We awoke stupidly early, well for us anyway, to another miserable day. That meant that the beautiful scenery from the train may be non-existent, but it did make it easy to justify the taxi to the station! Though it meant that we arrived with plenty of time to spare and find our seats. We weren't exactly sure where they were as the ticket wasn't clear, so we asked a staff member and still we weren't 100% certain. We go on the carriage that we thought was correct and then went to the seat numbers.

Literally the very last seats on the train! Only the toilets and a door out to train tracks behind us. Assuming we were in the correct location we decided that the giggle the ticket sales girls had when we purchased was them laughing about the fact that seeing there wasn't any executive seats they'd put us at the very end of the train. But as only a few other people got on our carriage we thought maybe they put as here as it would be a little quieter? Probably not.

Executive had offered air-con, but as it was the middle of winter (and cold and wet) that wasn't going to be an issue. What was going to be an issue was the fact that one couple got on, sitting near to us, and the guy decided to open about 6 windows in front of us, on both sides of the train. They then decide to move seats to directly opposite us and proceeded to open more windows!

Once the train started it was freezing and it didn't take long before Lindsay was cold to the bone. So Fergus got up and as done buy the guy, shut 90% of the open windows without asking if that would be ok. It wasn't long after that they decided to close their own window.

Having not had a chance for breakfast we were happy when the food 'service' came around. First was a guy selling cheese bread, a great start to any day! The coffee cart took much longer to arrive and it seemed to be that the bloke on it had to have long conversations with everyone he sold something to. Which meant that prior to him arriving the couple beside us had decided to spark up conversation.

It didn't take long for us to say that we don't speak Portuguese and respond that we were Australian. The fact that we couldn't speak Portuguese lead to some laughter and wonder (we assume) as to how that would be possible travelling in Brasil. However it didn't stop them trying to talk to us, then and on numerous other occasions during the 13 hours. However when the coffee cart arrived they did help explain to the guy on it that we didn't speak Portuguese and that it was going to be challenging for he and us to 'chat'.

We pulled out the phrase book, we looked at it, he looked at it, the couple looked at it and then the coffee cart guy said 'speak English?', well yes! That should make things easier. But it only made him give gestures for us to wait. A considerable time later another staff member arrived and asked if we spoke English. He then asked us what we'd like to eat later for lunch. He informed as that the dinning carriage is open from 11 until later and so we could eat after then, or if we wanted light snacks we could go to the kiosk at any time. Great! It was good to know that someone could help us and we'd be able to get something to eat, more than snacks.

The train line is owned by Vale (a mining company for those not in the know) and so the passenger train is also owned and run by Vale. This means that the line runs through a lot of mining areas and mining towns. As such, the train takes an indirect route to the coast, heading north east first, then south east. It does make for some nice scenery, though the low cloud cover and drizzle meant the view was limited, but gave some beauty in itself. We're not sure exactly how many stations there were, but it seemed like a lot, perhaps one every half hour.

At lunch we decided to head to the restaurant carriage and then realised why it had taken so long for the English speaking staff member to get back to us, it was a long way! There were 8 economy carriages and then the kiosk and then the restaurant. As we walked through all the carriages, we were glad we had been placed at the back of the train, as our carriage was much quieter than those closer to the restaurant.

We found a menu, but it was only once the English speaker arrived, were they willing to take our order. Although there were nice meals on offer, we simply ordered burgers. We had limited cash and needed to be sure that we would have enough money to get a taxi (if required) at the end of the trip.

We can't compare with executive class, but economy only becomes unbearable at about the 10th hour of sitting in the not so comfortable chairs, and where the train really starts to fill up. So although the train was something different to the 6 hour bus trip, we will probably take the bus next time, or at least ensure we get executive.

When the train pulled into the station we were quite exhausted and thought about getting a bus the extra 10km into town. However we couldn't see anything that stood out as a bus stop and there were taxis waiting so, having asked firstly this time, decided that the $R50 was a rip off worth paying. It meant being dropped off at our hotel (the Ibis budget proved to be the cheapest option in town) without the hassle of finding it ourselves.

LAPFWT