South of Juiz de Fora the BR-040 crosses the state line into Rio de Janeiro, and the character of the landscape begins to shift. Pedro do Rio is a district of Petrópolis that the BR-040 passes through in the valley of the Rio Paraibuna, notable mainly as the location of the Grupo Petrópolis brewery complex, one of the largest in the country, visible from the road. Fuel is available here; the Posto do Castelo stop allows a brief break before the road begins its serious climb into the serra.
Teresópolis sits at around 870 metres (2,850 feet) in the highlands of the Serra dos Órgãos, the mountain range whose name derives from the supposed resemblance of its rocky pinnacles to the pipes of a cathedral organ. The city takes its name from the Empress Teresa Cristina, wife of Dom Pedro II, whose family retreated here from the summer heat of Rio de Janeiro and whose patronage helped transform a colonial rest stop along the Caminho Novo into something approaching a resort town. The founding moment is conventionally traced to 1821, when a Portuguese-raised Englishman named George March acquired a large tract of land in the area that is now the Bairro do Alto and developed it into a model farm that became the principal waystation between the imperial court and the province of Minas Gerais. The municipality was formally constituted by decree in 1891.
The city today is best known to Brazilians for two things: the Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos and the Granja Comary, the CBF training complex that has served as the Seleção's base camp for World Cup preparations since its inauguration in January 1987. The Granja occupies 150,000 square metres of grounds in the Carlos Guinle neighbourhood, overlooking the artificial Lago Comary with the peaks of the Serra dos Órgãos behind it — among them the unmistakable finger of rock known as the Dedo de Deus, 1,692 metres (5,551 feet) high. The complex is open to guided visits when not in active use by national teams, and the view from the perimeter alone is worth the detour.
The afternoon allows for two stops before the hotel. The CBF/Granja Comary grounds are a good first call, compact and photogenic, with the lake and the serra framing everything behind the training pitches. The second is the Colina dos Mirantes, a public viewpoint on the summit of the Morro da Fazendinha at 1,054 metres (3,458 feet), constructed in the 1960s on land donated to the municipality and recently revitalised after years of neglect. From here the full urban spread of Teresópolis is visible below, backed by the Serra dos Órgãos massif — on a clear day the Baía de Guanabara is visible in the distance. The viewpoint also serves as a paragliding launch ramp.
The Hotel Intercity Teresópolis is a practical base, conveniently located. The evening belongs to the city: the Rua Delfim Moreira in the Várzea neighbourhood concentrates much of the dining and bar scene, and fondue is the local cold-weather staple worth seeking out before the mountain nights close in.
Deleting this waypoint is permanent and cannot be undone.