Blogs from Pará, Brazil, South America

En route to Santarem, Brazil, our port of call on Thursday, March 2, 2023, we spent two days cruising the Amazon River. Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure of EXACTLY what river we were cruising because Belém, our last port of call, is on the banks of the Pará River. Wikipedia says Belém is “part of the greater Amazon River system” and is “the gateway to the Amazon River” but is technically not ON the Amazon River. The “Amazon basin” is that part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 2.4 million square miles, or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent, and is located in portions of eight countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. ... read more

I brought my rain gear with me and religiously put it on rain threathened, but after two day I came to the obvious conclusion that wt from the outside or wet from the inside aka sweat, made no difference to me. So when the clouds darken and the drops start to fall I lower my visor and keep on without rain gear. It's incredible though how quickly you get wet, as in soaking wet in about 30 seconds. Well I haven't been dry since day one but it's more sweating than anything else. All my riding gear is humid and sticky and probaly smelly which will keep the Zika mozzies away. Brazil is a very large and very green country, so far I've done about 7000 km and it's green everywhere, the landscape is mostly a ... read more

unsere platzwahl an deck des massenfassenden schiffs war fast perfekt. fast. leider geht die ganze nacht das grelle neonlicht genau über uns nicht aus. und die laut krächzende durchsagebox direkt an unseren köpfen verkündet alle nächtlichen anlaufhafen. immer eine halbe stunde und kurz bevor wir die stops erreichen. nach einer zeit protestieren dann auch unsere lächerlich verwöhnten europäischen körper gegen die durchhängende liegeposition. immer, wenn eine halbwegs angenehme stellung gefunden ist, boxt der nachbar einem fuß, ellenbogen oder kopf in die seite. markus, der verräter, gesteht mir des morgens, dass er abends noch einmal aufgestanden ist, sich zwei bier und eine schlaftablette gegönnt hat. jetzt wundert es mich nicht mehr, dass ausnahmsweise ich ein schlafproblem hatte… die nacht ist also eher durchwachsen und so ist das erwachen durch umtriebiges geplapper der einheimischen... read more

Day 407 Wednesday 21st November Around 1.00am the bus stopped at a terminal somewhere along the way and we sat there for over an hour. Because this was a long stop the driver turned off the engine along with the air-con and so we sat and sweltered in our little tin can. The stop was unannounced and no one was too sure when we would get underway and so everyone stayed on the bus and seated in the stuffy containment. We eventually got back on the road and with the air con back on managed somehow to snatch a few hours sleep laying with wedged feet and in a half foetal position. Got to the Recife bus terminal around 9.30am making it a 14 hour trip as opposed to the Lonely Planet’s 10 hours and the ... read more

Tha erum vid komin til Brasiliu, Belem nanar tiltetekid. Ad baki er batsferd i litlum bat yfir landamaeri Fronsku Gvaejana og Brasiliu, 10 tima rutuferd i drullu, grjoti og verulega mishaedottu landslagi, tveggja daga pasa i Macapa og nu sidast 28 klukkustunda batsferd i hengirumi, em vid skulum byrja a byrjuninni... Sidustu dogunum i Fronsku Gvaejana var eytt i afsloppun, kokteildrykkja og strandferd svo eitthvad se nefnt. Oldurnar i Atlandshafinu geta verid ansi kroftugar og i eitt skipti vildi ekki betur til en svo ad ein reif okkur baedi a bolakaf, Svenna skaut aftur upp en Hronn faceplant-adi og bring-adi (thad er orugglega ord) botninn og kom upp ur med oll got hofudsins full af sandi, berbrjosta med bikiniid nidri a maga. Thad var sem betur fer fament a strondinni og thvi voru ekki margir sem ... read more