My trip to Socorro, Sao Paulo, Brazil

One of the biggest rules in all my travels is to spend as little money as it is possible, and this trip was the test to prove that we could do it. One of our firsts cuts was the hostel. Instead of a roof let’s use my tent, instead of a bed, lets use a sleeping bag. And you know, the trip get so more cheaper, and so, so much more fun! We stayed at the camping: Quintal das estrelas. (Translated to: Stars backyard). It’a little far from the city but that is compensated at night, it’s so quiet, and the sky? Ooo, the sky <3 you will understand the reason of the camping name. It’s really beautiful.

But besides the camp, the plan was to leave my house at Friday night, but my mother warned me about the roads there. I do not know from other places, but the road from Campinas to there is full of curves with very little light, so if you are not very accustomed to driving at night I strongly recommend to you to go in the early morning instead, it’s safer. And, as carma is a beautiful thing, as we arrived very early at the camping, we got to know the beautiful living creature of the hotel: The parrot Maria. She speaks and sing, so in my sincerest effort I decided that I would spend the whole weekend whistling the Corinthians anthem in the hope that she would learn. Dude, at the end of the weekend my mouth was aching, it was like a gym for the face muscles, and that miserable parrot did not learn the anthem. That was outrageous.

Buuut, let’s talk about traveling right?! After get properly installed at the camping we went out to find a place to do Rafting, and we found Kango Jango, a resort where we signed up to do the Rafting, but that one was schedule just for 14 o’clock. So in the mean time, we went walk around the Kango Jango property. That is a nice place to spend the day with a family, there are some fine, well-marked tracks, a zip line, playground and a large green area with a river, and the most important: a bar!
But we will left this best part for the end, let’s talk about the landscape: It’s beautiful and green . And who cares, let’s talk about the bar. So, there was where I found the most amazing beer ever: Mussum’s Biritis beer, if you are not Brazilian you will probably not understand how beautiful that is. But believe me, the is marvellous!

And there was the Rafting too, which was really nice, really wet, and we don’t have any pictures because it was the day off for the girl who suppose to take pictures. How dare her to have a day off.

Whatever, after that we went to the Gruta dos Anjos, which can be translated to The Angel Cave. The best time to visit it is around 17 o’clock. There is a lake inside the cave, so around this time, you can take a pedal boat for R$15,00, and by the middle of the lake look at the entrance, you will see a beautiful reflect at the water caused by the sun.
A good tip: take a coat with you to the cave because is very cold there.

With the pedal boat you can explore more the cave and find yourself facing a rope coming out from a hole in the ceiling. I have a theory that that rope goes somewhere in the limbo or to a parallel universe, needless to say I was very eager to climb it, but my dear friend Jennifer did not allowed me to do it, she said that I was going to die and that she would not carry my body. Crazy lady! But it’s okay, let’s look at the good side, I discovered that my talent for driving included cars in the water.

Later that night, we went for a beer at the square called Praça da Matriz. There are several bars around and as that is the place for a turístic church, you can also say you did a cultural trip!

Sunday we went for SHOPPING !!!!
Socorro is known as the city of good and cheap knitwear, I bought 2 beautiful “leather” blouses for only R$ 35,00 each. A little tip for you beautiful people, take a walk around the place before buying anything. At the official market and the mall crossing the street, there was another shopping selling the same blouse for R$ 70,00.

Just next to the mall, there is the Municipal Garden, is not a big garden but it’s nice to see it. It’s gonna take you maximum 30 minutes, and then you can go to your next stop. In our case that was the Mirante do Cristo, that is a viewpoint for all the city. It is a bit far and it’s at hight, but after getting there you’ll be toasted with a beautiful view of the city with the shadow of the Christ, (what a beautiful sentence, hahaha).

After observing the city for a short, long period of about 45 minutes we went to the last stop which, in my opinion, was the summit of the trip, the Pedra da Bela Vista, the road to there is very bad, bad kind, I was in pain with my car who is named Joaninha, poor Joaninha 😔. Buuut, she understand, for only R$ 5,00 for admission, you can see one of the most sensational sunset ever. The view from there is beautiful, you will be breathless watching the sun slowly descend and hiding behind the mountains far away while the whole sky turns orange in a beautiful farewell.
It was that stunning beauty that finalized our trip.

Aaaaah, almost. Remember I told you how bad and curves the roads are? So, at the way back home, my tire decided to give up, and made me park at the safest place I found, which was a small side-by-side road very dark, in the middle of a curve and with a ravine next to us. Niiiice right?! So I did what every girl do at times like that: I called my father. Left him in the cellphone line while I was trying to change the tire. Yes, I do know how to change a tire, but if something happened he will know. While I was there trying to turn the key to release the tire, when a guy stopped and helped us, then I didn’t needed to actually change a tire. But I do know how, and that is the point!