Starting the Road-trip

Thursday, May 4th
Finding a car was a very difficult thing. Car rentals in Brazil are outrageously expensive. A nice 4x4 pick-up truck, suitable for our trip for 10 days would cost more than our tickets to Brazil. We opted for a Ford Ecosport from Hertz. The major american car rental companies operate in Brazil. The major Brazilian car rental companies are Unidas and Localiza. Localiza has 3 4x4 pick-up truck options.
The Ecosport comes in the "flex" version which means a person can decide whether to fill up with gasoline or alcohol. Ours ended up being the gasoline version, even though I was told it was a flex version on the phone. There was also a major price miscommunication between the operator I made reservations with and the agency were I got the car from.
My suggestion if one rents a car from overseas and even while in Brazil, is to get a confirmation email from the operator or the name of the person you spoke to. Having the name of the person I spoke to helped me get a resolution about the price dispute and a discount.
Off we were to our first stop at the Fazenda Rio das Pedras.
Its a 2 and 1/2 to 3 hour drive from Rio de Janeiro up a very very steep mountain range. The area is off of the major highway that goes to São Paulo called the Via Dutra. Rio de Janeiro
state highways are usually in poor condition. The Dutra (BR116) is in ok condition precisely because it is going to São Paulo.
The entrance to Visconde de Mauá is at the 311-km on the Dutra Highway. The asphalt continues on for about 15-km, then the dirt road up hill starts. At the entrance to Penedo, a "Swiss" town right off the exit to Visconde de Mauá, We stopped to give a ride to 2 Hare-Krishna girls (not in costume) that were hitch-hiking towards Mauá. They never bugged us about any religious stuff, they were actually really pleasant hippie types.
It takes about 45 mins. to an hour to get up into the hills. A true off-road experience. The place is protected by the environmental protection agency called IBAMA. No one in the area wants to make access to the region any easier than it already is. And laws are very strict about altering any part of the protected area since a real estate boom in the 80's. It was, and still is, the chosen area for hippies from all over the world. Alex called it Woodstock, or the Catskills! Elevations are up to 2500 mt. above sea level, its part of the Itatiaia National Park, the highest elevation in the country. That means the temps are low for Brazilian standards. The trip took us around 3 1/2 hrs. from Rio because we took our time stopping and taking pictures, basically enjoying the scenery.
I was very pleasantly surprised when I pulled up into the "Fazenda Rio das Pedras" Inn. Not to mention, that as soon as we got settled in to my little chalet, I witnessed a cow giving birth to a calf.
As I had mentioned before, included in the price of the chalet R$100,00 (U$50,00) were complete breakfast and horses. First thing we did was take a little horse-back ride around the area. They hadn't been used in a while and they didn't have any shoes on, which made them a little reluctant to cooperate.
Later on we went into town. It's name is Maringá, the Rio Preto divides the city between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. It looks like a little country resort town, a mix between Lake Tahoe and Woodstock. The architecture is very chalet like and the Flora is a mix of the Altantic Rain-forest with Pine trees all over. Temperatures are low in that area and there were record lows for the region at that time of year 14 degrees centigrade.
We had dinner in town and coffee at a little café.
Photos and Slide-show.