Cristalina

Our car's not here yet, and won't be here for another few months. Sometimes it feels a little restrictive. We live inside the city of Brasilia, and Brasilia was made for driving. No, really! It was a great achievement of urban planning in the 1960's, and there is a lot to be said for it. But they wanted a modern city, and a modern city obviously has people driving cars in it. So there is a lot of green space and nothing feels very cramped. It does mean, however, that being without your car limits your options.

And being pregnant without a car limits those options even more.

During the week we only go out occasionally. But then on the weekends, Kevin rents a car from the embassy. Not every embassy or consulate has this system in place, but we're really glad this one does! The embassy owns a bunch of cars in its motor-pool, and on evenings and weekends when they're not being used, they're available to rent at a reasonable rate (per mileage). (Do you say mileage when you're talking about kilometers? Hmmmm.)

So last weekend we decided to leave Brasilia and go for an adventure. There's a city to the south of us called Cristalina, named for the quartz crystals all over the place. It's a small city, and it reminded me of the towns in southwest Colorado, like Dove Creek or Bayfield. It's spacious and rural, with the John Deere dealership on the side of the highway next to the gem stores. I liked the feel of it.

We headed down there to see some rock formations and dig for crystals. 

After driving along an unmarked dirt road for several miles (7 km or more), we were about to turn back. We said, "Okay, after we go around that bend, we'll turn back." Then we said, "Okay, just at the top of that hill up there, we'll turn back." Good thing we waited! This sign was just there, telling us that Pedra Chapeu do Sol (Sunhat Rock) was right around the bend. So we found it after all!

Our little city girls are pretty proud of themselves for climbing up the rock in front of the sunhat.

And I even made the trek up to the balancing rock. It weighs a gajillion tons, and it's balancing on a space of less than a meter squared. But we figured if it had been there so many millions of years, it would likely stay while we crawled around under it.

The precariously balancing rock. The path leading up to it is paved with quartz crystals.
In Cristalina, I think they call them "gravel."

Everyone in my family loves sparkly rocks. As we drove along the dirt road, Kevin would holler for me to pull over so he could go get a big crystal or two from the side of the road. It was a lot of fun for our family.

Penny was pretty thrilled with these beauties she found!

Naomi found these little guys. She may have lost most of them before we got home again. But she had fun collecting them!

On our way home we took a few pictures. After living in Shenyang, I don't think we'll ever take green grass, trees, clear air, or bright blue skies for granted ever again! Everything here is so alive! 

It was a great adventure for our little family. The hike was about 20 feet long, which was perfect for me. (Hey, I'm 8 months pregnant, and it's just about my limit!) With our family of little kids, digging around in the dirt for sparkly rocks is pretty awesome. And there are several shops selling inexpensive crystals and geodes and stuff. Kevin has always loved rocks and geodes, and the prices here sure beat the prices at the Smithsonian Museum gift shop!

It was also great to leave Brasilia for a day. Brasilia is very unique and very planned. It's very Brasilian, but it doesn't really represent the rest of the country. It was fun to get out and see the country a bit.