1 January: Had a great evening last night, all on our own backed up to some dunes about 15km down the beach from the nearest town. Initially did some exploring of the dune fields and then took sundowners on top of one while overlooking the ocean. As a plus there has been very little wind.
2 January: After a fantastic wild camp last night to a not so fantastic paid for campsite, would have been better off not moving but the prospect of a pool dragged us away. Initially stopped at a spot out of town but it looked a bit unfinished and pool was a little dirty so we come here = should have stuck with option 1. This town is the launch point to the famous Lencois Maranheses which has natural filled pools between huge sand dunes but only just after the rainy season so sadly we won’t get to see it as they are most likely all dry now
5 January: What a fantastic little oasis Encanto Da Las Aguas has been, with the most gentle and friendly owners. We were a little grumpy on arrival as initially we didn’t pick up the vibe but that was more our fault as we were super hot and sweaty, it is very very humid – worse than Durban in Feb. We had initially planned on only spending one night here thinking that we would have spent more time in the Lencois area but so glad those stops didn’t work out.
6 January: A day of trucking and for the first time we moved from a truckstop. It had good reviews on iOverlander and they spoke of needing to pay a small fee for security, when that was 3x what was quoted and Tania would need to pay each time she used a bathroom plus there were a number of Lanchettes (restuarants) blasting music. We only discovered all this after having been parked for an hour but quickly packed up and with the sun setting dashed down the road to the next little town where we found a much better option.
7 January: another longish driving day, broken in half by a stop at a self-service laundromat located in a truck stop. Initially we had thought we would spend the night there but the toilets were disgusting and as Belem was only 2 hours away we pushed on for Belem.
8 January: Have spent the last 2 days just chilling in a private boatyard on the banks of the river in Belem, it has been interesting to see the comings and goings of the middle class who pass through for canoeing or jet skis, etc.
9 January: A day of waiting. We arrived at the ferry dock around 9:30 and loaded Mr Jones around 12. While waiting for that Stuart worked on making a new water tank for the bumper as the one we made in Peru had cracked at the end cap.
13 January: refer to blog post for the highlights and lowlights of ferry life on the Amazon river.
14 January: Absolutely shattered this evening! A culmination of the disturbed sleep on the ferry, stiff muscles from sleeping in a hammock, a very stressful disembarkation with Mr Jones on tiny ramps, fighting with rude port authorities wanting to charge a ridiculous fee for offering nothing and then 2 stops at supermarkets in Manaus before driving about 30minutes out of town to a camp spot. Just as we are feeling rather “off” Brazil, the caretaker at the campsite is so friendly and gentle and it appears camping is for free.
16 January: Feeling like crap tonight, the flu/cold that I picked up on the boat has kicked in, coupled with a long days drive and some shopping and it’s super hot all add up to a very sore and broken Stuart.
17 January: we have been wanting to drain and replace the coolant for a while after the mechanic in Fortaleza didn’t apply the correct mix but haven’t really been anywhere suitable to do it as it is impossible not to spill about half when draining due to the landy design so being parked in a Posto with dirt floor meant Stuart was up early this morning for a quick coolant change.
18 January: Spent last night at Parque Nacional do Virua, but it was so oppressively hot and humid and barring one walk all others are long (not practical in this heat). We did do s short one in the evening and it was amazing how eerily quite the forest is – almost not a sound of life (insect or bird) and you could actually hear a leaf falling…. We did get a brief glimpse of a monkey high up in the canopy. We are mystified how such a dense forest can have no signs or sounds of life.
19 January: SOME DAYS ARE HARD: a long day of driving and juggling admin in 35deg heat and high humidity. First up was just over 200km to Boa Vista, then some grocery shopping for last items for Venezuala, then sitting in the shopping parking while we tried to pay for Tania Colombia visa online as it has been approved (our internet signal was poor so we didn’t succeed after many attempts) while also communicating with an agent in Venezuela for insurance which we succeeded at getting and paying for via PayPal.
Then 30min driving across town to find a print shop so that we can get copies of some docs for the border and print insurance papers BUT it was siesta time so hit a brick wall. By now it was 2:30 and we were starving so went to a mall hoping for some fast food but Mr J is too high, a security guard let us in via cargo vehicle gate but now we needed to find admin office to get a “lost ticket” and explain in Portuguese why we needed a lost ticket. Had a nice pizza for lunch, then headed back across town to the copy shop and 2 auto spares shops to purchase 500ml oil for Mr J (fuel stations don’t sell oil in this part of the world). The first shop only sold 3l bottles but had success at the second.
Finally drove 20min out of town to a little “day use” picnic spot on a river, no toilets here so will be using Mr J temp setup for that but nice to cool off in the river. And their wifi was adequate, so we could succeed with making the Colombia visa payment. Now we hold our breath to see what dates we get: will it be the dates we asked for or 3 months effective immediately as friends got which would mean a dash through Venezuela (would be a real shame)
20 January: Our first full day in Venezuala, having crossed the border yesterday. Mostly a rest day interspersed with some jobs like cleaning, clearing gas stove jets, discovering tyre compressor hose is damaged and repairing it, and so forth. Overall though feeling so much better and refreshed, its nice not to be dying of heat (we even pulled the duvet up for the whole night last night which is possibly the first time in over 3 months!!!) and to be looking forward to a new country and its culture, food and people.
21 January: Decided to take another rest day yesterday as there is no rush now that we have Tania’s Colombia visa in hand and know we can spend a full 2 months in Venezuala if we want. With that knowledge we kicked the shipping ball into motion by contacting a shipping agent for our eventual shipping to Mexico.
22 January: Headed out west from town today for about 80km to an area called Paulji. It is a beautiful area with rolling hills dotted with eathier grasslands or indigenous forest which is a nice change from the very very flatland we have experienced in Brazil the last 4 months or so. Road wasn’t too bad being a mix of dirt and tar although we hit the hardest bump ever when there was a double “ditch” in a dip in the tar which was totally invisible as they were no broken edges or anything. Fortunately, we weren’t going too fast as it was after a corner but it threw us up quite hard and plenty stuff went flying inside our draws and outside. Couple of the draws were jammed when we stopped thanks to things getting wedged in places they shouldn’t have been. We had to pass through 4 checkpoints in the 80km, two being military and two being from the indigenous communities. In all cases it was a slow process as they requested passports and proceeded to capture our details by hand and then take multiple photos of Mr Jones from various angles. It is beuracracy at its best and requires some patience but they are all super friendly and at the first one we even got offered coffee. Will be interesting to see what the rest of the country is like.
24 January: It’s been a fanstastic 2 days at Paulji, we haven’t done much but just enjoy the big grand vistas, sounds of nature and at times the sheer quietness. To some extent reminds of many nature areas in South Africa, combination of lower drakensberg, mpumalanga grasslands and the magaliesberg. An interesting observation this morning as we sat and just drank in the beauty – in 11 months in Brazil we never once got to experience such big open and natural spaces all to ourselves or even at all, they just don’t have this kind of thing or an appreciation for it.
26 January: Another couple of fantastic days of exploring the Gran Sabana, there are so many tracks you can just wander down which invariably end at a great viewpoint or a waterfall or riverside picnic spot. To such an extent that if we couldn’t get close enough to one to camp or picnic for lunch with Mr Jones we just moved on to another. You could easily spend a few weeks here but we feel we should move on.
27 January: What a fantastic day. Last night at the pousada a young guy popped in (José) to introduce himself as part of the traveler support network. (He also has a little camp area in his garden which we had skipped on our way into town as it sounded like you needed to use the house bathroom). Today he took us to the dentist (Tania cracked tooth extraction) then out of town to the only operational fuel station for diesel (the first we have been able to get in over 800km) at the princely sum of USD0,50 per litre. I tried to pay for his motorcycle to be filled up, as thanks but he wouldn’t let me. Later while waiting outside a pharmacy another guy approached to introduce himself and welcome us to Venezuala. We couldn’t feel more welcome and comfortable!!!
29 January: We are in total paradise (camped under cocunut trees on the Caribbean coast), yet not happy and feeling quite unsettled. Part of the issue is Mr Jones seems to be using coolant and we are worried what that means in terms of future repairs, ability to fix him in Venezuela and so forth but we are also just “travel and challenge” weary, so the small things get to us these days very quickly. Add in the lack of company/sense of belonging to a community and you have quite the recipe for mixed emotions. We had hoped a new country would bring new inspiration and excitement, which it most definitely has but it doesn’t take much to tip the scales at the moment.
31 January: Thanks to a Venezualan landy owner who passed us on the road in the late afternoon we are staying at his house and little inn. The intention had been to head a bit further along the coast but Tania is feeling rotten with the flu, so we had stopped on the side of the road to look for a pousada were we could hole up for a few days and allow her to recover. Having found a possibility and just as we started driving again a landy did pass us and flag us down…