Brazil Part Two

After 3 days in Belo Horizonte, we took a night bus to Montes Claros. Our hotel was right across the street from Johnny's apartment, which was above this burger joint.

Here's Johnny enjoying a burger.

They were huge. And full of steak, pineapple, ham, cheese, egg, lettuce, and corn.

Unlike some food, this lived up to Johnny's expectations.

We visited with a family Johnny had baptized. They were great. And everyone had a good time.

There was a local market where we saw some capoeira. It was large and full on interesting smells. We bought some bottles of peppers that we gifted to Johnny's sister for watching The Captain.

We had dinner by the lake.

At a pizza rodizio. Great idea.

From Montes Claros we took the train to the coast. Despite Johnny's face the train ride was actually really awesome.

Some of the beautiful country side we got to see.

We made it to the beach and hiked up to this monastery.

It was really high up. And windy. Good thing we were used to walking a lot by then.

This is one of Johnny's companions, Renan, who served not only as our tour guide, but our body guard.

Ah, the beach.

Ah, chocolate. We love you.

We went to a train museum. And took a picture for The Captain to enjoy.

One of the awesome bridges in Victoria.

Here is the state dish of Espirito Santo. It was delicious. Fish and shrimp in a tomato-based sauce. One of the most delicious things I ate.

We spent the afternoon in the old part of town, visiting dance schools and cathedrals and governor's mansions. It was fabulous. I had sugar cane juice. It was so much better than the time by brother emptied sugar packets into my water at that restaurant.

We ended the day eating hotdogs on the street. They were filled with carrots, corn, peas, raisins, fried hashbrowns, tempura mayo, and a hotdog. All in a regularly sized bun. Amazing. Except the hotdog, that was boiled and gross, but the rest of it was wonderful.

This is the sunrise on the beach and the view from our hotel window.

Before we left, we spent a little time on the beach.

And I couldn't leave without at least dipping my feet in the Atlantic Ocean below the equator. It was nice and warm. Next time we'll go swimming.

Brazil Part One

Some of you have already heard of the horrible time we had trying to make it back to Kentucky to see The Captain again. I don't want to get into it, except to say that in the two weeks I was in Brazil, I understood more than I did during the 48 hours of hell we had in airports in the U.S. coming home. Communication is not the travel industry's strong suit. Which it should be.

But enough about that, the trip itself was great.

When we got to Belo Horizonte we didn't have a hotel, so this is me waiting at a mall for a late enough hour to call a hotel.

One of the many beautiful parks in the city. Johnny wanted to bring his wife here one day. Check.

We ate at the most expensive restaurant in Johnny's area. We both agreed it was the biggest waste of money on the trip. But dessert was very pretty.

Johnny's old apartment.

Belo Horizonte at night.

Johnny eating goiabada and quejo minero. One of the things he's missed the most.

We spent the day in Ouro Preto, a town where missionaries are not allowed. It was very old, and very beautiful.

It is built in the mountains on very steep hills.

It has lots of churches because it was the gold mines of Brazil, and one of the only ways to escape the high tax on gold imposed by Portugal was to give it to the church.

So they built lots of churches.