Days 16 & 17: Chapada dos Guimaraes

The overnight bus rolls into the city of Cuiaba and I roll out on to a local bus to the town of Chapada dos Guimaraes, located near the national park of the same name. At the C de G rodoviaria I meet Doree, my American friend with whom I will be travelling for a week. She is a truly intrepid travaller and has already spent a month in various parts of Brazil, with several weeks in Mexico before that.

After lunch at a self-service restaurant we travel back to Cuiaba for the evening to meet her friend Jota, who lives on a fazenda (ranch) outside the city. He is a fellow musician of hers and has invited us to a Vivaldi concert at the university. I am no classical music expert but enjoy the concert and so do they and hey, it's free!

As elsewhere in up-country Brazil, the Sao Jose where we are staying, is a friendly family-run pousada with its in-house tour guide. His nom de plume is Guerreiro and although he looks big and tough, is more of a gentle giant. He drives us into the national park and the state of the dirt road, even in the dry season in late August, shows that only an experienced driver such as he in a 4 x 4 can handle this. He takes us to a mountain view distantly reminiscent of Utah but with more vegetation and just as many infuriating little flies (yes, the critters around Moab are unforgettable). The view however is an impressive taster of more to come tomorrow.

C de G is a pleasant little town of about 15,000. It's a surprise to find that so far away from the coast (it's equidistant from the Atlantic and the Pacific and is the geodesic centre of South America), the Portuguese had colonised it in the search for gold. There is a simple but attractive Colonial church dating from the mid-1700s. And like many other Brazilian towns with a history, there is a small 21st century colony of hippies. The couple that we meet are from Chile (he) and Argentina (she) and make their living selling handmade crafts. They have been on the road for 5 (yes, five) years!Read more