Taken in by the cops!

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Flag of Brazil Bonito MS , Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
Sunday, February 17, 2013

Sunday 17th February. Bonito, Mato Grasso do Sul.

Haven't written for some time as we have been driving hard for the last 3 days to get to the Pantanal. But we are now at a lovely little place called Bonito where we are staying at a hostel that caters for predominantly younger Brasilian people, with a smattering of other young people from all over the world. But we are camped on our own under some shady trees, with electricity, clean bathrooms, and a swimming pool (although I can't get in or out without Andy's help as it doesn't have steps/ just a deep ledge!!). It is very hot here, and we spent until about 8pm last night just sitting in the pool (on the ledge!) with beers! We get fruit, rolls, the delicious plain cake and coffee for breakfast on plastic plates that we have to wash up afterwards!! But we are as happy as anything here as it is really beautiful, and a welcome break from driving

Campsite at Bonito

. The driving has been very hard as we have been on a big truckers route with large parts of the road potholed and corrugated.Tomorrow we have booked tours for the day to see the parrots and macaws and then snorkelling down with the flow of the river hopefully to see lots and lots of fish. Apparently the water is crystal clear with a visibility of 40 metres. My guidebook says: "The Pantanal is a vast wetland which covers 21,000 sq km (the size of Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and Holland combined. There are 175 rivers that flow into the Pantanal and it is a Mecca for wildlife tourism in Brasil.... Lots of birds, fish and animals: jaguars, ocelots, maned wolf and yellow anaconda...And it is rich in botanical species. There are "jewel-like"blue underwater lakes, in caves (light from the opening is refracted through limestone and magnesium), and beautiful waterfalls."
Our trip to get here from Porto Velho has been long! We spent one night in Cacoal and were then pushing on to C�cares when we got pulled over, outside the little town of Pontes e Lacerda, by the Polizia Rodoviaria Federal. Lots of towns along the way are patrolled by these police and we had been hoping not to be stopped... Our hearts sank when we were told to stop. (One always thinks that perhaps these cops will just try to find something wrong!) Well, it was our lucky day..... ! The guy who pulled us over, Sandro, was just the kindest, nicest man. After asking us about our trip, he phoned his wife, and told her that we were coming to spend the night at their house..

Cool hammock area at Bonito

. He wouldn't hear of us staying in a hotel... So it was one of the highlights of our trip to spend the night with him and his charming wife Juliane. She is also a cop plus she teaches maths at the local school (She is a maths graduate). They are both from the state of Rio, and have been posted to this town for a year. We went out to the only restaurant in town and had a delicious meal of good steak and local fish. We then went through our route and he told us exactly where to go and where to stay. We had noticed along our way ( close to the Bolivian border- but we never want to go back there, ha ha!) that at the PRF (police road blocks) stations there were always locked parking areas holding lots of vehicles (cars, motorcycles and trucks). Some looked to have been there for a very long time as often the grass had even grown up to car roof height. Sandro told us that drug trafficking (particularly cocaine) along the border is a problem. When they find mules with drugs, they immediately impound the vehicle. We have decided that Brasilian people have to be the friendliest in the world. We are so happy that we didn't get in to Bolivia, as we are loving Brasil. We have driven through beautiful countryside. This state, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, are the largest producers of soya. (And lots of sugar cane). The soya lands just stretch as far as the eye can see in colours of greens, yellows, and browns. The rheas (ostrich-like birds) forage in the soya lands, and parrots and macaws fly and roost in the trees along the way

Cute entrance to one of the little towns we passed

. But it is a major truck route through to Sao Paolo and to the east side of Brasil. The "trains" of trucks just go on and on. The filling stations along the way have huge forecourts where up to 40 very long trucks wait in line for diesel. There are lunch places all along the way, and from about 11:30am the trucks line up outside the various places. They are not fancy places, but the tables are set out with pretty tablecloths, and they provide the usual chicken, rice and bean options, and some with very nice self- service options. The gas stations along the way also cater for overnight stays for the truckers. They have good showers and toilets, that the truckers really make use of, tyre repair places, washing vehicle facilities, laundrettes, wifi, restaurants and some even had little chapels on the forecourt. We had been told that camping was possible at gas stations, but the ones that we had seen previously were rather awful. But I can see that it would be easy to camp at these places (BR gas stations seem to be the best) as the facilities are good along this stretch of the road. The truckers intrigued me as many of them seem to travel with their families. It was not unusual to see a family with 3 little kids picnicking in the shade, along the way, or even cooking on the side of the truck.
We stopped to camp one night outside the town of Cuiaba, on a large plateau called Chapada dos Guimaraes. We had hoped to camp at the falls in the park, but it was closed for some reason..

Hostel at Bonito

. But we found "backyard" camping in the town and sorted out washing, our water (that had gone off) and other little bits and pieces in the camper. After a huge thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning, we left again... Not too impressive a place although it was written up very highly in the guide books!
We stopped one night en-route at a hotel in Caxim. We have been having more car trouble (noticed a funny noise like raindrops on tinfoil) and found that a valve in the vacuum line that controls the 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive was faulty. This resulted in the front wheel hubs making the horrible noise. But again, Brasilian friendliness and helpfulness came to the fore. We stopped at the Caxim Chevrolet dealer (no Ford dealers in the area) who called his friend (the local florist) who speaks English, and they sorted us out free of charge... Mick (very efficiently and quickly - thanks!) has now bought the part in Utah and sent it to us where we will pick it up in a week's time at Foz do Iguacu. The faulty part has been disconnected so that we can still carry on- without 4WD. But 4WD is not needed anyway.
We passed through the large town of Campo Grande. It looked very clean and modern, with wide, well-kept grassy borders and parks. The road from Campo Grande (this is a major border crossing route to Bolivia) to Bonita was excellent, and the farms along the way are beautifully maintained - big cattle country. All in all a great drive. So our route now is probably going to be from here to: Foz do Iguacu, then on to the coast at Pelotas (south of Porto Alegre) where there is a big lake called Lagoa dos Patos. From there (we have to have the vehicle out of Brasil by 28 February) we will probably go on into Uruguay, and then to Argentina. But this is still under revue!! Our plans seem to change as we go...!

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