Ouro Preto

With lots and lots of this ahead of us....

We set out with our "trusty" map and

headed to Ouro Preto.

In our awesome car...

This is the hotel we stayed at in

Itaperuna.

It was early in the morning so we

stoped at a little bread store

and got some breakfast in the middle of

Itaperuna...this is what that town looks like...

There were TONS of people riding

bikes in the morning.

We got well on our journey and ran into this...

Yep, this is what the road looked like that

we drove on...FOR QUITE A WHILE.

It was so bumpy and dusty.

It was Awesome.

I remember when we got out of Rio

telling Jimmy that I was glad we were done

driving in the big city. He responded that

driving in the country was more worrisome for him.

I didn't understand until we started driving in

the country.
IT'S CRAZY!

People will pass even if there isn't any room

and the other lane is pretty

much expected to move over to the shoulder.

It's nuts.

If that happened here in the U.S. there

would be a million accidents.

Some of the scenery on the way.

It was really beautiful.

We got lost a lot.

We took wrong roads and had

to ask for directions several times.

It was so much fun.

We took a wrong road and ended

up WAY far from where we

were supposed to be before we realized it.

We celebrated by having lunch

in the town we weren't supposed to be in.

We got cheese from Minas.

It was good.

Some of the houses on the road...the right road.

More beautiful scenery.

Wereally loved driving across the country.

It was fun to go to places and see

places that most people who are

visiting Brazil wouldn't normally see.

More awesome road...

These trees were all over.

I really loved them.

The trees look like they are dead and then

out of nowhere they have these

beautiful yellow flowers.

One of my favorite things...

They are carrying sugar cane.

Getting a decent picture was really

challenging for me.

Just ask Jimmy.

Arriving in Ouro Preto.

Ouro Preto means black gold.

It is a city in the state of Minas Gerais.

It is a former colonial mining town located in

the mountains of Serra do Espinhaco.

The city is beautiful and is a big tourist

attraction. It containswell preserved

Portugese colonial architecture.

I loved the cobblestone roads. They were

windy and steep and scary to drive

a stick shift on. Jimmy did awesome.

Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo

We walked around inside this church.

It was really pretty with some

very interesting little

statues.

We spent the rest of the afternoon here.

We walked through some churches and

museums and ate brigadeiro and pave ice cream.

Do you ever see pictures of yourself and

think...did I really wear that...or wow, I'm homely...

yeah, that pretty much sums up my feelings of this day.

This is the Igreja Sao Francisco de Assis.

It really was gorgeous here.

We walked around this museum that had all

of the money from Brazil.

Kind of cool, if you like that kind of thing.

ha ha.

We left Ouro Preto and started our drive to

Belo Horizonte. We had to return

our rental car to the airport in the morning.

We almost ran out of gas.

Don't deny it sweetie. ha ha.

We drove through the mountains for a

while. It got dark soon after we started driving

but what we saw was BEAUTIFUL.

We meant to drive to a hotel near the airport but ended

up in the center of Belo Horizonte in the middle of rush hour.

oopsie.

We finally rolled down our window to ask for directions

which led to us following someone through the traffic

to get back on the freeway.

We FINALLY made it and found a great little pousada

to stay at called Luak.

We dropped our stuff off and headed out to eat

some pizza and salpicao.

Our room at the Luak.

The view from our room.

It was a pretty great day.

We were beat by the time we got

all settled in. Too bad too, they

had a really nice outdoor pool and

we didn't even get to use it.

Rio Day 3

Our third day in Rio we

left Rio.

We woke up and ate breakfast

in the hotel restaurant.

It consisted of bread with meat and cheese,

juice, watermelon, and yogurt.

Then we took a taxi

to the airport where we

RENTED A CAR...

That's in caps because you have

to be crazy to rent a car

(in my opinion)

in Brazil if you have never

driven there before.

We will call us ADVENTUROUS.

After a while we got our car and set out to

go across the country. Our first destination

was Campos. Campos is an area I stayed

in for 6 months on my mission.

We set out but we couldn't go....

We couldn't figure out how to put the car

in reverse...hee hee.

I begged Jimmy to go ask someone to help,

but he is too manly for that and refused.

So we laughed. I laughed hard.

I thought at one point we were going

to pummel through the giant glass doors of the

gas station because we started to go THINKING

we were in reverse.

I was very entertained.

Finally, we figured it out...

You push it in! ah!

We set off and little did we know that the

rest of the day would pretty much

be spent inside our car.

We underestimated the time it would

take us to get anywhere...

oh well! It was fun anyway!

This is us leaving Rio.

These are just some pictures we took

along the way.

There was a lot of grassy fields,

mountains, and that's about it....

It was really pretty.

Very country.

We FINALLY made it to Campos.

Way later than we meant to.

It took much longer than we allowed ourselves

so unfortunately our visit was very very brief.

We stopped at this awesome little pastel place

that I used to frequent when I was there.

It's still AWESOME!

I had chicken, catipuri, and bacon in mine.

Jimmy got calebresa, quejo fresco, and cebola.

They were good!

I was amazed at how differently I remembered

Campos. 10 years can make a difference!

I loved these horse drawn carts when I was there before

and I still love them now, especially the sound

their hooves make on the cobble stone roads.

My giant pastel and a very unflattering picture.

I love this family.

The Da Paixao Family.

I was sad we couldn't visit longer.

This is Joceir, Natalia, and Rafael.

Rosette is Joceir's wife and we went and saw

her and Ilsa Elena at work and I didn't

realize that we didn't take

a picture until it was too late.

SAD.

We were in such a hurry because we had

to have our rental car to Belo Horizonte and we

were way behind schedule.

We got so lost in Campos...ha ha...

how is that possible?

It was awesome to go there.

I really wanted Jimmy to meet this family.

I'm super happy we were able to see them even

if it was at lightning speed.

After our stop in Campos we got on the

road again. We got lost...a lot.

It was us and our trusty map. Our trusty

map wasn't so trusty. ha ha.

We turned around...a lot.

I loved it.

It wouldn't be a road trip with

Missy and Jimmy if you didn't get lost

at least 20 times.

We drove in the dark on a little country road

and hoped that we were going in the

right direction. There were

tons of bumps in the road...tons.

There are also these giant speed bumps...

we hit them...hard, on several occasions.

I'm surprised our bumper didn't fall off.

Seriously.

On our drive out in the middle of nowhere there

suddenly appeared a FOREST FIRE.

It was right next to the road.

It was kind of cool and a little

terrifying at the same time.

Mostly cool though.

That night we dined on

COOKIES.

We drove and drove and drove until we finally made

it to Itaperuna. Where there was one

room available in the entire town...and we got it.

I know that there was one room because we looked.

Every other hotel...FULL.

We even went down a one way road....the wrong way.

The hotel we found was pretty nice.

The parking was comical...

I laughed, Jimmy...not so much.

Stinkin' parallel parking...(which by the way,

he is awesome at.)

It was way nicer than our hotel in Rio.

We got some much needed shut eye...

after a few episodes of LOST

of course...

Yes, we started LOST....and now

we're HOOKED.