ODO: 359,902
Guess what we wake up to today? More heat! We pack and leave. Being in the truck is delightful, the air conditioning gives us a break from sweating. We’ve been confirmed for a March 22 departure date from Uruguay, and if the boat is on schedule, we will be loading the truck into a container between March 17-19th. The road takes us through and past more of the biggest cities we’ve never heard of. Skyscrapers everywhere. We wont miss being yelled at for pulling into the wrong pump at literally every gas station. Just kidding, we always pull into the correct pump. Apparently it’s rare to see a truck like this that does not take diesel. No gas attendant believes its a gas vehicle until Berne yells back at least twice. Our day ends at a trusty Ibis as we attempt a night of real rest.
Back on the road in much cooler temperatures is nice. Our front driver tire is also developing a serious air leak, we put air in it yesterday and it needs more again this morning. The truck just needs to hang on for 667 more miles. And we’re down to five more days until our Brazil visa expires. Tick tock. We make it to an inland lagoon, not even ten miles from the ocean, and it is lovely. Beyond the perfect, cool temperature, we are in a pine forest with white sand beaches. Unfortunately we cant do any exploring because the truck is held together by love and duct tape, but there is a very friendly campground we spend the night in. We fall asleep to the smell of campfire for the first time since we left Baja, over two years ago.
It’s amazing! We wake up comfortable! The luxury of waking up in our bed because we want to, and not because we’re suffering! The lake and the campground are very peaceful. It reminds us of central Oregon around Sun River. Fun fact! There is large scale pine sap collection happening in this area, there is a bag on almost every single tree. There is another rive ferry in our path today, and we manage to drive right on. The lake we woke up on the banks of is quite large, and we are able to camp on it again tonight. Unlike the last spot, this one is not in the shelter of a pine forest, just open beach. There are lots of large birds around so we practice photography and watch a beautiful sunset before heading in for the night.
Today’s road takes us through a wetland. After a strong start, with a lot of capybara sightings, we are on full alert for more wildlife. This is also our last day in Brazil, we cross out mid day. This is the last border we will cross on this trip, very bittersweet. We keep it short today, Uruguay is a small country compared to Brazil, and we are about 200 miles from where we ship the truck. We have a little over two weeks to cover this distance, so we’ll be stopping to see everything the map shows as interesting. First up: Parque Nacional de Santa Teresa, right on the coast. Inside the park there is a small petting zoo, which also houses, oddly, a family of baboons. The campground section of the park is huge, and very full, but we manage to find a quiet spot for the night.
The parrot alarm clock wakes us up nice and early. We have a very casual morning trying to decide what our next move should be. Which ends up being to spend the day here. The weather is lovely, and we’re not in a hurry. We photo walk our way over to explore the petting zoo area, where we spend a couple of hours wandering around. There are so many turtles in the big pond! We buy some animal feed, and KoKo panics when the goats come to get fed. It could be because we had just watched a goat headbutt someone else with animal feed. The campground is much quieter tonight, being Sunday. We’re running low on food, so manage a dinner of mostly crackers with some peanut butter and tuna fish. Not mixed together.
We’ve decided the rest of our trip will take place along the coast. This is also where the internet told us all the things to see and do are located. We head for a different beach this morning, but due to a miscommunication, we end up at the wrong one. We somehow overshot the one we were aiming for, and with the state of the truck, there is no going backwards. In front of us is a sandy parking lot with a few motorhomes, so that’s where we go. Now that we’re starting to recover from the heat, we’ve got some work to catch up on. It’s kind of incredible how badly your brain works when it’s been cooking in your skull for three months.
Because we have nothing but time, we spend the day hanging out across the street from the beach, listening to the parrots ruckus all day. A big eggs and potatoes breakfast kicks things off before we take a walk into town and cap things off with a big spaghetti dinner. Gotta eat those non-perishables! In between we hide from the wind while watching kite boarders enjoy it.
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