When we got up in the morning and looked out of the window - we could barely see the next buildings. It was grey and foggy... just like the day before. Not very motivating! So we decided to enjoy the great breakfast at the ´Hotel dos Profetas´ (http://www.hoteldosprofetas.com.br/) and walk up to the Basílica do Senhor Bom Jesus de Matosinhos at the top of the Morro Maranhão and greet the twelve prophets.
The twelve prophets can´t be found in heaven - but pretty close. A steep cobble stone street leads up to the Basilica and six chapels making up the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, a World Heritage site. When we arrived it was still very greay and foggy. We started visiting the six chapels, each one showing a scene from the Passion of Christ - containing more than 60 life-size figures carved in wood by the legendary Aleijadinho, the ´little cripple´ from Ouro Preto. When you look into the chapels via the small windows of the doors the scenes seem to come alive - its incredible! The mean faces of the Roman soldiers, the suffering of the two criminals who were to be cruzified with Jesus, ... it seems that Aleijadinho gave a special personality to every single carved figure. In a time when few people could read and write and mass was still dominated by Latin, these tableaux must have been a great revelation for the population!
The twelve prophets carved in stone and surrounding the Basilica are equally amazing. By the way we climbed up there the fog was clearing up and we got some very mystic shots of the prophets looking down on the city, still some clouds of fog hanging between the huge palm trees of the Sanctuary. We also visited the Basilica itself, where tiny but very loud little bird was singing from the side altar and adding to the magic of the place.
Flavio asked some little boys for the way to Alto Marnhão, our next stop, and they told us the way started right behind the Basilica! What a pity we had left our stuff in the hotel! We had to walk down the steep cobble down street, get our stuff, and climb again...
It was easy to find the way to Alto Maranhão and the dirt road was wide and level... it could have been perfect if not for Flavio´s pedal! It was moving in all kinds of directions and finally fell off! We had all kinds of screw drivers and wenches with us - apart from the one for the pedal. So we pushed the bikes all the way to Alto Maranhão and Flavio asked some kids if they new someone who could fix a bike. They pointed across the road - and we saw a garden full of bikes and bike parts. We couldn´t have been luckier! In a couple of minutes our new guardian angel had found the right wench, helped Flavio to fix the pedal and explained us the way to Pequeri, next village on the Estrada Real.
The way to Pequeri was one of the most beautiful ones - it is pretty level and goes through woods and fields... By now the fog had made way for a warm and sunny day and I saw this huge green snake taking a sun-bath in the middle of the road! I told Flavio but he didn´t share my joy, he just kicked the newly adjusted pedal a bit harder!
A few km from Pequeri we filled our water bottles at a little farm. The water tasted good and the people living on the farm said it was ok... so once again we decided against using our water purifying tablets ;-)
Pequeri is a charming little village on the top of a hill. There are a few bars and lanchonetes but we decided to keep going as it looked a bit like it was going to rain... After Pequeri the Estrada Real becomes an overgrown single track, very hard to cycle. Thank God we met a local collecting firewood (many people in rural Minas still use woodstoves) and he showed us how to get to our next stop, São Bras, on a better trail. On this trail we met some more locals... got some more advise... and ended up taking the tarmac to São Bras and from there to Entre Rios de Minas.
São Bras is a lively village or little city, a good place to stop for lunch or even for the night. We had ´bolo de cenoura´ (carrot cake), ´bolo de aipim´ (manioca cake) and coffee and got the great advise to stay in the ´dormitorio´ of the gas station in Entre Rios - one of the best and cheapest places we stayed on our trip! Anyhow, before eating more bolo and getting a good rest in Entre Rios we had to pedal some 17km more. São Bras is 17km from Entre Rios - this seems to be very important for the locals because everybody we asked for the way ended his explanations with ´Entre Rios is 17km from here´.
On the tarmac the 17km passed pretty fast - even though very stressfull, too. A couple of times the huge busses and trucks made us jump into the brushwood next to the road. The cars usually were much more friendlier - hooting, waving, giving the thumbs up - sometimes it got so much we felt like Tour de France winners ;-)
The ´dormitorio´ in Entre Rios turned out to be perfect - cheap, (R$15 p.p. breakfast included), save and clean. After a good shower and great mineiro dinner we set off to find more information on the next lap. Many people we´ve met on the way had told us that there was no way we would find to Lagoa Dourada via the trails of the Estrada Real - we would have to take the tarmac. They said that the signposts were very scarce or missing altogether... Flavio already suggested taking a bus and I was getting annoyed by him giving up so easily. Thank God a couple of km from Entre Rios we had met a guy who said he had a friend who likes to cycle and would be able to give us some advise. We would meet them in a bar later on...
On the way to the bar we saw three guys in full motor-cross outfit. All of them a bit on the ´horizontaly challenged´ side and with beer cans in their hands. Flavio decided that if anyone knew the trails then it would be these guys. I don´t have to mention that they loved the attention and in their narrative let the trails of Minas sound like a path through the Congolese jungle Indiana Jones would think twice before doing ;-) They told us that there were no signposts whatsoever and because of that they drew a map for us. It took hours, we never got to meet the bike guy and went home with a piece of art drawn by a primed but goodhearted motor-crosser.
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