Water Water Everywhere

Days 205-208

Our first night in Brazil hadn't endeared the country to us that much – an unremarkable town with a lot of concrete and two nice buildings its only excuse for the “historical centre” signs. So we were very relived when our first experience of camping in Brazil turned out to be exceedingly refined. We chose the campsite closest to the town of Canela: a hotel / estancia which allowed camping in the grounds. Two members of staff walked around with us to find a non-swampy site (there had been a heavy downpour recently) and when we found that the best spot had a few of the resident llama's doings, instructed a groundsman to rake it for us. This still wasn't deemed acceptable by our hosts, so we were given a big groundsheet to go under our tent. After checking we had everything we needed a few times Ric was a bit surprised to find them back at the tent ten minutes after we'd pitched – with afternoon tea! As we were enjoying the buffet breakfast the next morning we agreed that “posh camping” is definitely the way forward!

From Canela we visited the waterfalls and canyons of the region. After all the amazing landscapes we've seen we're sadly a bit desensitised to natural beauty at the moment but it was enjoyable none the less. We then headed to the beach, hoping in vain for a cooling sea breeze to temper the ever-increasing heat. The road to the coast was beautiful, winding through the forested hills, but was mostly single carriageway with lots of lorries holding up the traffic. After working our way up to the front of a particularly long queue Ric commented “At least now we should have a good stretch of open road in front of us” - the comment of death because at this Emily's bike started spraying up huge quantities or liquid straight at her visor. It was a bit of a shock, and all Emily could say was“My bike's leaking!” which wasn't the best summary of the situation but she then clarified that she couldn't see where she was going and we pulled over to take a look. The liquid was the engine coolant which was spraying out of the top of the header tank. We noticed this happening a couple of times before the service in BA but not nearly in the same proportions. The mechanic there looked at it, found a bit of air in the cooling system and bled it for us, suggesting it really wasn't anything to worry about. After a bit of investigation we found that there was a lot of air in the system, but no obvious blockages or leaks, so we syphoned the coolant from the header tank, opened the valve to the radiator and filled it up, pouring the little remaining coolant back into the header tank afterwards with a top-up of drinking water. This all happened within a few hours of the beach and although Emily obsessively checked the temperature reading for the rest of the day we arrived safely.

Camping on the beach was a pretty relaxing way to spend a few days, even though it was a little too hot for our liking. We met a lovely Portuguese couple who spoke very little English, but we communicated in a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, English and sign language. They invited us to join them for a typical barbecue of their region – huge chunks of meat covered in rock salt and cooked on spits – and we had a good few beers together. Unfortunately we still didn't manage to pick up much Portuguese so in desperation have acquired the first few Michel Thomas lessons on mp3. What was obvious, however, was that they're serious about this pronouncing “r” at the beginning of a word as “h”. On introducing himself as Ric this couple (and a number of others since) have said “ah, Hicky!” and called him that from then on. Emily thinks this is rather amusing. Ric does not.

As a break from the beach, we made a day-trip inland to the German-founded town of Blumenau. We hoped it would be cooler there, but it wasn't, and we hoped to see and eat various German things, but we didn't. The architecture and landscape had a slight German egde (they have palm trees in Germany, right?) and we had a nice cold beer, but then quickly headed back to our sunny coastline for a bit more near-deserted beach relaxation.

Days 209-212

Our next major stop of interest was to be the Iguacu Falls, a 400-mile detour to the west of our main route and of the nearest big city, Curtiba where we rode to from the beach. In light of Emily's coolant problem, her chain already looking worn, the price of petrol in Brazil and the number of tolls on the highways, we decided just to take Ric's bike to the falls. It was definitely worth the long day of riding each way to see the sheer amount of moving water in Iguacu. It's not just one big waterfall but a series of thundering falls, immense amounts of spray, and spectacular jungle vegetation all around. We had a great day seeing the falls from all angles – the Brazilian side, the Argentinian side, from walkways above and a boat below (where we got rather wet). Ric then had to take on the gargantuan task of sorting through the hundreds of photos we took!

Days 213-214

On the journey east from Curtiba we felt pleased about the decision we'd made with the bikes – the spraying coolant issue was persisting and we needed to bleed the cooling system every 100 miles or so. The chain also needed tightening again and is getting to the end of it's life, but we're loath to change it before getting the proper sprockets on the bike. It's only a couple more hundred miles to get all the way to Rio so hopefully we'll make it! (The story of the lost sprockets is a sad one: when we got to BA the bloomin' post office had returned the package to the senders, Dan and Jacquie, who were no longer where they'd posted them from of course, because it hadn't been collected within 10 days. We thought we'd have 30 days as you do for international Poste Restante, and the post office hadn't told Dan and Jacquie anything different. It's annoying for everyone but we've put it down to just “one of those things”.)

We successfully navigated ourselves right through the big city of Sao Paolo and into the hills where we finally found some slightly cooler weather in a country campsite / retreat with a sleepy farm-like atmosphere. People-wise it was very quiet: we were the only guests! The only thing to break the peaceful days was Ric screaming like a girl when he was stung on the eyebrow by an evil wasp. But wildlife-wise the evenings were very noisy with a veritable cacophony radiating from the woods and ponds (hear video below).

The riding in Brazil has so far been great, and it'll be a shame for it to all end in Rio. In this final country we've travelled along twisty coastal roads, through jungle-covered hills (though not the mighty Amazon jungle, of course), green rolling farmland not unlike Europe, and varying conurbations ranging from little truck stops to enormous sprawling metropolises. But there have been challenges to the ride: as well as the heavy traffic and sometimes crazy drivers, the biggest issue for us has been the stifling heat. The riding temperature has often been up around 40°C and humid, and very rarely has it dropped below 30°C. It's not the hottest we've had (Arizona) or the most humid (Mexico) but it is pretty relentless and we've found ourselves seeking out air conditioned sanctuaries wherever possible.