We dozed for the first couple of hours as we headed due North to get to the river that was to be our companion for the majority of the journey.
At about ten o'clock I walked to the buffet car to try to buy some food. They were most apologetic, as the ovens were fully used heating up some food that we must have slept through the ordering process of.
I returned empty handed. Luckily we had bought some cereal bars and water from a petrol station the night before, so we didn't starve.
Our entertainment for the trip was both external with the amazing scenery and internal with the comings and goings of various passengers and the antics of kids, one cute little girl in the seat in front of us was great value when she wasn't asleep. I'm sure her milk was laced with cachaca, as every time she was fed, she fell straight asleep. She was very well behaved for nearly all the thirteen (13) hours of the trip.
The train was reasonably comfortable (we were in Executivo class - I didn't see what the cheap seats were like). We were the only non-Brazilians in our coach (and, probably, on the whole train) it was great fun and we didn't resort to books or ipods for the whole trip. (except for T doing a sudoku all by herself).
After another aborted attempt to get food, I finally got the impenetrable opening hours of the kitchen right and got us a couple of Misto Quente (cheese and ham toasties). They were edible. Just.
As we drew into the station in the dark we were back on full arrival alert (transportation hubs are usually busy, bustle-y affairs where being alert is quite important) and T secured a taxi from the jostling throng as we got our taxi to the splurge that was the Ouro Minas hotel, the only 5 star hotel in Belo Horizonte, as they keep on and on .. and on about.
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