Sunday, February 25, 2007

The road to Eldorado

We decided to use the time off for the Carnaval holiday here in Brazil to see something you can't see anywhere in Canada that we know of. There are famous caves with stalactites and stalagmites about three hours away from Sao Paulo near a town called Eldorado. Along the way we passed some of the largest banana plantations we've ever seen. The blue bags are where the bananas are. They do this to ripen them faster. Inside the bag is a newspaper. Don't believe it works? Put unripe fruit in a bag with newsprint and compare it to the same fruit without being put in the bag.


We were impressed with how dense the jungle was on the mountain. Imagine trying to work your way through jungle this thick with just a machete.


The road between Eldorado and the caves was the most dangerous we've ever seen. There was eveidence of erosion all over the place and the road was cut out of the side of a mountain for much of the way. However, they don't take care of the back roads here like we've grown to expect in North America. Here was a rockslide that appears to have been left on the road for days.


This sign says, "Half a road in 100 meters."


Here's what the sign meant. Since the bank to the right of the road is washing away, they decided to just narrow the road down to one lane rather than try to fix the problem. There were four or five of these erosion areas between Eldorado and the caves.