After INOTIM we set off back towards Belo Horizonte, we had a few interviews lined up there and we were excited to finally meet with Vinicius and his team too.

As we had left so late we were driving in the dark and found a place to stop. It was a carpark outside a small restaurant and local deli and we even managed to hijack the wifi! We were sat catching up on emails when the owner of the restaurant came and knocked on the door and invited us to stay in his locked carpark for the night. We said we would be fine and thanks all the same but we needed to leave early in the morning. He shrugged and said no worries and ushered us inside where he showed us the bathrooms, where the lights were and said goodnight.

Such random acts of kindness absolutely lift your spirits and as we struggled to thank him enough in our dreadful none existent Portuguese. He laughed and waved as he wandered off to bed.

The next day we woke up to the locals feeding a family of tiny Capuchin monkeys who were swinging from the outdoor eating space roof. We went to watch and the owner soon bought out a Toucan!! He explained that she had been injured and could no longer fly and he had rescued her, fed her up and she stayed with them now. She was a real mischief and upended all of the salt and pepper pots, pulled the napkins out of the napkin holder and pretty much anything she could to get attention. She sat on my arm and on Peggy’s door and wandered around greeting everyone! Such a character. We had seen the wild toucans flying around but they were generally very shy, yet it seemed this toucan had found her perfect place!

We had the whole family come in and have a look around the van, they just couldn’t believe it that we lived in there or how many facilities we had. We eventually managed to prize ourselves away in time to get back for our interviews and waved goodbye as we left.

We arrived in Belo Horizonte on time but the traffic was so terrible getting through the city and we of course got lost and we ended up being awfully late. Alex dropped me at the door and went to find parking. I ran in to the conference room and breathlessly apologised for being so late. Carol gave me glass of water and a hug and said no worries and then introduced me to Vini and his wife and the rest of the team.

We sat and waited for Alex but he was taking forever (it is not easy to park Peggy in a city) so I started answering some questions for the first interview on my own. Alex soon arrived and I was so relieved. We finished one interview, started another, met a few more people and in a complete whirlwind we left there, walked the several blocks back to Peggy with Vini and drove back to his place where we would wait for a TV crew to arrive!

Vini, Mark and the TV crew were coming on a road trip with us. We were all going to Ouro Preto that night, back to our campsite (for us, and to a hotel for them) so that we could do some filming the next morning.  The TV show Fantastico in Brazil wanted to cover our story. We were thrilled of course because it meant that everyone who had helped us out would get some amazing local publicity. Fantastico airs to 192 MILLION Brazilians and has an average views of 50-60 Million every Sunday!

We waited for the crew to arrive and met Vini’s daughter who was a real gem and their dog Naomi. Philipe and crew eventually arrived and we all hit the road. Vini squeezed in the back on the bed around the gas tank, Philipe and cameraman up front with us. We drove and got to know everyone a little better, laughed and talked about our crazy adventure. Poor Vini ended up snoozing on the floor on the surprisingly long journey.