When we arrived in Santos, we took a taxi to our apartment. We found a nice neighborhood. Our apartment was in a tall building with 7 other buildings surrounding it, and in the middle, there was a huge pool.
On the first day, it was raining. But it was fine because we were still recovering from the long drive to Iguaçu. We had time to do laundry, transfer all the photos to the laptop, and watch our GoPro videos. In the evening, we wanted to go out for dinner, but we got lost. Luckily, we found a food stand on the other side of the street. A Brazilian woman stood up and asked if we needed help with translation. We instantly clicked with her. We sat down with them, and the couple spoke perfect English. After about 2 hours of talking, they said they had to go home. But we exchanged phone numbers and made plans to meet for dinner on Wednesday.
The next day, the weather was better, and we explored the city. Among other things, we visited the 100th floor of the Muriel Tower to finally post Muriel's rain jacket. It was a beautiful Brazilian town, about the size of Winterthur.And yes, unbelievably, we actually found a rain jacket for Muriel. Paranapiacaba On Wednesday, we wanted to visit a factory where my employer, Stadler, delivered the largest cogwheel locomotive in the world, called MRS Logistica. They transport goods up and down the mountain. Well, it was one of those typical Ernesto/Muriel chaos days. My contact at the factory, Marcio, messaged me on Tuesday night that Fabio (a colleague) would pick us up around 9:30 in the morning. We waited outside as agreed and waited for Fabio. Getting a little impatient at 9:50, a car drove up, and the guy inside looked puzzled. I ran up to him and asked, 'Are you Fabio?' He replied, 'Yes, get in!' Without suspecting anything, we got in the car, and he drove straight to the beach. We found it a bit strange that he didn't say a word to us and only asked if we wanted to go swimming. He only spoke Portuguese and a little bit of Spanish. After about 15 minutes, I started to suspect something and asked him in Spanish, 'Do you work with Marcio?' He looked at me strangely and shook his head. 'Do you work at MRS Logistica?' Again, he denied it. I asked him again, 'Are you Fabio?' He laughed and said, 'Yes, Fabio from Uber!' (A taxi service in Santos where people use their private cars to drive others around) We had actually gotten into the wrong Fabio's car, who was waiting for people at the same place at the same time. Since we didn't have internet, we couldn't message anyone. Uber Fabio then called Marcio, who then called MRS Fabio, and after about 40 minutes of driving, we finally met up. When MRS Fabio started to drive, the first thing he said was, 'You need to put on long pants!' We went back to the apartment. On the 12th, we finally drove with MRS Fabio to the depot. We told him the story, and he burst out laughing. By now, we were also laughing. After about 45 minutes on the highway, we had to drive 20 more minutes on dirt roads and through the jungle to reach the depot.We were surprised at the strict security measures. We had to dress completely, even in brand-new steel-toed shoes.Yes, I know, I look silly. Why do I have these strange riding boots? I jokingly asked, 'Is this for protection from snakes?' And they sternly replied, 'Yes, so that they don't bite your ankles when you walk on the tracks!' We had to wait for about an hour before we could get on the tracks. Everyone who passed us stopped and exchanged a few words with us. We laughed for almost an hour. Really cool people.We arrived at the track and got on the train. We had to ride up the mountain to get the goods wagons.After about 30 minutes of driving, we arrived at the depot. It felt like a ghost town, a bit eerie.When we got off the train, the shuttle bus was already waiting to take us back to Santos. We said our goodbyes, officially handed over the Swiss chocolate, and went back to Santos. It was an amazing experience.We met up with our new friends in the evening, as mentioned before. We went to a Japanese restaurant, and the food was delicious. We had a great time and made new friends.Today is already the last day. We spent the day relaxing at the beach. In the evening, we will go to a burger stand one last time and say goodbye to the people. Then we will take a night bus to Itajaí. There we will visit the 7th best amusement park in the world! See you soon Ernesto & Muriel Next Stop: Itajaí
