It's strange to think that this may be our last blog entry as there's now less than
3 weeks before we return to the UK for Christmas.

We had a great time back in Europe in October and enjoyed catching up with friends and family in Scotland, Holland and France while Patrick was teaching students in Edinburgh and Madrid.

Within a week of our return to Rio, Will
and his girlfriend Alice arrived. It was lovely having them here and overall they got good weather, though nothing like Will had experienced last Christmas! They did various of the Rio sights and we had a fantastic weekend with them re-visiting the bird lodge at Regua, which was as special this time as it was last. Nicholas and Raquel are doing an amazing job with the spectacular environment they live in.

Less than 12 hours after Will and Alice left, Wytze and Joska arrived in Rio. We always knew our last while out here would be hectic!

As with W&A's time here, there was a bank holiday (Black Consciousness Day as opposed to Republic Day the week before) and again, we spent it on the beach to give our visitors a good sense of how Cariocas like to spend their downtime. Although we weren't directly caught up in it, it's reluctantly being recognised that the Zona Sul beaches are experiencing an increase in violence so maybe it's a good time to be leaving.

This last weekend we made a much anticipated trip to the colonial towns of Ouro Preto (Black Gold) & Tiradentes (named in honour of a revolutionary who was also a dentist - hence his nick name!) in Minas Gerais with Wytze & Joska. We hired a car and called in at the Onda Solidaria site which provided us with another example that we'll be taking away with us of visionary and inspirational Brazilians working with the natural environment to improve it and to offer opportunities to others. Given that the site was only handed over 14 months ago, Ricardo and his team have achieved a huge amount, even though the scale of the challenge they have set themselves remains daunting!

The journey time between Rio & Ouro Preto is about 6 hours and the roads don't make for particularly fast driving so it's a good opportunity to see (a very small section of!) Brazil away from the coast and how people live their lives which I always find fascinating.

As you'll see from the photos, the weather over the weekend was far from brilliant. It poured with rain after we arrived in Ouro Preto and was overcast the next day when we were looking round. Despite the lack of sun, it was still an attractive town with very steep cobbled streets, 23 churches, lots of museums and old colonial buildings. For a world heritage site, it was strangely empty of visitors.

Our destination the next day was Tiradentes, another well-preserved colonial site with an illustrious past. Before we set off we visited an old gold mine (whose low narrow passageways I was the only one suited for!) and a nearby colonial town already festooned with Christmas decorations.

The least said about the rest of that day the better. The weather was foul, we didn't have decent maps, signage was not good and the roads were pretty terrible but we eventually made it to Tiradentes just as it was getting dark.

Luckily, the place we'd booked to stay was very special, particularly by Brazilian standards and we were directed to a great restaurant for supper so the day ended well.

Unfortunately, we woke to more torrential rain which continued practically until we reached Rio that evening. After a good breakfast we made a soggy tour of Tiradentes on foot. It must be stunning in the sunshine! It's much smaller than Ouro Preto, mostly on the flat and really rather bijou.

Driving back to Rio in the weather conditions we experienced can't have been easy but Wytze appeared to take it all in his stride and got us back in
one piece for which we were all grateful.