Transamazónica - Part I

Day 1 - Marabá to Novo Repartamiento

The first day was dusty and heavily trafficked by vehicles at the extremes of size - big, heavy trucks and small, nimble bikes. we were caught in the dust in between.













(all of the small towns along the way felt safe. However, while the unloaded bike was parked out front of this hotel in Novo Repartamiento we came outside to find a mototaxista unscrewing the cap of our (empty) tool tube. I called him out on it in front of a few of his buddies, but of course he kept saying that he didn't understand a word I said. I know that me yelling in Spanish wasn't going to get each word across to him, but i'm pretty sure he got the point. Him and his buddies went back to sit down and we tried to figure out how to get the bike parked safely out back. Nothing else happened, so it was really no big deal, but it still left a bad taste in our mouth for this otherwise quiet little town.)

Day 2 - Novo Repartamiento to Altamira

This was another dusty day of driving, that to our surprise included random bursts of asphalt. Whether dirt or paved, the road was in decent shape.













The ferry took us across the Rio Xingu, which has been in the news a lot lately as it is going to be blocked by the Belo Monte dam, a huge hydroelectic project that began planning stages in 1975. It has come under fire lately because of the massive environmental damage that will be caused - some accounts place the environmental damage from equivalent energy production by fuel-burning generators as less - as well as the social implications. It is estimated that a few thousand indigenous people would be displaced by the reservoir. Many indigenous groups have been protesting the dam construction, particularly now in the week befoe the Rio+20 conference. It will be interesting to see how the government handles this.

The road was paved from the Rio Xingu to town, and even 35km west of town, too. That dam construction is bringing about changes. And having other impacts as well. Altamira turned out to be expensive. We asked in all the hotels we could find and the cheapest room was 100 Rs. Finally we found some crappy dormitorios near the bus terminal that were 30Rs per person, 50 Rs for shared bed. Parking was safe and we met some nice people there, one of which we had dinner with at Beto's burger stand across the street.

Also, this was the first time when someone admiring the Tansalp asked why we would take such a heavy bike on this trip. The usual conversation is the oppositie of that - "oh, with that big of a bike, you will be at (next town) in 2 hours." Then, 5 hours later we get there. (I can't imagine what kind of time estimates someone riding a 1200gs would get.)

Day 3 - Altamira to Placas

On this stretch there was basically small towns every 50-100 km. Most of the road was in good shape and traffic was definitely lighter on this side of Altamira.











We chose to stay in Placas, which was a nice little town that had everything we needed. It was full of some really nice people too.



(hotel in Placas. 40 Rs for a good room with air, private bath, and breakfast. The owners were really nice and sat around drinking mate most of the day, which is a plus in our book)

Day 4 - Placas to Santarem

Our plan was to keep driving to Manaus, but we took a detour to Santarem to get new tires. Santarem was also going to be a place to take a rest day or two after a few long days of riding.



(the 3 most common sights along this stretch - fazendas (cattle ranches), borracherias (tire repair shops), and pool tables. The smallest, most run down looking bars in the middle of nowhere all manage to have a pool table on their porch.)

Another common sight was bridges. This area of the world obviously has a lot of water in it, some in big rivers, others smaller creeks.



(all of the bridges were in decent shape, most having clearly been rebuilt sometime recently)



(some bridges may be even nicer in the future)







The road was paved going into Santarem, after about 45km of dirt. It seems like there may be more asphalt soon, as the dirt is being worked by man and machine in camoflauge.

Making a loop

Leaving Belem we were on our way to Marabá, destination Manaus (eventually).


(tons of random churches, not just in Belem, but outside of it, too)


(a common roadside view)


(outside of Jurunda, just north of Marabá. We stayed in a pousada there for one night, covering the last 100 km to Maraba the next day)



(on the road to Marabá, there were a few of these encampments, which were extremely impoverished. These may have even been set up by the government, but that´s just a guess based on some flags and one sign that we saw.)

Marabá is a decent size town with a hotel district surrounding the bus terminal. The hotels range in quality from rather nice to supremely crappy, but all seemed to be priced about the same at around 40-50 Rs, so we went with a decent option with the nicest staff.



The first night in town, Mike managed to kick a paving stone while walking in the street. His big toe (link to picture HERE) was hurting bad enough that jamming it into a boot did not sound pleasant, so we got to enjoy a few more days in Marabá.

One of the nights, we met up with Marcel through Couchsurfing. He picked us up for dinner and drinks with some friends. Little did we know that the dinner he invited us to was supposed to be a date. He insisted it was fine, but I'm not so sure the girl agrees. Aside from that little bit of awkwardness, the pizza was fantastic! We tried shrimp and "Jambú", which is a green vegetable, with almost a cooked spinach consistency, that numbs your mouth. It was strange but quite good.


(the pizza restaurant we ate at was nice. It happened to be located up some stairs at the back of a big supermarket. Even so, it had a live band playing some good music (similar sound to Jack Johnson) and formal waitstaff. Most importantly, the pizza was delicious.)



(after dinner we joined Marcel for some drinks with friends. We didn't leave the following day, either. I'm not sure if it was entirely the toe's fault that day...)

After that one last day of rest, we were ready to set out across the Transamazónica.


(first sign for the Transamazónica highway, BR230)

Family Time in Belem

Since we were in northern Brazil anyway, we definitely wanted to make it over to Belem.  Jill’s great uncle was a missionary there for a long time and when Jill was young he brought several Brazilians to America with him.  One, Mada, ended up marrying Jill's uncle John and has been a big part of our family ever since.  They have two kids and Mada has lived in Missouri for the past 25 years or so.  All of Mada’s family, including her mother and 5 siblings, still live in the Belem area.  Jill visited Mada’s family in 2006.  She remembers having a really good time there, going site seeing every day, drinking lots of beers on the beach, and eating lots of good food. 

While Jill’s strongest memories from her first trip were going on fun excursions with her cousin and a neighbor that spoke good English, the family’s strongest memories of her were that she didn’t understand anything.  Which is true.  She did not understand any Portuguese or Spanish when she was there, which is kind of important when communicating in Brazil.  Fortunately this time Jill’s Spanish was a little better and Mike was able to communicate pretty well with the family.

We ended up staying in Belem for about three days.  Most of our time was spent hanging out with the family.  On one of the days, Katrina’s father in law took us for a tour of the city.  We checked out a large piece of downtown, including the renovated docks, Estacao dos Docas


(at the docks)


(downtown Belem seen from the docks)


(these docks are still used)


(there are a ton of churches in Belem. This happens to be a nice big one)


(street view in Belem)

And we spent some time walking at the mangrove of the egrets (Mangal das Garcas)




(we think these may be egrets)


(we are pretty sure these are not egrets)


(this one is showing off its legs)


(a rare blue macaw)

And Katrina’s new house on the beach in Outeiro would be an ideal place to spend weekends. That's why they spend most of their weekends there.


(mostly open air)


(and an incredible view)

The local feira provided us a chance to do some shopping - replacement jeans for Jill and replacement sandals for Mike.




(apparently this is a necessary sign in these fitting rooms)


(back in our neighborhood in Belem)

We really had a good time in Belem and are very thankful to Mada’s mom, sister Katrina, and brother David and his family for taking such good care of us.  They welcomed us into their houses, fed us extremely well, and were incredibly kind to us.


(Us, Juliana, Leila, and David in Belem)

We also enjoyed hanging out with David’s neighbors, who showed up at just the right moment for a bus ride, welcomed us into their house, showed us lots of good pictures, and offered us an impromptu flute concert


(Rocha, Gabriel, Ezequiel, Christina and us)

Strangely, it took us longer to leave the gas station down the street than it did for us to say goodbye to our hosts. Things just kept popping up. First we asked for some old oil containers to be able to carry extra gas. The attendant gave us 2 out of the 3 that he keeps in the trunk of his car. Then people kept coming up to talk to us. Some locals. One guy who moved from Rio, driving to Belem on his 125. And a couple who were gassing up their BMW caught up with us right as we were leaving. It turns out he edits a Moto Adventure magazine in Sao Paolo. They were nice and offered us any help if we were to need it while in Brazil. This Brazilian hospitality is incredible, even from strangers!


(Us with the moto adventurers from Sao Paolo)