Playing the tourist in the rain, looking @ Waterfalls and Rocks

Day 11 ( 57 km)

      Woke up and it was raining, did some good internet work, had breakfast and we were waiting for the rain to stop. Around 10 am it started to clear up and took our chances and went with the bikes without bags for a tour in the vicinity and entered the national park! I t was actually the main road to Cuiaba and after 30 km we turned back and made some stops at the waterfalls, drank a beer, scotty took a swim and around 2 pm we had lunch in town. tomorrow we will go further south in the Patanal



                                           

Chapada dos Guimaraes, Motto Grosso

Day 10 (448 km)

     Ready to go, but another flat tire spoiled our efforts, cannot believe after changing all tires and inner tubes, bad luck still follows me. Took the wheel off 6 am and went with Scotty’s bike back to the place to fix it again, returned at 7 am and had the wheel mounted again, it was the new inner tube, which was dry rotten and a seam was letting a go! Few minute later we took off for Chapada dos Guimaraes, what supposed to be a cool touristic place about 600 meters high and has lots of rock formations and  waterfalls and was a 6 hour drive away in an intense heat. 

     Brazil must have the most farm land in the world and that was all we saw for 6 hours as far as your eyes could see, nice were the Emu's sitting freely in the fields, 

they were all over the place. we rolled 4 pm in Chapada went to look for a decent hotel with internet and found one for 50.00 a night between the 2 of us with a/c and of course the Brazilian breakfast in the morning,  paid for 2 nights and it seems there is a Chinese restaurant in town, which we will visit after having had for 10 days meat meals!

Rest day and Maintenance in Barro do Garcas

Day 9 (20 km)

          Went town early to buy a rear tire so that my bike has now 2 brand new tires, what set me back $ 125.00, Scotty wanted a new front tire as well and then we went to the first taller around the corner to install them for $ 5.00 each , fixed all the inner tubes that had pinch holes in it and after that to another taller to take care of all the other little issues, my brakes, Scotty’s speeding cables and brake pads and around noon all was fixed, so now we have 2 spare old tires (front and back) and I believe 6 inner tubes in 2 sizes and 2 sets of old brake pads for the front wheel! 

    Paid another night in the same hotel, so we made a rest day out of it! Tried to do some laundry, but on the end we made a beer session out of it.

The ending of the BR-158 in sight, after 2500 km.

Day 8 (415 km)

        

          Today we decided to leave around noon and it was still raining anyway, so we could catch up reorganizing our luggage and enjoy our good internet access. After we left, we passed a few nice rock formations on our way to the BR 070, which is the main road to Cuiaba and of course just before we reached in Barra do Garcas, where we had to make the right turn, I had a front tire blow out and after looking at the tire, we realized it is beyond repair and Scotty went to Barra to see if he could find a new one and meanwhile I was taking off the front wheel. Then I saw I needed to change my brake pads as well.

An hour later Scotty came back with the right size tire for only $ 65.00 and after putting it all together again, I had an issue with the new brake pads. Probably I did something wrong and we have to tend to that tomorrow because it was getting 6 pm and decided to look for a nice hotel for 2 days and do laundry and tend to both our bikes. Scotty now wanted a new front tire as spare and a new 2^nd speeding cable and I had to tend to the front brake issue (binding a little bit and the front disk is getting red hot!)

Br 158, looks like it never comes to an end!

Day 7 (644 km)

    It must have rained all night and after the usual breakfast, packed up the bikes again and took off further south on the Br 158, I think another 3 nights on this road, before we make a right turn towards the Patanal and Bolivia, all the previous hotel had internet, even connected sometimes, but for some reason could not transfer data, so my blog posts and map updates, I can not broadcast.

This Br 158 is a paved road with some sections good, but you have to be careful with the many potholes, bridges and crazy Brazilian drivers, most of them must be on suicide watch! Later today we were faced with a 200 km hard packed dirt road and eventual were making 100 kmph and reached after dark reached a nice hotel with fast internet, so will be busy tonight updating the blog!

                                                        Nice short Video!

Further South into the interior of Brazil

Day 6 (370 km)

        At least the A/C worked last night after 9 pm and woke up in good spirits to get my “Café” breakfast, packed up the bikes again and by 8 am left on the road again to go further south. The Road was paved but everywhere potholes and this is the only type road motorcycles could go faster as cars, but did not succeed the first 200 km to do it less as 4 hours, it is like skiing to avoid all the holes and some are that a SUV could disappear in! Around 1 pm we had some chicken in Redencao and after that we went on the road again, but soon black clouds, thunder and lightning hit us and we took shelter for more as an hour and ended up continuing in a drizzle to Roca-Tapirape and when we checked into the motel all hell broke loose and it started to pour for hours, We just made it in time and all our luggage including ourselves stayed more or less dry. 

     

Crossing the Br 230, Trans Amazonica Highway

 Day 5 (491 km)

        Left around 8 am , after they gave us a very good breakfast and we took off for Maraba. The road was pretty straight and on both sides was mostly pasture with a lot of cattle. Very soon the overcast start to get darker and we were trying to dodge the downpours, which could occur any minute, but were short and mostly in the afternoon.

Pension Eldorado

We received 2 or 3 times a downpour for a minute or so and it was actually refreshing in this intense heat and 100% humidity, and around 2 pm we reached Maraba, which is a crossroad city with the river on one side and the Trans Amazonica Highway, going right through this town. Initially we were going to take this road all the way to Peru, but being this the rainy season, it was almost undoable on a unpaved road and decided to go further south and then make a right turn for Bolivia. 

    Tried to find a hotel in Maraba, but the few it had were overpriced and the heat was so intense, that I quit looking and we decided to go to the next town a 100 km away and try our luck there.

Bridge at Maraba

The place we ended up in was called Eldorado, checked into the “Atlanta” hotel, which said had the only internet in town, but it did not work on the end, and to make things worse lights went off till 9 pm, We had a few beers in town . Had some road food on the side of the street and called it the day. Vegetarians are in bad shape in Brazil, because everything is based on meat and they stuff you with it till you full, so I was in good shape here and the restaurants were losing money, when I walk in!

Fixing bikes and paperwork!

Day 3 & 4 (311 km)

    Woke up after 7 am and after a good "Cafe" breakfast, went to continue to fix the bikes, changed the oil, fixed blinking lights, charges Scotty's battery , but after all that, the bike was stilling running bad, so we ended up late in the afternoon by the Kawasaki place and they cleaned his carburetor and during this process found out that one of his speeding cables was torn as well, but around 7 pm all was fixed and it was time to to get out the wet, dirty clothes, took a bath and went for a good steak dinner with the cold beer what was part of it. It was a very hot day and hopefully it was the last time getting sweaty, maintaining the bikes this trip!

It was very hot!

Motel Paragominas

   Thursday, we start to pack our way too many bags with, parts and clothes and went looking for the "fazienda" to extend our paperwork for the bikes, which had only a few days left on the permit, and after the usual running around, we received an additional 21 days, went back to the hotel, packed up everything and took off south to Paragominas about 300 km south to start our trip and test out the bikes! 

Back on the road again!

Day 1 & 2 (9141 km)

   Left Utila on a Monday morning with 2 suitcases full of motorcycle parts on the Utila Princess to La Ceiba, where a taxi was waiting for us, to make the 2 hour trip to San Pedro Sula to catch our 24 hour long flight back to Belem, Brazil, leaving 11:45 AM with TACA ( Take Another Chance Again). 
    Expecting hassle on the airport with TACA insisting that we needed an onward/return ticket to leave Brazil, before they let us board the plane, I made a fake one last week with a different airline for us, with a scheduled flight from Rio to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which looked better as the one we had to go to Brazil with, all it took was a word processor!  Later sitting in the plane, smiled to myself and I thought, we just past with flying colors the first obstacle in the paper jungle of Latin America. After a quick stop in Salvador, Bogota and Rio, we reached Belem on Tuesday in the afternoon and went to the Hostel to find out if all is still there! Tired we checked a little later the motorcycles and Scotty's did not start  and had a flat tire and a dead battery, but surprisingly mine was working and even changed the exhaust, air filter and all sound tuned up. Tomorrow we going to fix Scotty's I hope, drank a few beers, forgot to eat and had a good first night rest.