Back in May, (yup, it has taken me that long to write about this!) Ash and I went on vacation to Brazil. He has a client that lives there and so we went to visit him at his home in the mountain town, Campos do Jordao.
Day 1: Our plane touched down at about 6:30 am and I was exhausted. About 2.5 hours later, we arrived by car at Campos and stayed at Hipica Golf, a stable with this little 4-room hotel usually reserved for wedding parties. The view from our room was amazing. We did some work, took a tour of Dormovil's plantation - seriously, this guy has a self-sustaining farm - and took it pretty easy in general.
Day 2: We woke bright and early for a bike ride to this huge park that was about 10k away from the house. I rode an electrical bike. Ash rode a normal mtn. bike and I felt so bad for him while I was gliding up all the hills on the way back to the house. The park was gorgeous. It has fishing ponds, nurseries, and tons of paths to ride, run, or play on. If I lived here, this would be my private little safe-haven!
After we got done with our bike ride, we hopped onto some of the horses that were at the stables and went for a ride. Since I had never ridden a horse before, I was required to wear a life jacket. You read that correctly. This vest inflates if for some reason I fell of the horse.
While we were riding we went up a river. It was honestly one of the coolest things I have ever done! My horse was super stubborn, to reduce my risk of falling off, and I had to kick him hard to get him to go into the water. Nevertheless, it was amazing.
At one point, Ash got off his horse to use the bathroom. While he was getting back on, the horse took off and started galloping the wrong way down the trail. Both of the reigns were on one side of the horse and Ash had to do some superman moved in order to slow the horse and regain control. I'm sure it looked like it was straight out of a movie but I didn't see it.
To finish off the day, we drove up to the top of the mountains and hiked out to this rock...in our riding boots. Those things are not too comfy and I was done when we got to this point. Ash ran out along that fin, in his boots, and I was lucky enough to snatch a photo of him catching the wind. This rock is supposed to look like a travelling trunk...I don't think I have enough imagination.
Day 3: We got on Dormoville's 'quads' and went 4-wheeling all over the countryside. Ash's face was covered in dust about 20 minutes in...this is one of my favorite photos of all time.
One of my favorite features was the two rivers that converged on this rock bed out behind the restaurant. It was just delightful!
At the restaurant, I learned to never judge a book by its cover. Lime? Nope Orange!
Orange? Nope, its a lemon!
For dinner on our final night in Campos, Dormovil invited a pizza chef over to cook pizza in his wood-burning oven. The funny part is that he has a whole dining/kitchen/prep building that is separate from the rest of everything just for this purpose. We ate with all the friends he invited over for quadding earlier that day.
That night we said good-bye and went to bed. The next morning would bring a 3-hour flight and surfing!
