Parque do Caraca

Most hotels in Brazil include breakfast and the cheap Hotel Madrid was no exception. After breakfast, I went to an ATM and took out money with no problems. I did my annual buzzing of my hair, bought a bus ticket and was on my way to Parque do Caraca at 10am. It was a 2.5 hour ride to Santa Barbara through rolling hills and not much development. From Santa Barbara I had to take a taxi to Caraca. It was 18km away and we only passed a few pousadas ( family run guesthouses) along the way. I liked what I was getting into, forest and no people. I stayed at Pousada Santerio, the only place to stay in the park. It is nestled in the middle of a range of bowl shaped mountains. There is a church here dating from 1774 from which the pousada was built around.
 My private room cost $70 Brazilian real ( $1 can/us = appox. 1.70 reals) but that included 3 meals a day as well. I thought it was a pretty good deal once I saw my room and the food. I was starving and went to eat right away. All the meals are all you can eat buffets and the food was excellent. Brazilian food is pretty tame. There's nothing crazy exotic here. There was rice, beans, chicken, pork, beef, french fries, soup, salad, pasta, pasta salad and always fruit, usually banana, watermelon and papaya. They also had dessert! Sweet potatoe pudding and soft peanut brittle. They had coffee and juice too, though only provided coffee mugs in the morning. Other times you had to drink it from a small one once plastic cup. I know, weird eh?! According to Lonely Planet, Brazilians like their coffee as strong as the devil, hot as hell and sweet as love. Which is great, because that's exatly the way I like it.
My room was on a lower level floor which I had all to myself. Across the hall was the bathroom. Water was hot and pressure was outstanding! The whole place was spotlessly clean. I could get used to this! I planned on spending 4 nights here, from Tuesday to Saturday because Lonely Planet (LP) said it got busy on weekends. Thoughtfully placed motion censor lights lit up the hall or bathroom when ever I left my room. My room stayed a steady 23C with 75% humidity day and night. It had one large glass window with no screen so I always left it open.
 It was already mid afternoon after I finished lunch so I just took a small trail up a hillside through the forest. The hillsides are littered with trails all marked on a free map. Many of the trails are self guiding, which I really like. It started to rain as I was on the trail and I had to run back not to get too soaked. I was prepared for any rain. After dinner I went out to a patio to see the nightly feeding of the wolf.