought 2 and left 1 and a half. The food here has many beans, much rice, and generally large quantities of meat. This was a particularly good lunch. We found our pousada (or hostel), which was really beautiful and headed off to this waterfall. You may not believe me because I have no evidence as yet, since my camera ran out of batteries. The road there was arduous to say the least - when we arrived we noticed that everyone else were driving jeeps. I had to cross a river and nearly grounded the car on many occasions. When we did arrive though it was virtually deserted and we went straight into the water. Being a sarcastic git, I'm not really sure how to enthuse sincerely, but it truly was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The whole area is covered in these waterfalls, and you can probably only manage 1 or 2 a day, so I'll try and make sure the battery is charged for the next one we go to. On the way back from the waterfall we had to stop in front of some sort of countryside police heist. Six youths in a fiat uno had been asked to get out of the car and were being searched. The police had their guns drawn and it was quite tense. We had just crossed the river again and the car was quite hot, so the fact that there was loads of steam eminating from the engine didn't make me any calmer. Eventually the police moved the cars so we could just about squeeze past on the dirt road, and I was very relieved.
At night we went out to eat and drink. The main road had now been well and truly opened and there were beautiful young people posing all around. They were quite annoying, and definitely from the bigger cities. We wandered out of the main centre to a cheaper bar, where the locals had clearly been drinking profusely for some time. This was much more like it - people turning up on horseback and leaving almost comatozed trusting the horse to take them home. We drank quite a lot that night.
In the morning I was delighted to see that the mosquitoes had left us well alone. This delight was shortly followed by the realisation that they had probably done that for a good reason, and I stumbled nursing my head to the little garden outside the pousada where we had breakfast... coffee, bread, pastries... really nice. Next time I'm going to go to bed sober. We made our way next to a fazenda called Vaga Fogo, which is a kind of nature reserve where they make all their own food and so on. Here they had bits of the river you could sort of swim in but mainly it was just for lying around in the water. It was a really beautiful place, we stayed for a long time trying to pluck up the courage to leave. The hammocks weren't hastening our departure.
Pictures from our stay (unfotunately not including one of the abáde waterfall) can be found here.
The upshot of this memorable and important event is that we were able to go to Pirénopolis - a truly beautiful old colonial town about 100 miles outside Brasilia. The drive there was an experience in itself, and I arrived in need of some refreshment, which we quickly found in a very cool little place. As usual we tried to ask for one meal to share, but they assured us it wouldn't be enough, so we bought 2 and left 1 and a half. The food here has many beans, much rice, and generally large quantities of meat. This was a particularly good lunch. We found our pousada (or hostel), which was really beautiful and headed off to this waterfall. You may not believe me because I have no evidence as yet, since my camera ran out of batteries. The road there was arduous to say the least - when we arrived we noticed that everyone else were driving jeeps. I had to cross a river and nearly grounded the car on many occasions. When we did arrive though it was virtually deserted and we went straight into the water. Being a sarcastic git, I'm not really sure how to enthuse sincerely, but it truly was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The whole area is covered in these waterfalls, and you can probably only manage 1 or 2 a day, so I'll try and make sure the battery is charged for the next one we go to. On the way back from the waterfall we had to stop in front of some sort of countryside police heist. Six youths in a fiat uno had been asked to get out of the car and were being searched. The police had their guns drawn and it was quite tense. We had just crossed the river again and the car was quite hot, so the fact that there was loads of steam eminating from the engine didn't make me any calmer. Eventually the police moved the cars so we could just about squeeze past on the dirt road, and I was very relieved.
At night we went out to eat and drink. The main road had now been well and truly opened and there were beautiful young people posing all around. They were quite annoying, and definitely from the bigger cities. We wandered out of the main centre to a cheaper bar, where the locals had clearly been drinking profusely for some time. This was much more like it - people turning up on horseback and leaving almost comatozed trusting the horse to take them home. We drank quite a lot that night.
In the morning I was delighted to see that the mosquitoes had left us well alone. This delight was shortly followed by the realisation that they had probably done that for a good reason, and I stumbled nursing my head to the little garden outside the pousada where we had breakfast... coffee, bread, pastries... really nice. Next time I'm going to go to bed sober. We made our way next to a fazenda called Vaga Fogo, which is a kind of nature reserve where they make all their own food and so on. Here they had bits of the river you could sort of swim in but mainly it was just for lying around in the water. It was a really beautiful place, we stayed for a long time trying to pluck up the courage to leave. The hammocks weren't hastening our departure.
Pictures from our stay (unfotunately not including one of the abáde waterfall) can be found here.
posted by Brasiliblog at 7:23 AM
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