and whops it is already my last day in Brazil, more like my last evening after a very sunny afternoon at the pool accompanied by a barbecue. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 am my flight to Lima will leave so it will be an early start... but first of all a little recap of my trip with Renato. We left on the 25th for the State of Minas Gerais which is the neighbouring State of Sao Paulo... Minas Gerais is where many mines were located and it is filled with beautiful little colonial cities. We visisted Diamantina, Ouro Preto, Mariana, Lavras Novas,Tiradentes, Sao Joao del Rei.. all quite similar some more touristy others less so (which I prefered)
Most of these were build back in the days by African slaves and a lot of fights against the Portuguese took place in this area. The cities are all quite charming characterised by cobblestone streets, white little houses painted in blue/yellow or red/green etc...the colonial style one of my favourites Discovering the cities is quite a hike as they tend to be quite steep like the region which surrounds these cities... mountain ranges covered in green. My favourite was when we took the roads which were marked as yellow on the map which quite often are the red earth dirt roads where a times you feel like you are driving through a national park. There is sooooo much space and nature in Brazil... and everything is green!haha but often also a lot of potholes on the road ( thank god I have my local Renato darling driver)
You also never know what might cross the road... on one of the streets (and this was a major one) we suddenly had a bull in front of our car... or you have a dog lying in the middle of a 3 lane round about.... in the smaller cities you often have (besides chickens) horses just walking around in front of the houses on their own... I love it...
The Brazilians seem to love observing the streets as you often find them sitting at the door step of their home or leaning out of the window. They are incredibly friendly and welcoming and everything rotates around positive energy and *CALMA* being relaxed and calm.. oh yes we Europeans do stress quite a bit in comparison to them. Another marking feature is that these people can move and dance. buffffffffffffffffff.... I was embarassed to move on the PLaza with live music at new years eve.
And now I shall enjoy the last remaining hours of this evening with Renato who unfortunately I won´t see for 9 weeks. I hope you all had a wonderful new years eve and a good start into the new year!
until very soon from Peru
Stef
