Expect the Unexpected- Perus, São Paulo

This is the sunset near Campo Limpo Paulista (Clean São Paulo Field--seriously could there be a less interesting name for a town? Also untruthful--it's quite dusty) on our way home from the fazenda on Sunday. Yes, those are indeed dead bugs in the windscreen. Still, it's nice, right? We were coming back a little later than usual because our friends had gotten a flat tire (it rather seemed that the tire had exploded in several places) as we left the driveway. Or, as I have learned to say here: "Aconteceu um imprevisto" (Something unexpected happened")

Now just to digress a bit, I have to tell you that the "Aconteceu um imprevisto" phrase is one of my favorites. It can be used for anything: "I'm sorry I'm late to the meeting, but aconteceu um imprevisto" which in this case might be "I slept late because I drank too much last night" or "I forgot to wear clothes until I got halfway here" or any other number of unexpected occurrences. Or it could even mean "I just really didn't feel like being here." So, something unexpected happened. I personally had nothing to do with it. The speaker has accepted no blame whatsoever. It happened to me.

Sunday's trip was filled with the unexpected. About 20 miles from the city, a major traffic jam cropped up from an accident 2 miles ahead. According to waze (one of my favorite new toys), the average speed to get to the accident site and beyond was around 2 miles an hour. An hour more to home with two cranky hungry six-year olds in the back.

So we opened up the car's gps (maps unrenewed for five years) and decided to hightail it off the highway in Perus, a district on the north side of São Paulo. It's now dark, but as my husband shrugs and says to me "well, we're bulletproof." It's always nice to start off an adventure this way--"at least we're bulletproof." So we wandered about in the dark, him following the gps, and me arguing for the route shown by waze. And we ended up following neither one and visited some interesting parts of the backside of the Pico do Jaraguá, São Paulo's highest peak. Hiking that one is on my bucket list--how can you resist a mountain named "Lord of the Valley" in the Tupi language?

Sunny days at the Pico do Jaraguá

In other helpful advice, I will tell you that the Estrada Jundiaí-São Paulo does not, in fact, link Jundiaí with São Paulo. At least since the Rodoanel (Ring Road) was built. So you're going to want to trust waze on that, not your ancient gps. Or take a side trip to the mountain. Aconteceu um imprevisto...