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South America: Part 3 Irene and Lia continue theirjourney through Brazil and Argentina, finishing Lia’s part of this story…
Now there’s a caution sign you don’t see every day.
Looking a tad slippery.
We had left the sandy roads behind us and on to six-lane highways bound for Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Curitiba.
With 10,000km on the odometers we rode into Rio and returned directly to modern-day Brazil. Canoes glided over the glinting water while in the background we saw the jungle-covered mountain with one of the seven world wonders: Cristo de Redentor.
Rio has a lot to offer in sightseeing, culture and nightlife. Of course, we also attended a football match at the Maracanã Stadium, one of the largest in the world, and walked across the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.
Arrial do Cabo, a lovely beach town were Rio inhabitants – ‘cariocas’ – go for weekends.
True grit
Before we arrived in Rio we’d planned to make a short stop at Arrial do Cabo, a lovely beach town were Rio inhabitants – ‘cariocas’ – go for weekends. Our timing wasn’t too bad since we arrived on a Wednesday, but it was still difficult to find a place to stay. In the end we found a wonderful hotel 20m from the beach which wasn’t too expensive.
Our plan for a short visit was messed up when Lia became ill and we had to prolong our stay by a couple of days.
It did allow me to catch up with editing my photographs and writing stories, and for the first time in over two months of travel I even had time to read a book while lying on the beach. I thought it was strange everyone was lying on chairs instead of on a towel directly on the sand like me, but after 30 minutes I realised why. My body was completely covered in a thin layer of grit which stuck to me because of my sunblock.
I always have to learn the hard way.
Lia recovered quickly, so after a couple of days we left for Rio to see what that metropolis had in store for us.
A short visit was planned, but an illness meant staying longer than intended.
Room with a view
We often made use of our Lonely Planet to find a good, cheap place to sleep.
For Rio we had three options as we rode into the enormous city.
It was holiday season in Brazil so it proved difficult to find a place to stay at all. Our first choice had two bunk beds free, but only for one night. We tried our luck via booking.com and hostelworld.
com and found a hostel nearby, also in Ipanema. Without taking a look we booked, only too glad to have a place at all.
The next morning I entered our new accommodation and it scared the crap out of me. In the ‘lobby’ were two completely worn-out couches with dirty blankets on them and there was hardly a place to stand because the whole room was full of rubbish. It wasn’t only not clean, but everything I saw was covered in dust. On top of all that, it smelled horrible.
Oh my god. I thought we were screwed.The only upside was the landlady. She was a lovely, elderly woman.
Upstairs was a little better, and at least we had a room with a huge window which we immediately opened to let in some very necessary fresh air. We even had a room and bathroom of our own instead of our usual bunkbeds in a shared room with six others. So all-in-all it wasn’t too bad.
Men at the army post helped remove the wheel but couldn’t get the tyre back on the rim.
Steps
Two women were holding hands and walking in the street and two guys were kissing each other on the lips. I actually hadn’t noticed it until Lia pointed it out.
There seemed to be a lot more gay than straight people in Rio. How remarkable.
Back in our hostel I checked our Lonely Planet and it wasn’t remarkable at all.
We were in ‘the gay capital’ of Latin America. Homosexuality was legal and more accepted there than in any other part of the continent.
The rain didn’t hold us back. We bought umbrellas and in my only pair of jeans and flip-flops we strolled over to an art market, took the subway and walked over the famous Escadaria Selarón stairs, nowadays a beloved tourist attraction.
The colorful tiled stairs were the work of Chilean artist Jorge Selarón. He started tiling the stairs in 1990 and was still busy enhancing it until his death in 2013.
We did our own walking tour around the city centre and admired the beautiful architecture.
An outstanding view from a helicopter.
Any wonder
Apparently you have to be lucky with the weather to be able to see the view of Rio de Janeiro from top of the 700m Corovado mountain, site of Cristo de Redentor landmark. We boarded the special train and ascended the mountain, then climbed a few stairs to get to the 635-tonne, 30m-tall statue to find our luck had run out. The view over Rio was blocked by a dense fog, and even Jesus himself was hardly to be seen. But we had time on our side and our patience was rewarded. The fog cleared to reveal the statue. It was huge and impressive, but in my opinion still the least interesting of the seven new world wonders. I’d seen Chichen Itza, the Taj Mahal, the Chinese Wall, the Colosseum and Machu Picchu.
All of them were breathtaking in their own way…except for this one.
To be honest, for me this world wonder was kind of a letdown.
Goal
The massive Maracanã football stadium is one of the largest in the world with a capacity of almost 80,000. Matches are rated as some of the most exciting in the world, not least because of the enthusiastic fans. For Lia it was the first time in a stadium at all and she could hardly take in all the chanting people and huge, loudly pounding samba drums.
We loved watching the devoted fans even more than the match itself. They were dancing in the aisles and we didn’t only hear the deafening roar when a goal was scored, we felt it vibrating through our bodies!
After strolling on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema it was time to leave Rio. We enjoyed this marvelous city a lot, but like always, we loved riding our KTMs even more.
We did our own walking tour around the city centre.
Rock town
We continued along the coast to São Paulo. This part of the BR101 highway had one of the most impressive, winding coastlines, and towns like Parati, Ubatuba and Sebastião alongside it have become resorts for the well-off cariocas and paulistanos (inhabitants of São Paulo).
In Rio we’d faced a lot of rain and were very disappointed to see the bad weather continue, especially while riding this beautiful part of the country.
It was impossible to take pictures so there was nothing to do but continue on to São Paulo.
The disadvantage of Brazil was that the roads were generally too good.
The asphalt was perfect and you paid a toll to use it. Six-lane highways aren’t the best riding on the KTMs, but they’re the fastest. Still, even the highway section to São Paulo was overwhelmingly beautiful. Like a hard-to-see line of ants we rode over high bridges and through countless tunnels in the gigantic, forested mountains.
Endless skyscrapers formed the new view as we rode into São Paulo.
With 22 million people, the metropolis alone exceeded the population of The Netherlands. It reminded us of New York.
Our first stop was at a KTM dealership where the bikes had their 10,000km service. A mechanic asked if we’d already replaced our brake pads because they looked hardly used. I replied, “No. We just never brake!”
The next day we visited some museums and walked through a city park which looked like the jungle version of Central Park.
Curitiba was a completely different story. It’s also called the ‘Rock City’ of Brazil, and it was obvious why. There so many tattoos, beards, piercings and band shirts. If you ever visit Curitiba, go to the exceptional Oscar Niemeyer museum.
It’s an incredible, special building with a varied art collection.
Serenity
Before crossing the border at natural world wonder Foz do Iguaçu, I was keen to go to Serro do Rio do Rastro. It was reputed to be one of the most beautiful mountain roads in the world.
The window of our hotel was fully packed with stickers from motorcycle clubs. It showed how beloved this mountain pass was and made me even more enthusiastic.
Fortunately we started without rain, unlike the previous few days.
But suddenly the whole mountain crest disappeared in a dense fog, just when I was ready to photograph Lia in a nice bend. After waiting for an hour, I gave up and we continued on. As soon as we left the mountain pass the sun gently emerged and the veil of fog gradually opened up. We turned around and went back, and, after waiting a little longer,
the fog disappeared completely.
What luck! Lia rode up and down several times for the camera, and after that, we continued to enjoy the beautiful road through ‘snow valley’, a welcome change after days of mainly tarmac on busy highways.
The KTMs could take you to any place you want at any time.
Late arrival
We headed to Foz do Iguaçu, which lay partly in Brazil and partly in Argentina.
The fastest way to get to the Brazilian section was via Argentina, so we decided to score some additional stamps for our passports. How typical. Every time you crossed a border you immediately noticed the difference in the roads, nature and population. This transition meant you got exactly the opposite of what you expected.
As soon as we entered Argentina the asphalt became significantly worse.
There was hardly any other traffic on the road and cars we did see were rusty, rickety wrecks.
By 5:00pm we had about 100km to go.
According to the GPS we were due to arrive at 6:15pm. Suddenly, however, the gray asphalt turned into red sand with pebbles and stones. It was undeniably idyllic, untouched greenery, but my first thought was that it would be an awful place to get a flat tyre. I passed an army post and felt relieved the off-road part in Argentina was behind us. But where was Lia? She had been not that far behind me, but now was nowhere to be seen.
I waited a little longer before heading back. I soon found her and, unbelievable! She had a puncture.
At the army post, four men helped us remove the wheel and replace the tube.
It was easier said than done, because they couldn’t get the tyre back on the wheel.
In the end, we decided to go to a gomeria (tyre repairer) with only the wheel. In the pitch dark the tyre was repaired, the wheel replaced, and we covered the final 32km to Foz do Iguaçu, arriving at 12:30am. It was six-and-half hours later than planned.
The heroes of the street
In Curitiba something drew my attention: the poor people from the slums who collect high stacks of waste in large carts in the city centre.
They’re men and women, young and old, and I see them as ‘the heroes of the street’. Instead of stealing or robbing like some, they work extremely hard for very little money.
They’re people like Amauri. At 22, he has been doing this work all his life. He works six days each week from morning until evening and his full cart weighs about 80kg. For one kilo of paper he’s paid eight cents. For one kilo of plastic 10 cents, and for one kilo of aluminum 80 cents.
I decided to give the people who helped me do a report a small amount of money as a token of my gratitude from our Projects Of The Riding Reporters Foundation. I gave each of them 50 reales, which amounts to $15. It’s a pittance in the Netherlands, but in Brazil it is worth much more. I loved 49-year-old Jocélie Riviera’s reaction. Initially she didn’t want to accept the money, but in the end she did and was very grateful. I’m touched that nowadays you can still make people happy with such a small amount of money.
It was made possible by the Postcode Loterij Fonds of Free Press Unlimited.
Facts and information
Brazil is the largest country in both South America and Latin America.
As the world’s fifth-largest country by both area and population, it’s the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7500km.
It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3 per cent of the continent’s land area. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest and is home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats.
This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, and is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection. In the Amazon forest there are still undiscovered indigenous tribes.
Portugal claimed Brazil as a colony to its empire in 1500, but nowadays Brazil is an independent republic with the world’s eighth-largest economy.
How to get there
Only a few of the more than 4000 airports in Brazil provide international flights.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are the main two, but Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Recife, Natal, and Fortaleza are also possibilities.
Of course, you can also opt to enter overland via a bordering country.
Food and lodging
Overnight lodgings and food are readily available along the route, including both privately owned and national chains.
You can lodge at hotels at the numerous fuel stations.
Roads and biking
Brazil has 1,751,868km of roads, 96,353km of them paved. That means that only 5.5 per cent of the roads are sealed. Nonetheless you can often choose paved roads, including excellent six-lane highways, to get to your destination. You have to pay toll for highways in some parts of Brazil, like in Rio de Janeiro for example.
Serro do Rio do Rastro, reputed to be one of the most beautiful mountain roads in the world.
Soaked
The next morning we caught a bus to the border where more than 220 water-falls made an incredible display of natural violence.
Having admired the falls from the Brazilian side, we decided to also see it from above with a helicopter flight.
It was an outstanding view which passed too quickly in the 10-minute flight. We saved the Argentinian side for the next day, which started with a one-hour wait for a bus. How quickly you get used to the luxury of the KTMs that take you to any place you want at any time.
The Argentinian side of the waterfalls was amazing in a completely different way. We wanted to see, feel and experience them in addition to the overwhelming view from above.
Our wish was granted. The waterfalls splattered over us and left us with thoroughly soaked clothes.
Lia rode up and down several times for the camera.
Next chapter
We only stayed a single day in Argentina before crossing the border to Uruguay.
After three days we arrived in Montevideo, where the next project was waiting for us: a report about a special prison. In addition, this was also the place where the fantastic part of the trip with Lia came to an end and the second part of the great adventure with Carli would begin!
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