<![CDATA[GONE GALT - Blog Posts]]>Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:19:12 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[The Last Galt Adventure]]>Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:27:23 GMThttps://gone-galt.net/blog-posts/the-last-galt-adventureI am guessing that most people do not have Belo Horizonte on their Brazil list. Belo Horizonte is the capital of the Minas Gerais region and is home to a family member from my previous life. The last au pair I had for the kids in 2004 was a young Brazilian named Cristiani. The kids adored Cristiani and she lived with us in the States for a year. When we were planning the trip to Brazil, I knew Cristiani would kill me if we did not visit her. Initially, she lived in Sao Paolo which would have been a much easier visit but she had moved to Belo several years ago. When we landed in Belo, we found the rental car counter without issue and headed on our way. Our hotel was in the center of Belo and traffic was a nightmare. The drivers in Belo either go 100 mph or 5 mph….no in-between. Belo also has a split highway so instead of having normal off ramps in downtown, we had to turn right onto a side street, take a left and another left then wait at a redlight, cross over the incoming traffic lane to the outgoing traffic lane and then take a right into our hotel parking lot. Good times. Other than arriving and leaving, our hotel was very convenient. It was located next to an area full of restaurants so we headed out to get dinner. The menu was beyond me and I was too tired to figure it out so I just ordered a hamburger. Bill was trying to figure out what things were on the menu with Google translate. He typed in one of the items on the menu and Google translated it to “Something F*@k” which entertained us greatly!

The next morning, we headed over to see Cristiani and her family. I was Cristiani’s age last time we saw each other so it was fun to see her in the heyday of parenthood with her own two girls. We talked for several hours and then she took us to see her tennis club. A few years ago, Cristiani started playing Beach Tennis which is the fastest growing sport in the world right now. Since Belo did not have any Beach Tennis facilities (Belo is landlocked), she and her husband started a beach club which has been very successful! So successful that her husband’s company has partnered with them to open a new facility that has Beach Tennis and a restaurant. I was very proud of them! After our tour, we went for a traditional Brazilian lunch, Feijoada and Caipirinha. Feijoada is a bean and meat stew served with rice and Caipirinha is Brazil’s national drink made from cachaca. Minas Gerais is known as the food region of Brazil and our lunch did not disappoint. Following lunch, Cristiani, Bill and I went to tour the Laphina Caves which were a short distance from her house. The cave was rediscovered in 1835 and housed the remains of a 10,000 year old skeleton. Our tour was in Portuguese but we had Cristiani to translate and the caves were beautiful. We rounded out our visit with Cristiani with a promise to visit her after the weekend before we flew back to Colombia.

The next morning, we headed out of Belo in search of Inhotim. Inhotim was a botanical garden and art museum all rolled into one. Inhotim was located on top of a mountain and along the way, we got our first taste of traffic in the mining region. Trucks loaded with coal rumbled along in a line as far as we could see. Passing on the roads was limited so it took all our patience to take our place in line and chug up the mountain. When we arrived at Inhotim, we walked down the first trail and discovered pretty quickly that the gardens were going to appeal to us far more than the art. The art was all modern art which has never held any interest for us. The grounds were beautiful and we spent several hours wandering around taking pictures.  Leaving Inhotim, we joined back into the truck line to meander our way to Ouro Preto. Ouro was a UNESCO site and had been the center of the gold rush back in the 1700s. Our hotel was located in the historic area which meant one way streets that no one considered one way. After a few missed turns and turn arounds, we found our hotel which had an amazing view of the entire town. Churches were in every direction and we headed out to explore. The good news was the walk was all downhill. The bad news was we knew we had to eventually come back up the hill! We managed to catch two churches before they closed for the day and then we walked uphill to the main square to eat dinner. When our order arrived, dish after dish was placed on the table and we were very glad we had decided to split a meal because there was so much food!

The following morning, we woke to a horrible smell in our bathroom. It smelled as if an animal had died in the drain so we opened all the windows, shook off the smell  and headed to breakfast. Breakfast in Brazil was an event. Every breakfast bar had at least a dozen different kinds of pastries, scrambled eggs, bacon,sausage, rice, potatoes, cereals, fruits, meats and cheeses. If you do not eat carbohydrates, stay out of Brazil! We needed our carbs because the day’s schedule consisted of at least 4 more churches and lots of hills. Our final meal in Ouro Preto was fondue! Minas Gerais was known for its’ cheese and the fondue was top notch! We finished off our meal with a pot of chocolate fondue which filled us up for the rest of the day.

The next day, we started our drive back to Belo. Along the way, we had three major annoyances….dump trucks, bad drivers and speed bumps. In the Minas region, there were speed bumps stuck in random areas and sometimes in the middle of the highway with no warning. It was a dangerous and annoying situation. We nicknamed the region “Speedbumpolis” in honor of the speedbumps. After a long and torturous 3 hours, we reached our hotel near the Belo airport and headed over to the Beach Tennis club to say goodbye to Cristiani. We watched her give some tennis lessons and then she called me onto the sand for a lesson. I actually did better than I thought I would and it was very similar to badminton which was always my best (and only) sport. After lots of hugs, we said our goodbyes to Cristiani and headed back to the hotel. Our wake up call was at 4am for our 5 hour flight back to Bogota. As we boarded the plane, a screaming toddler boarded as well. I hung onto the thought that no child could keep up that amount of screaming for 5 hours….I was wrong. After a flight from hell, we changed planes in Bogota, checked back into the country and caught our one hour flight into Cartagena. Our Brazil trip was one to remember!
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As with all of life’s adventures, my Galt adventure must come to an end. It is with a grateful heart that I thank all of you for following along these past years. I have lived the life of pirates and mermaids. I have encountered Mother Nature at her gentlest and her most ferocious. I have sailed the seas and trekked into undiscovered countries. As I head back to the responsibilities of life on land, I carry with me the most amazing memories. I encourage all of you to take chances in life and live your dream. As Bill’s father used to say, “Life is not a dress rehearsal. You only get one shot.” Take your shot and may your adventures lead you to discover your best self. This is Golf-Oscar-November-Echo-Golf-Alpha-Lima-Tango signing off!  
]]><![CDATA[Petropolis, Brazil]]>Sat, 27 Jul 2024 21:34:29 GMThttps://gone-galt.net/blog-posts/petropolis-brazilLeaving the beautiful coast of Brazil to follow the twisting road leading to the city of Petropolis, we began our exploration of middle Brazil. Brazil is huge and much like the US, most people live along the coast or in large cities. The road to Petropolis took us through farmlands and wide expanses of empty land. Petropolis was built during the gold rush days of Brazil and was named a city in  1832, ten years after Brazil declared independence from Portugal. The first Emperor, Pedro I, chose the city for his summer residence. Over the next decade, he built his summer palace and all his rich friends followed. As a result, Petropolis was an odd event to find in the mountains of Brazil. The streets were lined by huge mansions that overlooked water canals that ran throughout the city. When we arrived in Petropolis, we headed directly to the Bohemian Brewery for lunch and a tour. The restaurant served mostly German food and had an amazing bread made from left over brewery ingredients. We had a huge plate of sausages and some more bread so it was a great start to Petropolis. The brewery was a self-guided tour that included four 4 ounce samples of beer each. The tour covered 4 floors and was very well done. Being the lightweight of our pair, I was handing my remaining samples over to Bill by the time we reached the third floor. Our hotel in Petropolis was housed in one of the old mansions and while it needed a little TLC, the architecture was amazing. For the afternoon, we walked across the street to the main cathedral for our daily church fix. By the time dinner rolled around, we were not really hungry so we set out to find something small to nibble. We came across a hotdog food truck and decided a hotdog would be the perfect dinner. I puzzled the hotdog vendor when I did not want corn, olives, peppers or any of the other odd-to-me hotdog items on my hotdog. She looked a little sad as she handed me my hotdog with only crunchy potato sticks and ketchup. We were quite happy though because our dinner cost under $5.00 which was a nice change from Rio and Paraty!

We woke early the next morning to visit the Imperial Museum which was housed in Pedro’s summer palace. When we entered the foyer, a guard handed us these odd slippers that looked like old flip flops. We were instructed to leave our shoes on and slide our feet into the slippers. Slippers was a good word for these particular shoes because they made the floors super slippery! I managed not to kill myself by sliding my feet as if I was ice skating. Bill finally gave up on keeping his size 12W feet in his slippers, took his shoes off and went around in his socks. The museum had some interesting items but our greatest entertainment was trying to find one of the royal family members that was even remotely attractive. If painted portraits back in the day reportedly made people look better than they did in real life, Pedro’s family was in deep trouble! Our next stop was Casa Santos Dumont. Mr. Dumont was born to a wealthy father whose only requirement for Santos was that he be learned and do something amazing. No pressure there! Santos lived up to his father’s ideal and then some. He was an inventor and was the Wright Brothers of Brazil. He designed and built airplanes and was Brazil’s Father of Aviation. In fact, the airport in Rio was named after Santos. His house was tiny and unassuming with only two rooms and a bathroom and I got the feeling I would have liked Santos very much. For lunch, we went to the chocolate café. I had one of the best chocolate milkshakes I ever had! Following lunch, we headed down the street to find another chocolate shop because a gal can never have enough chocolate. We found the shop tucked into a courtyard. The courtyard was full of middle school children whose teachers evidently thought taking kids to a chocolate shop for a field trip was a smart plan. We sat outside the shop watching the children chow on chocolate and get louder and louder by the minute. Once the crowd had thinned, we made our way to the counter and had a good laugh with the proprietor about the insanity. Grabbing our own bag full of hyperactivity, we finished our Petropolis leg on a high note!

Returning down the twisty mountain road, we made our way back to Rio to catch our flight to Belo Horizonte (pronounced Belo Horizonch in good Portuguese fashion). The domestic airport sat in the middle of the bay in Rio and had the shortest runway I had ever seen. Bill explained to me that we were going to do be doing a short-field takeoff. Thank goodness he explained that to me prior to the actual take off or I would have had a heart attack. A short-field take off involves the pilot holding the brake, revving the engine up to “take off” speed and then letting the plane shoot off like a rocket! Add in the fact that we had to take a sharp turn to avoid hitting Sugarloaf Mountain and the whole thing was quite terrifying!
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Luckily, the rest of the flight was uneventful and we landed in Belo Horizonte unscathed and on schedule. Our Brazil adventure will conclude with next week’s blog so we will see you then and you will meet some of the worst drivers in the world! 
]]><![CDATA[Quiet Time In Brazil]]>Sun, 21 Jul 2024 19:58:00 GMThttps://gone-galt.net/blog-posts/quiet-time-in-brazilBy the time we finished touring Rio, we were citied out for a few days. We headed to one of Rio’s three airports to pick up our rental car from Avis. When we were in Cusco in 2023, our Thrifty Car Rental had been hidden in the Hertz office. We were on alert in Rio for where Avis could be hiding but we had to give up and ask a competitor where it was hidden. The employee directed us out of the main airport into the “mall” to a company named Unidas where we finally found our Avis car. Driving along the Brazilian coastline was amazing and the views were beautiful. I had discovered the UNESCO city of Paraty (logically pronounced Parachee in Portuguese) online and it was described as an old city with quaint shops and eateries. Following the GPS, we drove down a dirt road to our unassuming hotel. Walking into the hotel, we entered a peaceful, hidden getaway. Our hotel sat on a canal surrounded by nature and had a pool and a restaurant. Brazilian hotel rooms in the countryside are utilitarian so ours had two beds, white walls and a bathroom. I sweet-talked the receptionist into bringing Bill a chair so he had somewhere to sit and I decided I should sell some paintings to the hotels in Brazil because their white walls needed some love. The first shock of Paraty was the restaurant prices. We were in the middle of nowhere Brazil but evidently the tourists flock to Paraty because the restaurant prices reflected the prices of fine dining in Paris. We settled on eating at our hotel restaurant which was a little better priced and spent the evening watching the boats on the canal.

​The next morning, we walked over to the old town to peruse the quaint shops and eateries. As we visit more and more UNESCO sites, we have decided that no one from UNESCO ever visits these sites prior to giving them the label. Paraty was no different from any other small town we have visited. It had cobblestone streets, a square and a few small churches. The quaint shops were full of Chinese junk and the eateries were small coffee shops. We wandered for an hour which was more than enough time for the complete tour. After the disappointment of Paraty, we needed some alcohol.  For the afternoon, we booked a tour of a local cachaca distillery. Cachaca was the local alcohol of Brazil and was used in all their most popular drinks. When I made our reservation at Maria Isabel distillery, the only instruction I received via Whatsapp was to “look for the gate and be sure to close the gate so the horses do not get out”. Bill parked the car on the side of the dirt road where more cars had parked and we walked along until we found a gate with a horse staring at us. Figuring we had found the correct spot, we entered, closed the gate and wandered down the hill to locate Maria Isabel. Maria was exactly what you would expect from a cachaca maker in the middle of Brazil. She was feisty, energetic and spoke no English whatsoever! Much like others whose language we do not speak, she seemed to think if she just continued speaking in Portuguese, we would eventually learn it. So, we began our tour in Portuguese. Halfway through the tour, a Brazilian man with a US girlfriend joined our group so he graciously interpreted for us. What we learned on our tour was that cachaca is rum. The Brazilians say it is not rum but it is distilled from sugarcane and tastes, smells and looks like rum so we were suspicious. During the tasting, we were joined by a few more groups so we enjoyed sampling some rums and chatting. When we left Maria’s (carefully closing the gate behind us), we drove to find the fishing village of Prainha which reportedly had good seafood restaurants. After we parked, a few locals pointed out a sandy trail that wound around the bay so we headed that way. We walked about 10 minutes and came upon a hidden beach. Since it was later in the day, we shared the spot with a few locals at the restaurant. We ordered fish nuggets from the menu thinking we just needed a small snack. When the waiter arrived, we had a huge basket of fish nuggets! It was an entire fish! With beer in hand and more fish than we could eat, we enjoyed the sunset before heading back to Paraty.  
We arose early the next morning to make our way to Angra to catch our water taxi to Ilha Grande. The area of Angra has over 360 islands and Ilha Grande was a popular vacation spot for locals and tourists. Our water taxi held about a dozen people and dropped the others at stops along the waterfront on Ilha Grande. We were the last stop and disembarked onto a deserted beach with two small hotels. The only way to get to this area was by water taxi so we felt like we had landed on Gilligan’s Island. We checked into our hotel which was basic (again, two beds and white walls) and headed to sit on the veranda by the ocean. At that moment, we knew exactly where we would be the next day. A group of divers came in on a tour in the afternoon so we were able to join their lunch buffet which even had chocolate cake! Life could not get any better. We spent the next day watching the life of the island as boatmen worked on their boats and fishermen headed out for the daily catch. I was in heaven as I spent the day taking pictures of dozens of herons and egrets that lined the shores (sadly, all my pictures were lost in the computer crash). At the day’s end, we wandered to our room and settled in for the night. Just as we crawled into bed, the electricity went off. No AC, no fans, no CPAP for Bill. South Americans have not yet discovered window screens so opening the windows fully was not really an option because of the mosquitos. We suffered for about 5 hours when the electricity finally returned so we could get a few hours of sleep before catching our morning taxi back to the mainland.  
Join us next week as we head to Petropolis to follow in the footsteps of Brazilian royalty!  
]]><![CDATA[Big City 3...Rio de Janeiro]]>Sat, 13 Jul 2024 20:49:20 GMThttps://gone-galt.net/blog-posts/big-city-3rio-de-janeiroFlying into Rio de Janeiro was a beautiful sight. White beaches surrounded by mountains stretched for miles and the water was an amazing deep blue. Our hotel was located directly on Copacabana Beach and it had a rooftop bar and pool with incredible views. We had our first dinner in Rio on the beach and watched as the beach came alive with locals playing soccer, beach tennis and volleyball after sundown. Our meal was definitely tourist prices and we would soon find that all of Rio’s prices were set for the tourists. The following morning, we headed to the beach, grabbed some beach chairs and prepared ourselves for some eye candy on the beach. As the morning progressed, we enjoyed our drinks delivered directly to our chairs but not much in the way of eye candy. We had always heard the Brazilians in Rio were supermodels but we found that most of them were just ordinary people so the Rio myth was busted. Copacaana did not lack for hawkers on the beach and we were offered cigars, scarves, jewelry, soccer shirts and soccer balls. Some guys pushed around carts cooking corn and a few guys even had small grills that they carried around and cooked sausages. It was a hub of activity. The male vendors were quite polite and took ‘no’ with a smile and wandered on their way. The massage gals were not as gracious. We would say no and then they would try to grab our feet to give us a “free” sample massage. When we refused, they pushed a little more until we had to get firm and then they moved on. As Bill says, “We start with Portuguese ‘no thank you’, then move to Spanish but by the time we get to ‘no thank you’ in  English, you had best be moving on!”

After our beach relaxation day, our next day in Rio was pure tourist day. We taxied down to the city center and began our long walk for the day. City center in Rio was crowded and the streets were not well marked so we walked in a few circles. We stopped by the aqueduct for pictures and then made our way to the modern cathedral in Rio. The cathedral looked like a combination pyramid and spaceship. It was one of the ugliest buildings I had ever seen. The inside was unique but it still felt as if Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were going to rush me at any minute for a donation. No worries, though! If you did not like the main cathedral, Rio had churches on every corner…literally! So, while Bill was trying to figure out which street we were on, I would stick my head in the church, take a quick look and we would be on our way. The main thing I wanted to see in Rio was the Portuguese Reading room. The reading room is always featured on the top 10 best libraries in the world list so it has been on my bucket list for a long time. After wandering in circles for about an hour, we finally located the entrance. While the room was impressive, I did not get “the feels” like I usually get in a room full of books. There was nowhere to sit and read, you could not browse the books and it felt very utilitarian. So, I was a bit disappointed in that bucket list item but it is checked! By this time, we were hungry! The good thing about lunch in the city center is the prices were local! We ordered a lunch plate to share and we were so thankful we did. It was huge! Initially, we had ordered chicken but then the waiter came to tell us they had no chicken. Having no chicken in South America is like having no barbeque in Texas. Bill pointed to the pigeons under the table and said, “Franga?” (chicken in Portuguese) and the waiter burst out laughing and brought us fish. Our next discovered gem had not been on our list. As we wandered, we saw a huge cathedral in the center of a roundabout. It was open so we stepped in and were amazed that this cathedral had not made any of the “things to do \.lists” online. Sometimes the things you find when you are lost are the best part of the day! Church number 427 for the day was Sao Bento monastery which involved asking for directions three times, walking into a plain business-like glass building, taking an elevator to the third floor, walking up two flight of stairs and ending up back outside but on top of a huge hill. The sanctuary was lovely but we were disappointed we could not venture into the rest of the property because it looked expansive. Our final stop was the science museum which was a very modern building on the waterfront. We bypassed visiting the museum because it was all about sustainability and we did not feel like getting preached to in Portuguese. I’d rather face Jim and Tammy Faye!

Our last day in Rio was a busy one. We took on the challenge of the metro to head over to see Ipanema Beach. Finding the metro was easy but walking underground to the correct line, we felt as if we could have walked to Ipanema more quickly. The Rio metro was the biggest rat maze we had seen awhile! Ipanema Beach was smaller than Copacabana but equally as beautiful. However, we did not see the girl from Ipanema. Voting to bypass the metro labyrinth, we took a taxi back to the hotel so we could begin our afternoon tour. The tour van twisted and turned up steep hills through small villages until we reached Christ the Redeemer. I had always heard that the statue would be smaller than I expected but it was very large! The views of Rio were breathtaking which made it worth fighting all the selfie shooters to get pictures. The level of selfie stupidity reached new heights at the Redeemer. We were stepping over people lying on the ground and doing all kinds of poses. It was ridiculous and used all our patience for the day. Our next stop was the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain. Sugarloaf sat across the bay from Christ the Redeemer and had even better views than the Redeemer! By the time we got to Sugarloaf, the tour had dropped off the morning tour people so we had only 4 of us remaining. We enjoyed sunset on the mountain but we were glad to get away from the Instagrammers and get back to our quiet hotel.
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The next morning, we headed over to rent a car so we could drive to Paraty and Petropolis. Our next leg was a much needed break from large cities! Next week, the beautiful coast and mountains of Brazil! 
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