Ouro Preto

It was lately hard to find a place to write a post. Somehow internet cafes are not everywhere... One way or the other we made it to Ouro Preto. A small beautifuly preserved colonial town around 10 hours east by bus from Rio de Janeiro. After walking for a bit we found what could be described as one of the loveliest accomodations in quite some time. It was bed and breakfast place run by a lady who served us great breakfast (small papayas that Rita loved) and made a very cosy place for her visitors...we stayed there for two days wandering around the place. Rita bought herself a very nice ring and we found great places to eat and enjoy the hilly scenery. Together with Malgo they have also spent times visiting lots of jewlerry stores and learning about local precious and semi-precious stones like topaz imperial (I am not sure about the spelling though).

We have also visited a gold mine some 40 minutes by bus from the town. It is not in operation anymore but we were told that all together during its years of operations over 30 tons of gold were brought to the surface - quite an amount. The scariest part of the visit was the ride down with a small train - it kind of felt like sitting on a train taking you right down to hell - and we were the only ones on the small wooden train car as right now is not exactly the high season for tourists in Brazil. On the way back we took a wrong bus so it took us two hours to get back to town - due to that we had very little time to see the Gems Museum...the girls were not happy with that...



We have also had a night out since some of the bars are just perfect for a great caipirinha. Rita found a very nice looking bar where we spent the night enjoying this Brazilian specialty. We ended up in some sort of local gay bar together with locals celebrating the local municipality elections which took place the same time. For us the highlight of the elections was the sky train between two buildings where the results were announced.

All in all the ride to Ouro Preto was our first night bus ride and right after it we have actually made 4 more such rides almost in a row. Thanks God that the buses are comfortable so it is not that bad as it sounds. Brazil is beautiful and great to explore this even this way but we already got committed to our next trip to Brazil - this time all over the country but on motorbikes. This is a perfect place for it with lots of small lovely places and extremly friendly people. Probably the most friendly we have ever met. Anyway we will try to get the motorbike driving license before although we were told that here it is not a must...

Sao Paulo & Paraty

Small update: since we did not manage to get pictures from the beautiful town of Paraty please, check out the link - the place is wonderful...perfect for retirement :)

It is quite a trip to Lima by bus from Cusco - it took 21 hours and to certain extent was quite funny. The road winds so much that I have slept holding a plastic bag tight in case I have to vomit...it was a close call but we both survived without having to use it. Actually when we boarded the bus I have somehow not taken it into consideration that the trip is going to be quite hard on us. Since I have been running all day and did not have not to eat - the first thing I did on the bus is had a 1 liter of strawberry yogurt and a big bag of chips. I regretted it very much afterward...

We arrived though on time and already feeling quite ok since the last six hours of the trip where on Pan American highway which is a stretch of straight road by the coast. Another good thing about arriving to Lima again is that we have felt somehow much more self confident...we have been already staying in Peru for three months and we developed some home feeling. We had an excellent dinner in one of the most amazing shopping malls in Miraflores: the three floor building is carved in the ocean side rocks with a magnificent view over the waves. Tomek had his red meat and Rita her ceviche, raw fish marinated in lime, hmmm, jummy! Survining the night in our hostel with earplugs we headed at 5 am to the airport full of expectations to see Greg and his girlfriend in Brazil, Sao Paulo.

We had personalized choice of 32 different movies on the plane (economy class, LAN, which we still enjoy as frequent fliers from our previous jobs...) and we ended up both independently choosing Sex and the City!!!!

After 6 hours waiting at the airport of a city, where more people live than in whole Hungary, we finally got all together and headed to our hostel. Sao Paulo for us was a place to escape from with its prices and urban jungle with very little attraction to our taste, but we enjoyed the first experiments of making ourselves understood in a Portuguese speaking country in Spanish :)

So we were on the bus the next day towards Rio, with a stop in the old colonial town of Paraty, which is a real gem. What we missed in Sao Paulo we found in Paraty with its colonial old town, lovely beaches and carpirinas! So we headed to a boat trip with island hopping, snorkling and most of all stretching ourselves on the sun, a real treat. Though the weather is not always friendly to us with rain pouring like in Macondo, we feel like being in Paradise. Brazil is like a dream come true!!!