Pantanal and Caracas - Day 14 30/7 - Bello Horozonte - Sanctuaria - Home

Tuesday 30th Homeward Bound.

Our last day in Brazil. I decided to forgo the early morning walk round so that I could get my hair washed and my case packed. David and Alan still went out and did a trail to a viewpoint half way up a mountain. I met up with Brenda around 7.30 and we made our way to breakfast. There was only one oven burning this morning which made it a little more difficult as everyone had to cook round one side and the fire was very fierce at one end and not very hot at the other which meant that the omelettes were burnt almost before you put them on the griddle or took ages to cook. The boys turned up a little later. Because of the bad state of the roads and the many roadworks Marcelo was keen to get going so we settled up our bill, loaded the van and set off, stopping on the way for a short walk to the Grand Tank on the Titi monkey trail. These animals used to be common but are now very rare in the area after an outbreak of Yellow fever wiped most of them out and we didn't have any luck. The tank was very peaceful with a small waterfall. We had some nice birds, including and the usual group photo before leaving at 10.30 for the drive to the airport. 

The road works were slow going and some of the bumps were quite fierce. It took about three and a half hours before we arrived at the airport with plenty of time. We checked in our baggage then went to eat a subway lunch before saying good bye to Marcelo and going through security for our 4.10 flight back to São Paulo. For a short, one hour flight it was one of the more eventful flights with strong turbulence and a rainstorm that meant the plane aborted its original landing as we were on final approach, going up high and round again for about 10 minutes before eventually coming in with quite a heavy landing. We collected our luggage and then trekked through the airport to terminal three where we checked our luggage in with about four hours to spare. We went through security and then walked through till we found a cafe area where Alan had a pizza, Brenda and I had  pasta and David a burger. The pasta came and then the pizza but no burger or French fries. Eventually we enquired about the burger and it had been missed, but was ordered again, same as the French fries. A waiter was passing with some and he was told to give them to Brenda and go back for more. It did seem like there were some problems with management as the order was certainly written down ok. We wasted a bit more time looking through the shops and managing to get three free coffee tickets so we returned to the cafe, drank the coffee, bought a drink for the flight and then walked on to our gate for our 23.50 flight back to Heathrow.