about stayed at bay however, as we
trundled along the road, we hit sec-
tions of quite thick fog; unfortunate
as we were unable to fully appreciate
the views. We enjoyed it nonetheless
and took several opportunities to pull
over.
The town at the end of this section
of road was Morretes and I man-
aged to find a little gem of a hostel
(Hospedajem Solar do Maria) just on
the edge of town.
The hostel was family run, they
spoke a little English and warmly wel-
comed us and the bikes, moving their
car out of the garage so we could
safely store our bikes for a couple of
nights.
Once settled, we took a short walk
around the picturesque town, arriv-
ing back at the hostel just before the
heavens opened, and the rain ham-
mered down for a few hours.
The next morning at breakfast we
watched the hummingbirds feed-
ing on sugar water, happily flitting
around the flowers.
We took another walk around the
area, venturing a little further and
watched one of the longest cargo
trains I’d ever seen as it made its way
through the town. The carriages were
heavily graffitied that made them
much more interesting as they flowed
TRAVERSE 27
past at a super slow speed.
The evening brought with it yet
more Brazilian culinary delights. We
found a tiny café on the bank of the
river called Cafe Bar Beira Rio. We
were greeted by the very enthusiastic
waiter who spoke English very well
and took great pride in explaining the
dishes to us. He brought us a taster
of their regional dish; Barreado. A
stewed meat dish, with a side of dry
manioc flour, baked banana and rice.
He showed us how it should be cor-
rectly eaten, and to my delight it was
super tasty. The meat was not at all
fatty and the dish in its entirety was
so flavoursome. I think we would’ve