T-1

We arrived without incident to Guarulhos airport at 5:10 AM under stormy skies. In Brazil, things never go as planned and that didn’t change for us this morning. We jumped in the car rental shuttle after a coffee and disembarked unloading all our gear at the car rental terminal then getting in the line. Once we finally reached the agent we learned it was not the correct rental agency! Back in the shuttle, loaded all the gear and back to Terminal 3 looking for Unidas in the parking garage. No signs, no one around so we look in garage, back to terminal and then a Unidas worker in uniform walks towards an elevator, we chase him down and then asking where have they hidden their operation in the parking garage which turned out to be the 6th floor. The agent at the counter then notified us that the Fiat Doblo we reserved which has the space we need is not available! Haggling with the agents leads us nowhere and our only solution is to take what they have and drive it to Campinas, a city along the way, and exchange there for the car we reserved…monkey is on the our back. We arrived at Campinas with the auto we didn’t reserve and drive in to exchange but as we were about to swap luggage the attendant told us we would need to fill up the tank so we drive back out into the city in search of a gas station…

Only four hours later we are on the road again with the car we originally rented, welcome to Brazil!

The chaos also produces some pleasant surprises as 4 more hours into the trip to Franca, our starting point, we exit to take a bio break and stumble into a wonderful little lunch spot that is serving simple fare of the freshest vegetables, 3 types of hand made potato chips, home made desserts in a buffet “all you can eat format” for the price of roughly $5. I feel rich down here!

We arrived in Franca end of day, found the monument for the beginning of the Caminho da Fe and secured our pilgrims passports at the church on the square. Diana, who worked in the church providing the passports was impressed that foreigners came here to run the route and hoped she could do it herself one day.

Brazil is the land of churches and soccer - every town has at least one and Franca didn’t disappoint as we saw quaint, well appointed chapels sprinkled along the city scape. And, our hotel which is sold out, is home to 4 semi-professional soccer clubs playing in town.

Franca is know for its coffee and shoe industry. With a population of over 300k residents, it will be one of the bigger cities we visit.

Rain with intermittent lightening and thunder pounded us all day. A wet Caminho presents and extremely difficult challenge as foot care and rashes become major issues. Fingers crossed the rain in the forecast every day is more sporadic than relentless.

After a planning meal over my favorite Brazilian drink of pineapple caipiroska, we organized our gear and plan for early wake up to start our journey south with our first stop in Patrocina.

Thank you for your support.

Cheers,

David.