Don’t cry for me, Argentina…………..
After 50 nights in Argentina overall, (in and out of
Chile repeatedly since 8th December when we crossed from San Pedro
de Atacama in Chile to Purmamarca in Argentina) today was time to leave it for
the last time. In the past 12 months, this
is the longest time in a single country apart from Alaska / USA. What comes to mind when I think of Argentina
? Fascinating. Amazing scenery. Problems getting money. Maté. Wind. Barbecues. Never ending (and
somewhat boring) pampas. Maté (yes I wrote it twice on purpose !) Penguins and
Orcas. Argentina is enormous, and therefore extremely
diverse. I preferred the western and southern parts, with the mountains of Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego, but the eastern coastline certainly had some amazing
places and wildlife. Yes, I have enjoyed
Argentina, but it is time to move on……….
And Iguazu Falls are certainly a high point on which to
leave Argentina. They rate up there with Alaska, Galapagos, Machu Picchu, and
the Andes as one of the most amazing parts of this adventure.
By the time I woke up in Iguazu, everyone else in the
camp site had gone, so I didn’t get to say farewell to any of my friends. (Yes, for once I overslept !!) So a quick breakfast, a farewell to Ramon
(the owner) and his wife, and I headed out of town, via the supermercado for
some supplies for the next couple of days.
Then it was all of two kilometres to the bridge over the river into
Brasil. I have got so used to crossing
between Chile and Argentina (8 or 9 times ?!) that I wasn’t sure what to expect
for Brasil. As I neared the border, a
long queue of cars didn’t bode well – Many Argentinians cross everyday. But the line moved quickly, and within 10
minutes, I was at the head of the queue – Hey, for the first time on the trip
since a US / Canada border, I didn’t have to get out of the car – You just
drive up to a booth and hand your documents out of the window !! How good is this ? Within 30 seconds he had stamped my passport
out of Argentina, taken my car’s Argentinian temporary import permit, and waved
me through. Then on through 5 kms or so
of no man’s land, across a big river, to the Brazilian border – where they just
waved me through………. Can’t be right
!! What about my passport stamp ? What about a temporary car import ? etc
etc. So I park and walk over to the
policeman who had waved me through and he directed me to a passport office –
Where I filled out a simple form, handed it in (no queue !), and after 10
seconds my passport was stamped into Brasil and handed back. “What about my car ?” I asked.
“No”, the lady replied, and waved me through. I checked with the policeman outside. “Completo ?”
“Si.” “Voy a Sao Paulo?” “Si”. Fair enough !! Seems a little odd, but I will accept it
! A man came up and asked if I needed
cambio (change), and I decided to change $100 just so I had some Reals in my
pocket while I looked for an ATM, and once I had done that, I headed out of the
customs area, pleasantly surprised by the ease of the whole process, but at the
same time worried that I needed some kind of documents for the car !
I decided the best bet to find an ATM that accepted
overseas cards was at the airport, so I drove out there, found an ATM, and got
some more cash – And was ready to hit the road.
SO nice to be able to get money from an ATM rather than having to find people
on the street to change money in Argentina – That really is one of the biggest
hassles in Argentina, due to the varying exchange rates. And this border crossing has to be the
easiest one so far in the whole trip – Easier even than US/ Canadian borders.
I then drove almost solidly from noon to 7 pm across
Brazil – Not the most exciting drive, but quite interesting because it was so
very different from everywhere else so far.
Quite sub-tropical and green, crops of corn (maize) and sugar cane for
as far as you can see in any direction, and an amazing number of “Love” motels
– Renting rooms by the hour ! I was
surprised by these as I thought this was a central American “thing” – But in
Brazil they seem even more common !
Certainly very obvious both in their colours and their names too !! By 7 pm I was pooped and found a perfect gas
station with an enormous parking lot out the back. I tucked myself out of the way in a corner
(in case it filled with trucks during the evening), cooked my supper and went
to bed. In the photos it looks a bit
sad, with the collapsed roof, but in fact it was just perfect ! Slept like a log and not disturbed by any
trucks at all.
Leisurely get up and breakfast in the morning, and by 8
am I was on the road before the sun got too hot. The traffic lights in this part of Brazil
explain why there are so many Ayerton Senna’s and other Brazilians floating
around in motor racing - They use the
same lights system for traffic lights as they use to start a Formula 1 Grand
Prix, or start a drag race !! There are two columns of lights, one of red, on
the left, and one of green, on the right. When the light first turns red, the top and
the bottom lights (of 6) are illuminated.
Slowly, the lights scroll down like those at a drag strip, (although
more slowly) and once the bottom red one is the only one alight, it goes to 2
green ones on the right hand side, and the race is on. The same system then happens with the green
lights, so you know when you are going to have to stop. And NO ONE runs a red light because they know
the people going the other way have their clutches slipping and are ready to go
when all their red lights go out !! I
couldn’t believe the system, and was so busy checking it out I was a bit slow
off the grid a couple of times, and lost a couple of positions !!
Today was much like yesterday – Rolling hills, lots of
maize and sugar cane (for all their ethanol, I guess), and also an increasing
amount of coffee – At last after the almost total lack of coffee in Chile and
Argentina. One town I passed through had
a factory roasting the coffee, and the smell was just great – I opened all the
windows and sniffed deeply ! The day was
boring, but not uninteresting, if you can understand that – I am only going to
pass this way once in my life, so it is always interesting to see it all. Apart from the extensive agriculture, there
were increasing numbers of BIG factories – Cars (VW, Toyota, John Deere, and
Chery were the ones I remember), and lots of Industrial names I recognised –
Johnson & Johnson, Copersucar, and tyre manufacturing plants, as well as
many others I didn’t recognise. My
impressions of Brazil so far are the extensive agriculture, and massive
industrialization – The latter maybe more obvious because due to the flat
countryside, you can see it from the road – It is not hidden away. And LOTS of trucks on the road, moving goods
from one place to another. But it really
wasn’t a very exciting day - Just
kilometres (1200 from Iguazu to Ubatuba) to be covered.
By 6 pm I was (again !) pooped, having been driving since
8 am, and started looking for a campsite on the Garmin ……Nothing. Just no camp sites out here in the middle of
Brazil. So it was then a case of looking for another suitable gas station – I
actually needed to do a U turn and go back about 20 kms because I was getting
closer to the urbanization of Sao Paulo, and so the gas stations were not the
big spacious ones you get out in the country.
But the first one I came to, a big petrobras one, was perfect, and once
again I tucked myself away in a corner so I was out of the way of any big
trucks that might stop later, cooked some spaghetti for supper, and hit the
hay.
Why Ubatuba ? Well
in Panama, when we were trying to ship the car to Columbia, we had linked up
with a great Brazilian family who had been up to Alaska and were on their way
home – Mauro, Giovanna, and their children Leticia and Pedro. We spent quite a lot of time with them in
Cartagena as we waited for our cars, and they had invited us to Ubatuba once we
got to Brazil, Speaking to people on the
road, everyone said Ubatuba was gorgeous, so since I have 4 weeks up my sleeve
before I have to be in Montevideo, I decided to go and investigate. Ubatuba is just north of Sao Paulo, and about
200 kms south of Rio de Janeiro, and is right on the coast. And it would be
great to catch up with them all again.
The next morning I found very few trucks around me, so
had a quick breakfast and headed out by 8.30 am or so. After the somewhat tedious drive east across
southern Brazil, the increasing traffic as I neared Sao Paulo, especially since
I hadn’t really been in a sizeable city since Santiago back in January – So all
a bit frenetic trying to get used to it all.
Much harder on your own too, trying to co-ordinate maps, maps.me on the
tablet, and the Garmin, all of which seem to say slightly different things !! I kept just north of Sao Paulo, and the only
real traffic I hit was in Campinas where I thought I was being clever by
getting there after 9 am, only to find out that their rush hour seems to start
at 9 and go till about 11 am – They seem to start work later over here !! Anyway, made it through, despite an
increasing number of people waving at me and taking photos of my car as they
overtook me ! Probably more than at any
other stage of the trip – And can be quite disconcerting because they suddenly
brake after they pass you, and wait for you to pass them again, or change lanes
suddenly, in order to take a photo ! But
nice that they are so friendly and aware, anyway.
And the toll roads !!!
The Peajes, or Pedagios at they are called here in Portuguese-speaking
Brazil, are the worst I have seen since Columbia, and maybe even more
expensive. I only did about 1200 kms in
Brazil so far, and it has cost me 200 Reals, or about $75 US !! But at least the people in the booths are
friendly – Every single one of them smiled at my RHD car and made a friendly
comment. And at one booth, a guy who was
outside the booth came over to take my money and help me reach across to the
booth (remember the booth is on the left), and when, for a joke, I put my hand
out of the right hand window for my change, he laughed and ran all the way
round my car to give it to me ! We all
had a good laugh about that one !!
About 250 kms short of Rio, in a town called Taubate, I
turned off the main highway and headed east down to Ubatuba, on the coast. We had been up in hills (Sierra da
Mantequiera ?) for a while, at about 800 metres, and as I turned to Ubatuba, we
climbed higher, up to about 900 metres, and then the road not only got really
twisty, but we were in thick cloud for a while ! This was already far more interesting than
the last 3 days across the endless countryside across Brazil ! Amazing yellow and purple flowering trees for
a while, and then the road started dropping.
Steeply. And for the next 50
minutes or so I was in 2nd gear much of the time, trying to save my
brakes which were getting increasingly spongy and smelly with the repeated
steep downhill hairpin bends. Finally I
arrived in Ubatuba, and what a great little seaside town. Quite a few good surf beaches nearby, I
understand too. Having only a phone
number for Mauro, I decided to drive to the beach and call him from there,
figuring he would be able to find me more easily. I ended up parking just in front of a VW
kombi with a young couple selling T shirts and beads to passers-by. Mauro does not (yet) speak good English, so I
was having trouble explaining where I was in Ubatuba so he could come and find
me, so I went over to the couple in the kombi and asked if they spoke English,
and if they could explain to my friend on the phone where I was. Once they started talking, it turned out they
knew Mauro and I had to stop them chatting on my expensive Australian phone
! It seems Mauro knows most people in
Ubatuba after 27 years here, including the people selling trinkets on the beach
! After about 15 minutes Mauro arrived
together with daughter Leticia, and we all had a good laugh together before
setting off back to Mauro’s home.
Once there we had a fun evening communicating in our
mixed English / Spanish / Portuguese – They are all taking English lessons at
the moment so their English is getting a lot better than my Spanish (and
certainly better than my Portuguese which is almost zero !), especially Mauro
whose English is improving quickly !
Mauro and Giovanna have moved out of their bedroom for me, which is vert
kind of them, but most embarrassing. I
have a list of things to do in the few days I am here – Haircut, try to find
some of my prescription pills (I am running out because I thought I would be
back in Australia about now), and a couple of problems with my computer I need
to fix. So we will tackle them
tomorrow. In the mean time it was off to
bed – for me so very nice to have a meal cooked by someone else for a change, and to sleep somewhere else than
in the back of my car ! And lovely to
just be somewhere where I can flop for a few days before getting back on the
road again !
great blog Giles! On the move, as always!
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