i had heard of milho verde from my sister. she knew a german guy who had moved there after a short stay, and had married a local and there made his new life. i was fascinated by the thought of a german in the middle of nowhere in this vast region. i had also heard of millho verde from friends and magazines which rated it highly for beauty and naturalness. so i took the bus to diamantina and spent a few days there, and then decided one day that i was going to walk the 45 kms or so to milho verde. i figure it would take half a day, but what i didnt count on was the steep terrain which took me up and down intense red earth. i made it to about 10km out of diamantina, where i came across an amazing set of caves. that gave me a good excuse for avoiding the next 30 kms :-). the following day i got on the 6am bus which took me to milho verde and realised how foolish my original ambition of walking was - it was a very hilly and deserted road and would have taken me well over half a day to walk...