ODO: 353,986
We can leave the hotel today! Our big plan is to find a tour that will take us to see the giant river otters that live in the area (well, kind of generally in the Amazon). After getting some cash, we decide its too hot out, and we’re not fully ready for this heat yet, so our plan falls apart. Instead, we head for a campground that has a pool. The water is clean and cool, and in the shade. We stay in it until the sun starts to go down. Feeling better, now that we’ve cooled off, we finally make those blueberry pancakes. And they are so delicious, real syrup for the win. Even though it’s dark, it’s hot, and sticky, and so hard to sleep well. Rough welcome back to the jungle.
Instead of trying for river otters again, we make the executive decision to try and move every day so we can enjoy the truck AC a little bit every day. That means this is a border day, one of our last. Crossing into Brazil is easy-peasy. KoKo helps speed the inspection along by accidentally standing on an anthill in the middle of the paved lot. Her screaming, once they started biting, distracts the inspector. Once he understood what was happening, he decided he had inspected enough. We drive well into the night for the first time in a couple of weeks. Apparently we’re both feeling good again. Our stop for the night is the farm/eco lodge/rubber workshop of Dr. de Borracha. He is famous for making shoes and accessories from the natural rubber he harvests from the trees he planted on his property.
Our day starts with a tour of the property, and it’s incredible. Having planted everything, our host knows every single tree. Some are medicinal, some are food, and some make rubber. He shows us how easy it is to get rubber from a tree, and how quickly it turns from tree sap to solid in your hands. Our minds are blown. Next he walks us through the different processes he uses to get the rubber ready to make into things. He isn’t actively doing any of them right now so there is a lot of pantomime and guessing.
And then we reach the shoe workshop, where his daughter is actively making shoes from the rubber they harvest and process. The rubber is cut into strips, placed on the last, and secured by pressing it into the rubber insole. That’s it. No glue, no nails, no nothing, the rubber just holds itself. Once a shoe is complete, it goes outside to set for two weeks before heading to the showroom. KoKo is in heaven, she wants to make her own pair, but we don’t have two weeks to wait for rubber to set. She settles for buying two pair from the showroom instead. We promise to keep in touch. Our host doesn’t meet many other shoemakers, and is very impressed by KoKo’s work.
Back on the road, we make a short day of it. The roosters woke us up before the sun, so we’re tired. There is a nice spot along the road next to a church. It’s under a large mango tree, so the shade helps a lot. Unfortunately it’s not mango season, so no fruit for us. It’s also not a gas station, which may be one of our favorite parts about this spot.
It gets so hot so early. Pouring sweat, we get up and do a couple of chores. Now we’re just pounding the miles to Manaus, the capital of Amazonia, in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon. We’re back on, what we call, the Brazil long straights. Endlessly long roads that are just so straight. There hasn’t been any wildlife so far, just some cows, and part of a very large snake on the side of the road. We call it a day in Porto Velho, the last major city before Manaus. Tonight is another hotel night. Our newest jungle plan is to sleep in a hotel every 4ish nights, to keep the heat related lack of sleep from driving us insane. Luckily cheap hotels here are pretty decent. After a shower, we head for a steakhouse. It disappoints, but we sleep so well, we don’t even remember. And, most excitingly, no one gets sick in this hotel.
Big city means better grocery stores. We find a reasonably nice one and load up. KoKo finds a very large bug smashed in the parking lot. We have not seen one of these alive yet, and hope not to. It’s 200km to the next gas station, and we are back to laying down the miles. Our only plan is this 900km stretch of road to Manaus, all of which is a Brazilian long straight. The only other place roads are this straight for this long is in the Canadian prairie provinces, or the American Midwest. A couple of hours out of town, we start the pot hole slalom, dodging holes in the pavement big enough to swallow a large dog, or rip the front end off the truck. Our teeth are rattling as the truck bounces and bangs off the smaller holes. Eventually the road turns to dirt and we can make up some time.
We spend most of two days on the dirt long straight. We sleep at the gas stations along the way because there are no wide spots the jungle hasn’t reclaimed. We watch, in vain, for wildlife, but this is the least inhabited stretch of jungle, ever. Even during our river ferry crossing we see nothing. At one point heavy rains turn the road into a less fun adventure. Our second day is a long one, twelve hours of battling the boredom and the pot holes. It’s hard on everyone, but tomorrow we only have a couple of hours left.
It’s a very, very slow start to the day. At some point yesterday, the dirt turned to good pavement, so if that holds, today will be a much easier drive. We have another river ferry to cross, which is actually the majority of our drive. When we arrive, the main terminal is under construction, and we don’t speak Portuguese, so a nice ferry worker hops on his motorcycle, and escorts us to the temporary terminal. We are several hours early, so we melt in the cab in the mid day heat and humidity. Mostly the humidity.
While we wait, it starts to rain, which is incredible for breaking the heat, but turns the dirt ramp into a slip and slide. When the ferry arrives, two trucks disembarking get stuck on the ramp, and a tractor has to come untangle them. Once we’re loaded on the ferry, its wildlife time! We see ton of birds, then we see tons of jumping fish. We don’t know what kind of fish they are, but the boat seems to scare them out of the water. Finally, the big finally, we see river dolphins! The Amazon pink river dolphins! And a great sun set.
Off the boat in the dark, we drive the final 20km, across the giant bridge, to Manaus, with no idea what to expect for a city in the middle of the Amazon jungle that is extremely difficult to reach. Manaus is HUGE! 2.4 million people live here, and we’re very confused about how they all got here! Most things get here by boat, which is how we will be leaving. After we get settled in our hotel, we grab some buffet dinner and head to bed.
