Samba at Sunset

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Yessssssssssss! We finally managed to leave Rurrenabaque. It was a bit touch and go during the morning (excuse the aviation pun for those in the know) but by the time our flight arrived it was sunny and the skies were blue. Amaszonas had been fantastic with confirming our onward flight the following morning but we had to spend another night in Trinidad because the connections don’t quite work out.

Guayamarin is a border town with no land border. At the airport a rickshaw took us to Bolivian immigration where we were stamped out of the country. The currency exchange desks at the port were offering an abysmal rate for our Bolivianos so we gave them a miss, gambling on either exchange or ATMs being available on the other side. A small boat then took us over to Guajara-Mirim on the Brazilian side.

At customs we spent 10 minutes deciphering and completing their paperwork, only to be told that we didn’t need to unless we had bought anything in Bolivia which needed declaring! Next we walked out to Brazilian immigration, actually the Federal Police offices, which took a good 20 minutes in ridiculous heat and humidity. The officer was very efficient and we were soon on our way to find a bank. We found two but the ATM at the first one didn’t accept foreign cards. We were very relieved to find that the second one did!

A taxi took us out to the bus terminal, actually an office next to a petrol station for Real Norte buses. The next departure was 90 minutes away yet it was full! We only had a further hour of waiting though which we spent in a Churrascaria on the opposite side of the road. This restaurant was fabulous. The salad buffet was amazing and waiters wander around with meat on skewers for you to select pieces to be carved. As Trish put it, it was like a British carvery without having to go to the meat counter! We stuffed our faces getting the most out of the 15 Reais each we had to pay. Okay, so it’s only £4.50 (US$9) but in both Bolivia and Argentina something similar would have been much cheaper. It was the first of many lessons about how much more expensive Brazil is in comparison to how we have lived for the past two and a half years.

Our bus left on time, but 20 minutes later broke down. The air conditioning had failed and there’s no way everyone was going to travel a further 5 hours without it! Our wait for a replacement bus was about 90 minutes and it was a superior version of the one that broke down so everyone was more or less happy.

We had an argument with a taxi driver at the bus station in Porto Velho. Unable to communicate effectively because of our lack of Portugues and their inability to speak and Spanish or English, it led to confusion. The driver refused to take us to the hotel we wanted to go to, but when we went to look the next day, it seems the driver may have been telling us it no longer exists! He dropped us off near the centre and we found ourselves in the Hotel Yara which is comfortable enough. Nobody speaks anything but Portuguese but we are coping!!

Porto Velho isn’t a great place for tourists. The railway museum is supposed to be great, but it is closed whilst they renovate 7km of railway line. It will probably be a great place to visit again at some stage in the future. The municipal museum with photographic displays also appears to have vanished. We couldn’t even find a tourist information centre!

We have been down to the port area. It contains lots of small bars and restaurants which are very lively in the evenings. It’s also the place to go on a floating bar, or take a cruise out on the river at sunset whilst sipping a beer. We really enjoyed that! We’re not really sure that we could have taken much more of the music blaring out on board. We really hope that’s not what samba is all about!!!

The symbol of the town is three water towers which are described by the Rough Guide as “phallic symbols waiting like rockets ready to launch”. It’s easy enough to find them, you can’t really miss them! It would be nice if there was an information plaque telling us a bit about them though.

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Photos

The Water Towers
Symbol of Porto Velho

My view
Out over the Amazon basin

Railway Statue
It looks like he is trying to destroy the railway to me!

Artwork
Showing, yes, a train and the water towers

Porto Velho Cathedral
Not exactly beautiful eh!