Estacio Biologica Caratinga

    As it happens, Paola and Deborah were leaving Caraca the same day I wanted to, saturday, and were headed to Belo Horizonte. They kindly agreed to give me a free ride. With their ride I was saving almost $50 in taxi and bus fare, so that really helped. Once in BH I spent a few hours updating my apparently nonexistent blog. I found a cheap place to eat under my hotel. Everything in BH is within 5 minutes of my hotel - food, internet, the bank or ATMs and the bus station. It's ok here. Christmas is in full swing too! I was only back in BH for a night before I went to Estacio Biologica Caratinga. I bought my ticket for 8am the next morning.


I got up at 7am for the free hotel breakfast. I packed and was on the bus by 8. It was another nice bus with a bathroom on board. Most of the buses have bathrooms on board which I hardly ever, ever see. It was a long 6 hour ride to Caratinga on winding mountain roads. We stopped at 10am for breakfast. Once in Caratinga, I took another bus at 2.30 towards Ipanema. I told the driver I was getting off at Estacio Biologica and they dropped me there about 2 hours later. The road up to the biological station was unpaved, rough and through the forest. Once they dropped me off, there was nothing around. It was quiet. I liked it already. I hiked on a dirt road for half and hour until I arrived at the tiny research station/ visitors centre. Just before I arrived at the station, a troupe of howler monkeys crossed the road in the trees right above my head! Wow, this was awesome, I just arrived and I'm already seeing monkeys!
    Unfortunately for me though, the centre was shut up tight and no one was around. I guess that's why the guidebook says 'booking ahead is essential'! But that's not the way I do most things. I like to just show up and see what happens. I walked down the road further, thinking the accomodation for visitors might be at another place but I didn't see anything else. I finally saw a girl walking down the road. She showed me a key to the research station and where I could shower. This was where the researchers lived and there was coffee on the table and food on the stove. The only thing missing where the people! I checked out the place and behind the lab/garage was a room with a few bunk beds in it for visitors. The window was open. It was now 8pm and still no one was around so, I climbed in the window and opened the door. I set up my mossie net and got comfortable. I went outside to lie on a bench and watch the stars. The moon was bright but the sky was clear. I saw an absolutely amazing shooting star. It appeared as a very bright light,not really moving fast. I wasn't sure what it was at first. It slowly got less bright and then flared up and disappeared. The whole scene lasted almost 5 seconds. I know that doesn't sound like but most shooting stars flash by in a flicker of an eye, this one lasted. Shortly after that another one appeared. It didn't last as long but looked very, very low in the sky. I could almost reach up and touch it.
     At 9pm a couple arrived on a motorbike. It was Vera, who worked at the station, cleaning and cooking, and her husband. With my limited understanding of Portuguese, she said that she didn't know I was coming and that's why no one was around. It was sunday night and the researchers were out staying somewhere else. She got me some proper bedding and offered me something to eat. I couldn't wait till now, so I heated up some rice and beans that were left on the stove. She left and I would see what the place was really like, with people, tomorrow.