Van Rio naar Buenos Aires

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After the Galapagos Islands we went back to Rio de Janeiro to buy a car. We all ready applied for our CPF number in Soa Paulo one months before.
We bought a 1997 Jeep Cherokee with 190 hp, that should get us across the Andes!
Buying a car and registering it in our name took a lot of effort and three weeks of our time. But if you hang in there you will get the benefit in the end.

This is the process of buying a car in Brazil:
1. Apply for the CPF number, this is a social security number. This is done at the Receita Federal in the major cities, http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/aplicacoes/ATCTA/CPF/default.htm
Take you birth certificate, passport and pp copy. After two days you will get the number on a piece of paper. The official CPF pass will be send after 20-25 working days. Make sure you have an adress in Brasil where they can send it to. It costs around 5 euro's.

2. Go to the Detran office to make your international drivers license official, you need your passport and your immigration papers. No charge!

3. look for a car at the dealers or private persons, check out http://www.webmotors.com.br/index.html. Cars are more expensive here since import cars are taxed by 50%. There are cars which are made in Brasil, like the beatle. They are cheaper and not taxed. This can take a week.

4. When you have found a nice car you have to go to the locutorio together with the seller to sign the purchase agreement. It is a official transfer of the car. Then you go to the bank and check if there are any fines left on the car taht have to be paid. At the bank you have to pay the money into the account of the seller. Besides that you have to be at the locutorio to get your adress official. They want to make sure that you are who you are in your passport and that you have an adress in Brasil. We used a friends adress. They might want an official translation of your passport. European passports have a translation on the last pages, however they were reluctant to accept this. We made a big scene in the locutorio, because we werer pretty stressed by the whole thing. After two hours we managed to get the translation accepted. (tip, talk to the manager!) People really want to help, but they do not always know themnselves how things work. It is hard to find people who speak english.

5. Make an appointment at the Detran to get the car registred in your name and they also do a check on the car. Make sure your car will pass this test. Ask at the Detran what they will check, it may change over time!
You can only make an appointment when you have paid the IPVA, road tax. Besides that you have to have a certain document that states there are no fines left to be paid on the car. These documents can only be paid at the ITAU bank. They have machines where you can do this. Make sure you get the receipts. We went straight to the head office and found people are very helpfull.

6. Go to the checkpoint for the car, there are several ones in Rio de Janeiro. Take all the documents that you have, they might need them.

Addition 16-05-2010: In the last week of our trip we got pulled over by the police and we had to pay a fine because we did not have a Placa on the license plate. This is a little plastic thing that they attach to the license plate. They have to give it to you at the Detran after the car check. So make sure you get one otherwise you have to pay a “fine”. One good thing you can negotiate the height of the fine. We bargained ours down from $600 to just 60 euro’s…. If you feel you’re a getting in to such a situation, empty your wallet up front and only leave 50-60 euro’s in it.

7. You do not need an insurance in Brasil, if you have a problem you have to solve it with the other party. Almost nobody has insurance. Insurance is only necessary when you want to take the car outside Brasil. You need a Carta Verde, we got one at "worknet@worknetseguros.com.br" in Florianopolis. They might know a place in Rio the Janeiro were you can get one. You have to show the carta verde when you cross the border.

The process 2-7 took us three weeks! Maybe if you know what we know now you can do it faster, but be prepared for the unexpected.


We left the 20th of janeiro from Rio de Janeiro, we finally had to say goodbye to Patrick, Paloma, Marvin and Charly the sausage dog.
The first part of our journey took us along the costa verde to Parati, Maresias, and Florianopolis.
After Florianopolis we drove long distances on the beach till Rio Grande in south Brasil.
Then we crossed the border with Uruguay and drove to punta el Diablo and Montevideo.
We took the Bucabus ferry from Colonia to Buenos Aires.

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