| After acquiring the visas
on Wednesday, we ran up to Brasilian customs to make sure there wasn't
anything else we needed to cross in the morning. We were told that everything
was in order, and in the morning they would just fill out the bike documents,
and there was no charge. When we arrived bright and early, we found that
this was all true, but that the agent taking care of this for us had only
been on the job for two weeks. After nearly two hours of our proofreading
and his retyping of the two documents, and several trips to the copy machine,
we were finally on our way. The first 200 miles into Brasil from Chuy is
traveled mostly by a few trucks, and the road is in pretty rough shape.
In fact it is about the worst paved road that we have encountered. It improves
near Pelotas, but by the time we got there and stopped for lunch we found
that Karen had bent both rims on a bad dip that she had hit at nearly full
speed. The tires were still holding air, and the bike was handling fine,
but we were beginning to wonder if Brasil was jinxed for us. Porto Alegre
began to dispel these fears. The people there were almost the exact opposite
of those we had met in Chuy. They were genuinely friendly, with a relaxed
and helpful attitude. We had decided to blow through Porto Alegre and head
straight to Curitiba. We ended up staying two days. |
