Back to GV

Hey, the group of us are back in Governador Valadares after spending 1 week on the coast , we visited 2 new sites both which were non flyable. Too bad as they looked like fun and had incredible scenery ... we did fly Costello and chris and I had good flights the others had sort of extended sledders as the overdevelopment moved in . I was nice for me as I flew back to Costello and had a nice flighyt which I had been wanting to do for a few years now . Wer ended up flying Alfredo Chaves for the last day and spent 1 day on the beach in Vitoria . Frank, Tracy and Chris Frank´s son left for Sao paulo and rio to catch carnival ... we travelled by over night bus to GV arriving at 430 am ahhhh brutal ... so hooked up a room and went flying at 10 am . Flew 80 km for the first flight in GV with Kevin from Santa Barbra. Greg and Chris wilson flew well greg was at about 65km and Chris set his personal best at 55 km ! The past 2-3 days have been so so flying around the mtn and playing .. over deleloped today , rest day waiting for the sun to come back and bake us again.... ahhh the heat is nice ! cheers

Paragliding in Alfredo Chaves .....

Well i stayed a day in GV , put the bike at Pablo´s house , locked it up and jumped on the bus for Vitoria , met Greg and Lisa at the airport when they arrived , good to see my friends again !!! Lots to talk about , checked into a Hotel on the beach , went into the city for supper !
Picked up the rest of the crew Chris , Chris , Frank and Tracy at the airport the following night , went for supper and beers ... too many beers !
We rented 1 combi van and 1 car to transport everything and headed to Alfredo Chaves , just spent the past 3 days flying , conditions were nice some rain but about 4-6 hrs flying in 3 days . Evening spent going to the beach and trying to not drink too much with the boys , they are on holiday mode ! Chris k , is geting lots of hrs in and is flying well , the others are trying new wings and getting used to them everyone is starting to chill out from the long trip down here and de stressing . Today 18th , some rain inland we are at the beach , trying to figure where to go next , flying to Costelo , beach or head further inland to get better weather .... Carnival is starting on Saturday so it will get busy here !! Nice to be flying again ......

Oro Preto to Valadares ...

After Petropolis I headed inland towards Belo Horizonte, a small mining town where they found and stored the gold . This town was also amasing to see, lots of 16-17th century Churches, gold painting and small narrow streets . I recommend this to everyone whom comes to Brasil to see how it was back then ...I could have spent a few days here interesting and relaxing , nice foor and pubs . I only spent 1 night then headed out for Governador Valadres the next day . The ride to Valadares was nice rolling hills , up and down the small mountains they have here , heating up as I get closer to Valadares, rode into town about 5 pm went to the landing area ... was greated by a bunch of the locals , they thought i was crazy to ride here on my bike ..... So I accomplished what I set out to do .. Ride to G.V. on my bike to meet my group !!! Checked into a hotel , washed up went for beer with the boys .... A nice feeling !

Paraty , Petropolis and Oro Preto .. the gold trail !!

After travelling up the coast.... I was recommended to visit in Paraty, a colonial town on the coast . It was so neat a whole 17th century village of portuguese construction , re done and so well , Old town is now hotels, shops and resturantes. I ended up going on a boat cruise to get off the bike for a day and it was perfect . 5 hrs on a larger sail type boat 40ft , went to 5 different islands and snorkeled and swam , met some people from all over , but mainly Argentinian´s in this area on holidays ! Enjoyed beers with some friendly Argentina girls after. I also had the best burger and milkshake of the trip here !
Next day loaded up early 11am and headed out up the coast to Petropolis , which is near Rio just north west of the city . Very enjoyable ride into the coastal mtns and up in elevation so cooler now , found a hotel late at dark and some rain again ! This city has no place to stay and it´s a tourist town ? what gives ? Next day I walked around and explored the old city of Euro´s and Germans , Relaxing city , great temperature , I can see why they settled here . Coastal hwy was so nice, but hot ... nice to be back in the mountains .

I found paradise....

Ok , So where I was again , getting lost in the days and the travel , I entered Brasil thru Foz do aguazu (sp) great set of falls on the Argentina -Brasil border, it´s national park... so really quite nice , expensive and touristy but ... they were nice to see . Driving up from B.A. was nice as well ,small towns ,great courtyards, freindly people . Met some bikers whom own bike shop and went to a B Party they fed me and got me drunk , we talked about bikes and my trip... it was cool . Crossed the border without problems , not having a license plate is a pain in the ass , it fell off between Chile and Argentina !
Lots of police in Brasil .. got stopped once for driving without my helmet on, they let me go and I had to show them the note from the Chile police about the lost licence plate !
I crossed over to the east coast near Joinville to see Larissa a freind, she showed me around her town and rest for a day .Then up the coast to Santos which is a city off of Sao Pàulo , nice area ...went to the flying site met some guys , next thing you know i´m flying a Fresh Breeze paramotor on the beach over the city. You have to love it , city was nice, flying site in the city, landing on the beach, Great !!
Moved up the coast between Santos and Rio , incredible beaches and feels like you in California except the weather is warmer . Ahhh this is what I have been looking for ... white sand, warm water and small surfing towns all over . Found another flying site heading out of town and got invited to fly , flew 1.5 hrs thermalling and dynamic , landing on the beach ! hmmmmm I can get used to this ..