All good here

Joe again:

I am in bed in a lovely hostel in rio about to write almost exhaustively good things about what has happened since the last post. And my sister had a baby yesterday- daisy- who is beautiful. All is good.

After idyllic morro we ventured further down the coast to itacare and had a very pleasant couple of days drinking beer on the beach and snorkelling over coral reefs. We then returned to salvador- crossing back by the ferry at night, a lovely way to reach the city- and spent a night in a great little hostel, where we spent much of the next day grazing at the breakfast spread and umming and ahhing about where-to-next; we had planned to head directly to brasilia and on to the pantanal, but hadn't found the exact right eye-wateringly-expensive location to look at giant otters, jaguars and the like. So instead we took a night bus towards Belo Horizonte, having had a lovely day wandering around town again, seeing incredibly ornate churches we hadn't seen before and the best moqueca (fish stew) yet.

From Belo Horizonte we went directly to Ouro Preto, a very pretty colonial mining town in Minas Gerais. It was lovely to settle down for a few nights and see all the baroquery at out own pace- apart from its famous churches the town is incredibly pretty and nice to wander around. I also discovered that the horrible gloopy chicken-cheese egg-balls we had encountered at bus stations were in fact delicious deep fried chicken and catupiry cheese parcels when done right, as from the bar-snacks counter at the local lively bar, where I got p*ssed, naturally.

From Ouro Preto we went, in the pouring rain, to Tiradentes, another much smaller colonial mining town with a reputation for its restaurants. It was good to put the walking boots back on after a few sedentary weeks and head out into the forests around the village in search of monkeys (none seen). We got soaked, so that evening went for a nice expensive meal. I am not normally a pudding man, but we had dried guava, rolled in cashews and deep fried, served with creamy cheese and guava ice cream. It was incredible. Stupidly, we had two caipirinhas each before dinner so by the time we had had a post dinner beer I was, of course, p*ssed.

Which was ok, as Today, in the continued pouring rain, all we had to do was sit on a bus through Minas Gerais to the coast. This part of the country is much more my cup of tea- rolling green hills and forests- like Derbyshire but with more Monkey Puzzles- becoming a proper mountain ridge north of rio. So much so that at the top the were views of peaks popping through the clouds which reminded me of being on top of a piste in the alps. Such rainfall must be unusual- on the way down we passed one flipped vehicle after another. And we just popped out for steak, chips and Brazilian black beans- delicious. Having thought the food here was rubbish I am beginning to reconsider.

So imagine me lying here, smug, a bit fat with steak and dozy with beer, with have four and a half days in rio to look forward to. Then a day in brasilia, doing my architectural tourist's duties, then four days at the perfect eye-wateringly-expensive pantanal lodge before more scuba diving in bonito and on to Iguazu falls. I am quite happy, even though it is rainy. Apologies. And lots of love x.