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We left Ilha Grande on a Private boat, rather than the public ferry which we took to get there. When we returned to Angra Dos Reis, we had wanted to take a bus to Sao Paulo, where we could spend the night, but the next bus was sold out. We could have taken a night bus there, but we decided instead to push forward to Campo Grande, where we could catch a bus to Bonito, Sarah´s whole reason for wanting to come to Brazil.

So, we set off from Angra Dos Reis to the town of Barra Mansa, where we would then transfer to a bus for an 18 hour ride to Campo Grande. As we only had sandwiches from a fast food place called MAX Burger to tide us over, we arrived very hungrily. We arrived at Casa Do Chopp (Chopp = draft beer). Sarah and I can vouch for their large portions, tasty beer, and attentive service. So if for some reason you are stuck in Barra Mansa and need to eat a good meal, just make a left from the rodoviaria and then take the first left. I know this advice would have saved us some time.

Not that time mattered, as we needed to wait an extra hour for the bus - which started in Rio, yet would end up finishing in Porto Velho, roughly 48 hours away from Rio. There were many people on the bus who would be on the bus for quite some time longer.

But I enjoy how buses in Brazil stop at the roadside restaurants, which range from por-quilo restaurants and lanchonetes, to full-blown rodizios, where many waiters parade around a full restaurant with large slabs of meat on skewers, plus a sharp knife which you may use to cut off your preferred part of meat. The beauty of this is sadly lost on Sarah 😊

The bus arrived at our destination roughly 6 hours after it was supposed to. Not only did the bus drive slowly and stop for elongated periods of time, but one of its tires was also punctured. We arrived in Campo Grande tired and hungry.

As we needed to get laundry done, we decided to have a chill day in Campo Grande, that actually turned out to be a fairly chill day.

In Brazil, the word ¨shopping¨is actually a noun. While many Brazilians shop in their cities´downtowns, many prefer to shop in ¨shoppings,¨ which are essentially your traditional American indoor malls.

So, because we had not seen a movie in a theatre for a couple of months and we wanted to, we headed to Shopping Campo Grande, which has a fantastic food court.

Not only does it have several por-quilo restaurants, but it also had a fairly quick-service pasta place where you could choose one of about 8 types of pasta, 8 ingredients (out of a choice of about 50) to throw into the pasta, plus one of 8 sauces, all for about $8 US per plate. I should open up a franchise in Canada.

In addition, the food court featured a popular baked potato stand and chopp - not just cups and pitchers, but you could purchase a 2.5 liter dispenser full of chopp.

The beer enables the mall food court to be more of a gathering place, rather than the collections of cruddy fast food places that you cannot wait to get out of that populate American malls.

We had a good political discussion with Carlos and Mariano, a couple of young Campo Grandeans (sic), who hate their president almost as much as they hate Bush.

And then they gave us a ride back to the bus station area, where we were to pick up our laundry. But the laundromat closed just a few minutes before we arrived.

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