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Three nights and I will be in Brazil

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So many things to organise. I am still finalising accommodation for Petrópolis, Búzios and Rio through www.airbnb.com.  I've done my travel insurance. It's Friday and I leave on Monday It looks as though I will have just enough  space for everything in my case and small holdall. Especially when I get rid of the six boxes of tea I am taking! I have decided against stopping in Tiradentes as it is further on past São João del Rei (SJR) which I discovered is another interesting town. It has a historical centre, where I will be staying, with many old buildings and cobbled streets. I'm going to stop a day extra so that I can still visit Tiradentes and then soak up the atmosphere of SJR. São João del Rei, Minas Gerais São João del Rei, Minas Gerais On the 26 October I will take the coach to Petropolis (270kms distant) It's in the mountains about 70 Kms north of Rio and is decidedly cooler. Some museums and the town of Teresopolis to visit before catching th...
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Paraty

There should be photos here but I have to transfer photos from the camera to the  tablet and this is proving slower than I thought. They will appear eventually so please check back later.  I awoke to silence and sunlight and breakfasted on bread, cheese and ham and black coffee. The location was so quiet, just the occasional barking dog. Paraty was about 5 Kms distant and the streets were laid out in a grid. Driving deeper into the historical area of the town the road surface changed, not to cobbles, but slabs of irregular shaped stones. Slowing to walking pace I compared my car to a small boat in the middle of an Atlantic storm. I was fascinated. Stone roads with houses painted in different colours. Shops selling hand made products, not the usual tourist orientated trash. The people were so friendly. Paraty was a port used for the transport of gold and constructed by slave labour. The gold was brought to the town in horse drawn wagons and carts. Horses being horses wo...
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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 ...
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