quite a little adventure...

adela was pleased with my packing efforts so granted me a day off.

I headed out to see some of Oscar Niemayer's architecture.  of the architecture I had seen so far, I really liked what he does.  the guy is one hundred and two years old and still designing!

so I jump on the bus and head out in my best sight seeing gear.  cute white skirt, vest top, black havaianas and bug eye sunglasses of course. 

the bus takes a regional route, snaking its way through the streets of the nearby towns.  as we climb further up the hills of Belo the rain starts to fall, and fall it really does.

I have managed to befriend the bus driver and conductor.  and they suggest that I wait at the end of the line with them as they prepare the bus for their next journey.  by then the rain would have passed, or so they say.  but in actual fact the rain falls heavier than ever, and vaste rivers have formed on either side of the carriageway. 

the bus driver and conductor switch with the next shift, who I also manage to befriend, in my desperate bid to stay dry and not see through!  they tell me that they will drive me to the nearest taxi rank.  so I hitch a lift with a bus driver and four conductors.  all the while answering questions about the rain in england, manchester united and what I am doing in brazil.

we snake the streets some more, and the rain does not let up.  eventually I jump out in my white skirt and hop over the rain rivers in my flip flops to the nearest taxi.

he drops me at the church on the lake, which I think is stunning.  the roof curves beautifully over the church mirroring the water line of the lake.

at this point the skies seem to be clearing and I glimpse blue chinks above me.  so I decide to head on out to the museum of modern art, that Oscar also designed.  my guide book tells me that this is just opposite the church on the other side of the lake.  what it doesn't tell me is quite how big the lake is...

when I eventually manage to hail a taxi, I watch as the metre creeps up and up.  with no museum in sight I start to pànic.  I only have fifty reales in my purse, the metre is at twenty five already and I still have to get back to the bus stop and then back to the centre of town, some forty minutes away, let alone pay to get into the museum...

I tell a little white lie and say to the lovely taxi driver that I only have twenty five on me, which quite unsurprisingly by brazilian standards, he tells me that it is no problem at all, that would do.

the museum is mildly disappointing, especially after the drama of my journey here, and knowing that I still have to get back to adela and juniors, preferably before sunset...

oh and did I mention that I had run out of credit on my classy pay as you go mobile?  otherwise I could have just phoned junior for a lift I guess...  but I also didn't want to be beaten.

the museum staff tell me that there are no buses nearby and I would need to walk a little bit down the road.

I should mention that the brazilians have no sense of distance.  I guess because their country is so big, but they will always say, oh it is just down the road...

the bus stop turned out to be about a forty five minute walk.  fortunately the rain had stopped so the skirt wasn't going to become see-through.  all I wanted to do at this point was jump in a cab, but remember that I only have twenty five reales left in my purse at this point and I was about another forty five minutes from home...

eventually I found a bus stop on a very busy highway and tried to make myself understood when I explained where I was going.

I have to say that I love the brazilians, they will go out of their way to help you.  I was told when to get off, then I was walked to the bus stop some four blocks away by a very sweet young man, was left with some more helpful and friendly brazilians who made sure I got on the right bus, then again explaining where I was going, was helped off the bus again, and walked to the right road by a lovely lady.

I eventually made it home just as the sun was setting over Belo Horizonte.  I was very proud of myself for making it home on my own, without having to put junior out and ask for a lift, and without getting stuck in the outskirts of a city I did not know without a penny to my name.