Petrópolis

It was a wrench to say goodbye to São João but I was scheduled to be in Petropolis where I had booked a car to visit Teresopolis the following day. It was a four and a half hour journey costing 89 reais (£22) with a few stops in towns along the route and a longer stop for refreshments at Juiz de Fora. I was impressed by the food on offer. None of the dried out food on offer like UK services and a good selection of fruit.

Petropolis had two bus stations, One on the periphery of the town for inter city routes and a one in the centre for the city services. It was a fifteen minute journey to the hotel and I thought the bus was going to fall apart on every bump in the road. The hotel was ok, nothing special but it was clean and economic. The restaurant was on the fourth floor and the staircase reminded me of that in the film, The name of the Rose with Sean Connery.

Petropolis is about seventy Kms from Rio and 800m above sea level. As a result it is much cooler than Rio. It was where, in the 18th/19th centuries, the royal household would move to in the summer to escape the oppressive heat of Rio, which was then the capital of Brazil. Since 1961 Brasilia has been the the capital. There were many tree lined roads and a lot of them were one way, which although lengthening car journeys, appeared to  allow the traffic to move more quickly. The churches seemed to be almost English in appearance with stone steeples as opposed to the towers of São João del Rei.

It was a busy city and people were friendly and helpful. Again, I felt safe here. Certainly no less than in my hometown of Guildford.

I had hired a car to visit another town, Teresopolis, that appealed to me. I had a car reserved and a copy of the confirmation issued by the hire company. On arrival they said quite off handed "We haven't got a car for you." It wasn't easy explaining that they couldn't just opt out of the obligation to supply a car. Eventually I made use of a brazilian friend who was a solicitor in consumer law. An hour and a half later! saw an Audi A3 arrive. (I had only booked an economy Fiat) It was a great......for 3 Kms when a front tyre blew out. I couldnt remove the wheel due to security wheel nuts and waited another hour plus when they left me a Jeep to use.
The drive up the mountain afforded some great views, when I could take my eyes off of the sinuous  ascent.  It was very frustrating as I wanted to stop and take photographs but apart from one largish parking area there were no places to stop. I stopped and took some photos but the haze didn't allow me to capture the scene as I would have liked.

Teresopolis was a disappointment (apart from the mountain drive) I couldn't find anything of note so I returned to Petropolis.