Pirenopolis

 We decided to take a day off, swim in the pool and check out the town which it turns out is a tourist hub. You can see why.

25,000 people live in this town founded in 1727. It is a tourist hub, and we had no idea, which attracts visitors from the capital Brasilia a couple of hours away. 

It’s set in some hill country at 2500 feet and we’ve enjoyed much cooler temperatures. Finally it’s comfortable to sit out and even though it’s sweaty work we had the energy here to take a morning sitting and cleaning our home. 

Since we’ve been using GANNET2 as a car the living quarters got a bit disheveled so we pulled out the vacuum and the cleaner and got down to restoring our environment. 

We filled our water tank at the neighborhood market, we put away our clean laundry and sorted our living space. I think we both got pretty tired and disheartened in the Guyanas, the heat, the isolation and lack of overlanding amenities did get to us. I think we all three have recovered. 

Pirenopolis got its name from a group of Catalan immigrants from northern Spain who were reminded of their native Pyrenees so they named these mountains with the Latin version of the name: Pireneus and Pirenópolis is the “city of Pireneus.” 

They mined gold in the area and nowadays they farm and find gold in tourism. 

I am not a fan of cobblestones but these were odd, stones laid lengthwise  which seemed less bouncy than the traditional square cobblestones.

And of course it wasn’t so simple to get around town as there are also cobblestone speed bumps, like the gruesome surface wasn’t slowing us down enough. Better yet a number of streets, unbeknownst to Google Maps are randomly closed to vehicles as wide as the Promaster. Grr. 

The camera angle makes them look wide enough but trust me it wasn’t. We did a lot of back tracking. 

One other joy was the sharp cement speed bumps. One was brilliantly placed at the top of a hill on an intersection which got us stuck for a minute, rocking back and forth to get of the peak of the hill. That felt stupid.  

But we did get the tires rotated, as the front wheel drive GANNET2 has a tendency to wear out the fronts faster than the rears. Seven bucks and done. 

Our room at Pousada Meia Ponte (Half Bridge Guesthouse) is exceeding comfortable for $70 a night. Plus we have the whole place to ourselves, including a massive breakfast spread which saves us having lunch.

Rusty spent the whole day napping. And when I say “napping” I mean he fell into a  profound sleep. 

And just like at home on Cudjoe Key Rusty loves to sleep on gravel. Sometimes I think we haul his bed around to make us feel better. 

When we bought the bed we took him into Pet Smart and I pulled down any bed that looked large enough for him. Hr inspected them

and the one he settled in we bought. He does use it but he is quite happy on cold tile, a rug, or gravel. 

Cold air conditioning and strong WiFi and…

…secure courtyard parking for the beast of this journey: 

Goiás State

Officially we are now in central Brazil and it shows. Look at the reception we got at a gas station in Goiás State:

They weren’t in the least intimidated by our foreignness nor our inability to speak Portuguese and they joked about coming on our trip -“adopt me!”- and at last we felt like we were no longer in the far north where the locals act distant and fearful around strangers. 

The countryside is changing a bit too, and the change was subtle but we started to see rolling hills and a few peaks too. 

The fields are cultivated and agriculture has replaced forestry and ranching.

It’s hotter here with an afternoon high of 91 possibly thanks to less rain and a spring like burst of sunshine. 

We are 15 degrees south latitude because when we crossed the Amazon we also crossed the equator and spring is in the air.  

Greens are very green and trees are sprouting new leaves and the grasses are thick at the side of the road. 

We took a Rusty stop and he decided a nap in the grass was perfect. 

Traffic is heavy on BR 153 but it moves along. We have met some slow moving trucks but they are easy to pass on the long straightaways but we aren’t nearly as aggressive as the locals.  

Getting this close to the Federal District means the  road surface is improving too and driving is more relaxing. For some reason there are hundreds of trucks driving north in long lines.

We stopped to do laundry at one of Brazil’s famous automatic laundries. Actually we’d never heard of them but they are brilliant. Naturally the first one we tried on this road didn’t accept our credit cards so we pressed on but once we left Tocantins State and entered Goiás, the magical land of people kind to strangers we found a laundry at a gas station that worked perfectly and even allowed dogs. 

You show up with dirty clothes and “register” your name and phone number as a foreigner on the key pad. Brazilians enter the tax id number. Why? I have no idea but we got the foreigner button and put a made up passport number in. Stupid bureaucracy. Then tap your credit card and the washer adds its own soap automatically. Tap your card again for a drier and you’re done. Amazingly simple and rapid and one of several features that make Brazil easy to travel through. 

We stopped for a late lunch at a place that was getting ready to close for the afternoon and instead of a buffet they made us up a plate of meats, rice, beans, tomatoes and plantains and we sat outside with Rusty and it wasn’t too hot at all. 

Evening started to close in but noticeably later than further north as the sun is traveling lower in the sky here. The road passed through very few towns or settlements and we were wondering where we might find dog friendly accommodation but then Pirenopolis came over the horizon. It took a few Whatsapp messages but we found a place that looked good in a quiet neighborhood, not cheap at $70 a night but…

All to ourselves and GANNET2 fits easily in the courtyard off the street. And Rusty approved. 

The two young ladies who helped us settle in made us a jug of açaí juice, gave us some mangoes off their tree  and ordered pizza for us to be delivered saving us the agony of ordering in Portuguese. 

Rusty inspected the neighborhood outside the walls and approved of what he found. 

We are thinking of staying an extra night to clean and organize our battered living quarters, wash the van, enjoy the pool and visit what is supposed to be a tourist town set at 2500 feet among these hills. Time to be tourists for a minute before getting too mechanical in the capital. It’s nice to be tourists for a while and no longer explorers.