Day 14: Cunha to Paraty

Save the best for last! Unfortunately the weather had other plans for us - it had been raining all night and the view from our pousada´s veranda was all but motivating. If we had liked Cunha a little bit more and had the water in our pousada been just a bit warmer - I guess we would have stayed for one more day to wait for better weather. The last 20km to Paraty are a steep descent on dirt road and have been closed for cars for some time and I was afraid that the rain would make it hard to pass even for bikes! Anyhow, being our last lap we were ´doido´ to arrive in Paraty and decided to give it a try!

When we left our pousada despite the drizzle Cunha looked much friendlier and livelier to us then the day before: the whole place seemed to be up and decorating the streets with colored sawdust, creating a beautifull carpet all around the church. Traveling for nearly two weeks now we had completely forgotten that today was Corpus Christi!

We have had heard from many people that from Cunha on it just goes downhill - which is absolutely not true! After Cunha we faced some of the highest and longest climbs of the Estrada Real. Only when you reach the Sao Paulo - Rio de Janeiro state border, the fun starts! The tarmac stops and blends over into an earth road, which is officialy closed for transit... very promising ;-)

We rolled, slipped, slid down the earth road. Sometimes the road was covered in stones, sometimes the deep mud made it hard to pedal... And sometimes we had to break so hard our hands would hurt! The rain had stopped but it was very cold.

The view from the ´Serra do Mar´ must be great - unfortunately we couldn´t see a thing, the clowds were so low and thick - it looked like we were cycling down a hill that had no end.

After about 10km on the mud-rock-earth road a welcome surprise - the small bar run by Marta and Menininho, serving hot coffee and banana pastels! We ordered two, then another two... I never imagined that greasy pastels, chese, bananas and cinammon could go well together - but they do! Or maybe we were just very hungry... will have to try it again on a less famished day ;-)

About 3km from the pastel bar the tarmac starts again. Flavio´s mood seemed to get better with any km we came closer to Paraty. He started singing the ´going home´ song from Walt Disney´s 7 dwarfs and did little dances on his bike everytime we passed a sign saying ´Paraty´.

It seemed incredible... but we had made it! We had reached our final destination, Paraty! By the time we reached the historic center to take a picture with our last signpost we had already forgotten the steep climb and cold rain of the very same morning and instead of feeling happy that we had made it we felt sad that it was over.

We found the pousada the cowboy from Cunha had recommended to us (Pousada Daya, close to the bus station) it felt good but also a bit sad, to leave the bikes in the yeard and go out on our own to explore the city on foot. I don´t have to mention that the main topic of that evening was the Caminho das Diamantes from Diamantina to Ouro Preto ;-)

Day 13: Cachoeira Paulista to Cunha

Our longest day - 84km! From Cachoeira Paulista to Guarantingueta the road was more or less level and we still felt fresh and motivated when a few km after Guarantingueta the climb started. The Estrada Real follows the tramac for some km, then diverts into an earth road for some while, gets back to the tarmac... But traffic is calm so even on the tarmac you can enjoy the beautiful landscape!

When we left the tarmac for the second time in direction of Paiol, the earth road climbs up to about 1100m. We did pretty well but for the last 50m of altitude we pushed the bikes. My knees and Flavios backside were still suffering from the two long days in Minas. Anyhow the beautiful view from the top of the Serra da Cunha compensated us for the pain and toil and a farmer we met on the way encouraged us that after the peak ´todos os santos ajudam ´ - literally ´all saints help´. And he was right, once you have passed the peak a long descent makes you forget the steep climb. Some more climbs follow but nothing really to worry about. We made it to Cunha just before it got dark - and started to rain.

There are heaps of pousadas but most are a bit out of the center. We finally found one, the ´Estalagem Primavera´. The room was cheerful and clean but the ´dono´, speaking with a strong paulista accent and dressed in flullblown cowboy outfit somehow spoilt the fun. He asked us to pay the R$50 for the two of us even before checking into the room. In my opinion this is unprofessional, unpolite and hints that there is something wrong with the place... and I was right - the water in the shower wouldn´t get any warmer then lukewarm, the rooster (bearing ressemblance to the cowbow in his behaviour) started to crow at around 5am and the breakfast was very poor.

After unpacking our stuff we went out in search of an ´lan house´ and a pizzeria. Cunha seems to close down at sunset - maybe because everybody wakes up at 5am due to the rooster and there is not much to do. We were happy when we found a ´lan house´ that was still open and enjoyed a fairly good pizza. Flavio only kept on complaining about the paulista accent which even for a foreigner is not the most charming one. Another reason for getting to Paraty as soon as possible :-)

Day 12: Itanhandu to Cachoeira Paulista

Getting up, having breakfast, backing our bags, buying provisions... by day 12 this had turned routine and we could have done this in our sleep. Thanks to the description in our book on the Estrada Real it was easy to find the first signpost and we took off in direction of Passa Quatro, where we would meet our CS friend Fabricio.

Passa Quatro - cross four - is a pretty funny name for a place so we did some research and it turned out it was called this by the early bandeirantes as they had to cross the river four times to reach the place. We didn´t have to cross any rivers - but a horrible little village between Itanhandu and Passa Quatro that has an estimated chicken - man ratio of about 400:1. It really stinks and seeing the chicken suffer in their tiny cages, one above the other really made us sick.
So for those of you living in Brazil - avoid those cheap eggs from Itanhandu. Try to get free range or organic ones...

Passa Quatro is a lovely little city. Most of the buildings on main street are historical and the milkman on his horse drawn carriage and helped by a small black boy adds to the colonial athmosphere of the place. We stopped in a bakery across from the bus station (I think it was the only one in Passa Quatro ;-)) and soon Fabricio came to greet us. What a wonderful surprise - in the middle of rural Minas Gerais we found a real ´cosmopolite´ and ´polyglotte´! Fabricio speaks about five languages and it full of energy, jokes, ´esprit´... even though we had just met it was sad to say goodbye and we promised each other to keep in touch and spend more time together in the future.

In Passa Quatro we found a signpost but it was not easy to tell, in which direction it was pointing. We asked around and it seemed to be the easiest way to just follow the railroad tracks. Steam train ´Maria fumaca´ (literally Smoke Maria) only leaves on certain days of the weeks so we had the tracks all for ourselves.

Day 11: Sao Lourenço to Itanhandu

A dream...

The Estrada Real - or Royal Road - is a historic route linking the gold and diamond mines of Minas Gerais to the ports of Paraty and Rio de Janeiro. Its more than 400 year long history began with organized expeditions of adventurers, called ´bandeirantes´ because of the flag - ´bandeira´ - they were carrying, searching for gold, precious stones and Indians to enslave in the interior of Brazil. In the late 17th century gold was found in the region that today is the city of Ouro Preto. When the extraction of gold reached a certain limit the crown of Portugal ordered that the trails used by the bandeirantes to reach the coast to be expanded into a road, assuring the transport of gold and other minderal riches to the port and manufactured goods and slaves from the port to the mines. The existence of one main road only also allowed the Portuguese crown to control and tax the extraction of mineral riches in its colony, Brazil.

The original route of the Estrada Real leads from Ouro Preto to the port of Paraty - therefore called the Caminho Velho - the Old Road. More than just a road, the Caminho Velho also is the main axis of first settlements in Minas Gerais. Fazendas and villages developed all along the Caminho to offer shelter and provisions to the travelers. When further north in Minas Gerais diamonds where found, the Estrada Real was extended to in what today is the city of Diamantina, giving name to the Caminho dos Diamantes - the Diamond Road.

In the early 18th century the Portuguese crown ordered the building of a new and shorter road - leading from Ouro Preto directly to the port of Rio de Janeiro. This road came to be known as the Caminho Novo - the new road and replaced the Caminho Velho as the tradition link between mines and port.

Today a great part of the Estrada Real is still intact and traveling the dirt roads and cobble stone streets, visiting the incountable little chapels and gold overloaded churches the history of the Estrada Real comes alive. Some of the villages you will pass have been founded by Portuguese bandeirantes, others by descendents of African slaves and many of the most important churches in the region bare the legacy of an artist that combines both Portuguese and African influences: the sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho. Born to a Portuguese carpenter and architect and his African slave, he became one of the most famous artists of barrock art in colonial Brazil.

The history of the Estrada Real is a history of fearless adventurers, of gold fever and greed, of human suffering and religious art. I remember exactly when and where I first read about it - it was in the board magazine of a GOL flight from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo in July last year. In the book section of the magazine I read a short review of a book of photography about the Estrada Real. The history of this historic route intrigued me and since then I dreamehad the dream of traveling from to Ouro Preto to Paraty - be it by bus, car or - which seemed very unlikely - by foot or bike. I didn´t expect my dream to come true so soon, but when I mentioned it to Flavio... one dreamer became two and the dream became a plan :-)