Thursday 29 November 2012

Posadas to Rosario - The long journey south begins


As road kill goes, this has to be the most impressive.

Writing this much later its seems pretty trivial now but at the time I was a bit concerned about this next section of the trip.  The result ended with my original concern about Ruta 14 amounting to nothing and instead having an unexpected problem with the bike.  I was aiming for Rosario, some 900kms away, where I was going to stay with Juli and prepare myself and the bike for Patagonia.  I could make it in two days, however it meant going along Ruta 14 all the way through Misiones and Entre Rios Provinces.  The problem is Ruta 14 is infamous to overland travellers for the number of police stops along the way where they like to find original and ridiculous reasons to fine travellers.  Anything from carrying the wrong luggage to not carrying a fire extinguisher.  Its so well known there are nine pages on this road alone on the horizonsunlimited.com travel forum, with one post even mentioning having a gun held to his head.  The Police block at km 341 apparently being the most troublesome.  

As I was carrying $800 I’d taken out in Paraguay to sell in Rosario, I didn’t really want to be searched, so I prepared by wrapping it in the folds of one of my spare inner tubes and holding a dummy wallet with copied documents and small notes.  Setting off I felt ready to blag my way out of any trouble.  The forum was correct too.  There were more police blocks along this route than I have seen anywhere so far.  I tried several tactics to avoid the police, the two most successful being hiding behind a lorry as I arrived at a road block and then following it closely through the stop unseen, or just slow down ready to stop but instead of stopping, overshoot the stop slowly and keep going past looking through my mirror in case they tried to stop me.  Most times they didn’t bother.  Only on two occations did I get waved over.  The first time a policeman indicated me to move over to the right and stop for his colleague further up.  I did exactly that but as his colleague was distracted by another driver I just kept going.  The second time was at the notorious km 341.  The police waved me to slow down so I waved back, and as the I crossed through I kept going again and the car tailgating me stopped instead.  No one seemed concerned when I looked in my mirror so I kept going.  For whatever reasons I made it through all unscathed and kept going all day, just stopping for breaks and the odd unusual roadkill.  Not everyday you see a 7ft alligator cut in half on the side of the road.  As the day ended I reached Chajari and searched for a campground, which I found in Santa Ana, next to a massive manmade lake, populated by millions of toads.

Toads, everywhere.  In my tent, by my tent, in my toilet, by my toilet.
Riding around this area felt like being in some old 1950’s American film.  It was as though time had stood still.  No one was in any rush, people drove around in huge old pickup trucks or worked in their barns or in orange and lemon orchards of which were so numerous that you could smell the citrus in the air.  It was while I was riding around daydreaming about running away from the real world and hiding out here growing oranges, that my chain came off the bike.  No biggie, just put it back on right?  Well no, it had ripped off the chain cover over the front sprocket, which had in turn torn off a small section of the engine where the cover is attached by a bolt.  I was pretty pissed off as I could have avoided the problem by changing the old chain earlier but I was waiting to get to Rosario.  Now the engine was exposed to air so it meant I couldn’t go on the until it was filled and for sure there are no mechanics in the area.  

One of the many Orchards around Chajari
The next morning after a sleepless night due a summer storm I found a guy who could help me fix the bike temporarily with an epoxy mix.  I also let him change the chain and sprockets I had been carrying since Santiago too.  I was still pretty annoyed as it is a really ugly job and will now reduce the value of the bike.  Anyway I could at least make it to Rosario, and the new rear sprocket was smaller, so due to some gear ratio magic I don’t understand, made the bike about 10km/h faster at lower revs.  Leaving at lunchtime I went as fast as I dared to through Entre Rios, stopping regularly to check for lost oil.  8 hours later and in the dark I crossed the bridge into Rosario but no matter I know the city well now, and was one relieved man to arrive at Juli’s with no more problems.

The "mechanic"?
Sundown just as I was leaving Entre Rios into Rosario, Santa Fe

Rosario from Juli's balcony as a storm starts



Tuesday 27 November 2012

Posadas - Back to Argentina Again



Night time toads on the Costanera, Posadas

After 4 nights in Foz it was time to move on and get back to Argentina.  The border crossing was a breeze.  To sum up how friendly the people of Brazil are, the customs officer who dealt with my papers had a conversation with me about my trip, told me life is good in Brazil and suggested I get a job there and stay.  Never have I come across that, border guards encouraging you to stay in their country.



So then back in Argentina for the third time in this trip and I really wanted to get all the way back to Corrientes and see some friends for the weekend.  I also wanted to visit the Ibera del Estero, a huge wetland area literally overrun by giant guinea pigs the size of dogs.  They are really called Capybara, but if you google them you’ll see what I mean.  I thought it would be surreal to see that, but it was all a bit too far this time.  Instead I set my sights on Posadas, a city a little nearer and was very lucky to have a very last minute couchsurf request accepted by Julia, which turned out to be a good but short trip.  Posadas is a small city up the Rio Parana from Corrientes and is the capital of Misiones province.  Its very close to Paraguay, which you can see on the other side of the river and there is an international bridge connecting Corrientes to the Paraguayan city of Encarnacion.  

Misiones, its kinda green here
While I was in Posadas I visited the Yacreta Dam project after several people suggested I see it.  I didn’t really know what to expect and as it was 100km away it wasn’t exactly on my doorstep.  But it’s a free tour and I’ve not seen inside a dam before so I thought why not.  It was worth a visit, but a strange experience all the same as there were only 2 others on my tour, so more staff than visitors.  It was really professionally organised and a lot has been spent on it.  There is a presentation then a guide shows you around and finally you get driven in a coach around the dam and then actually inside to see the turbines.  The last part is so vast it feels as though you are on the Death Star.  The tour was all very positive but it felt like they were not telling the whole story.  I found out later that the tour is a public relations ploy and that the project is hands down one of the worse engineering disasters ever and was called a “monument to corruption” by the Argentine President of all people.  Someone definitely didn’t do their homework - its taken more than 20 years to build, gone 5 times over budget and only produces 60% of the estimated energy.  Its suffered from delays, disputes, corruption, caused 50,000 people to lose their homes and environmental impact assessments were not completed before beginning so several species are now extinction.  Upon reflection the only positive thing I can see from it all was the guided tour itself.  

During the tour they let you play with power lines
Touring the "Death Star", look in the bottom left - its so large the workers use bikes to get around
Anyway probably enough about dams…Posadas itself is great.  I could see myself staying there a long time, trouble is I didn’t have time so I only stayed at Julia’s one full day.  Despite this Julia still managed to show me and Giovanni (another couchsurfer) around and introduced me to Chipa, cheesy bread from the area and we drank a lot of Terere, which is mate with fruit juice and I’m seriously addicted to it, no really, can’t stop.  We went out to along the riverside costanera both nights.  If you didn’t know this already, all Argentines of all ages in every city love to hang out at their costinera.  They walk, run, eat, meet friends, party, the lot here.  Its a real social place, we just don’t have the same in England, maybe because we call it a promenade but most likely because of the weather.  The costinera in Posadas is new and has city beaches too and I really liked the atmosphere here, so relaxed, but perhaps the strangest thing was the number of toads that hop around all over the place.  Big ugly buggers too.  I took a load of photos of them as they bounced about at night.  So Posadas, yet another place I liked, and the fact that not many tourists visit means I could see a city that just gets on with its own life.  I was reluctant to leave so quickly, but if I am ever to make it to Patagonia I need to get my act together.   

At the costanera with Julia, Chipa y Terere
Night time shots of the costanera
 
With Julia and Giovanni
Finally a part of the world where my bike is not considered small
The countryside near Yacreta, where Gauchos still roam


Monday 26 November 2012

Brasil IVFoz do Iguaçu - End of the hols, and back to (travel) work




Leaving on the 22nd, the journey to Foz do Iguaçu along Br-277 is long, 650km long, which is the furthest I have ever covered in a day.  Seeing as I average no more than 80km/h without factoring in rests it was always going to be a long day.  To add to this there are over 7 toll stops along the way, which is ridiculous.  All these delays are nothing compared to the accident that closed the road.  There were tailbacks several kms, but being on the bike I could cut through all the stationary traffic and get to the front.  The only other person I saw doing this was a French guy travelling on a pushbike, crazy bastard!  The accident was bad, the worst I have ever seen and involved a cement lorry, another lorry carrying a shipping container and a coach.  The cement truck had completely disintegrated as though it had exploded and there was cement covering the verge, trees, everything really.  I was going to take pictures, but it didn’t feel right so I slowly rode past holding my breath as there was a lot of cement dust in the air.   I later googled the accident and found out 3 people died so am glad I didn’t take pictures.  I’ve posted some from the news agencies below, if only to show how horrific it was.

  
In total it took me 10hrs to get to Foz, its some distance for the bike – to get a picture its the same distance as London to Edinburgh.  I stayed at Iguassu Motorcycle Hostel, a new hostel for motorbike travellers run by Adriano and Rodolfo.  It’s a small relaxed place and as the two guys running it have other jobs, they just leave you the keys to the house and let you get on with it.  The only other guests staying there were Tom and Rachel from England.  They had arrived from Paraguay in a Combi van, which they had bought there.  Was nice to hear a real English accent for once, all good until I realised how messed up mine is now.  Since January 2008 I have only been in England 2 years and that was while I managed the hostel in Oxford, where I hardly met English people.  Tom and Rachel were a great couple to be around, and had some stories of their own to tell of their trips.  They also run a charity in Malawi called Building Malawi http://www.buildingmalawi.com and are always interested to hear from anyone who might want to help them.

Hitting 10,000km en-route
One of the many Tolls, a ridiculous 7 in total
Strange Parana Pine Trees
Adriano, Rodolfo, Rachel and Tom
Toucan eats my boots.  A sentence I never thought I would ever say
 


The final Acai dish of Brasil, best one of my time there







Sunday 25 November 2012

Paraguay – Ciudad del Este - The wild wild west




                                Hairy trip mm's away from crashing crossing back into Brazil. 

It may be a travelling crime to not go to Iguazu Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.  But in my defense I have been there before, and saw both Argentine and Brazilian sides and took the boat trips so that is more than most do.  How I really used my time in Foz was to actually prepare for the next leg of my trip.   I needed equipment suitable for Patagonia.  I already had most things but I needed to buy some real motorbike boots, a new rear tyre and equally important, an MP3 player to replace my stolen Iphone (still sad about that).  The place to do all this is Paraguay.

Foz do Iguaçu is right on the other side of the bridge to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay.  Everyday thousands of people from Brasil and Argentina (some travelling thousnds of miles) cross to buy every imaginable item to smuggle tax free back into their countries.  The flow of people is so great that you can just walk, drive, or take a motorbike taxi across, buy what you want and then go back.  Unofficially no passport checks, which is just as well as I forgot to bring mine when I went, and prayed that I wouldn’t get checked.  I was a bit worried I would be stopped as my bike has a Chile number plate on the front of the bike.  The only country in S.America that makes bikes do this and it makes it stick out a mile.  I was supposed to takethe plate off, but I forgot to do this as well!  

Not to worry though, the Brazilian border control have an impossible task, so rather than checking every person and vehicle individually they resort to doing spot checks.  This means many people cross several times a day, play with the law of averages and hope not to get stopped.  When I finally went across, there are not enough adjectives to describe the experience, basically anything goes.  I had been warned so many times from people not to go and definitely not to take my bike across as I will either be killed by the traffic, have my bike stolen, get mugged or some kind of combination of all this involving death.  Needless to say I choose to take my bike and found it was not as bad as they said, although riding with the suicidal motorbike taxis was a bit dicey.

Queuing to go into Paraguay
Negotiating the narrow moto-taxi lanes

Crossing the bridge into Paraguay
 Rodolfo from the hostel kindly offered to come with me and came on the back of my bike.  Having Rodolfo helping was brilliant as I don’t think I would have ever found all that I wanted so easily.  I bought my boots for $200, a tyre for $50 and an MP3 for $25.  Hopefully they will all be worthy investments.  While there, I was offered to buy so many random things from the mundane to the scary, included guns and even a Tazer in fully working mode.  I know this as the guy thrust it in my face as he set it off.

I think I am allowed that look on my face, thanks to the Tazer being set off right in front of me

 
I also saw so many ingenious ways to smuggle, such hiding on bodies, ditching boxes of electronics and putting them in large boxes labelled with low price items, and people putting expensive tyres on old cars and rubbing mud on them to look old.  I also saw the other extreme with scores of people who didn’t try to hide anything at all.  This included groups of women who filled plastic bags full of obvious taxable items and then walk across the international bridge really testing their luck.  My personal favourite of all though was a guy crossing the bridge on a small scooter whilst holding a large TV across his lap.  

Preparing their goods to cross the bridge.
I’m glad Rodolfo came as he also recorded the video for me as we crossed the bridge back into Brasil.  I will admit it’s a bit hairy and you can hear him tell me to be careful all the time.  Watching it back I’m glad I didn’t attempt my usual one hand riding holding the camera.  Was all great fun, so much so I went back the next day on my own to buy some US$ to sell in Argentina at a small profit and of course the obligatory pair of fake sunglasses.