Day 23 - More Water, First Rain, and Big Tributaries

Today, we had a long 500+km ride on the Interoceanic Highway (Br-345).  An interesting and long ride seeing the same scenes we have been seeing ... farms, burnings, cattle ... with a big difference.  We pretty much were following the Madeira River all along and crossed it a few times.

The Madeira River is 1,450km long, a major tributary to the Amazon River, and a major waterway in Brasil.  Because this is the dry season, we also saw vast areas that are flooded once the rains begin.

As we moved East, we began to see more vegetation, more trees, more tropical settings, more jungle.

As we were approaching Porto Velho, a heavy downpour materialized from nowhere and it stopped just as fast as it started 15 minutes later, and the road was dry 15 minutes after that! Wow.  Today, temperatures got to 100 degrees and humid. Hot!!

Once in town, we headed to a coffee shop for cappuccino and pastries.  We are spending 2 nights here to change our tires to knobbies for dirt riding as we head into what people call the "other side" of the road ... the rough part ... do a little laundry and walk around.

Brasil always makes me smile because of how well integrated all their people are ... playing and working together, having fun, families, children ... all different shades of brown, black, white. 

So far we have visited the capital of the State of Acre (Rio Branco) and the capital of the State of Rondonia (Porto Velho) in Brasil.  Similar cities with 500K people but Porto Velho is less developed and the wilder of the two.  I guess we are deeper in the Amazon now.

Hand made Brasilian ingenuity at the gas station

As we are leaving Rio Branco

Our first glimpse of the Madeira River, a major tributary to the Amazon

A nice bit of the Interoceanic Highway (Br-364)

Part of the Madeira River that floods in the rainy season 

Another view

A ranch flying a Brasilian flag

A cattle ranch with its white cattle at a watering hole

Our stop for lunch and our first proper Brasilian buffet style meal

The new bridge - a few weeks ago the only way to cross was on a pontoon boat

More and more water

Water everywhere and we are beginning to see more green

All of a sudden we had a downpour that lasted 15 minutes right before Porto Velho

Ahhh.  A nice cappuccino and some pastries after a long long ride

An evangelic church in town that was like a rock concert

Day 22 - Turtles and the Big City

Another great day exploring foreign lands. We left Brasileia and set out for Rio Branco as the excitement of seeing new lands was there to wake me up nicely.

A perfect day ... good weather (from 80 to 95 degrees), good roads with good potholes to avoid ... decimated jungle as far as the eye can see ... lonely trees here and there that survived the burn many years ago ... big cattle ranches with white cattle with black snouts and ears ... lonely ranch houses here and there with lots of land each ... and a cloudless sky for the second day. 

I wonder what effect what we have done here, and continue to do in other areas of the Amazon, will have in the long term. I am optimistic that Mother Earth will figure things out in the end and keep its balance ... but sometimes I hesitate. 

Our first stop was a lodge that keeps Amazonian turtles in their river/pond.  Lots of them ... looked like snakes with a shell ... hungry ... looked like snakes with s shell. Had some delicious coffee and maracuya juice and were on our way.

The city of Rio Branco, our destination for today, is one of the largest cities in the State of Acre in Brasil.  0.5 million people with good infrastructure.  We stopped by the Honda dealer to check on some parts and headed to our hotel.

There was a nice, very noisy, and typical elections parade in front.  Democracy in action. Flags, music, people.  For some reason, Brasil always makes me feels good about racial integration ... I am sure it is not perfect but to me it always feels very real and honest ... black, indigenous, European and everything in between, working, learning, relating, demonstrating, singing, dancing, and having fun together. Hope for the soul.

We found a proper "mall" where we got some cappuccinos, plug adapters, chocolate ... and found an art gallery with a wall-sized painting by Ueliton Santana, who was there.  A well known artist with painting in Spain and other countries.  

A unique property of art is its ability to stop time and force the viewer to be present. Ueliton's painting made me loose a few minutes as I immersed myself in it. A very cool feeling when you are aware of what is happening.

Tomorrow, we have a long day as we go deeper into the Amazon basin to try to reach Porto Velho.

Leaving Brasileia across a single lane rickety bridge over the river

No more thick jungle as far as the eye can see

Jungle replaced by cattle ranches - white cattle everywhere

Sad

A nice stop at a turtle farm on the way to Rio Branco with a post full of good wishes

Amazonian turtles

Wow!

Watching the river and the turtles

What? Look at the size of that coconut

These trees are survivors and are everywhere with charred trunks but alive

The Honda dealership in Rio Branco - very nice.

Piling up in the Honda dealer's van to go to the best restaurant in town

Ready to go

Waiting for our food to be served at the restaurant in Rio Branco

Had the most amazing and delicious piranha looking fish

A political festival in front of our hotel in Rio Branco

Lots of people

We found a proper looking mall in Rio Branco

Day 21 - We Are in the Jungle

I was able to explore Puerto Maldonado before breakfast and see some of the sights.  A nice and bustling river town.  After a nice eggs and cecina breakfast, we headed out towards the Brasilian border.

Again, we experienced the vastness of the Amazon basin and how it is being slowly eaten by development, farmers and ranchers. After a few hours on the road we got to the Peru-Brasil border and began the painful process of crossing it.  

It actually was way easier than any other border we had crossed up until now ... except the Brasilian immigration officers had just left for a 2 hour lunch ... so we decided to do the same and had a nice nice chicken Peruvian soup on the Peruvian side (Iñapari). 

Once in Brasil, the road deteriorated quickly ... the ride to Brasileia required full attention as some of the potholes were nasty.  We also immediately noticed that Brasil is cleaner and has no trash everywhere like Peru.

The jungle here looks like it was cleared a long time ago ... the farms and ranches seemed more established ... older ... with vast open and decimated spaces that were much bigger than in Peru.  A sad reminder that this is what the Peruvian side will likely look like in a few years.

Brasileia, our destination for today, is a bustling 30,000 person town on the Brasil-Bolivia border.

We checked in at our hotel and immediately set out to look for money (Reals) and SIM cards. We had to resort to some tricks because in Brasil you need a national identity card to get a SIM card ... but we figured it out at the end.

We had a great afternoon meeting people everywhere and we found a great coffee shop and patisserie with great pao de queijo. We also met a boy on the street and he invited us to meet his mom and dad who had just opened an English school.  It was great to meet Emily, the head of the school, and Sancler, a pastor that works with troubled youth, and all of their children.  We practiced some English with them and had some acerola juice and pastries.

We also found some kids playing at a skate park ... and an aerobics class that we ended up joining just for fun.

A great reminder of how people everywhere are good and fun loving and welcoming and curious and giving and friendly ... and how families play a pivotal role in life.

We finally went to dinner and had Banana Fish made with fish from the Amazon (very gamey) and plantains ... very good.

Tomorrow, we head deeper into the Amazon basin as we make our way to Rio Branco. 

A view of the Rio Madre de Dios at 6am

The massive bridge over the Rio Madre de Dios we crossed on our way to Brasil

The main plaza in Puerto Maldonado

The jungle on our way to Brasil

We are approaching the Peru -Brasil-Bolivia border

We are not in Kansas anymore : )

Got caught in a massive burn

Even though there are signs like this everywhere

Having fun in the park

The Peruvian border

Chuck and I having lunch on the Peruvian side of the border waiting for the Brasilian immigration officers to come back from lunch

The Peru-Brasil border bridge

Made to Brasil!

Getting paperwork done at the Brasil border

The Brasilian border

Made it to Brasileia - 100km from the border - next to Bolivia

A neighborhood street in Brasileia

We found a great coffee and patisserie shop as we were looking for SIM cards for our phones

A party at the park!

Emily, Sancler, and some of their children at their English language school in Brasileia

Aerobics at the park