Rolls Alaska to Argentina & back: 21 Londrina to Pirapora, Brazil

Friday, April 8, 2011

Miles for the day: 286 (460 km) Miles to date: 12,678 (20,403 km)

The Brazilian Real is gaining steadily against the US dollar, worrying exporters and us! We received 1.64 reals per dollar in Foz do Iguacu and only 1.54 in Londrina. Gas costs are high as well =96 we must use premium, as the Rolls does not like gasoline cut with ethanol. It costs just under $2 per litre ($8 per gallon).

This morning I headed to Acao at 9:30, hoping the wheel balancing would be done, but it was about noon before the car returned. It was beautifully shined up and ready to go. Marcos Medeiros was at Acao, as was Henato, who had invited me to the wonderfully beery lunch. After lots of photos and fond farewells Marcos led me on his motor bike to where I could buy premium gas, and then back to the hotel. We were working our way out of the city about 12:30.

It was a beautiful sunny day, the third we've had in a row. The countryside was gorgeous as it gradually changed from sugar cane & coffee to cattle and citrus fruit groves. Bebedouro is noted for orange juice production. We crossed large rivers and lakes as we drove a roller coaster route over hill after hill. The roads varied from excellent to OK, but nothing slowed us badly.

Marilynn has done a great job of figuring out the GPS and uses it to help with navigating. At Marcos' recommendation we turned off our planned route onto roads that our Brazil map shows only as thin red lines. Some of these thin red lines turned out to be four lane divided highways! Marilynn was able to find the roads, track them on GPS and warn me of upcoming intersections where we needed to change roads.

Once in Bebedouro a motor cycle taxi guided us to the Hotel Plaza Shopping. This is a hotel built on top of an enclosed shopping mall. The rooms open onto an area of tennis & basketball courts, gardens and a large swimming pool with swim up bar - all on the roof of the shopping centre. Once checked in we had a swim, and then headed down to the mall for drinks and dinner in the food court where almost every outlet had draft beer. A bar in the middle of the food area had snack food, so it was beer for me & caipurina for Marilynn with snacks, followed by ice cream sundaes from another outlet. Not a great meal, but it did the job.

At about 3:15 AM Marilynn was awakened by someone trying to open the door to our room. They couldn't due to the dead bolt, but when they started on the door from pool area she woke me up. When I regained consciousness the outside door had been opened and someone was there talking in Portuguese, which we didn't understand a word of. He eventually left and we locked the door again - however that was it for sleeping.

A bit after 4 AM I went to check on the car, which was OK even though the promised guard was not in sight. When I went in I managed to get across to the desk clerk about the guard, so he got on the radio to someone. Then I mentioned the intrusion into our room, and the desk clerk said he was the one who opened the door. I didn't understand the reason, but later a note in English was slipped under the door saying that police patrol the parking area and there are video cameras. He also said he was in our room because we were shown in the register as being in a different room and he was investigating. Not much help to restore a lost night of sleep!

Marilynn & I worked on our computers in the morning. Claudio arrived from Sao Paulo a little after noon, so we went to the food court for a light lunch. While there we were joined by Christopher & Bernice Wellington for a visit to the Eduardo Andre Matarazzo car/train/aircraft private museum. It has an amazing collection of a bit of everything! The museum is struggling with funding, but nevertheless their dozens of vintage car/s looked great. There were several models I'd never heard of before, and many cars made in Brazil, including the tiny Romi Izetta. This was the first car manufactured in Brazil - Claudio's grandfather was founder of the company.

Claudio, Marilynn & I followed Chris & Bernice.to their home in Barretos in the Rolls, where we enjoyed cold beer and a fabulous BBQ. Their beautiful ranch style home is designed for outdoor living with tables, built in BBQ and other furnishings are on a covered huge porch. We also had a tour of the stables occupied by several quarter horses, the two nice staff houses and the rest of the 84 acre ranch. A thoroughly enjoyable evening with truly fine people!

On the highway the Rolls was shuddering much worse than before the wheel alignment. This will have to go on the list of things to be looked at!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Miles for the day: 185 (297 km) Miles to date: 13,149 (21,161 km)

We followed Claudio to a gas station to top off with premium gas and get the tires inflated to pressures he recommended. The scenery was less interesting, mostly farm country. The back roads were in good condition, but when we reached the main highway they were terrible. It was much like Siberia, where there would be a not bad stretch of road for a few miles which would suddenly deteriorate into patches on patches, potholes and broken pavement. Most of the traffic on this highway are trailer trucks, so Marilynn was kept busy trying to find openings in the heavy oncoming traffic where we could pass as the trucks crawled up hills.

We made it to Pirapora, where we checked into the Hotel Canoeiros, a resort located on the banks of a wide, rushing river. The hotel was expensive, and didn't even have shampoo or a glass in the room, but it was interesting to watch fishermen wading in the right from the bar. Not recommended for good value, though!