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Published: November 20th 2015
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Into Brazil and Paraguay
We got up early to be at the Bolivian border when it opened at 8.00am. We proceeded to immigration and were first there,so basically in got our stamp and outa there. Next we had to clear the bikes out of Bolivia, but the 'office' (read Container here) was to open 8.30am. Well we waited and waited,finally a lady came and opened up at 9.20. This was just a formality so was no problem.
We happily left Bolivia behind as we proceeded to Brazil and got our stamp from immigration before going to customs to import out bikes.....well,what a pleasant surprise, NO PAPERWORK!!!
The fellow just checked our passports to our registration papers and welcomed us to enjoy Brazil.
With huge smiles we rode off into the Brazilian country side and there was NO RUBBISH! the contrast from a line on a map was just unbelievable and we could pull into a gas station and buy fuel and good food with no hassles, we arrived at our hotel in Campo Grande around 5.00pm..
That night we went to a typical Brazilian restaurant where they just kept bringing out skewers with all different types of meat for us to
chose from,we just loved it and we all ate far to much,but we're prepared to suffer for it (which we didn't).
We had two nights here in Compo Grande and on our spare day Gerardo came with me to the Harley shop as needed a new t shirt(yeah right) well one from Brazil at least. Later in the day I gave my bike a bit of a wash to get ride of the Bolivian mud that we had to ride through at the border. We warmed to the Brazilian people,but as they speak Portuguese, some a little Spanish,but very little English, so communication comes down to charades,broken English and my limited Spanish, lucky Gerardo can understand their broken Spanish,so we all are getting along fine and enjoying Brazil.
Unfortunately we don't have more time to spend in Brazil and the following day we made our way south to the border with Paraguay at Pedro Juan Caballero. Now this is a very interesting place as there is no border as such, on one side of the street is Brazil and the other side is Paraguay !!they even use the same currency? We arrived in town mid afternoon, after riding through a
thunderstorm 44kms from our hotel,lucky it had stopped as we entered town,but the streets were flooded from a lot more rain than we had encountered.
We finally found that we could exit Brazil at the airport,so with that done we proceeded to try and find out how we get into Paraguay ? This proved to be quite problem,as it turned out we needed a Visa to enter Paraguay !!!! Bastard, somehow I had missed that in my research, so now we had to find the Paraguay Consulate in the Brazilian part of town. Thanks to Gerardo, we arrived there, and gave in our passports,filled in all the forms, went down town to get 3 passport type photos done for the visa and were told to come back at 9.00am tomorrow with our us$100 fee.
This city is a bit like a free zone as there are markets everywhere and it must be a bit cheaper here than the other side of the road in Brazil, as they all come to these markets for shopping.
After a good nights sleep,we all headed off to the Paraguay Embassy at 9.00am, well we finally got two visa's by 10.30 and the rest by
11.45am,so not bad all in all. Finally, all the embassy staff came out for a photo shoot with us and our bikes.
A quick ride back to the hotel to get Gerardo and we then had to get stamped into Paraguay,then import our bikes for 90 days.
When we got to customs,they had all knocked off for lunch and would not be back until 2.00pm,well it's amazing,what a bit of persuasion from Gerardo and Gs100,000 per bike can do. We then had lunch,refuelled and were on the road heading south by 2.00pm.
This was a 565km day ride through interesting country side and huge rock formations that would leave the Devils Tower in Wyoming looking like a match stick!
About 70km from Assertion, we could see black thick clouds forming,along with brilliant flashes of lightning. A good call was made to refuel and donn our wet weather gear,while at the gas station,we could hear the hail stones pounding on the tin roof but by the time we were ready to hit road,the worst of it had passed, well for a while anyway,we had to ride in such heavy rain that I could hardly see the road in front of me.
Hurry up and wait
At the Paraguay Embassy in Brazil I must admit the Scott wet weather gear that was supplied by Darbi Accessories in Auckland, have been exceptional in these conditions, so a big thanks to Steve and the team back home in the dry.
Lucky for us, the sky's lightened up and we had an amazing sun set over the flooded country side and our next hour or so of riding in darkness with dry conditions until we reached our hotel around 9.30 pm and well earned rest.
We have two nights here in Assertion which is the Capital City of Paraguay, so a relaxing day with a bit of bike maintenance and a walk around town. So until the next blog,keep the coffee hot!
Cheers, Rosco
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Entertaining photo
Looks like lots of comedy and fun on this trip.