I’ve just been on the road for about 12 days to cover 4600 kilometres and so I haven’t had much time to write or much inclination. I made a decision that I wanted to try and get to Belem for my birthday (March 14) and have a few days off. Belem is where the main coastal road to the top of Brazil stops and from there you need to take an overnight ferry about 400 kms north to get to Macapa where the road starts again and then it continues on for another 600kms to the border of French Guyana.

Brazil is big and has a long coastline. My ride from Rio to Belem is about the same distance as Perth to Darwin via Broome. Except you don’t get those big, long empty stretches like you do at home. One thing I have learned is that a lot of people live in Brazil and that makes a big difference to everything. While it’s not much bigger than Australia in land mass it has 8 times the population. It’s very similar to Australia in many ways but there is 8 times as many cities or they are 8 times bigger than Australian cities. There are 8 times as many cars and trucks on the road but fortunately not 8 times as many cops patrolling them.

When you have that much traffic to control you just put in fixed radar cameras or speed humps. They work perfectly. Except there are thousands of them. Everywhere. Some of the speed humps are pretty severe and I even had to crawl over them with the bike. They are covered in scrapes and gouges. Others are a bit kinder, and I can take them at 30kph. And some have bits missing or you can side step them with the bike. They do work to my advantage though as everything has to slow down to cross them and when they do I can slip past them and cross a bit quicker and get ahead. Especially the trucks. Some speed humps are brightly painted. Many have warning signs but some have neither and so I did hit a couple at speed. Only one of them made me cringe. Another made me fly a little. And the radars. Mostly they are well signposted but occasionally not. I’m sure I missed several of them. Not sure what happens about that and my Colombian bike and Australian drivers’ licence. Hopefully nothing. And in the gaps between all the speed controls it’s just a sprint race. Go as fast as you can or want. I think the speed limit is 110kph. But I have no idea. Lots of signs with 80 or less but no one takes any notice. And no random mobile radars that I saw. Potholes and road patches are also part of the speed control measures. And of course the toll booths. Unfortunately, at a lot of tolls this time, I had to pay. Not much, but there is something nice about have a free lane to slip by. R$2.30 is about 65 cents. I also came across one random breath test station but because I was a bike they waved me through.

There was only one thing that I really wanted to see on my way up the coast. And I managed to do that. I like to keep track of the places I go, and stay so I write them in a book but if I forget for a few days I have a hard time working backwards as so many places are similar. I tried to do one long list on google maps but it wouldn’t let me so I broke it in to two sections. The centre point is Ponto do Seixas or Joao Pessoa or the most easterly tip of South America. Yes. I have now been to all the four corners of South America. Unlike all the other extremities, I had to share it with a lot of people. And it was a Sunday. In summer. And it’s a nice beach.

It also has a fancy monument on a hill to recognise the location. It was difficult finding a parking place. I was hot in all my riding gear. You have to park and then walk up a long path to get to it. I rode up to the entry to ask the guy where I could safely park my bike with all my gear on it. He just moved the witches hat and said ride your bike up there. Look out pedestrians. It solved all my problems in one swipe and I got to finish my collection of photos of my bike in all the locations. How nice.

Other than the most westerly point I’m just going to have to photo dump and put highlights because doing it sequentially would take too long and probably be boring (*EDIT Sorry. That didn’t happen). A lot of Brazil is like Australia. Gum trees included. If it was for the yellow double lines and the fact, I ride on the right, I felt like I was riding at home a lot of times. I didn’t really have a set route but generally followed the coast. The highways were busy and full of trucks. The coastal town roads were quieter but full of speed humps so it was all a bit of a trade off really. Most of my days were between 400 -600kms with a couple of days in one spot because of a public holiday and the need to service the bike. And give my sore bum a break. I also managed to find a couple of ferries which are a great way to enter or leave a city.

First night out I didn’t plan to get too far, just out of the chaos, and made it to a place called Itaborai and stayed in a place for $34AUD. No window. Cold shower. Sad breakfast. But not $225 a night.

Then to next day to Bella Vista Hospedaria. 540kms. Nice place. New. Clean. Good parking. Smallest room I have ever stayed in. Friendly owner. Maybe too friendly! Slightly over the top with social media! Every guest? Every Day?

Next day was a short 150kms to Sao Mateus where I needed to book my bike in for a service and I wanted to see if I could get it done that day. It was a Monday morning before a Tuesday public holiday. From my experiences in Spanish speaking countries, a lot of places have what is called a Puente (bridge) weekend when a public holiday is on a Tuesday or Thursday. They don’t want to go back to work for one day, so they just take the whole 4 days off. It’s a wonder Australia isn’t on to that one. Anyway I was hoping Honda wasn’t doing it. Unfortunately, it looked like they were because I turned up on Monday and they were closed. And closed Tuesday as part of the Carnival holiday but then they were also closed on Wednesday! But when I told the lady at the hotel she said they will probably be open in the afternoon and thankfully, they were. So my bike had it’s badly needed oil change and I booked in for another night. I’ve become very attached to my bike and don’t want it to miss its oil change. And it had almost an entire underground carpark to itself.

I had chosen this town as it was when the service was due but also because I thought I might get stuck there and it had a bit of a price war going on in town with Ibis and another hotel chain called Go Inn. $60AUD a night with parking and breakfast and a really nice room. I opted for Go Inn. Turned out that not only was the breakfast really nice with healthy options but the restaurant owner was lovely and spoke reasonable English. We got on really well. I also had a fish dinner there which was delicious and also a fish dinner in my room because it was cheap and I was lazy. And everything was closed for the holiday.

When I left next morning I rode out to the coast about 15kms to check out the beach which was nice. They were packing up all the huge marquis and stages from the Carnival weekend. It must have been a big one.

Next day was over 600kms, including the beach diversion. I rode through some nice countryside with lots of farmland and the occasional section of original jungle. I also stopped to watched a gaucho round up his cattle, which then came over to check out my bike. That night I had nothing booked. It was getting dark and starting to rain and suddenly a big petrol station roadhouse hotel appeared. Nice. Old style motel with a park outside my room and only $37AUD. The roadhouse also had a smorgasbord where you loaded up your plate with whatever you want and then they weigh it and charge you by the 100 grams. So, I had a nice healthy dinner for less than $10AUD.

While I don’t have a photo of the smorgasboard from that night I did have one for lunch another day, or a few times. They are very common and a great way to get some veggies and salad in a predominantly meat eating country. You load up your plate first and then go to the grill at the end in the corner and just pick what you want and they put it on your plate. From there to the checkout and weigh in. The lunch meal below was about $8AUD with the drink.

Next day was either a 450km ride to Salvador. Or. A 300km ride to Vera Cruz and then an $8AUD ferry ride for an hour into central Santa Cruz. No need to second guess that one. Huge line for the ferry but as usual, bikes just pass by the lines. I did panic slightly when there was a bottleneck and no way to get past the line of cars but then another motorbike behind me rode up onto the footpath and continued on that way. I’m not a slow learner. The ferry was huge with a below deck level as well for extra cars. Bottom left pic.

It was nice to arrive in the city and meant only a short ride to Casa Petunia ($60AUD) where I had booked for the night. Fancy B&B with nice host, room, great breakfast and parking. Lots of Bali decoration.

I had a nice walk and feed down along the waterfront that evening. You could see lots of stages set up between buildings that were being disassembled after the city’s carnival. Seems like just about every city has them. There was also some martial art music/dancing thing going on.

Next place I was hoping to reach was Maceio which was a bit over 600kms. I didn’t quite make it and ended up about 50kms short at Barra de Sao Miguel. A seaside town with a little B&B with a long name ($34AUD). Family ran, with just the one room. The family were just on their way out to a parade and insisted I came along. The parents were about 10 years younger than me and the daughter early 20’s and the son late teens and he spoke some English which made it all doable. We ended up driving about 20 minutes to another small town. We parked up and shortly after we were following the crowds behind a big truck with gigantic speakers and a band on the roof. Winding our way through the streets and drinking something out of plastic cups. People came out of their houses and followed along. The speakers were so big they vibrated your body when you went near them. Dad kept buying me beers.

On the way home around 10:00pm we stopped at a restaurant and had a feed. I sneaked off just before we left and paid. It was only $42AUD for the 5 of us. A great night.,

Next morning I forced down as much breakfast as I could because they went to so much trouble to make it and I wasn’t hungry at all. When I left I followed the coast which was lovely, and I wished I had more time to do it at a slower pace.

I continued on up to the most westerly point of Brazil and the continent which I mentioned above and then decided to push on until dark. The first couple of hotels didn’t work but then in a place called Goianinha I was getting a bit desperate as it was getting dark and threatening a big storm. I’d found a hotel restaurant on google but although it had lights on inside I couldn’t find the entrance. It had good reviews and they were current so I kept searching. Surely it can’t be this hard. I was riding around the block on the wrong side of the road without my helmet and nearly hit a cop car that passed me, and they didn’t bat an eye. Turned out it’s only a lunch and breakfast restaurant and the after hours entrance to the Hotel Casa Grande was via a bell on the side of a green gate at the end of the street. Besides that it was a normal hotel. Standard room. Just unpacked my bike before it poured with rain. I had a beer and a chokito bar for dinner. I was still full from breakfast. The hotel had a great breakfast next day and the guy there was keen to practice his English. I’m finding it difficult to find people who speak English in Brazil. Or even Spanish for that matter.

I left there and headed to the big city of Natal. My bike needed another oil change. It needs to be done about every 2500kms and I was knocking those over quickly. I had been proactive and found the address of a Honda workshop in Natal. It is big city and as I reached the outskirts I pulled off the road to set up my phone to guide me in through the morning traffic. I glanced across the road and there was a Honda dealership. It took me 5 minutes to cross the road but they were able to service my bike straight away. That was really good because it meant I could then just skirt around the city and continue on, to some place? I didn’t plan a place because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get my bike serviced. I made it to Aracati by nightfall and did 450kms for the day. I’m starting to feel my bum muscles now.

The guy at the check in at the Pousada Girasol was not a people person. Or not that day at least. He did soften a little when I admired his beer bottle collection in the cabinet in his office. I normally pay with my UP debit card and he no interest in trying it a second time when it failed at the first attempt (due to his error, not the card). So I just paid in cash ($42). I wandered into the main square and found a lady selling beer and beef and chicken skewers. She even gave me a second helping of salad for free when she saw how quick I scoffed the first lot. Perfect dinner.

Next day after I ate my pretty ordinary breakfast, I continued on for a 500+ day to Camocim. I was having trouble finding somewhere to stay with parking, but noticed in a website photo that one place that said no parking, had motorbikes in the foyer. I went there and although you had to street park until late at night, you could then put the bike inside. Fine. $39AUD. Like I do in most places I wander around in the evening and check out the town. It gets dark by 6:30 now and seems to rain most days. Usually in the evening or at night. Somehow, I missed the memo that says that it’s the rainy season this time of year in northern Brazil. It doesn’t really bother me too much on the bike as I have a good set of waterproof jacket and pants that I put on and my luggage seems to hold out any water. My gloves get soaked but dry quickly and I have to wipe my visor a lot but other than that it’s not a problem.

Next day, yet another 550kms. The landscape changed into a bit of sandy stuff for a while which was a bit weird. And I had a lot of rain. I stopped at a little restaurant to have something to eat and put on my outer rain gear. It started to rain as I was ordering so I asked if my bike could join me inside for lunch. It’s regional Brazil. No problem.

I arrived in Sao Luis as it was getting dark. Another big city on the coast. I had prebooked through booking.com at the Suite Cama Queen perto Centro Historico e Praias. Unfortunately, besides it’s long name, it’s location on google maps wasn’t very accurate. The place it showed was a language school which was lucky as I found someone there who spoke English and she called them and it turns out it was just down the hill from where it shows on the map. It’s in the old part of the city and the place I stayed fitted in perfectly. The house is very old, very long, and skinny and just has the one guestroom that just made me smile. I wondered how I end up in some places. Rustic, eccentric, quaint, special, but perfect.

The left photo is the garden looking back from the house at my bike in the distance. The yellow building is where I stayed. And the doors on the bottom right are the rear entrance to the backyard where my bike spent the night. But I felt we were both fine and slept well.

Although safe and staying in the old part of town. I didn’t venture far for dinner. I had a pretty ordinary spaghetti dish outside a restaurant that was trying to out noise his competitor who was in an adjacent street with big external speakers. I was hungry and they were the only two options and it didn’t look like a good night time city to wander around in. My restaurant obviously spent more money on speakers than staff and I think the waiter was brain dead, possible for continuous nights of loud music. He probably didn’t even realise I spoke English as it was all done with charades anyway. I ate quickly when it arrived and left. A couple of nice pics on the way home from the restaurant.

It was the first place I have stayed in Brazil with no breakfast but at $28AUD that was fine. I had done my research and found there was a ferry to get me out of the city which would save me 100kms and also backtracking through the city traffic. And it left every hour or so and that meant I could have a leisurely wander around the old city in the morning. Sao Luis is another of those 400+ year old cities full of old Portuguese buildings. Here they seemed more run down than in other places. There was a more modern part of the city, but the old part looks like they are not sure, or don’t have the funds to renovate it. I quite like it how it is. I spent a couple of hours wandering around taking too many photos (the top left is where I stayed in daylight but it was dark when I had arrived) and then went back to pack my stuff and put my foot in my mouth.

Not just my foot but my riding boot and smelly sock as well.  There is a couple of people who live in the house and run the place but the guy that checked me in spoke some English. He introduced me to an older guy and I asked if it was his dad and if he had always lived here. The second part was true, but he said that the guy was his boyfriend, not his dad and they lived together in the house. In my defence he looked younger than he was, and his partner possibly looked older than he was. I didn’t follow up on that. I also noticed that night that my pants had become terribly stained and I hadn’t realised it. I think from sweating inside my riding pants, because it is so hot with all my gear on in this climate. Who knows how long I’ve been walking around with my arse looking like this! Probably at least a week of it getting progressively worse.

I said my goodbyes and took the short ride to the ferry. I somehow took a wrong turn and ended up at some terminal with armed security which seemed like the wrong place. I’d overshot the right terminal by a couple of kilometres but they were friendly and showed me how to get where I needed to go.

The ferry was similar to lots of the others. Same great feeling riding to the front of the queue. I managed to get on board just before it bucketed down.  The ferry trip was about an hour and saved me a heap of riding in traffic in the rain and I got some breakfast. The roads now are still pretty good and have two lanes in both directions most of the time.

The scenery was starting to change a bit as I was getting up towards bigger rivers that lead out of the Amazon Basin. There were lots of low lying areas that I imagine get flooded in big rains but they are also near the coast so I suppose the drain quickly. I’m starting to see why there are limited roads available to travel on as I head to the northern part of the Brazilian coastline. And a random statue. The are very religious out in the countryside.

I was able to leave late because I broke the last section into two bits and it was only 250kms to a place that I had read had a nice roadside motel next to the roadhouse. I pulled in there and saw this truck in the photo. It’s a wonder I don’t see more like that. They fly along. As I was checking in, I heard this horrible crunch noise followed by a woman screaming, it was a motorbike accident but I couldn’t see from the window if she was pinned or had hit someone but she was screaming her lungs out for a few minutes. It was on a busy corner of the petrol station and lots of people ran over to her. The cops and an ambulance arrived quickly. A good reminder for me to continue being careful.

The motel, Bella Nicolly in Gov. Nunes Freire was the best value accommodation I’ve had in Brazil. Twenty three aussie dollars with a decent breakfast. And aircon and hot water. I don’t know how they make any money out of it. Considering there were two bibles in my room I was wondering if it wasn’t all about the money. From there it was a nice short 350km ride up to Belem. And happy birthday Shane. I made it to Belem on my birthday as planned. It was time to rest up. Get a major service on the bike and plan the next part of the trip. It just gets harder from here. I had come to the end of the road and need to catch a ferry 400kms north to Macapa as that is the only way to get there.

Or is it?

KMS 37951