Off on my bike : Manoel Vitorino to Itaobim

Vitoria da Conquista.

Seventy miles through hilly country, well I have done worse, just have to keep going.  The landscape around me continues to change, I see aloes by the side of the road, just flowering, and there are big plantations of trees - Eucalyptus maybe?  Weather is changing too, it rains on and off throughout the day, it's getting colder in fact, I need my sweater in the evening, well it is the depths of winter here.

Into another big city, Vitoria da Conquista, I have a hotel booked here, it's quite posh - actual soap in the bathroom!  I continue to experiment with Brazilian snack food, tonight a plate of various 'salgados', something like croquettes or dumplings, deep fried of course, and of course containing meat.  I can tell this is a big city, the 'petiscaria' I get these from has menus, and even chairs that are not of the plastic garden type.  My bottom appreciates this.  And then a bar, with live music even, a nice change from pickup trucks.

Crossing into Minas Gerais.

Another day, another seventy miles, more rain, at least I'm not getting as many punctures now the road has improved - though I have to be careful whenever I stop, just pushing the bike off into the dirt can leave the tires covered in little spiky things, seeds I think.  Pretty sure they would work their way through to the tube if I didn't pick them off.  On to Divisa Alegre, another truck stop town, bit of a landmark as it's just past the state border, I've been in Bahia for what seems like forever, but now, Minas Gerais.

Rather pretty in these parts.

I find a hotel, and manage to negotiate a 'self service' dinner - I've seen a lot of these, you help yourself to veggies, rice etc., then they bring meat, in this case 'boi', beef I think.  Seems to sometimes be fixed price, but often, as here, they weigh the plate and charge per gram.  I pay thirteen reais for my plateful, can't be bad.  Then to a nice little praça away from the road where there are of course bars, well that is all I need, I decide to stay another day.  Can't say I do a lot with it, lie about, continue my largely fruitless attempts to learn Portuguese - sadly it seems that as with French, it matters little how many words I theoretically know, in practice when the locals talk I just hear a meaningless blur of sound, and likewise they have no idea what I am trying to say.

Itaobim - land of the mango!

Probably should have given the bike a checkup during my day off... when I come to wheel it out of my room I notice the brake rubbing on the rear wheel.  It's slightly buckled, OK, can fix this with my spoke key, oh hang on, one of the spokes has snapped, oops.  Bet it was that vicious speed bump I hit thirty miles or so back, well, no wonder the wheel is buckled.  But, tightening the adjacent spokes on that side of the wheel pretty much straightens it, fingers crossed it'll hold.

I feel better for a rest anyway, seventy miles to do again but I make good pace through pretty country - wooded valleys and sheer rock faces stretching up to peaks to either side.  The wheel holds up, and I roll through some dramatic gorges into Itaobim, a nice little place, doesn't seem to match the picture of grim poverty painted by it's wikipedia page.  There's a pleasant main square, and a pizzeria, yay.  I consume pizza, beer, and watch Brazilian TV on a big screen - seems to be the same set of soap operas every day...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.