Wednesday, August 11, 2004

We drove north to Garabolhos to visit the mother of Maria's best friend, Ana. It was just the four of us and Isabel, Bob, and Nathan. The directions that we had indicated that it should be about a three hour drive, but for us it actually turned out to be about five hours. The reason it took so long was because (a) Nathan got a little sick in the car and we had to stop to clean him up; (b) we stopped for lunch; and (c) we missed a turn (we think) and ended up having to drive over the Serra da Estrella (Mountain of the Stars). This was probably the most beautiful scenery I've even seen: driving up the mountain and looking down into the valley. It was also the most nerve-wracking drive I've ever done, with winding narrow roads, lots of blind curves, steep dropoffs off the sides of the roads, and no guard rails for most of the drive. I started to get a little freaked by the time we got to the top, and it was all I could do to just keep both hands on the wheel and watch the road in front of me; I didn't dare try to take a glance at the scenery and try to enjoy the view.

The sign at the scenic outlook on the way up the mountain.

Views of the valley.

We finally arrived in Garabolhos at around 4:00pm, and Ana's mom had dinner waiting for us. Her house is huge and beautiful, quite a contrast from the closet we felt we had been living in back at Maria's parents house in Sao Salvador. The kids were able to have a lot more room to play, and Bob and I were able to hang out in the living room by ourselves (which we named the "quiet adult room"). We finally went to bed at around 9:30pm for a great nights sleep.

Oh yeah . . . Vanessa called . . . she found Maria's jewelry!