Serra Do Cipo National Park

We went from the big city to a tiny town a couple hours north. The airbnb had a yard full of fun, including a pool, a trampoline and a mango tree the was full of ripe fruit. The mango was some of the best I have ever had. The only problem is I ended up with a rash on my leg...allergies are a pain. But the kids loved the time to play outside. Only unfortunate thing was the Yates hit a deer while procuring towels, for which the airbnb did not provide. Luckily their car was fine.

We went on a hike to the top of a small mountain in the national park despite some menacing clouds. Luckily we made it all the way to the top with good weather and amazing views. And left to hike back as we saw the rain coming. We got a little wet, but not bad. When we got back to the parking lot they warned us a tree had fallen across the road and to be careful driving. Well, our cars barely made it under the massive tree, but I think the SUV attempting it behind us wasn't so lucky (it was a bit bigger vehicle). There was also a pole from the power lines down across the road but much less of a challenge. These both fell while we were hiking!

We waited out another storm as we ate lunch to live music at a local self-service restaurant. After lunch the weather had cleared, so we decided to visit Cachoeira Grade (Big Waterfall). The walk to it was beautiful with a lot of river veiwpoints, but the big waterfall was AMAZING. With all the rain it was a huge blasting waterfall. We were able to swim at one end of it and it was so much fun. Definately one of our favorite things on the entire trip.

That night we were in dire need of doing a lot of laundry, so Erica and I hit up the VERY busy, somewhat dysfunctional laundromat. We finally had our turn on the one functioning machine and ended up staying 6 hours doing all our laundry. But while we were there we decided to have brownies and icecream delivered to us. Really we just ended up having a really fun night out that just ended up being in a laundromat.

On our drive out of Serra do Cipo toward Ouro Preto we stopped at the Museum of Mines and Minerals in BH. It was a fun rock filled place. Grant was very disapointed that he wasn't able to purchase a rock in the gift shop.

Anyway I just want to say that Serra do Cipo was exactly what my nature loving soul needed.