Saying goodbye to new friends is always a hard task in my book. Especially when you connect so well. We have met so many fantastic people traveling just like us from all over the world you don’t seem to connect with everyone but the ones you do connect with become friends for life, It’s one of the great pleasures of traveling. As we cross the border from Uruguay into Brazil I am thinking of the new friends we have met and smile to myself. What fond memories and what wonderful laughs. As I am feeling rather anxious about entering into Brazil this calms my nerves. Our first stop in Brazil will be Rio Grande where we will catch the ferry across the river and push on to Port Alegre. Our first camp in Brazil is down a rather washed out sand road. Apparently they had a lot of rain.???? We made it down the road hoping the campsite was going to be open and that this hadn’t been a wasted exercise . As David entered the driveway of the front house (I chose to walk the majority of the mushy stretch of road) ???? he was greeted by a lovely Brazilian lady who took him around to the camp area and by the time I arrived puffing like a steam train I went to find them. The campsite looked great so we set up tent and had one of the best meals we have ever had all cooked by this wonderful Brazilian lady. Traditional Portuguese food she told us and it was yum!!
The next day we hit the road nice and early hoping to arrive in Port Alegre before 3pm. With no real camping available in this big town we found a hotel, Ibis Budget that became our back up hotel while traveling through Brazil. It was reasonably priced and fine for us. David made a funny comment when we first saw the room “shall I wake you for pre-start in the morning “ ???? With mining being both our backgrounds the room resembled our Barrow Island rooms in Western Australia. We stayed in Port Alegre for only one night and then made a move for Florianopolis, a large island of Santa Catarina, a continental part with surrounding small islands with a population of 477,798. On our way to Florianopolis we stopped for fuel and got chatting with a bunch of other bikers. “Where are you going” they said. When we replied Florianopolis they invited us to their house to meet their family. Wow, I had never really experienced such kindness especially from people we had only just meet. So we took them up on their offer and had dinner with them and met their family. I have to say that this sort of thing happened a lot while traveling through Brazil , the generosity and kindness of the Brazilian people we meet was out of this world amazing ????????
After a few days relaxing in Florianopolis we left for Balnerio. Riding into Balnerio I couldn’t help but think we had arrived at a small German village. It was beautiful and expensive.. ???????? After spending a couple of days here we hit the frog and toad for Blumenau. People had recommended us to go to Blumenau, great beer they had told u, so we thought we would check it out!! When we arrived it wasn’t what we thought. I think we were expecting it to resemble Balnerio but it didn’t. Anyway from there we rode to Curtubia and then rode the Rastro da Serpente route into Capao Bonito. It is called this as the road is shaped like a serpent and what an amazing ride it was. We also meet some more wonderful people on motorbikes who invited us back to their home in São Paulo. So after spending a day in Capao Bonita we left for our new friends place in São Paulo. We ended up staying with them for a couple of nights and it was fantastic. They helped us with further routes and we laughed and had a great time with them. It’s strange sometimes how you meet people..
We then said our goodbyes and left for the coast riding through Caraguatatuba, Ubatuba and Paraty. The beaches were amazing and reminded me of our beaches back home. As I smiled to myself reminiscing we swam, ate seafood and relaxed there for a few days, not really wanting to leave. But the time came when we had to move on for Rio de Janeiro. Feeling a little nervous and excited about arriving into Rio we headed straight for the apartment we had booked through AirBnB. People had told us to be careful while visiting Rio as the gangs were spread out all over the place and it wouldn’t be a good idea to ride the bike through these areas. So we stuck to the good areas exploring all the usual sights and the famous Copacabana beach. We stayed in Rio for five nights busy trying to see all we wanted to see. David meet a guy who worked for Indian Motorcycles who took us for lunch then on a fantastic scenic ride up the mountain parts of Rio. The view from the top was magnificent and we were so very grateful for Felipe’s time. Again, more wonderful people helping us out in Brazil. ????
We left Rio de Janeiro early and headed for a small town called Oro Puerto, it was a long day riding but the roads where good as they had been throughout most of Brazil and when we eventually arrived it was around 5pm. It was already dark by this stage and raining. The cobble stoned roads were slippery and the steep declines where horrendous to ride up. We opted for a B&B as the campsite was difficult to find, it was late and wet!! ???? The next day before leaving we walked around the town and I was pleasantly surprised by all the history and old buildings. I was seriously in love ???? it was a shame we had to leave. But Petropolis was waiting for us. And what a welcome it was…… Celebrations where at their maximum and there were masked people everywhere. The masks looked scary to me and they crowded the bike. We managed to escape these masked rebels and headed for our campsite out the back of a groovy hostel. As most of the camp areas were stoned ground and because our tent requires pegs we set up under the clothesline on the only patch of lawn we could find. We where happy ???????? The town was buzzing with firecrackers going off at all hours and people dressed in their traditional costumes roaming around the streets, it was mad!! The loud bangs sounded like a bomb going off and it made me jump every time . We wandered around and the amount of people out was just insane. We stayed for two nights and to be honest it was enough for me. We then headed for Brasilia, Rondenopolis and Campo Grande. When we arrived in Campo Grande we were greeted by a protest of truck drivers blocking the roads. Many fuel stations we closed and the ones that were open had queues a mile long with cars patiently waiting their turn on the pump. We stayed at our old faithful hotel Budget Ibis and watched out the window at all the chaos happening below. It was all over the news, the truck drivers were angry with the Brazilian government over more fuel price rises. What we didn’t realize was from this point on it was going to be hard to find fuel . We topped up before leaving Campo Grande and again while riding to Bonita. The hundreds of cornfields we passed looked great. I wanted to reach out and grab a few cobs as they looked that delicious. The fuel strikes continued and all the fuel stations we passed were barricaded off. It was weird to see tyres burning, trucks blocking the roads and so many people everywhere. By the time we reached Bonita we had just enough fuel to do a couple of tourist things and to get to Paraguay where we would be able to fill up.
We left Brazil and into Paraguay to a town called Ponta Pora. It was a weird town in the respect that it was half Brazil and half Paraguay but the border crossing for Paraguay was here. So if you crossed one side of the road you would be in Brazil then crossed back over the road you were in Paraguay….. ???? strange.. The plan was to refuel and then head back into Brazil to Foz do Iguazu. This enormous waterfall owned by Brazil and Argentina is a memory I will never forget!! So for me Brazil was one of my favorite countries with its lush green landscapes, fantastic roads and people with hearts bigger than the country it’s self. Thank you Brazil for an amazing journey ????
