1000km to Rio

After a year on the road we were still not in Rio, we were 1000km from it.

At the time of this writing it is 4pm and the sun is slanting down through the long row of apartment buildings that line the beach that stretches south from Vila Velha. We are going for a swim in one of the sunny patches of beach, already the shadows of the buildings stretch out over the water.

This is our first day off the bikes in almost 2 weeks. Some days were long and others short. We have travelled through forests and hills.

The south of Bahia has generally poor road, though some parts are reasonable. It is tiring to always be looking over your shoulder. An oncoming truck is no pleasant surprise. When we crossed to Espirto Santo the road immediately improved and the police officer we talked with on the boarder as we sucked down a litre of packet mix juice and demolished a pack of biscuits, well the officer told us the road to rio would now be flatter than in Bahia and that the shoulder goes all the way down. Strange thing is I believed him and so far he has been right.

In the south of Bahia we stayed in some town called Itabela. That morning it was misty rainy and all these giant snails were escaping the sodden verge for the uncertain safety of the road. The shoulder vanished for good, first under a thick cover of sugar cane, then just gone, no shoulder!

Our last night in Bahia we stayed a night on the edge of the city of Teixeira de Freitas. It was a generally pleasant room with Air-con and an army of mosquitoes. When we started this trip I would let a mosquito take its fill and wish it a good and pleasant day. Now, we sealed the room, “chalked the gaps” (thats a nautical expression I think…), and commenced to hunt them to extinction! Huzzah! No Quarter!

Espirto Santo is beautiful. It has clear cool skies of blue, roads of good seal with generous shoulders, the hotels are modern and expensive, and pousadas are boutique affairs. The hills lack incline but offering changing vistas of bare rock slopes and terraced forest.

We met a Brazilian Cycle-tourist  in Pedro Canario. We were checking the pousadas, looking for the best mix of price and comfort, he was sussing out an unused forecourt to the side of a hotel. His bike was rough looking, he did not have german pannier systems, he may not have had any systems at all. He was very friendly and relaxed, he had left Rio and toured round the south a bit and was now going north. We didn´t speak for long but it left an impression.

We had a very nice pousada in Sao Mateus by the name of Ipiranga that had everything we needed. Those things are:

• a balcony to cook on, play guitar on, and too watch people from
• a small table to eat off, cut on, set the laptop on to watch “House”
• a TV that we never use and don´t need
• a good price, 40R for the both of us
• 2 coat racks on the walls
• a petrol station of the same name right outside, if we needed gas
• a supermarket, a nice one too, just round the corner
• internete (its pronounced in-ter-neh-chi) very fast as well!
• breakfast, and not a bad one neither, a buffet

I was able to call my sister and wish her a happy birthday, it was still her birthday in Brazil.

We passed through two reserves on  our way to Linhares. We saw signs for animals but saw no animals but the common lizard. Well I have been seeing his cousins since Venezuela when he supplanted the common lizard of Central America and Columbia, which by that stage had acquired two colours a bright front and slightly less garish rear end. The new common lizard is brown and prone to obesity.

Linhares was pricey, 10R more for a smaller room, abet containing a table, chairs and coffee table, in addition to the bed. We set up the portable cooker on the window sill while video conferencing with Wei Lings brother in London. Hotel rooms in Brazil do not have fire alarms and the folk waiting for the bus across the street either didn’t see the flames or were not overly concerned.

Shaved off my Mo.

Out from Linhares it was genuinely flat for the first few hours. Our 1^st hour we held a 21av! The 2^nd around 20 and in the 4^th and final we were somewhere in the 19s. After that first hour the hills began but a good road and allot of momentum kept us flying along. We got a puncture by a railway among steep sided hills. It was beautiful country between Linhares and Vitória.

A nice morning ride down from Fundáo through the rocky hills to Serra. Serra is the outer limit of Greater Vitória. It was simple enough getting in, often big cities can be trouble, however as the capital of a state with good roads they have not neglected the roads and cycle-paths leading into Vitória. There was one nice section where they made a cycle lane wind down the parkway between the two directions of traffic. It was 4 lanes each way with shoulder and us gliding down the centre between palms and shade trees.

Closer to centro we followed a local guy on a bike who wove in and out finding all the best bike friendly bits. He took as all the way to 3° Ponte (Third Bridge).

3° Ponte is a steep sweeping curve over from Vitória to Vila Velha (another part of the Greater Vitória). We were unable to ride over and having concluded that conversation a man pulled up in a pick-up (or ute if you prefer) and gave us a lift over the bridge, down the beach a ways, to the dining table of his apartment. We ate lunch with him and his wife while his three boys, the daughters on the way, ate lunch in front of the TV. Lunch in front of the TV is a Sunday treat. For us it was a Sunday treat to share a meal with their family.

After a long and social lunch we headed out to find a pousada and 12.5km later we ended up just down the road from their apartment.

A Day in Vila Velha

We slept in, that was nice, better than nice. The breakfast was a bit disappointing, being too small, however the bread was very good. Bread in Portuguese is Pão, there is another word Pao, which is one of those words that if you say it by mistake you will feel quite embarrassed. To avoid such embarrassment it is important to pronounce the “ã” (the swiggle is a tilde). A tilde in Portuguese indicates a nasal sound.  So remember when asking for more bread to say Pão, rather than Pao.

We caught the bus. That is another phrase you need to know how to say, however in this case in Español. If you literally translate it, we did something rather naughty to the bus and quite ridiculous. You take buses in Spanish.

We arrived at the convent having climbed a very steep and shaded path of rough stone. It is called the “stairs of perdition” or something like that. O Convento da Penha stands out white atop a forested hill of green. It has spectacular views out over Vila Velha the on the other side of the river over Vitória. The things I liked most was the stone of the hill, hidden under the forested sides and open on the top where it meets the white of the convent. I also liked the cool breeze that blows over the Convent which was perfectly indescribable, however if I had to try I have said cool and would add fresh. The last thing was seeing a submarine pass below.

We found they vegetarian restaurant to be a short walk from the base of the hill. After a delicious meal we hit a super and then walked some distance to find a bus to take us the rest of the way.

The first 12km of Vila Velha’s beach are fronted by apartments, they begin so dense that the beach sits in shade through the afternoon and thin out till they are like fence posts and the last rays of sun filter through the gaps. We were down about half way where the apartments are generally one row deep. We are back from our swim now and the sun has dropped behind the hills that rise behind the city as the apartments rise behind the beach.

2 Days of 100 and then 1 Day of Waiting

After we left Vila Velha we made two good days of 100km each. Today we are in Campos Dos Goytacazes and spent the day waiting to get our visa exteneded. All done.

We just passed 17,000km and on Sunday (Monday in NZ) we will be in Rio!

Advertisement