I'm here

So I'm a day late with my first post since when I arrived at Iracambi, the Wi-Fi was down. The trip here was not nearly as scary as it sounded on paper. My flight to Rio was really nice, on a new plane with back-seat entertainment, which I didn't take any advantage of since I slept the entire way down. Since I was on a flight that got in at 7:34am, we were the only ones going through immigration AND there were only around 10 non-Brazilian residents so getting through was a breeze. Got in a cab and headed to the bus station where I was able to get on the next bus leaving to Muriaé 15 minutes later at 9am. The trip was actually pretty nice. The first part was winding up a slightly treacherous mountain range where at the top we were above the clouds.

Following that were miles and miles of green rolling hills with beautiful mountains in the distance. Muriaé was pretty much the first and only city we got to.

Amusing anecdote - I knew that you typically had to pay to use bathrooms in the bus stations so when I got to Muriaé I was prepared, but the sign said R$6. I asked the guy in Portuguese and nodded as if I understood and handed him my money. He then said he needed to get the key, which I thought was a bit odd since the door to the ladies room was open. He came in with me and proceeded to unlock the door to the shower stall. I said that all I needed was the toilet and then we laughed and on the way out he gave me my money back.

Got on the next bus to Rosário da Limeira, gave Binka and Robin (the heads of Iracambi) a call to let them know when I was arriving and an hour later I was dropped off in the center of town with Robin waiting for me next to one of his trusted Land Rovers.

It was nice arriving on a Friday, since now I have the weekend to settle in. Had a lovely dinner, some good conversation, and was even initiated into our little tribe by having to drink a glass of some not great Brazilian wine.